Is Madeleine Brown’s story true and verified?
One of the central pieces of the “LBJ did it” conspiracy theory is a meeting on November 21, 1963, where Brown, a mistress of President Lyndon Johnson, says the assassination of President Kennedy was discussed,
Brown tells the story in this 2006 YouTube video.
In a review of Roger Stone’s “The Man Who Killed JFK,” for the Washington Times, anti-conspiratorial journalist Hugh Aynesworth says the party could not have happened as Brown says.
Here’s Aynesworth’s case:
“‘The party was allegedly held at the spacious Dallas home of Clint Murchison Sr., a super-rich oilman. Invited guests, claimed FBI Director Edgar Hoover, former Dallas mayor R.L. Thornton, New York financier John J. McCloy, Brown and Root Chairman George Brown, oil scion H.L. Hunt and Richard Nixon. Oh, and yes, Jack Ruby and one of his strippers dropped by, she added.”
“Myriad problems erupted when Brown wrote a book in 1987 and went on the talk-show circuit. First, it was shown that Murchison hadn’t been in that Dallas house in more than two years. After a stroke in 1958, he moved to a ranch home, some 70 miles east of Dallas, between Athens and Palestine. LBJ, it was soon determined, had been in political meetings until late that night and didn’t leave Houston until about 10 p.m., arriving at Fort Worth’s Carswell Air Force Base at 11:07. A wire service photo shows LBJ at Fort Worth’s Texas Hotel at 11:50 p.m. — at least two hours from where Murchison actually was.”
“Further investigation showed that on the evening of Nov. 21, 1963, Hoover was in Washington, Brown was in Houston, McCloy never left New York and Nixon, who was in Dallas that night, was seen by several reporters near midnight at a function with Pepsi Cola Corp. bigwigs at the Baker Hotel in downtown Dallas.”
I have not investigated Brown’s story, so I’m interested in what informed readers have to say, especially about LBJ’s whereabouts on November 21, 1963.
Here’s Brown telling her story:
Surprised that nobody checked the Warren Report — a TV journalist actually testified and identified everyone at that party … have a look, guys, it’s all there…
Are you serious? What page of the Warren Report is it on? What is the name of the journalist?
In terms of the alleged party at Clint Murchison’s, Madeleine Brown is corroborated by Jack O’Halloran: TheLip.tv – Author: J. Edgar Hoover and LBJ Met on Eve of JFK Assassination – http://bit.ly/1xcnrcg via @theliptv
Intruiging FBI document – 11/26/63: an informant named Miller notifies the Bureau that “he was a close friend of Jack Ruby” and had further stated “Ruby was also acquainted with Thomas Webb and Clint Murchison.” http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=56986&relPageId=19
Now consider these points:
– Thomas D. Webb was a former FBI agent and power lobbyist who looked after the Washington DC interests of Texas multimillionaire Clint Murchison.
– Murchison owned the Del Mar racetrack, which Hoover often attended and which later employed Sirhan Sirhan.
– George de Mohrenschildt had worked for Clint Murchison in Dallas. In 1957, De Mohrenschildt met J. Walton Moore, the local CIA man in Dallas and they had discussed Oswald.
– D.H. Byrd, owner of the TSBD, was part of the Del Charo crowd who regulary stayed at Murchison’s exclusive California hotel. Byrd also co-founded the Civil Air Patrol, of which Oswald and Ferrie were members.
According to Lea Rabin, Yitzak Rabin was in Dallas “hours before” the assassination of John Kennedy. Fort Bliss is in El Paso Texas.
Yitzak Rabin , of course, became head of the Israeli Defense Forces and then Prime Minister.
It is interesting,to me, that Lea Rabin, in a book titled “Our Life His Legacy” would place her husband at the scene of the assassination of JFK just hours before.
Rabin: Our Life, His Legacy – Lea Rabin
Chapter 6 Sabra Statesman
page 119
Our first joint visit to the United States (Yitzhak had been there before) took place in November 1963, just before Yitzhak had been appointed chief of staff for the IDF. In preparation for that appointment, Yitzhak embarked on a high-level orientation trip to America. I can appreciate now how momentous it was to have visited the United States at that time. We went to New York and Washington and Yitzhak traveled to several other cities, mainly military centers and installations— all so exciting and awesome and the source of many important new ideas. I remember Yitzhak making an offhand comment to me on our way home to Israel “You know, when I finish my term as chief of staff, I’ll be ready to replace Abe Harman.” Harman was Israel’s Ambassador in Washington at the time. Yitzhak’s premonition later materialized. Our 1963 trip to the United States lasted 3 weeks. I was astonished at the size and the excitement of New York. This was a fast-moving lifestyle unlike anything I had known in Europe or Israel. Dalia and Yuval along with a number of officers, met us at Lod Airport in Tel Aviv upon our return. We were told that President Kennedy had been shot , his condition was as yet unclear. We had never met the Kennedy’s but we could sense how the promise of John Kennedy’s future had stirred American’s and how devastating it would be if something serious had happened to him. Just as we walked in the door of our home, I picked up the phone to hear shocking news: John F. Kennedy was dead. To have just returned from the United States and for Yitzhak to have been in Dallas just hours before — albeit as mere coincidence; Fort Bliss was a stop on his military briefing tour— was disorienting. Yitzhak was about to become chief of staff and had just completed an intensive study of state-of-the-art defense and security practices from the most powerful nation in the world and suddenly we learned that country’s chief-executive was slain by a lone-gunman…….
The purpose of the post was to ELICIT FACTUAL INFORMATION about Madeleine Brown’s story. Only comments that present FACTUAL INFORMATION in the form of dates, documents and links will be published.
Dave Perry investigated her claims and wrote this:
http://dperry1943.com/browns.html
The authors of this CTKA article are also skeptical (scroll to item #3):
http://www.ctka.net/2012/Evaluating_the_Case_against_Lyndon_Johnson.html
How about the fact that she changed her story on that?
http://dperry1943.com/ragsdale.html
John, at the end of the 1 hour plus interview with her, she appeared to say she wanted to get at the truth of the assassination for the sake of the pain her son had in the issue of LBJ’s estate. She got rather emotional about that. That led me to believe her son’s father was the 36th POTUS.
To me what matters about this is what Adam Gopnik wrote in his fluffy, huffy, buffy-slinging piece of predictable condescension in the New Yorker.
He said basically that JfK “buffs” recreate by talking about Madeline Brown all day.
When Adam met Madeline could make a straw dog cry.
That is the function of the Madeline Brown story. Straw dog, diversion, and we have seen so many of them. For another laugh you should see what Adam wrote about the J.D. Tippit witnesses. He makes them seem light a hop light phalynx proving Oswald did it. Those witnesses sure hopped but not lightly. What appears in the toothless New Yorker is very important for the case, because it essentially motes the case for large numbers of people who will later encounter the scorn of upper income thanksgiving quests and other mindless wannabes. Sociology of knowledge is what we need in order to understand media strategies of disinformation.
Too many conspiracy theorists accept nonsense from frauds like Madeleine Brown because they WANT it to be true, despite having no confirming evidence. Larry was right- if LBJ wanted to get rid of JFK he had more than enough dirt on him from his days as Senate Majority Leader. These comments about him being a murderer in Texas are disgusting; JFK had far more ties to organized crime than LBJ ever had.
But all of that is still totally irrelevant to the assassination of JFK. There were thousands of people who wanted him dead, but there is no proof that any besides Oswald ever acted on those beliefs. Look at the initial TV news reports of the assassination with frequent mention of “Goldwater supporters” in Dallas, implying some sort of right wing complicity without knowledge of the actual personal friendship between JFK and Goldwater. Facts are important. Factoids without corroboration are not and are actually detrimental to the truth.
In response to Photon do you really think Henry Marshall shot himself 5 times with a bolt action rifle? That should make anybody suspicious even a lone nut theorist, or an unrepentant LBJ Apologist.
What about conspiracy theorists like myself who don’t believe Brown or find her credible?
I do think she was LBJ’s mistress, and her son was probably fathered by LBJ, but the meeting story has too many problems with it to be true.
Though I don’t think LBJ had anything to do with JFK’s death, there are many mysterious deaths associated with Johnson and his allies.
Yes…allies like Mac Wallace, who himself killed 8 of LBJ’s “enemies”…..even his(LBJ’s)own sister. I’m not sure Mac Wallace killed JFK, but he was one of the shooters-I’m pretty sure of THAT.
Jesse Curry, the Dallas Police Chief, said following the assassination week-end “No one has ever put Oswald in the 6th Floor of the TSBD with a gun in his hand”. Pretty strong statement to support the notion that someone else shot JFK. We conspiracy theorists WANT that to be true, and how about proving it wasn’t, Photon? The ball is in your court.
Photon, if you think Oswald is the lone asassin, let’s see your proof of THAT “truth”.
Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker both indicted the scheme LED right up to l b j he was to be indicted within days of November 22nd a video long since removed had three men in Washington DC talkin about the pending indictment being drawn up the assassination terminated that and l b j allowed the two pending Wars to occur both of which would have never happened at Kennedy remained alive
Photon, if you choose to put blind faith in the likes of Hoover, Dulles and LBJ. Anti-Kennedy sentiments are nothing new from the LN camp.
Last of the Texas Wheeler Dealers http://mccluresmagazine.com/history/last-of-the-texas-wheeler-dealers via @McCluresMag
LBJ was too shrewd a politician to be involved in a plan to cut down a president in broad daylight. If he had really wanted to take down JFK, all he had to do was cut a deal with his buddy Hoover to release the dirt JEH had on JFK. LBJ exhibited all the signs of a man who was truly shocked and surprised by the assassination. He may also have in good faith believed it was best for the country to move on and not become emeshed in a real investigation that could lead in directions that might pose risks to national security. Moreover, Ike would never have gone along with a LBJ-led coup. LBJ may have made some egregious mistakes as President and may have not been an honest man but that doesnt make him a murderer.
If LBJ was “shocked and surprised by the assassination”(your quotes), perhaps it was because he knew it was going to happen, just not when and where.
It’s hard for me to believe anything that comes out of Hugh Aynesworth mouth. Wasn’t he a CIA wannabe and part of the Mockingbird project? While some of Brown allegations seem far fetched, I’ve never seen anything to contradict her story about having LBJs baby. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.
I think that Ms. Brown’s story is not the lynchpin to the idea that LBJ was involved. Whether or not her story is accurate, LBJ was who he was, had the active criminal associations that he had, and was approaching serious legal difficulty as of the day that JFK died. His troubles pretty much vanished after that. I don’t sya that LBJ was any “mastermind”, or even orchestrated it. I am saying that from a cui bono viewpoint, he just about tops the list.
Not just cui bono. He also orchestrated the cover-up. Two strong indicators of guilt for any investigator. Plus, the strong evidence he was involved in other murders.
That’s right, lysias, those committed by his hit-man Mac Wallace. In fact, Wallace may well have been one of the shooters of JFK.
I’m inclined to disbelieve Madeleine Brown, for lack of corroboration.
Having said this, I distrust LBJ to the hilt. Because of the Viet Nam war.
I would distrust the statements or alibis of any of the men alleged to have attended the party.
On balance, I think Madeleine Brown was lying.