Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message ---
-Caveat Lector- www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.In 1977 an investigation conducted in Arizona following the death of a journalist named Don Bolles disclosed that the Del E. Webb Corp. of Phoenix, "respected national developer of shopping centers, office buildings and retirement communities, has been an active business partner with organized crime figures for three decades." According to the Arizona Project, a reprinted edition of the newspaper exposes, Del Webb owned the New York Yankees from 1945 to 1965 and was therefore prohibited from being openly involved in gambling. Nevertheless, his corporation was the contractor on the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in 1945, built by Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky (p. 15). Financing for the casino came from the Valley National Bank in Phoenix, of which Webb became a director in 1951. The bank had been organized earlier by Barry and Robert Goldwater and others, who continued on the bank’s board.
According to "the Arizona Project":
For Webb, the Flamingo experience led to a series of deals with other developers who had their own ties to the Mob-dominated Chicago political machine, including Henry Crown and Arnold S. Kirkeby of Los Angeles. Crown, now 80, a Chicago financier who owned the Empire State Building from 1954 to 1961, was a major investor in General Dynamics Corp. and the Hilton Hotel chain. He became a close adviser to Webb and one of the few men allowed in the inner councils of the corporation. He has been described by a close associate as Webb’s "money man." A.A. McCullom, a former Webb executive, said he had to be interviewed by Crown before he was hired by the Webb corporation in 1961.
Webb and Crown acquired the Arrowhead Ranch in Glendale, Arizona in 1959 from Detroit mob bosses Joseph Zerilli and Black Bill Tocco and other mob associates from California. According to Webb the ranch was purchased for residential development, though Crown indicated its purpose was "mineral exploration." It would be interesting to check the title to the property for mineral leases to see if either Shell Oil or Humble Oil were involved in mineral production there. It would also be interesting to investigate whether Friendswood Development, an Arizona corporation, which moved into Clear Lake to develop Humble Oil’s thousands of acres acquired from the Jim West family, was associated with this group. It should also be noted that General Homes founder Jeffrey Payson moved to Houston from Phoenix and that Valley National Bank was where the company carried its primary checking account. Pete Brewton has also documented that at the time of Robert Corson’s "suicide," he had moved to Phoenix from La Jolla, and had been working in a casino.
According to Anthony Summers, Del Webb was protected "at the highest level" by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Summers quotes Justice Department attorney William Hundley as saying of this protection: "No bugs went in on Webb’s places [in Las Vegas]. . . . Hoover gave Webb a pass. He was his buddy." Hoover and Webb, though not necessarily together, were both frequent guests at the Del Charro, Clint Murchison’s hotel near the La Jolla, California racetrack.
Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1993), p. 231.In the 1960’s, after selling the Yankees, Webb’s gambling interests became more open:
After Webb took over the Sahara and Mint, he embarked on an expansion program that resulted in huge loans from a Galveston, Texas, insurance company whose officers had secured gambling holdings themselves amid charges they were bleeding the company.
In all, American National Insurance Co. (ANICO) provided $5.3 million for Webb’s Thunderbird, $4 million for the Sahara-Nevada, and $3.3 million for the Sahara-Tahoe.
This was part of a total of $19.1 million Webb got from various sources, including the Bank of Las Vegas, whose president, E. Parry Thomas, was close to [Morris] Shenker and became a Webb director.... Shenker at the time was ANICO’s attorney and the recipient himself of some $13.3 million in ANICO loans. The ANICO chairman, the late William L. Vogler, and president, Rollins A. Furbush, were named in stockholders’ lawsuits as having received substantial kickbacks in exchange for arranging more than $27 million in ANICO loans for Las Vegas "resort" developments. Shenker had set up the deal....
[Moe] Dalitz became a major stockholder in the Webb Corp. in 1969 and held substantial shares at least through last year [1976]. Dalitz and other persons associated in the Desert Inn or the Teamster-financed La Costa Country Club in California obtained more than 150,000 shares of Webb stock when the Webb Corp., through a subsidiary, acquired the Stardust Golf and Country Club in Las Vegas (p. 16).
The politician most associated with Arizona gaming interests is Barry Goldwater, whose brother and business partner Robert W. Goldwater, Sr. was a close associate of Dalitz (p. 10). When Webb and Crown sold their interest in the Arrowhead Ranches, it was bought by a real estate investment company, Goldmar, Inc., controlled by Goldwater and attorney Joseph P. Martori, who arranged for an infusion of capital investment from Massachusetts from attorney Michale Manzi and district judge Jerome P. Troy. "Behind the scenes, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Council charged before disbarring Troy and removing him as a judge in 1973 that the money was part of ‘illegally transferred’ funds Troy took from a charitable organization known as the Suffolk Yacht Club, Inc., and deposited in Valley National Bank in an account listed in Manzi’s name." (p. 11) "The apartment investment generated $30,000 profit when the apartments were sold a year later—to [Richard] Kleindienst’s Phoenix law firm."
Following Bugsy Siegel’s murder in 1947, the Flamingo Hotel was operated by Gus Greenbaum, who had "run a sports wire service in Phoenix for Siegel’s boss, Meyer Lansky, before that." The wire service was then taken over by Clarence M. (Mike) Newman and James (Red) Aaron. Greenbaum was murdered in 1958.
=========
The Astrodome land had previously been owned by Glenn McCarthy. When McCarthy’s loans were called, he conveyed this land, as well as the Shamrock Hotel just north of the tract, to Hilton Hotels, Inc. McCarthy had acquired the property from the Spanish Trail Land Company (a partnership composed of the then president of Gulf Oil, Underwood Nazro, J.W. Neal [uncle of Charles W. Duncan, Sr. and head of Maxwell House Coffee in Houston], J.R. Neal and B.F. Bonner) in 1944. The land had previously been owned by J.H. Kirby and the Braeswood Corporation, but basically all these owners, except McCarthy, were Scottish investors. McCarthy was an Irishman who had a habit of bucking the establishment, even though most of his money came from Houston’s old-money elite such as M.D. Anderson. M. D. Anderson was an investor in McCarthy’s first oil well in the Conroe Field in 1936 when Anderson hired his friend Col. W.B. Bates to represent McCarthy in an injunction suit filed by creditors. Leon Jaworski was Bates’ young partner who handled the case.
Leon Jaworski, Confession and Avoidance (New York: Doubleday, 1979), p. 54.
Over the years Jaworski served as McCarthy’s attorney in other matters, though Glenn had A.G. McNeese as his own general counsel. McCarthy’s wife was Faustine Lee, daughter of a millionaire Houston oilman.
Glenn McCarthy’s Shamrock Hotel opened at South Main and Holcombe in 1949, one year after Freedman left town. Interestingly, McCarthy owned much of the land just north of the casino, which was sold to the Hilton Hotel Corp. of Chicago in the late 1950s. The Moody family of Galveston, often accused of having mob connections, were large investors in the Hilton hotels. McCarthy was in debt to Equitable Life and Metropolitan Life for $52 million. He conveyed the Shamrock Hotel and the land to the south to Hilton, a corporation controlled by Henry Crown of General Dynamics. Crown is said to have been the "money man" for the Del E. Webb Construction Co., to whom McCarthy sold other real estate interests in Houston. Almost all of these holdings ended up being owned by Shell Oil—the office building at 607 Fannin and the area around the Astrodome called Plaza del Oro. The minerals had been leased to Magnolia Petroleum, Stanolind Oil and Pan American Petroleum by McCarthy in the mid-1950s. John H. Kirby had owned the land before 1910, when he sold about 500 acres to J.C. League of Galveston, the same man whose heirs conveyed the casino tract to Jakie Freedman [260\458 & 505]. He sold another 197 acres to a man named McNee in 1915 [352\328].
George Hermann's ranch was just to the northeast of this property--now the Medical Center. George Hermann was born in 1843 to Swiss parentage. He grew up in Houston, becoming a partner of Julius J. Settegast in cattle raising and real estate. He had two brothers who were also bachelors who predeceased him. He died in 1914 and appointed his partner to administer his estate
The other half interest in the Astrodome land was owned by former Houston mayor, Roy Hofheinz, who also had owned some land north of the Galleria on which the office buildings on St. James and Yorktown and the Yorktown Creole Apartments are now located. Mark Lee and Ben McGuire acquired the property from Hofheinz and his family’s trust fund and foundation, having the Houston Bank & Trust Co. as trustee, which developed the apartments with financing provided by investors from Bear, Stearns [A/N 204-90-0689].
The construction contract in 1969 was between Yorktown Creole Apartments, the limited partnership (signed by Jerry Finger and Walter L. Lipman), and Finger Construction Co. (signed by Marvy Finger) [D003220].
J.T. Trotter, who later succeeded Butler on the board of Bank of Texas and continued as chairman of Mischer’s Allied Bank, has also been involved in partnerships involving the Duncan Coffee Co. family—John Jr. and Charles.
These partnerships included John H. Duncan, Jr. as an investor, who was also an investor with Gerald Hines, Jerry Finger and others in Post Oak Associates, developer of the Galleria. According to Pete Brewton, John Duncan was one of the original investors in Gulf + Western, a company organized in Michigan by Charles Bludhorn with alleged ties to organized crime. John Jr. and his brother, Charles Duncan were heirs to the Duncan Coffee Co., which merged with Coca Cola. Charles was also Deputy Secretary of Defense under Jimmy Carter, and later Secretary of Energy under Reagan.
The Mafia, the CIA and George Bush, at p. 378. In 1972 Charles W. Duncan, Sr., and John H. Duncan were directors of the Bank of the Southwest in Houston along with Roy H. Cullen, John deMenil, Earl C. Hankamer, Leon Jaworski, Baine P. Kerr, Ernest Cockrell, Jr., A.G. McNeese and Bernard Sakowitz. According to Dick Russell, Cockrell headed the San Jacinto Fund, which was a conduit for CIA money, and also served on the board of the M.D. Anderson Foundation with Leon Jaworski.
John Duncan was a director of the Houston Natural Gas Company which merged into Enron and was the longest-sitting director of the insolvent corporation when he resigned in 2001. The Coca Cola Foods building is located on Yorktown next to the St. James Condominiums, and one building away from 1770 and 1800 St. James. All these buildings were constructed on a tract which was conveyed by Lee Yorktown to Eighteen Corp. in 1970 [D243598]. Mark Lee was president of Eighteen Corp. It was also part of a 17.7 acre tract conveyed from Fred Hoffheinz to Roy Horlock, Weingarten Realty and Ben McGuire [D243206]. American General Realty was also involved [D243596-97].
The notable fact to consider here is McGuire’s connection with Bear Stearns and the Finger family. It should be emphasized that Ben McGuire has used the same office--1800 St. James #600--that was given as the address of Continental Savings when it moved to Houston from Angleton. Mark Lee, who constructed the building, had his office in #500. Lee was also a partner in Mohawk Investments with Louis Marks, M.M. Feld, Jr. and Bernice Feld Lee in Suite #208. Lee was related by marriage to Moses M. Feld, who operated Anchor Hocking Glass Co. in Houston. In the building next door--1770 St. James—the sixth floor has also been used by a motley crew. Edgar Monteith has been in that building from its inception, first in Suite 206, and now on the sixth floor. Also located on the sixth floor presently is Michael Lallinger, a lawyer who was once president of Gibraltar Savings. The buildings at 1770 and 1717 St. James were built by Joe Russo, who also built the Houstonia Condominiums where George Bush claimed his homestead.
=======
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
