Clint Murchison, Sr.

Clinton Williams Murchison, Sr. (April 11, 1895 – 20 June 1969), was a noted Texas-based oil magnate and political operative. He was also the father of Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, Jr..

Contents

Personal

Clint W. Murchison Sr was married twice—first to Anne Morris (b. 1898, d. 1926). They had three children: John Murchison (b. 9-21-1921, d. 6-14-1979 ), Clint Murchison, Jr. (b. 9-12-1923, d. 3-30-1987), and Burk Yarbrough Murchison (b. 1-25-1925, d.1936). Murchison married again in 1943 to Virginia Long—they had no children.

Political involvement

In the late 1940s, Murchison and another Texas oil mogul, Sid Richardson, met FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. It was the start of a long friendship. In 1952 the two worked together to mount a smear campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Hoover and his close friend and companion, Clyde Tolson, also invested heavily in Murchison's oil business.

November 21, 1963

Murchison was friends with Madeleine Duncan Brown, an advertising agent who would later claim to have had an extended love affair and a son with Lyndon B. Johnson.

In an appearance on the television program A Current Affair, Brown asserted that on November 21, 1963, she attended a gathering at Murchison's home in Dallas that she described as "one of the most significant gatherings in American history." Others at the meeting included guest of honor J. Edgar Hoover, Tolson, oil magnate H. L. Hunt, John J. McCloy, Richard Nixon, George R. Brown, Robert L. Thornton, and others from the Suite 8F Group, a network of right-wing businessmen; at the end the evening Johnson also arrived. According to Brown:

Tension filled the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again – that's no threat – that's a promise."[1]

Gary Mack claims that Madeleine Brown's story is untrue:

"Madeleine has claimed over the years that she attended a party at Clint Murchison’s house the night before the assassination and LBJ, Hoover and Nixon were there. The party story, without LBJ, first came from Penn Jones in Forgive My Grief. In that version, the un-credited source was a black chauffeur whom Jones didn’t identify, and the explanation Jones gave was that it was the last chance to decide whether or not to kill JFK. Of course, Hoover used only top FBI agents for transportation and in the FBI of 1963, none were black. Actually, there is no confirmation for a party at Murchison’s. I asked Peter O’Donnell because Madeleine claimed he was there, too. Peter said there was no party. Madeleine even said there was a story about it in the Dallas Times Herald some months later (which makes no sense), but she had not been able to find it. Val Imm (Society Editor of the Dallas Times Herald) told Bob Porter (of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza staff) recently she had no memory of such an event and even looked through her notes – in vain.
Could LBJ have been at a Murchison party? No. LBJ was seen and photographed in the Houston Coliseum with JFK at a dinner and speech. They flew out around 10pm and arrived at Carswell (Air Force Base in northwest Fort Worth) at 11:07 Thursday night. Their motorcade to the Hotel Texas arrived about 11:50 and LBJ was again photographed. He stayed in the Will Rogers suite on the 13th floor and Manchester (William Manchester – author of The Death of a President) says he was up late. Could Nixon have been at Murchison’s party? No. Tony Zoppi (Entertainment Editor of The Dallas Morning News) and Don Safran (Entertainment Editor of the Dallas Times Herald) saw Nixon at the Empire Room at the Statler-Hilton. He walked in with Joan Crawford (Movie actress). Robert Clary (of Hogan’s Heroes fame) stopped his show to point them out, saying “. . . either you like him or you don’t.” Zoppi thought that was in poor taste, but Safran said Nixon laughed. Zoppi’s deadline was 11pm, so he stayed until 10:30 or 10:45 and Nixon was still there." [2]

External links

References

  1. ^ Madeleine Brown, interview on A Current Affair February 24, 1992
  2. ^ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmurchison.htm