Episode 277 Bobby Baker Part 11 The Don Reynolds Story Part 1

This is Part 11 of the mini-series that covers the story of Bobby Baker. This mini-series is part of a larger series covering Billy Sol Estes, Mac Wallace, Bobby Baker and other members of Johnson's Texas inner circle. All of these men were quite intertwined around Johnson at the time of the assassination. They were involved in circumstances that were closing in on Johnson too and that provided him great motive in the killing of the President. The story is extraordinary. Today we begin to tell the story of Don Reynolds, the Maryland insurance broker who who went into business with Baker, crafting an arrangement whereby Baker became a nominal VP of his insurance agency (with a non-voting stock interest) in exchange for Baker's help in expanding  sales and profits. Commission payments for referrals were also a part of the deal.  Reynolds would become friends with Baker and travel on lavish junkets to New York and Miami, living the high life all while cultivating clients made available through Baker's contacts. His tight relationship would lead him to be a bagman too for Baker.  The end came when the Senate Rules and Administration committee began its investigation and came upon Reynolds, who had sold $200,000 worth of life insurance to Lyndon Johnson as a result of the introduction provided by Baker. But Johnson's insistence on kickbacks on the cost of the insurance premium would prove to be perilous. The kickbacks would come  in the form of a stereo thinly disguised as a gift along with the purchase of television advertising on Johnson's Austin TV station. Once revealed by the committee's investigation and the work of senator John Williams,  the scandal threatened to take the Vice President down politically and perhaps, if the tragic events of November 22nd had not occurred, might have sent Johnson to jail as other indiscretions were also being investigated. Reynolds testimony regarding the stereo and the television advertising were taking place in closed session at a senate office building literally at the moment that the shots rang out in Dealey Plaza.  Informed of the president's assassination as the meeting was finishing up, Reynolds shook with the gravity of the situation and the fact that the man he had just accused of engaging in graph...Lyndon Johnson, had just become the most powerful man in the world. 

 The characters, setting and details around this story make it an essential example of one more bad choice of association by Baker which eventually led to his demise and, as mentioned, came close to bringing down Vice President Johnson as well. 

Rumors of Johnson's involvement in the assassination began to swirl almost immediately after the President's  murder and there is a defined school of thought within the JFK assassination research community that staunchly believes in Johnson's involvement. His involvement  in both the assassination and its cover up. Join us in one of the most fascinating story tells of the Kennedy assassination and stick around as we will be returning to the Mexico City series right after we complete this min-series that was spawned by the recent release of the Billy Sol Estes and Cliff Carter tape that the two recorded in 1971. Folks, you just can't write this stuff. 

Even as early as 1964, rumors and serious concerns over  the lone gunman theory and the evidence that might contravene it,  were becoming a major concern for the government and the commission. Conspiracy theories were contrary to the government's stated narrative from the very beginning. This  real-life story is more fascinating than fiction.  No matter whether you are a serious researcher or a casual student, you will enjoy the fact filled narrative and story as  we relive one of the most shocking moments in American History. An event that changed the nation and changed the world forever.