Episode 286 Lyndon Johnson And The Box 13 Scandal AKA The Stolen 1948 Senate Primary Election

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

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is our second episode covering Lyndon Johnson himself and selected parts of his own background. In today's episode (which is part 2 of a two-part mini-series covering this event), we conclude the telling of the story of the stolen Democratic primary run off race in 1948 that occurred in Texas. The Box 13 scandal is a classic and blatant voter fraud case that propelled Lyndon Johnson ultimately to the Senate. And it revealed, on a national basis, the unbridled ambition of this man w...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to JFK in The Enduring Secret.
0:06.3	I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.
0:23.5	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast.
0:32.5	Today's episode is episode 286 and it's part two of a two-part mini series on the Box 13 scandal.
0:40.2	That's right, the voter fraud that occurred in the 1948 Senate runoff election that was held by the Democratic Party in Texas. Now, you've gotten a chance to hear part one, episode 285. And that was
0:47.3	exciting enough, but it was pretty much a lead-up. It set the stage for the real action in the story. Up to this point, you know that the fix
0:57.8	came in. The fraud occurred, and Johnson's apparent loss was reversed. But Coke Stevenson, his
1:05.2	opponent in the race, didn't stand down. And thank God he didn't because it makes for one heck of a story.
1:12.6	And this is the point at which we pivot to a complete reading of what happened next.
1:18.3	And it comes from the incredible little book, A Texan Looks at Lyndon, by Jay Evitz Haley.
1:24.9	And so, without further ado, let's listen to the rest of episode 286 of
1:31.1	JFK, The Enduring Secret. Where we left off in episode 285 is just where Governor Stevenson sent Kellis
1:52.8	Gerbell and Jim Gardner, two of his best campaign workers, down to Pars County to investigate.
2:04.6	They went by Laredo to pick up a guide who knew the land and its ropes and they were joined at San Diego on Monday by Governor Stevenson himself. By the way,
2:10.8	that's San Diego, Texas. Johnson's campaign manager, John Conley, who is now governor of Texas,
2:18.8	had beat them to it.
2:25.4	They went by Laredo to pick up a guide who knew the land in its ropes, and they were joined at San Diego, Texas on Monday by Governor Koch-Stevenson.
2:30.2	But when they called on par at his office, they found that Johnson's campaign manager,
2:34.9	John Conley, who was now governor of Texas at that moment, had beat them to it.
2:40.4	He had arrived the preceding day and was busily cementing the theft, historian Wantland would say.
2:47.9	Though Parr publicly stated that the runoff in his district was, and I quote,
2:52.6	as clean an election as had ever been held.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jeff Crudele, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jeff Crudele and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.