Money is like manure. If you spread it around, it does a lot of good, but if you pile it up in one place, it stinks like hell.

Clint Murchison was one of a group of Texas oil men making big money and spending big money to keep the profits flowing. They knew the value of staying on good terms with the power players in Washington. Given his fondness for helping constituents – for a price – Lyndon Johnson was good friend of Texas oil and their depletion allowance, which the Kennedy administration was looking at cutting back.

In addition to Murchison, Sid Richardson and HL Hunt were major backers of Johnson's 1948 campaign that earned him the “Landslide Lyndon” moniker. About that time, Murchison began cultivating a long term friendship with J Edgar Hoover who was a frequent guest at his home and accompanied him on hunting trips.

In addition to oil wells, etc., Murchison co-owned the Del Mar horse track and Hotel del Charro in La Jolla, California. The rich and famous were often his guests, including political types, spooks and mobsters. When helpful, there was not charge. Those of interest included Hoover, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, John Connally, Meyer Lansky, Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante and Johnny Roselli.

This was not his only brush with the criminal element. Vito Genovese was 20% owner of the Murchison Oil Lease Company. His thinking was practical and individualistic. He was a supporter of the John Burch Society and Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Author Jane Wolfe argued that the relationship between Lyndon Johnson and Texas oil was broken when he accepted the vice president slot behind John Kennedy, who they saw as weak in defending America and looking to take more of their money through higher taxes.

If Wolfe's analysis were correct it would be hard to explain the fabled meeting at Murchison's home on November 21. Supporters of the government's “lone crazy gunman” narrative argue that the meeting never took place, however there is much evidence that this final briefing before the next days events did happen. In a way they did what they did for themselves and their view of the good of the country.

The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty
by Jane Wolfe

They were the ultimate Texas oil so rich that their multi-million dollar deals were sealed with a handshake, so self-indulgent that their football fancy resulted in the formation of the Dallas Cowboys, so powerful that royalty and presidents -- from Franklin Roosevelt to Nixon -- were never more than a phone call away.Yet beneath this dazzling facade lay sexual obsession, drugs, and, ultimately, financial troubles which would reverse the family's fortunes. The Murchisons, an intimate portrait of the real-life Ewings of "Dallas," is the tragic and true story of their ambition and genius, the greed, power and pride.