Episode 281 Bobby Baker Part 15 Don Reynolds Part 4 A Deeper Look Into Don Reynolds

JFK The Enduring Secret

Jeff Crudele

Coup D'etat, Documentary, Government, Ruby, History, Jfk, Murder, Kennedy, Mafia, President, Oswald, Dallas, Fbi, Society & Culture, Assassination, Cia, Johnson

4.6 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is Part 15 of the mini-series that covers the story of Bobby Baker. It's also the final episode of the Bobby Baker series and the final episode on Don Reynolds. It's a deeper dive into Reynolds and includes the insightful thoughts brought to us by his nephew Bob Nelson who wrote a book entitled LBJ's Mortal Wound: The Don Reynolds Story. This mini-series is part of a larger series covering Billy Sol Estes, Mac Wallace, Bobby Baker and other members of Johnson's Texas inner circle. ...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to JFK and The Enduring Secret.
0:05.0	I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.
0:08.0	By mid-November, the Baker investigation was focusing on allegations of graft and influence peddling involving the vice president.
0:28.6	For Robert Kennedy, the more the committee focused on Johnson, the less they would dig into his brother's moral lapses.
0:35.6	A Justice Department lawyer was dispatched
0:38.4	to provide background information,
0:40.1	detrimental to Bobby Baker.
0:43.5	The lead investigator, Burkett Van Kirk,
0:45.6	was certain he knew what was behind the effort.
0:49.3	There was rampant speculation in the breath
0:52.9	that the Kennedys wanted to dump and Johnson.
0:57.0	So when this information detrimental to the vice president came across my death,
1:05.0	or over the transom and the door, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.
1:13.6	They wanted to get rid of the vice president. No question about that.
1:19.6	Was the motivation to dump Johnson or preserve Kennedy? Perhaps it was both.
1:26.6	By November 22nd, Robert Kennedy's efforts to preserve his brother's presidency, even if that meant hurting the vice president, had reached a critical stage.
1:36.3	That morning, as Johnson and Kennedy arrived in Dallas, a Maryland insurance agent, Don Reynolds, arrived on Capitol Hill to brief Republican staff members of the Rules Committee.
1:48.0	He promised proof that the vice president had misused his office for personal gain.
1:53.0	He showed the investigators invoices, documents, and diary entries he claimed implicated the vice president.
1:59.0	Don presented a good case. He could back it up. he claimed implicated the vice president.
2:01.6	John presented a good case.
2:03.6	He could back it up.
	...

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