NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Billie Sol Estes

Billie Sol Estes (born 1924) was a scandal-ridden Texas-based financier best known for his association with US President Lyndon B. Johnson and for accusing Johnson of a variety of crimes, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy. [1] Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ... Official language(s) No official language See languages of Texas Capital Austin Largest city Houston Largest metro area Dallasâ€“Fort Worthâ€“Arlington Area Ranked 2nd - Total 261,797 sq mi (678,051 kmÂ²) - Width 773 miles (1,244 km) - Length 790 miles (1,270 km) - % water 2. ... â€œLBJâ€ redirects here. ... John Kennedy and JFK redirect here. ...

Estes was born in Abilene, Texas, and began amassing his fortune through the federal surplus grain program. After marrying in 1946 he moved to Pecos, Texas, where he sold irrigation pumps powered by natural gas, using the profits to start another successful business selling anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. Abilene is a city in Taylor County, Texas, United States, in the central portion of the state. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pecos is a city located in Reeves County, Texas. ... Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops. ... This article is about the fossil fuel. ... Ammonia is a chemical compound with the formula NH3. ... Spreading manure, an organic fertilizer Fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either via the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. ...

Fraud Charges

In the late 1950s the US Department of Agriculture began controlling the price of cotton, specifying quotas to farmers. This limited overall production and Estes' businesses suffered. He responded by expanding into cotton production himself. Over the next few years he developed a massive fraud, claiming to grow and store cotton that never existed, then using the cotton as collateral for bank loans. During this same period he became involved in Texas state politics and made political contributions to US senator and later Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, also called the Agriculture Department, or USDA, is a Cabinet department of the United States Federal Government. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson ( August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ...

On June 3, 1961, Estes' local contact at the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Henry Marshall, was found dead in his car (reportedly with five gunshot wounds) on a remote part of his own ranch. Attributing Marshall's death to carbon monoxide poisoning brought about from a hose attached to the exhaust pipe of his car, local Justice of the Peace Lee Farmer ruled Marshall had killed himself and the body was buried without an autopsy. The suicide verdict was later overturned. is the 154th day of the year (155th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Carbon monoxide, with the chemical formula CO, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. ...

On April 4, 1962 Estes' accountant, George Krutilek, was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Krutilek had been questioned by the FBI about Estes the day before. is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...

As a result of these deaths and an investigation into his business practices, on April 5, 1962 Estes and several business associates were indicted by a federal grand jury on 57 counts of fraud. Estes was accused of swindling many investors, banks and the federal government out of at least twenty-four million dollars through false agricultural subsidy claims on cotton production and the use of non-existent supplies of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer as collateral for loans. Two of Estes' associates, Harold Orr and Coleman Wade, were also indicted but died of carbon monoxide poisoning (apparent suicides) before they went to trial. Estes was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was eventually found guilty of additional federal charges and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. is the 95th day of the year (96th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation). ... Ammonia is a chemical compound with the formula NH3. ... Spreading manure, an organic fertilizer Fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either via the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. ...

The high-profile case had extensive national press coverage and was the first topic of President John F. Kennedy's press conference on May 17, 1962. As a result of the financial and political scandal, Kennedy apparently began considering dropping Johnson as his running mate in the 1964 election. The political fall out extended to the election of Ed Foreman as a Republican to U.S. Congress from west Texas in 1962. At the time he was one of only two Texas Republican congressmen out of 24. The Democratic incumbent's ties to Estes were the main cause of his defeat. Rep. Foreman was defeated two years later in 1964. John Kennedy and JFK redirect here. ... is the 137th day of the year (138th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Edgar Franklin Ed Foreman is a prominent motivational speaker who was the only person in the twentieth century to represent two different states -- Texas and New Mexico -- in the U.S. Congress. ...

Although Estes went to prison, his conviction was later overturned by the United States Supreme Court (Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532 (1965)). His appeal hinged upon television cameras and broadcast journalists having been allowed in the courtroom, depriving him of a fair trial. He prevailed by a narrow 5-4 vote. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Estes v. ...

Allegations and Conspiracy Theories

After his release from jail and Johnson's death, Estes began making allegations regarding President Johnson. According to the authors of The Men Who Killed Kennedy, Estes claimed to have funneled millions of dollars into Johnson's pockets from the cotton allotment scam. Although some contributions are a matter of record, Johnson denied the bribery charges.

Estes later claimed Johnson was involved in a conspiracy to murder witnesses in the Estes trial as part of a wider conspiracy related to the Kennedy assassination. In 1984 Estes' lawyer Douglas Caddy wrote to the Department of Justice claiming that Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm "Mac" Wallace and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers and his secretary, Coleman Wade, the president's sister Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added, "Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders." John F. Kennedy The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 PM Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC). ... The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. â€œJustice Departmentâ€ redirects here. ...

Estes agreed to provide supporting proof to the FBI, which proffered immunity in exchange but Estes ultimately refused to produce any evidence.

Critics suggest Estes' claims of his involvement in a wide conspiracy involving mass murder and political assassination were motivated by the desire of a convicted felon to deflect responsibility for his own criminal behavior and later as a means of generating publicity for the purpose of selling a book he had written.

As of June 2005 Estes was still actively promoting his book, Billie Sol Estes: A Texas Legend. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- â†’ Deaths in June June 27: Shelby Foote June 27: John T. Walton June 26: Richard Whiteley June 25: John Fiedler June 25: Chet Helms June 24: Paul Winchell June 21: Jaime Cardinal Sin June 20: Jack Kilby...

Folk-protest singer Phil Ochs wrote a song about the incident called "The Ballad of Billie Sol." Allan Sherman performed a parody folksong (co-written with Lou Busch): "Oh, Look What You've Done, Billie Sol, Billie Sol." As did Jesse Lee Turner: mp3[2] [3] [4] Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940â€“April 9, 1976) was a U.S. protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer), songwriter, musician and recording artist who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice. ... Allan Sherman (sometimes incorrectly Alan and Allen), November 30, 1924 â€“ November 20, 1973, was an American musician, parodist, satirist, and television producer. ... Joe Fingers Carr was the professional pseudonym used by pianist Louis Ferdinand Busch (July 18, 1910 - September 19, 1979). ...

Categories: Articles lacking sources from July 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1924 births | Living people | American businesspeople | American political scandals | Confidence tricksters | Conspiracy theories | John F. Kennedy assassination | People from Abilene, Texas | People in food and agriculture occupations | Politics of Texas | White-collar criminals Confidence Man redirects here. ... Confidence Man redirects here. ... The victim of a confidence game or magic trick is often called the mark, or the vic. ... A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services who pretends no association to the seller and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. ... A sucker list is a list of persons who have previously been successfully solicited for something. ... Image File history File links Conjurer_Bosch. ... An advance fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain. ... The Badger game is an extortion scheme, often perpetrated on married men, in which the victim or mark is deliberately coerced into a compromising position then threatened with public exposure of his acts unless blackmail money is paid. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Bogus Escrow scam is a straightforward confidence trick in which a scammer operates a bogus escrow service. ... A clip joint is an establishment, usually a strip club or entertainment bar, typically one claiming to offer adult entertainment, in which customers are tricked into paying money and receive poor, or no, goods or services in return. ... The Drop Swindle was a con game commonly used during the 19th and 20th centuries. ... The Embarrassing Cheque is a confidence trick which may also be an urban legend. ... Employment scams, also know as job scams, are a form of advance fee fraud scamming where certain unscrupulous persons posing as recruiters and/or employers offer attractive employment opportunities which require the job seeker to pay them money in advance, usually under the guise of work visas, travel expenses, and... Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising ones skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of confidence trick. ... The penny-and-dime scam is a scam typically targeted at banks and large retail stores. ... Pig-in-a-poke refers to a scam originating in the late middle ages, when meat was scarce, but apparently rats and cats were not. ... Pigeon drop is the name of a confidence trick in which a mark or pigeon is convinced to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object. ... Reloading is a form of fraud, whereby a victim of one scam is repeatedly approached with more aggressive con artists, often until sucked dry. This form of fraud is especially hurtful for senior people, because they are more susceptible to pressure after the first losses, partly because of hopes to... A shell game is performed with bottle caps on a cardboard box, on Fulton Street in New York City The Conjurer by Hieronymus Bosch. ... The Slave Reparations Act (also called the Slavery Reparation Tax Credit, Black Tax Credit or Black Inheritance Tax Refund) is a tax fraud related to the concept of reparations for slavery. ... The Spanish Prisoner is a confidence game dating back to 1588 [1]. In its original form, the confidence artist (con-man) tells his victim (the mark) that he is in correspondence with a wealthy person of high estate who has been imprisoned in Spain (originally by King Philip II) under... The Thai Gem Scam is a confidence trick performed in Bankok, Thailand. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... White van speakers is a scam sales technique in which a salesman makes a buyer believe he is getting a good price on audio merchandise. ... A pyramid scheme is a business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. ... A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns (profits) to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from net revenues generated by any real business. ... The unsustainable geometric progression of a classic pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. ... Dona Branca Dona Branca (full name: MarÃa Branca dos Santos; often referred to as The peoples banker. ... Caritas was a Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s in Romania. ... Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882â€“January 18, 1949) was an Italian immigrant to the United States who became one of the greatest swindlers in American history. ... Bernard Bernie Cornfeld (Istanbul 17 August 1927 - London 27 February 1995) was a prominent businessman and international financier who sold investments in US mutual funds. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... A High-Yield Investment Program (HYIP) is a very high return investment. ... Investors Overseas Services (IOS) was founded in 1955 by financier Bernard Cornfeld. ... Marina Muravieva Vyacheslav Mavrodi Sergey Mavrodi A certificate for 20 MMM bonds MMM was the company that perpetrated the largest pyramid scheme in Russia in the 1990s, with the possible exception of the GKO government pyramid scheme. ... Make money fast is a title of an electronically forwarded chain letter which became so infamous that the term is now used to describe all sorts of chain letters forwarded over the Internet, by e-mail spam or Usenet newsgroups. ... Reed Slatkin is the perpetrator of the largest Ponzi scheme in the United States since that conducted by Ponzi himself. ... Frank William Abagnale, Jr. ... Aerison in drag Storme Aerison is a con artist who gained notoriety in the 1990s for repeatedly impersonating a female highschool student and later representing himself to be a supermodel. ... Tino De Angelis was a New York-based commodities trader who bought and sold vegetable oil futures around the world. ... Philip Arnold (1829 - 1878) was a con man from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, who was the brains behind a legendary 1872 scam to fool people into investing in western diamond mining operations. ... Julius Nicky W. Arnstein (??? - October 2, 1965) was an American businessman, professional gambler, and con artist. ... Lou The Fixer Blonger (May 13, 1849–April 20, 1924), born Louis Belonger, was a Civil War veteran, saloonkeeper, detective and well-known gambler, but is most often noted as the organizer of an extensive ring of confidence tricksters in Denver that operated for more than 25 years. ... Edward Big Ed Burns, was an american 19th century confidence man and crime boss. ... David Race Bannon (born 1963) is a pseudonym for David Wayne Dilley, an American fraudster who posed as a former Interpol agent and wrote fictional accounts of his alleged adventures in various Asian countries, as well as other subjects including Asian politics, and computer science. ... Matthew Bevan Cox (born July 2, 1969), commonly known as Matthew Cox, also sometimes known as Matthew B. Cox and Matt Cox, is an American convicted felon and con man who has been convicted of conspiracy and grand theft. ... Louis Enricht (????-1923) was a US inventor who claimed that he had invented a substitute for gasoline. ... Arthur Ferguson (1800s–1938) was a Scottish con artist. ... Peter Foster addressing the media at the height of Cheriegate. Peter Foster, (born in Australia on 26 September 1962) has been described as the ultimate international man of mischief[1] , a super salesman to some, conman to others, but undoubtedly a person who has lived a champagne lifestyle in the... On the cover of his step-brothers 2001 book Son of a Grifter: The Twisted Tale of Sante and Kenny Kimes, the Most Notorious Con Artists in America Kenny Kimes (born 1975) is an American con artist serving a life sentence for murder. ... Sante Kimes (pronounced SHAWN-TAY) is an American serial killer who is most famous for the murder of Irene Silverman, a New York City socialite. ... Henri Lemoine ( 1905â€“1908) was a French con artist who claimed to be able to produce synthetic diamonds. ... Victor Lustig (January 4, 1890 â€“ March 11, 1947) is held to have been one of the most talented confidence tricksters who ever lived. ... Gregor MacGregor (December 24, 1786 â€“ early December 3, 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer and colonizer who fought in the South American struggle for independence. ... George Parker (1870-1936) was one of the most audacious con men in American history. ... Steven Jay Russell (born 1958) is a US con artist and impostor who has escaped from prison number of times. ... Jefferson Randolph (Soapy) Smith II (1860-July 8, 1898) was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska from 1879 to 1898. ... Alvin Clarence Thomas sometimes known as the character he created, Titanic Thompson, (1892 - 1974), was the legendary American golfer, gambler, and, uniquely gifted, hustler. ... William Thompson was an American criminal whose deceptions caused the term confidence man to be coined. ... Joseph Yellow Kid Weil (1877-1975) was one of the most famous American confidence men of his era. ...

Fraud Charges var ACE_AR = {Site: '756743', Size: '300250'};

Allegations and Conspiracy Theories

Fraud Charges