neAGle96 said:
Law Hall 69-72 said:
Wasn't Box 13 where he got the nickname of Landslide Lyndon? I wasn't a fan of JFK, but it was a horrible day for the country when Johnson became president.
Box 13, where they found 201 ballots and all but one were for LBJ.
His opponent for the US Senate (dem primary) was the sitting Texas Governor, Coke Stevenson
My maternal grandfather was on the Jim Wells Democratic executive committee and a founding member of the Jim Wells "Freedom Party" and saw the ballots, was forced at gunpoint out of the Box 13 polling place. He is in all the books and up until probably the late 80's was hounded several times a year for interviews and such. Robert Caro sat outside of my grandparents house for the better part of 2 days wanting to interview him for the books he wrote, my grandfather refused.
Prior to, during, and after the Box 13 deal there were several murders and disappearances related to it and there were many, many threats, overt and veiled. But all real. Johnson was a killer and a sociopath, possibly the only president to be a true sociopath. He and lady bird were vile people. Coke Stevenson was afraid of Johnson as well.
My mother and grandmother went into hiding out of state during the days after Box 13 things were that tense, at my grandfathers existence. But my grandmother had always felt fairly safe as her mother and the Parr's mother had been close and she had grown up around the Parr's. George Parr was in major debt to Johnson because Johnson had beguiled and manipulated Harry Truman to pardon Parr on a felony conviction, restoring his rights. In doing so the Parr machine became the most vile and powerful in South Texas, even running over the Klebergs and having dominant influence in the Valley along with strong connections into Mexico.
They were a South Texas cartel long before any other and beholden to Johnson lock, stock, and barrel. As mentioned Johnson was tight with lots of outright criminals and thug, yet he ascended to the pinnacle of US government.
