Posted on 05/15/2013 8:12:39 AM PDT by bgill
Billie Sol Estes, a flamboyant Texas huckster who became one of the most notorious men in America in 1962 when he was accused of looting a federal crop subsidy program, has died. He was 88... One of the strangest episodes in his life involved the death of a U.S. Department of Agriculture official who was investigating Estes just before he was accused in the fertilizer tank case.
Henry Marshall's 1961 death was initially ruled a suicide even though he had five bullet wounds. But in 1984, Estes told a grand jury that Johnson had ordered the official killed to prevent him from exposing Estes' fraudulent business dealings and ties with the vice president.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
He was an innovator. Developed “Slant Well Drilling” by drilling on your own property and then directing the drill to your neighbors property to pull the oil up from there.
From Ronald Reagan’s A Time for Choosing speech in 1964:
Now, we have no better example of this than government’s involvement in the farm economy over the last 30 years. Since 1955, the cost of this program has nearly doubled. One-fourth of farming in America is responsible for 85 percent of the farm surplus. Three-fourths of farming is out on the free market and has known a 21 percent increase in the per capita consumption of all its produce. You see, that one-fourth of farming—that’s regulated and controlled by the federal government. In the last three years we’ve spent 43 dollars in the feed grain program for every dollar bushel of corn we don’t grow.
Senator Humphrey last week charged that Barry Goldwater, as President, would seek to eliminate farmers. He should do his homework a little better, because he’ll find out that we’ve had a decline of 5 million in the farm population under these government programs. He’ll also find that the Democratic administration has sought to get from Congress [an] extension of the farm program to include that three-fourths that is now free. He’ll find that they’ve also asked for the right to imprison farmers who wouldn’t keep books as prescribed by the federal government. The Secretary of Agriculture asked for the right to seize farms through condemnation and resell them to other individuals. And contained in that same program was a provision that would have allowed the federal government to remove 2 million farmers from the soil.
At the same time, there’s been an increase in the Department of Agriculture employees. There’s now one for every 30 farms in the United States, and still they can’t tell us how 66 shiploads of grain headed for Austria disappeared without a trace and Billie Sol Estes never left shore.
I thought slant drilling was a method of removing your neighbor’s oil (draining his field) by pulling it up on your property. A lot of people suspect Cuba ((with China’s help) is doing that to us in the Gulf right now.
I've always thought it was interesting that Billie Sol's ammonia tank concept came into his mind right during the same time period that the X-15 program was ramping up.
The X-15 burned liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen.
Lyndon Johnson was a key guy in setting up NASA and funding aerospace research at the time, as Senate Majority leader.
BTW, Michigan is using slant drilling methods right now to recover oil from under Lake Michigan (pulling it up on shore) while Wisconsin on the opposite shore prohibits any kind of oil drilling, either on the Lake, or on shore.
Anybody with any sense suspects that there are huge deposits under Lake Michigan that should be recoverable to Wisconsin, except that our state law prohibits it.
I remember him from the scandals back in the 1961.
Henry Marshall committed “suicide” under mysterious circumstances. If I remember, he was shot several times in the stomach with his own .22 auto rifle. I remember seeing a photo of “How he did it”. I don’t think it was suicide.
Others have found a thread of evidence leading to Estes and LBJ.
My grandfather was a Texas farmer. We got a sour dose of Billy Sol several times a day. He absolutely hated this guy.
I actually worked for his partner in crime, Ray Horton. I didn’t know who he was went I went to work for him but soon found out.
His daughter wrote a book about his life. He just couldn’t stay straight, even after his stay in the Federal Hotel. Knew someone who had a handwritten, signed letter from him. She threw it away. :(
So you’re saying we can add WI to the list of drilling/fracking ban states like NY for those volunteering to freeze to death in the dark??? Good to know...
RIP.
Cotton king from Clyde, Texas. RIP Billie. You did the dirty work and took the hit for LBJ when he threw you under the bus.
One of LBJ’s best buddies.
I have a copy signed by Billie and his daughter....
Henry Marshall’s 1961 death was initially ruled a suicide even though he had five bullet wounds.
Some friends of Clinton went that way too.
I knew the daughter in passing.
I see services will be at the Acton Methodist Church. The smallest state park is in the Acton cemetery. It’s the gravesite of Davy Crockett’s wife. I ain’t sayin’ who, but I know who shot the finger off her statue many, many years ago.
TX ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.