In the 1950s and 60s, H.L. Hunt was the richest man in the world. He hosted a conservative radio program called Life Line which told the world about the evils of JFK, RFK, MLK, and labor unions. He wanted to promote his radio show at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and spent millions of dollars on roller coasters and other investments, however his contract was cancelled and he lost all the money. Vice President LBJ told him the decision had been made by a “higher authority”, which Hunt took to mean President JFK. On the plane ride back to Dallas, Hunt told John Curington, the author of this book, “I’ve about got a bellyful of those Kennedy boys. They both need to go.”

Shortly after, Hunt sent $70,000 in cash (equivalent to half a million in today’s dollars) to someone in Chicago. He didn’t want Curington to know who the money was going to, but it was likely shady since legitimate business wouldn’t have been carried out with cash. JFK was assassinated a few months later. While Hunt’s friend Lyndon Johnson was in office, he kept MLK and RFK in check, but once he decided not to run in 1968, MLK and RFK were both killed within months of each other.

John Curington was H. L. Hunt’s right-hand man, his personal assistant, and the door between their offices was never closed. Hunt was one of the world’s largest private landowners, private cattle owners, private oil and gas producers, food producers, petroleum refinery producers, private employers, and farm product producers. At the time of his death in 1974, he was worth $25 billion in today’s dollars.

H.L. Hunt was married to three women at the same time and had fourteen children between the three of them. He believed Jews controlled Wall Street, banks, press, radio, and TV and were spreading communism throughout the US.

Hunt attended both the Republican and Democratic conventions and tried to get the president elected who would be best for his business. At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, he wanted LBJ to win, but JFK got the nomination. LBJ didn’t want to be Kennedy’s vice president, but Hunt convinced him to join the ticket as he’d be in a good position to succeed Kennedy.

Hunt was a member of First Baptist Church in Dallas and was friends with the pastor W. A. Criswell, one of the most influential religious leaders in the United States. He convinced Criswell to give a sermon denouncing JFK for being Catholic and had Curington mail out 200,000 copies of the speech to protestants all over the country. Hunt thought this would cause Catholics to unite and vote for JFK, and also cause protestants to denounce Criswell.

Hunt’s radio program, Life Line, was a 15 minute program aired seven days a week on over 500 radio stations with an estimated 5 million listeners. It cost Hunt $6,000 a day. The program railed against communists, minorities, hippies, and the welfare state. John F. Kennedy was a target of the show both before and after he became president. Hunt accused him of being a communist because he wanted to close tax loopholes for oil companies, which could cost Hunt millions. He claimed Medicare would lead to death panels. On the day of JFK’s assassination, Life Line warned its listeners that leftists were trying to take their guns away.

His program Life Line was meant to encourage a certain type of listener to assassinate public figures Hunt disagreed with, but it didn’t work very well, so Hunt wanted to establish what he called a “Removal Group” which would be divided into four parts. The first group would come up with an enemies list. The second group would research the people on the list, including their daily habits. The third group would develop a plan to kill the person, preferably making it look like an accident. The fourth group would carry out the plan. The four groups should act independently of each other to prevent incriminating each other. As far as Curington knows, Hunt never carried out his Removal Group plan. It was all just talk.

Months before shooting JFK, Oswald tried to shoot Hunt’s friend General Edwin Walker, but missed. A bit strange that he’d shoot at an anti-Kennedy conservative, then shoot Kennedy months later.

When Kennedy was assassinated, many people thought Hunt was behind it. He laid low for a while and stopped playing anti-Kennedy messages on his Life Line radio program. He asked Curington to check out what kind of security the police had around Oswald. Curington reported back that there weren’t any heightened security measures. Hunt then told him to send organized crime boss Joe Civello to his house.

In past discussions, Civello gave Hunt advice for how to get away with murder. First, hire an unknown to do the act, then kill the unknown. If the unknown isn’t killed, convince him he can’t turn against you. At all costs, never let the unknown testify in court. Always make him plead guilty.

Later that morning, Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner and associate of Civello, killed Lee Harvey Oswald for no obvious reason. He had two transcripts of the Life Line radio program in his pocket when he was taken into custody. Hunt kept tabs on who visited Ruby in jail and who sent him mail. Ruby was sentenced to death for killing Oswald, but the conviction was overturned due to legal technicalities. Before he could be re-tried, Ruby died of cancer.

A letter from Oswald to Hunt was discovered after the assassination. The letter was turned over to the FBI. It’s a short, vague letter in which Oswald asks to meet with Hunt to get more information about his position before any further action is taken.

On a Saturday shortly after the assassination, Hunt instructed Curington to empty the Hunt Oil office buildings of any employees and send them home for the day. Hunt then showed up and told Curington a woman would come to the lobby. Curington should not speak to her or acknowledge her presence. The woman who appeared and got on the elevator was Oswald’s widow. Curington doesn’t know why Hunt met with her or what they talked about.

Hunt believed Martin Luther King was a communist and his Life Line program regularly attacked him. Hunt was worried MLK would call for a boycott against his food companies in retaliation. The Hunt food division largely catered to African Americans and was accused of providing substandard food. A boycott could cost him millions.

Within minutes of MLK’s assassination, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who also considered MLK a communist and threat to the nation, called Hunt and told him about the assassination. A couple days later, Hoover asked for Hunt to come to Washington immediately, which he did. Curington never learned the reason for the trip, although Hoover and Hunt had several conversations afterward. Hoover was adamant the murder of MLK be blamed on James Earl Ray. Ray had been seen fleeing the scene of the crime and a rifle and binoculars with his fingerprints on them had also been found. Hunt was worried he could be indicted if Ray was allowed to testify, since his Life Line program could have influenced Ray to shoot King.

Percy Foreman, a lawyer from Texas, flew out to Memphis and convinced Ray to fire his lawyer and hire him instead. Hunt paid Foreman $125,000 ($1 million in today’s dollars) to get Ray to plead guilty, which he did. Three days later, Ray asked for a new attorney and a change of plea, but the judge denied him. Ray denied killing King until his death. He claimed he only purchased the rifle for someone else.

Attorney General Robert Kennedy was investigating LBJ for corruption when his brother was assassinated. It was suspicious to him that JFK was killed in LBJ’s home state during a trip LBJ had encouraged. Once LBJ was president, the corruption investigation against him immediately stopped. In 1968, RFK was likely going to be the next president, which would be bad for Hunt’s business.

Two weeks before RFK’s assassination, Hunt and Curington went to California. Hunt wanted to know everything about RFK’s time in the state: where he went and who he met with. Hunt had a private meeting with someone in California without Curington and never mentioned who it was or what it was concerning, which was a bit unusual.

Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK while he was celebrating his win for the California primary. Curington was told about the shooting five minutes after it happened. When he told Hunt about it, Hunt expressed no interest one way or the other.

A few weeks later, Hunt told Curington to send $40,000 ($300,000 in today’s dollars) to someone in California, but it should be delivered by someone not readily identifiable with the Hunt organization. Curington never found out who the money was for.

In the 1960’s, union organizer Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most powerful men in the country. Hunt hated unions. Whenever a union organizer would visit a city where he had a food processing plant, he’d send Curington to that city to try to make the union organizer leave town, such as by having the chief of police watch the union organizer closely for any possible violation that would lead to arrest.

Hoffa had connections with organized crime. In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of bribery and fraud and sent to prison. Hunt offered to use his influence to get Hoffa released from prison and pardoned by Nixon. In return, no union organizers would ever enter a Hunt business. Curington delivered $125,000 on Hunt’s behalf to Hoffa’s attorney. Additional payments were made periodically.

On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant parking lot leaving his car behind. He was never seen again. Hunt had died eight months before this, so he wasn’t involved in this murder.

I find it interesting that while Hunt was politically conservative, his objection to JFK, RFK, and MLK was more about how they could harm his business than anything else. There’s no smoking gun evidence here that Hunt was directly involved in the assassinations of Martin Luther King or the Kennedy brothers, but he sure looks suspicious. He certainly seemed to be involved in bribery and shady backroom deals, but we’ll probably never know for sure if H. L. Hunt was involved in murder for hire or not.