Context: Sam Houston Johnson (1914 - 1978) was a close aide of and political schemer in the mold of Lyndon Johnson. Both men were alcoholics and both men liked to lie and run political manipulations. Sam Houston Johnson said he knew a lot more about LBJ than LBJ knew about him. The first words out of Sam Houston's mouth after the JFK assassination was to tell LBJ that he didn't murder JFK on behalf of LBJ. That fact that Sam Houston Johnson would have to say something like that just shows you how acidic the relationship between LBJ and the Kennedys were in the fall of 1963. The Kennedys were out to utterly destroy Lyndon Johnson and not merely remove him from the 1964 Democratic ticket.
In Sam Houston’s first conversation with his brother Lyndon Johnson after the JFK assassination, Sam Houston felt compelled to tell LBJ that he (Sam Houston) didn’t use Oswald to murder JFK for the benefit of Lyndon Johnson.
QUOTE
“Lyndon,” I said. “I had nothing to do with Oswald.”
UNQUOTE
[Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, p. 126]
The context of that comment by Sam Houston:
QUOTE
Whenever things got too gloomy and oppressive, I might have to go on a toot to get away from it all. That’s exactly how I felt a few days after Kennedy was killed. I had been a virtual recluse, holing up in my bedroom to get away from all the yak-yak of people dropping by to gawk at us. Then, when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I called up my old friend Judge Jeff Willens (which, of course, isn’t his real name) and asked him to join me for a quick holiday in San Antonio….
“Never mind that,” I answered. “Let’s call up some girls I know and we’ll have ourselves a few drinks and forget all this crap.”
But just as our lady friends came in - one of them was the secretary of a lobbyist I knew – the phone started ringing and then stopped before I could pick it up. Then it rang again and the hotel operator almost shouted in my ear, “The White House is c-c-calling,” she stammered. “It’s the r-r-real White H-H-House calling, Mr. J-J-Johnson!”
“Just a moment,” I said. “I’ll take it in the bedroom. Please switch it there.”
But when I got to the next room the operator told me the call had been interrupted – that the President would call me back in a few minutes. Well, I waited on that bed for nearly two hours, not wanting to join Jeff and the ladies until I’d gotten the call. With that phone operator getting so excited, I didn’t think I should complicate matters by switching a call from one extension to another.
Finally the call came through, with the operator breathlessly saying, “It’s him! It’s the President of the United States calling.”
Then Lyndon’s voice came over the wire. “Hi, Sam Houston, how y’ doing?”
“Fine, Lyndon, everything’s fine here.”
“Sorry about that first call. I got involved in a hurry-up conference with Rusk and McNamara, so I decided to wait till I got back home to call you. I’m still living at the Elms, you know. Just got in.”
“I imagine you’re pretty busy,” I said.
“Never been busier,” he said. “But I’ve been waiting for a chance to talk with you and to let you know how much I appreciate all you’ve done for me, Sam Houston. I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for you.”
“Lyndon,” I said. “I had nothing to do with Oswald.”
He gasped, sputtered, and then exploded. My God, what an explosion! I have never heard him so angry.
“Goddamnit, Sam!” he shouted. “What the hell kind of a remark is that? Here I come all the way home to have a serious talk with you, and you come out with a damned stupid crack like that! Why in the hell can’t you ever be serious, you crazy ass? You make your lousy sick jokes about everything….”
He went on like that, getting angrier and angrier, for about twenty minutes. And I kept expecting him to slam the phone down like a sledgehammer, but he went on talking at full fury. Finally, in a tired, somewhat despairing voice, he said, “I’ll call you some other time.”
UNQUOTE
[Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, pp. 124-126]
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