Clinton William Murchison, Sr.

Goad, Kimberly. "Secret Hideaways of the Rich and Famous ... The most exclusive private club in Dallas is in Athens - the little East Texas town with all the right connections", D Magazine, June 1997 ... http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1997/june/secret-h... ... "In the mid ’40s, the late Clint Murchison Sr., tired of waiting to be accepted into Koon Kreek, purchased about 2,000 acres of barren land not far from the club and built himself an octagonal ranch house in the middle of it. He added a private landing strip and a lake. He brought in 10,000magnolia bushes, 2,000dogwood trees and 10,000pine seedlings. He named the place Glad Oaks, after fishing buddies Sam Gladney and Doak Roberts. Eventually, both Murchison and crony Sid Richardson were invited to join Koon Kreek, although it’s not certain if they were issued invitations before or after they appeared in Time ("The New Athenians") and V.S. News & World Report ("A Billion-Dollar Team from Texas"). ... "When I was a kid, my grandfather was buying property in the Athens area," says Robert Murchison, who spends at least one weekend a month in Athens with his wife, Maggie, and their kids. "He bought one farm called Harmony Hollow specifically for his grandkids because he wanted us to learn what country living and the farm life was all about. That’s where I learned to ride horses and fish." ... So there he was: oil-moneyed Murchison, traveling the world on his jet, the "Flying Ginny" (named for his second wife, the late Ginny Linthicum), working deals, dividing his time among two homes in Mexico, a home in La Jolla and a home in Dallas, but-like fellow Athenians Wofford Cain and Sid Richardson-always returning home. To Athens."

____________________________

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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..

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."

Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, 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."