“Grounds for ‘black marking’”: FWS-T, Sept. 16. “Rules were perhaps”; “Allred wrote one”; “Where’s Abe?”: Jones interview. “Do you know?”: Marcus, quoted in Miller, p. 132. Fortas was to say that he received a call from Wirtz, but all other accounts agree Johnson called himself. “Acres of lawyers”: Fortas OH. “I said”: Fortas interview. Immense gamble: Jones interview. Unrealistic: Jones interview. “Confident”: Fortas interview. “This was”: Fortas OH. Fortas’ reasoning: Fortas, Jones interviews. “Problem was”: Fortas OH. “Courage”; “Everyone was delighted”: Fortas interview. “Let’s do what Abe says”: Fortas, Jones interviews.
“A thing of beauty”: Jones interview. Corcoran group analysis: Biddle, Arnold and Rowe to Wirtz, Sept. 18, 1948, Jones Papers. The crucial sentences in this letter are: “In another case … asking for a stay, Judge Hutchinson [sic] informed him that in his circuit it required three judges. If this be so, you might have difficulty getting them together.” Hutcheson hearing: “Defendant Lyndon B. Johnson’s Notice of Appeal, Filed Sept. 22, 1948: Johnson, Streigler, Shelley et al. v. Stevenson et al., No. 12,529, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Appeal from the District Court of the U.S. for the Northern District, Texas. Consternation: Jenkins interview. Hutcheson’s decision: Hutcheson, quoted in CCC-T, Sept. 25. Telephoning Black: CCC-T, Sept. 26.
“The most dramatic”: Daniels, quoted in Miller, pp. 134–35. Truman campaign trip: AAS, Brownsville Herald, SAE-N, CCC-T, DMN, FWS-T, Sept. 25–28. “Texas—September, 25, 26, 27, 28,” President’s Secretary’s File, Box 11, HSTL; Evans and Novak, p. 25. “My advice”: Truman, quoted in Kahl, p. 193. “A defeated”: Carter, quoted in Dugger, p. 335.
Masters-in-Chancery Hearings: The basis for my description of these three hearings is the transcripts. They are:
1. Stevenson v. Tyson, Johnson et al., C.A. 1640, United States District Court, Northern District, Texas, Daily Transcript of Proceedings Had on Hearing Before Hon. J. M. Burnett, Special Master, San Diego, Duval County, Texas, Sept. 28, 1948. This will be referred to hereafter as “Master’s Hearing, SD, transcript.”
2. Stevenson v. Tyson et al., C.A. 1640, Transcript of Proceedings Had Before the Master W. R. Smith, Jr., Alice, Texas, Jim Wells County, Texas, Sept. 27, 1948. This will be referred to hereafter as “Master’s Hearing, A, transcript.”
3. Stevenson v. Tyson et al., CA. 1640, Daily Transcript of Proceedings Had on Hearing Before Honorable J. B. Burnett, Special Master, Zapata, Zapata County, Texas, Sept. 29, 1948. This will be referred to hereafter as “Master’s Hearing, Z, transcript.”
In describing them, I have also relied on interviews with persons who were present, including Stevenson attorney Gerald L. Weatherly; Emmett Shelton, brother and law partner of Judge Raymond’s attorney Polk Shelton; Alice District Attorney Frank B. Lloyd; the oral histories of Josh Groce and W. R. Smith, Jr., and my interview with Luis Salas, and his unpublished manuscript, “Box 13.”
Expeditiously: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. ii–xiv. Unable to serve subpoenas: The opening sentences of the Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. xv, set the tone: “The Master: Come to order. Mr. Marshal, were you able to locate any of the witnesses? The Marshal: I wasn’t, your Honor. The Master: You haven’t found them in the county? The Marshal: I haven’t found them at all. … The Master: Did you find out anything about their present whereabouts? The Marshal: I wasn’t able to get anything on it at all” (Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. xv). Only eight of fifty: CCC-T, Sept. 29. “On vacation”: Master’s Hearing, SD, transcript, p. 4; Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 43–44. Donald’s whereabouts: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 37–45. “Lay … hands on those records”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 40. No hint: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 45–48.
Unaware of judges’ names: Tobin, Master’s Hearing, SD, transcript, pp. 14, 16. “I can’t recall the names, but I am sure I know them when I see them,” Tobin said. Salas’ demeanor: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 212 ff; Salas interview and “Box 13,” p. 66; Dibrell, Rowe interviews; Kahl, pp. 199–200; CCC-T, Sept. 29. “It is lost”: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 145. “So much talk”; “the election was level”: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 150. Visit to Alice News: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 151–52. “Viva, Luis Salas!”: Salas, “Box 13,” p. 66.
Benavides testimony: DMN, Sept. 29; Master’s Hearing, SD, transcript, pp. 99–112.
Stevenson’s lawyers have affidavits: Dibrell, Stevenson, Jr., interviews; Graham OH; DC Hearing transcript, p. 4.
“Gone”; “missing”: Master’s Hearing, Z, transcript, pp. 180, 188, 189. Four envelopes become three: Gutirez, Master’s Hearing, Z, transcript, pp. 177–82. Bravo didn’t know: Bravo, Master’s Hearing, Z, transcript, pp. 184–89.
Groce’s request: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. xvi. Only “An express order”: Looney, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. xix. “The evil days”: Tarleton, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. xxv–xxvii. “I have the power”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. xxxii. The mere fact: Smith OH.
Black’s hearing: Fortas OH and interview; Porter OH; Easley interview; McNeil, “How Fortas”; Washington Daily News, Aug. 3, 1965. Civil rights issue never raised: Weatherly interview. McNeil says it was, but others say it wasn’t, or was raised only tangentially. “To prevent the reaping”: Moody, quoted in Kahl, p. 194. “Irrevocably”: Fortas, quoted in AA, Sept. 28.
Sowing confusion: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 136–70; Salas, “Box 13,” pp. 224–27. Not among the twenty: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 137. Not one but two: Salas, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 140. Salas’ conversation with Lloyd: Salas, “Box 13,” p. 63, handwritten p. 1; Salas interview; Kahl, p. 203.
Black’s verdict: McNeil, “How Fortas;” CCC-T, NYT, Sept. 29; Harvard Law Review, Dec. 1948, pp. 311–313; Black to Mrs. O. C. Phelan, Oct. 8, 1964, “General Correspondence, Johnson, Lyndon B.,” Box 35, Papers of Hugo Black. Smith telephoning Davidson: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 171–72. “The court”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 175. Exchanges between Smith and Johnson attorneys: Smith, Tarleton and Looney, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 175–79. “We will open”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 178, 185; DMN, Sept. 29.
Opening the boxes: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 179–85. “The most potent”: Smith OH.
Salas’ resolution had hardened: Salas, quoted in Kahl, p. 203. New Motion: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 186–90.
“We object to”: Tarleton, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 195. “To a lot of other things, too”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 195. “Examining”: Looney, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 198. “A violation”: Tarleton, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 200. Opening the remaining boxes: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 202–11. “Let’s pass [them] up”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 249–52.
Black’s order: It read “ORDERED that the temporary injunction issued by the United States District Court, for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, on September 23rd, 1948, in the case entitled Coke R. Stevenson vs. Lyndon B. Johnson, et al, Civil NO, 1640, be and the same is hereby stayed, and that the temporary injunction is and shall be of no force and effect, until further order of the Supreme Court” (Johnson, Striegler et al. v. Stevenson, No. 466, Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1948, Hugo L. Black, Sept. 29, 1948). Scene in court: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, pp. 253–55; CCC-T, Sept. 29; Rowe, Salas interviews. “Judge Davidson has”: Smith, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 253. “I hardly see”; “I am so full”: Smith, Groce, Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 267. “It will be”: Master’s Hearing, A, transcript, p. 268.
Evidence about dead “voters”: Dibrell, in an interview, confirms that three “dead” voters wer
e found on the list at that first inspection. He says that at the time of the Master’s Hearing, Stevenson’s attorneys were prepared to present conclusive evidence that one of the three was dead; as for the other two, Dibrell says, “We had evidence, but not the kind of evidence we were ready to present in court” because there had not been time to obtain it. That evidence would have been ready by the time of a full trial, he says. Similarly, the attorney who represented Stevenson in the State District Court hearing in Alice—Wilbur Matthews—wrote in his memoirs that at the time of that hearing, the earliest legal proceeding in the case, the names that had been added to the Box 13 poll list “included at least one person who had died prior to the primary election” (Matthews, p. 102). Dibrell and other leaders of the Stevenson camp such as Boyett and Stevenson, Jr. feel a fuller investigation—which would have been carried out had Black not ended the legal proceedings—would have revealed the presence of “many more” votes cast in the names of dead persons.
Supreme Court refuses to reconsider stay: Journal of Proceedings of the Supreme Court, Oct. 5, 1948. Supreme Court rejects Stevenson petition for trial: Stevenson v. Johnson et al., Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit and Supporting Brief (Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1948). DMN, Feb. 1, 1949.
“A notable lack”; “a fancy dance”: Dugger, “Two Cheers for the FBI.” “Without a trace”: Kahl, p. 242.
Senate investigation: HP, Jan. 4, 1949, said that when the committee was “Republican controlled,” “the rumor that Johnson would be denied his seat was widely circulated on Capitol Hill. When the Democrats won control, the rumor died immediately as to the election contest. No one in authority would speak for publication, but no one seemed to have any idea that Johnson may be unseated.” See FWS-T, Jan. 6, 1949. See also DMN, Jan. 14, Feb. 1, July 28, 1949.
16. The Making of a Legend
SOURCES
Books and documents:
Baker, The Good Times; Dugger, The Politician; Evans and Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson; Miller, Lyndon; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy.
Luis Salas, “Box 13” (unpublished manuscript).
Stevenson v. Tyson, Johnson et al., C.A. 1640, United States District Court, Northern District, Texas, Transcript of Proceedings Had Before the Master W. R. Smith, Jr., Alice, Texas, Jim Wells County (referred to hereafter as Master’s Hearing, Alice, transcript).
Oral Histories:
William R. Smith.
Interviews:
Thomas G. Corcoran, Luis Salas, Harold Young.
NOTES
Smithwick letter: Smithwick to Stevenson, Mar. 23, 1952, reprinted in DMN, May 24, 1952. Told him not to bother: Stevenson, quoted in Dugger, p. 340. “Some guards”; “somewhere”: FWS-T, May 26, 1952. Cartoon: “The Ghost Returns,” DMN, May 27, 1952. “A continuation”: Johnson, quoted in DMN, May 26, 1952. “Historical Markers”: Texas Monthly, Jan., 1976.
“Exactly 87 votes”: Eliot Janeway, “Johnson of the ‘Watchdog Committee,’ ” NYT Magazine, June 17, 1951. “A fabulous”: Leslie Carpenter, “The Whip from Texas,” Collier’s, Feb. 17, 1951. “Johnson’s attorneys”: Paul F. Healy, “The Frantic Gentleman from Texas,” Saturday Evening Post, May 19, 1951. “His power reaches”: Gordon Schendel, “Something Is Rotten in the State of Texas,” Collier’s, June 9, 1951.
“Likely to arise”: Bill Davidson, “Lyndon Johnson: Can a Southerner Be Elected President?,” Look, Aug. 18, 1959. “Suspicious 87 votes”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, Mar. 17, 1958.
“THE STORY OF 87 VOTES”: U.S. News & World Report, Apr. 6, 1964. Many magazines ran major biographical articles on Johnson in 1964 to introduce the new President to the American people, and most recounted the story of the 1948 campaign. A two-part article in Life magazine, “The Man Who Is the President,” examined it in detail, mentioned his ironic nickname, “Landslide Johnson,” under the headline “AN 87-VOTE ‘LANDSLIDE’ PUT HIM IN SENATE” (Wheeler and Lambert, Life, Aug. 14, 21, 1964).
“It seems”: Richard Rovere, Letter From Washington, The New Yorker, Sept. 23, 1967. “After Lyndon Johnson”: Tom Wicker, “Hey, Hey, LBJ …,” Esquire, Dec. 1983.
Salas interview with Mangan: It ran in newspapers across the country on July 31, 1977. Its complete version can be found in the San Antonio Express-News: James W. Mangan, “Vote Fraud Put LBJ into Office.” Among the scores of newspapers in which the Salas interview was displayed under banner front-page headlines were the Boston Herald American (“LBJ RACE CALLED ‘STOLEN’ ”), the Chicago Tribune (“ ‘I STOLE ’48 ELECTION FOR LBJ’ ”), the Rocky Mountain News (“LBJ’S ELECTION TO SENATE ‘STOLEN’ ”), the Sacramento Union (“LBJ’S ELECTION FIXER TALKS”), and the Worcester Sunday Telegram (“POLLING OFFICIAL: PHONY VOTES STOLE ’48 RUNOFF FOR LBJ”). “Suspicions have persisted”: Newsweek, Aug. 8, 1977.
“I know”: Middleton, quoted in Miller, p. 137. “I am without knowledge”: WP, Aug. 6, 1977. Jenkins, Rather, Herring press conference: NYT, AA-S, Aug. 2, 1977. Typical of the tone with which the documents were treated was the story in the WP under the headline, “LBJ MEMO CONTRADICTS FRAUD CHARGES,” which stated: “Discovery of the Johnson statement came today, as 16 reporters and a bevy of television news crews examined some 5,000 documents contained in eight boxes in the archives of the LBJ Library” (WP, Aug. 4, 1977). In the aftermath of the Salas interview, other stories appeared detailing interviews with Parr before his death on the subject of the election, filled with inaccuracies (for example, AA-S, Aug. 30, 1977).
“Reader, I don’t know”: Luis Salas, “Box 13,” p. 6. Salas’ description of his youth: Ibid., pp. 1–24. “My life changed”; “Wearing a gun”; “I never forget this man”: Ibid., pp. 32, 33, 44. “Any vote” … [smile]: Salas interview. “Now is the year”: Salas, “Box 13,” p. 25.
“We put LB Johnson”: Ibid., p. 68. “Exactly the way”: Ibid., p. 6. “How an Indian boy”: Ibid., p. 70.
“Many people”: Ibid., p. 50. “A good reason”; “I lied under oath”: Ibid., unnumbered page following handwritten, p. 5.
“Go to the Lyndon Johnson Library”: Ibid., p. 65.
“May be I”: Ibid., p. 1. “Having trouble”: Ibid., unnumbered page following handwritten, p. 5.
“I gave George”: Ibid., p. 50. “I looked at Coke Stevenson”; “Asking forgivings”; “I don’t blame him”: Ibid., p. 66.
Description of adding the 200 votes: Ibid., pp. 57–58. “I told Cliff”: Ibid., pp. 56, 64.
“Everyone is dead”: Salas interview.
Salas recognized Johnson: Salas interview. DuBose testified to 765: DuBose, Master’s Hearing, Alice, transcript, pp. 30, 31. Price testified to 765: Price, Master’s Hearing, Alice, transcript, pp. 230–31. “I told Cliff … 765”: Salas interview; Salas, “Box 13,” pp. 56, 64. Also, on an unnumbered page of his manuscript, Salas wrote: “I lied under oath, that Johnson had received 967 instead of 765 votes. After closing the election voting place, I went to the Alice News, and gave Cliff Dubose the amount of votes received by Johnson, and they were 765, later on our party changed the amounts to reach 967, enough for Johnson to defeat Stevenson.”
Holmgreen: “I saw more votes stolen for Lyndon Johnson than Johnson won the election by,” he told the San Antonio Express-News (July 31, 1977), quoted in Kahl, p. 93. “A ballot would be pulled from the box marked for Stevenson, but would be called out for Johnson. I know because I watched and I saw it.” Poole: Quoted in Kahl, p. 118. “If they were not”: Salas interview. Also see Salas, “Box 13,” p. 64: “Charles Wesley Price was right, so there you are.”
Smith statement: Smith OH.
Johnson in campus politics: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 174–201. Johnson and the “Little Congress”: Caro, pp. 261–68.
Johnson telling the joke: For example, Steinberg, p. 272, Baker, pp. 284–85. In 1953, when Time magazine ran its first cover story on Johnson, the joke was included in it (Time, June 22, 1953).
Johnson imitating Parr: Hugh Sidey
, Time, Aug. 15, 1977.
“From the start”: Steinberg, who began covering Capitol Hill for several publications, p. 276. Johnson popularizing nickname: In April, 1949, when the House had passed by a 176–174 margin legislation he wanted favoring natural gas producers, Johnson, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “rushed to the phone and reported to his chief ally, Senator Bob Kerr of Oklahoma: ‘We won by two votes—“Landslide” Johnson rides again.’ ” It was even in the headlines: “ ‘LANDSLIDE’ LYNDON JOHNSON WINS AGAIN—BY TWO VOTES” (FWS-T, Apr. 8, 1949). Evans and Novak wrote (p. 40) that when Seriate Majority Leader Scott Lucas introduced Johnson to the Democratic caucus on January 3, “he good-naturedly referred to Johnson as ‘Landslide Lyndon.’ To Johnson’s dismay, the term stuck.”
No longer wanted “Landslide” nickname used: Russell Baker, who arrived in Washington in 1954, would later write: “Duval County was a sensitive subject with Johnson.… If you wanted to stay on his good side, you didn’t call him ‘Landslide Lyndon’ or otherwise joke about that election” (Baker, pp. 284–85). By 1964: Steinberg, p. 686. Interview with Dugger: Dugger, p. 341. The photograph is reproduced in this book, in photograph section III. It appeared in print: WP, Aug. 8, 1954.
17. A Love Story
SOURCES
Coke Stevenson’s later years were described to me by Ernest Boyett, Nada and Robert W. Murphey, Coke Stevenson, Jr., Marguerite King Stevenson and Jane Stevenson Murr. Unless otherwise noted, my description of those years comes from these interviews and from my visits to the Stevenson ranch.
Among the newspaper articles written by reporters after visits to the ex-Governor during his retirement, particularly helpful were Dawson Duncan, DMN, Aug. 8, 1951; Frank X. Tolbert, DMN, Aug. 16, 1959, July 7, 1960, and undated; HP, Jan 19, 1964; HC, Apr. 6, 1969, June 29, 1975.
Also, Wyatt and Shelton, Coke R. Stevenson: A Texas Legend.
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