In his book, BLOOD, MONEY, & POWER: How LBJ Killed JFK, Barr McClellan (a lawyer who was once affiliated with a Texas law firm that represented LBJ's interests between 1966 and 1971) sets out to show that Lyndon Baines Johnson -- a man of gargantuan appetites and ambitions who arose from humble origins in Texas hill country to the heights of political power in Washington --- was part of the impetus behind the hatching of the plot and conspiracy that led to the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He points out that the man who was the leader and organizer of this plot and conspiracy -- with the support of Texas Big Oil interests (whose interests LBJ had faithfully supported and promoted throughout his political career, in the process becoming a very wealthy man and a force in Texas not to be ignored) - was Edward Clark, a lawyer and white supremacist who had so thoroughly insinuated himself into the fabric and power base of Texas politics and its judicial and legal systems, that he could be considered as the de facto overlord in Texas.

McClellan had spent years carrying out research to support his claim. He comes across as credible, having once worked for Clark and knowing many of the power lawyers who served the interests of both Clark and LBJ. He painstakingly provides the reader with a background into Texas itself from its founding as a republic (1836-45), statehood, and its socio-political history that is suffused with violence and political corruption that helps to explain why the development of a political culture (along with Big Oil) in Texas gave it its unique, hard-nose conservatism and stridently pro-business character.

What became clear to me from reading this book was a Lyndon Baines Johnson who was a much darker character than I had hitherto believed. Certainly, there was goodness in him as evidenced by his support as President for civil rights (the Civil Rights Act of 1964), voting rights (the Voting Rights Act of 1965), education, Medicare and Medicaid, and fair housing --- all part of his Great Society programs. Frankly, it's hard for me to square that LBJ with the one as shown by Barr McClellan. But the evidence he provides is overwhelming. LBJ paid a heavy price for his ambitions, leaving the Presidency as a broken, deeply tormented man who would be dead at 64, less than 5 years after leaving the White House.

While I firmly believe that President Kennedy was assassinated as part of a conspiracy, I'm not sure if the Texas angle in the conspiracy occupies center stage in that conspiracy. After all, there were elements in the U.S. military industrial-economic-political complex who wanted Kennedy dead because they stoutly disagreed with the direction in which he was taking the country. I leave it to the reader of this review, if he/she is so inclined, to read Blood, Money, & Power and its "Exhibits, Pictures and Documents" section, which supports much of what McClellan talks about in his book.