Who Was Gordon McLendon?

(And why might he have been broadcasting these things about George H. W. Bush in 1980?)

As I described in George Bush and Me, the ad on the car radio I heard in the fall of 1980 in Houston made the allegation that George Bush, during World War II, had "landed his plane on an enemy-held island and delivered a message to the Japanese for Standard Oil." The "investigation" I began in 1983 as a result of not being able to locate any further information about the book, led me to write the "investigative memoir" about my experiences in researching that strange incident. I have "narrowed" the possibilities to the following up to now:

1. Robert Maxwell, British publisher and British-Israeli secret agent, who was known to run ads threatening to expose British politicians, and who also several times reneged on publishing contracts. He could have been the "publisher" of the book.

2. As publisher, Maxwell could have made "ad arrangements" with only certain radio stations--certain, strategic ones, at that moment in time--ones that would have been sure to have gotten Bush's attention. Since Maxwell is implicated in the 1980 "October surprise", it's possible he was attempting to push Bush from his strongly pro-Iraq position to one more favorable to what some in Mossad perceived to be one more sympathetic to Israel--a pro-Iranian fundamentalist position during the hostage crisis.

3. The author of the book, titled either "Black Gold" or "Immaculate Deception", could have been originally either the same General Russell S. Bowen who today claims authorship of the current text of The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed (Carson City, NV: America West, 1991);. Or he/they could be some other CIA/OSS member who subsequently lost all evidence of the basic charge. If the latter is the case, the title could have indeed been Black Gold or some phonetically similar title. Indeed, one "Frederick Bean", author of an untouchable book, Black Gold is still a "suspect." In two separate attempts on Interlibrary Loan and World Cat at various libraries referring to the text, I was rebuffed, told the text was "unavailable" with "no availability possible." In short, Bean's book, though once existing, can no longer be found. Other possible candidates besides Bowen would be Philip Agee, renegade CIA whistleblower--though I suspected his role was more that of inspiration and role model for-- rather than source of-- the exposé on Bush that was advertised that one brief time on radio Houston, on what I recall as a mainstream, easy-listening AM station.

Now, comes a possible explanation for the fourth dynamic of a radio ad for a disappearing book: the station--specifically, the station owner. A key suspect there, may turn out to be one Gordon McLendon. My first source on McLendon is Contract on America by David Scheim (240):

"...Mob manipulation of media figures is illustrated by the involvement of three of Ruby's acquaintances in Dallas. One was Gordon McLendon, owner of the Liberty Broadcasting Network and of stations throughout the country, (emphasis added) including KLIF in Dallas. A friend of Jack Ruby who gave him "a lot of free plugs", he reportedly offered assistance in 1971 to the Mob-Teamster campaign to spring Jimmy Hoffa from jail. Matty Brescia, who headed a public relations firm and worked at one point for McLindon's Liberty Network, was also well-acquainted with Ruby.

"Rounding out the bunch was Tony Zoppi, a locally prominent entertainment columnist for the Dallas Morning News . . . [who] also knew Mobsters . . .[and] promoted the. . . Egyptian Lounge, a Mafia hangout. . . ." (Scheim 240).

In a chapter note, Scheim also wrote that:

"Ruby called McLendon's home the night of the assassination. (5 H 188). According to government witness Ed Partin, radio magnate McLendon was later named by Marcello associate D'Alton Smith as someone lined up to assist the Mob's spring-Hoffa campaign. . . ."(534).

In an interesting coincidence of facts, Lyndon Johnson is reported by Robert Caro to have engaged in massive attempts to gain control of a large number of radio stations in Texas (Caro 82-9, 92-118). Caro notes:

"Because KTBC [the first radio station Johnson had attained, through manipulation of corrupt FCC regulators] was purchased in his wife's name and she became its president and was active in its affairs, Lyndon Johnson was able to maintain for the rest of his life that the company, which was eventually to consist of a galay of radio and television stations, was not his but hers--all hers and only hers. . . During the Johnson Presidency, a number of reporters attempted to probe the Johnson empire. But their efforts were hamstrung by inadequate access to Johnson family financial records (which continues today), and by the reticence of of KTBC employees, Johnson political aides FCC commissioners and staff members and Austin businessmen...:"(Caro 88).

Scheim also discusses the one thing that often seemed to carry over to both major political parties for much of the twentieth century: Mob influence. It is clear Johnson had been caught up in the Mob and its influence, and that such figures as George DeMohrenschilt and oilman Clint Murchison had ties to not only Big Oil and Texas Democrats such as Lyndon Johnson, but to the CIA and George Bush as well. (Garrison 61-2; Groden and Livingston 281-2; Piper 291-2; Bowen 38). DeMohrenschilt, as one of many examples, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 1977. (Garrison 320).

Similarly, such Johnson media influence, combined with Big Oil/Mob influence in the media, combine to point a tense finger at Houston in 1980, in the stressful months leading up to the Presidential election critical to any continuing cover-up of numbers of American scandals involving organized crime and Big Oil. That, in turn, suggests that same consortium of Big Oil-mafiosi types were involved in manipulating Bush to their ends. So, too, might have been publisher Maxwell, for a renegade, probably Mob-dominated faction of the Mossad whose existence is suggested by sources such as Victor Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy in By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of A Mossad Agent* as well as by Maxwell's various sympathetic and not-so-sympathetic biographers (as cited elsewhere in this website--for example, in the Updated Annotated Bibliography.)

Thus, such a Johnson/Big Oil/Big Crime group could have been responsible for the management of the station on which the ad appeared. Key name, again, is that of Gordon McLendon. In future weeks, I'll be endeavoring to find out more about him.

Meanwhile, I'm searching for the exact texts of the following legal cases: the Hunt v. Liberty Lobby case of 1985, remanded in 1984 for retrial; and the court-martial of Bush World War II crewman Lee Nadeau of June 25-9, 1944.

Sources:

Bowen, Brig. Gen. Russell S. (Ret.). The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed. Carson City, NV: America West, 1991.

Caro, Robert. Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Garrison, Jim. On the Trail of the Assassins. New York: Sheridan, 1988; Warner, 1991.

Groden, Robert J. and Harrison Edward Livingstone. High Treason. Baltimore, MD: Conservatory, 1989; New York: Berkeley, 1990. A further reference to Gordon McLendon is provided in this text on page 298, where the authors are quoting the verbatim transcript of the Warren Commission interrogation of Jack Ruby:

"A couple of times, Ruby asked, 'Chief Warren' if he knew a man named Storey, and Gordon McLendon. Why did he ask Warren this? Had he heard Warren might know them?" Further, they note: "Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters contributed heavily to Nixon's losing campaign against John Kennedy in 1960 and, of course, hated the Kennedys. Earl Warren highly praised Hoffa and the Teamsters, saying the he had 'admiration' for them, and called the union 'not only something great of itself but splendidly representative of the entire labor movement.'"(294).

*Ostrovsky, Victor and Claire Hoy. By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of A Mossad Agent. New York: St. Martin's 1990, 1991. See, for example, 277: "In the midst of all this, the Mossad had made its first contact with the opium growers in Thailand. The Americans were trying to force farmers to stop producing opium and grow coffee instead. The Mossad's idea was to get in there and help them grow coffee, but at the same time help them export opium as a means of rasing money for Mossad operations." An interesting connection here may be in Barbara Honnegar's reference in October Surprise (New York: Tudor, 1989. 237:) "A number of press reports...suggest that there may have been [a Mob] connection to the release of the fifty-two American hostages from the US embassy in Tehran. Associated Press Gannett News Service and the Courier Post of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, reported that a freighter named The Poet was hijacked in the Delaware River off Philadelphia on October 24, 1980, less than two weeks before the 1980 Presidential election, by south New Jersey crime boss Carlo Gambino. The ship, which had thirty-four men aboard, was reportedly rerouted to Iran, where its cargo of corn was swapped for heroin. The Poet's early departure would have given it more than enough time to reach Iran on or before the date that the hostages were released, on Reagan's inauguration. Reuters news service rerported that, when the fifty-two American captives were released, Iran took some thirty-two new U.S. hostages, identified as "New Jersey heroin smugglers." As the Gambino clan, reported to have hijacked the Poet, has a reported history of importing and distributing Iranian heroin in the eastern United States, the obvious question presents itself: were these the estimated thirty-two "New Jersey heroin smugglers" taken hostage by Iran on or around January 20, 1981, the same as the estimated thirty-four men on board The Poet, hijacked by the New Jersey Gambino clan? ...It would account for reports of [Mob} involvement in subsequent secret arms deliveries to Iran...". It's worth noting, too, that such Mob figures as Meyer Lansky and Jack Ruby were Jewish, and that some ADL members used their membership in--and access to materials of--that organization to surveil persons not officially targeted by that organization. (See notes on Martin Luther King assassination elsewhere on this website.)

Piper, Michael Collins. Final Judgment. (Wash, DC: Wolfe). Author's basic allegation seems hardly credible, based as it is on the claim that known anti-Semite James J. Angleton of the CIA was somehow a "pawn" of the Israeli Mossad. Other contradictions and role-reversals abound in this text, which is only useful in that it provides "leads" to certain possible Jewish participants in "October surprise"-related activities.

Scheim, David E. Contract On America. New York: Shapolsky, 1988; Zebra, 1989. If there was a conspiracy to kill JFK, the Mob was undoubtedly a key element. After all, regardless of the political goals, those have economic motivations. The common economic motivations of the fanatics cited in most JFK conspiracy theories and the Mob, would have included furtherance of corruption (in whatever government, including, but not limited to, our own) and furtherance of drug-running, prostitution, and sundry other illegalities thus fostered by such corruption. It's interesting that there is a common overlap of economic interests of the two groups, as in references in JFK the movie and common conspiracy "scripts" to Southeast Asia's "golden triangle" of drugs, Cuba's lost casinos, Bobby's crime crusade. Similar motives held in the King assassination. Scheim does an excellent job of bringing out Garrison's Carlos Marcello mob connections--which Garrison refutes only in small part. It's interesting that the old Spectrum(1990) article, the December 1999 trial and the new Frontline probe have found Marcello links in the King assassination. (See my notes on the assassination of MLK elsewhere on this website.) JFK, in which Albert Gore, jr.'s roomate Tommy Lee Jones played as Clay Shaw, downplayed the Carlos Marcello connection--as did Jim Garrison's investigation and book On the Trail of the Assassins (cited above), on which the movie was, in part, based. Coincidence?

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