Means of Ascent (101 page)

Election Bureau announced
“complete”
returns:
HC
, Sept. 1;
FWS-T
, Sept. 2.
“Little doubt”
:
Bob Johnson, quoted in
HP
, Aug. 30.
“Consistently accurate”
:
HC
, Sept. 1.
“Should Johnson lose”
:
DMN
, Sept. 1.
“STEVENSON LEADS”
:
CCC-T, DMN
, Sept. 1.

“STEVENSON’S MARGIN FIRM”
:
DMN
, Sept. 2.

351:
At 7 p.m., an altered return, apparently due to election night confusion, arrived from Yoakum County in West Texas which showed Stevenson losing 126 votes, and his lead was cut to 255 votes, but a telephone call from Chambers County had already informed the Election Bureau that when the county’s official returns arrived the next day, they would show Johnson losing 96 votes, restoring Stevenson’s lead to 351.
“STEVENSON HOLDS”
:
Brownsville Herald
, Sept. 2.

“Good Senator”
:
DMN
editorial, Sept. 2.
Stevenson’s statement:
DMN, HP
, Sept. 2, 3.
Election seemed over:
FWS-T, DMN
, Sept. 2.

Precinct
13
change:
See following chapters.
Final tabulation:
Texas Almanac
, 1949–1950, p. 474.

SOURCES

Books, articles and documents:

Banks,
Money, Marbles, and Chalk;
Calvert,
Here Comes the Judge;
Dugger,
The Politician;
Jenkins and Frost, “I’m
Frank Hamer”;
Kahl,
Ballot Box 13;
Lynch,
Duke of Duval;
Matthews,
San Antonio Lawyer;
McKay and Faulk,
Texas After Spindietop;
Miller,
Lyndon; Texas Almanac
, 1949–50; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy;
Webb,
The
Texas Rangers
.

James M. Rowe, “The Mesquite Pendergast: George B. Parr—Second Duke of Duval” (unpublished manuscript), Ingleside, Tex., 1959–60; Edgar G. Shelton, “Political Conditions Among Texas Mexicans Along the Rio Grande” (master’s thesis), Austin, Tex., 1946.

Clyde Wantland, “The Story of George Parr’s Ballot Box 13,”
Texas Argus
, Apr., 1962 and Spring, 1964.

Stevenson v. Tyson, Johnson et al., Civil No. 1640, United States District Court, Northern District, Texas, Fort Worth, Sept. 21–22, 1948 (Davidson, District Judge). Referred to hereafter as “DC Hearing transcript.”

Oral Histories:

Robert Calvert, Josh H. Groce, Callan Graham, Vann M. Kennedy, J. J. Pickle.

Interviews:

Paul Bolton, Ernest J. Boyett, George R. Brown, Horace Busby, Robert Calvert, Edward A. Clark, John B. Connally, Kellis Dibrell, O. C. Fisher, D. B. Hardeman, Walter Jenkins, Sam Houston Johnson, Herman Jones, Luther E. Jones, Vann M. Kennedy, Joe M. Kilgore, William J. Lawson, Frank B. Lloyd, Wingate Lucas, George Mahon, Gerald C. Mann, Ernest Morgan, Robert W. Murphey, Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, Daniel Quill, James M. Rowe, Luis Salas, Emmett Shelton, E.
Babe Smith, Arthur Stehling, Coke Stevenson, Jr., Gerald L. Weatherly, Ralph Yarborough, Harold Young.

NOTES

(All dates 1948 unless otherwise indicated)

“A concentrated effort”
;
“The corrected votes”
:
Stevenson, Johnson quoted in
AA-S
, Sept. 4.
DMN
comment:
Editorial, Sept. 8.
Johnson’s broadcast:
AA-S, DMN
, Sept. 7.

Restated by Rather, Jenkins, Herring:
NYT
, Aug. 2, 1977.

Late returns in Johnson’s
1941
election:
Caro,
Path to Power
, pp. 736–40.
No countywide totals anywhere:
Texas Almanac
, p. 474.

“The first instance”
:
Stevenson, press release, Nov. 12; In a statement on Sept. 11
(DMN
, Sept. 12), Stevenson stated: “Much has been said by my opponent … about certain of those bloc voting counties having cast their votes for me in former elections.… This is the first time, however, that the returns have been amended several
days after the polls had closed, to the point of trying to control the election of a state official.”
More than a score:
Among them, Hardeman, Young, Mahon, Yarborough, L. E. Jones, Herman Jones, Lloyd, Smith, Lawson, Kilgore, Lucas, Fisher, Mann, Stehling, Morgan, Shelton, Rowe, Stevenson, Jr., Kennedy, Johnson, Quill, Weatherly interviews.
“Never”
:
Connally
interview.
“I never did know”
:
Clark interview. Typical of the opinion of informed observers is that of Gerald Weatherly. Weatherly, a Fort Worth attorney, was considered so expert on election contests in Texas that for twenty years he represented both George Parr and various members of the Guerra family in court battles over elections. “From my knowledge of these contests, and
in all the counties from Laredo to Corpus Christi, I would say that Johnson was not correct in saying this was par for the course. It was not usual.” The difference, he says, was in the “grossness” of the 1948 results in Box 13, “the two hundred names in different ink,” for example. A well-informed outside observer of Valley politics, reporter James M. Rowe of the
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
, who covered the Valley for more than twenty
years, wrote in his manuscript, “The Mesquite Pendergast” (p. 40), that “it was customary for the count in Duval County to be complete in almost any election, no matter how many candidates were listed on the ballot, within two or three hours after the polls closed.”
“The possible dangers”
:
Shelton, “Political Conditions,” pp. 125–26.
“Lyndon, I’ve been”
:
Caro,
Path to Power
, p. 739.

Stevenson’s filings;
Boyett, Murphey, Stevenson, Jr., interviews; Graham OH.

“Made us spread-eagle”
:
Tijerina, quoted in
San Antonio Express-News
, Aug. 7, 1977.

Graham’s youth in Junction; idolizing Stevenson:
Graham OH.
Stevenson’s faith in FBI;
“no badge or gun”
:
Dibrell, quoted in Miller, p. 127.
“A little uptight”
:
Graham OH; Graham, quoted in Miller, p. 127.

“Very clearly stated in the law”
;
“we cited”: Graham OH.
“About 200 tallies from the end”
:
Brownlee, DC Hearing transcript, p. 15.
Adams had
“snuck in”
:
Graham OH.
He had noticed:
Adams, DC Hearing transcript, Sept. 21, p. 10. Also see Adams quoted in Dugger, p. 331.
“Intimidated”
:
Graham OH.

“Well, I’ll just go”
:
Stevenson, quoted in Dugger, p. 330; Boyett, Stevenson, Jr., interviews.

Hamer biography:
Jenkins and Frost,
I’m Frank Hamer
, p. 42; Kahl,
Ballot Box 13
, pp. 118–28; Webb,
The Texas Rangers
, pp. 519–46.
“Stern and unremitting”
:
Kahl, p. 119.
“Yes,
sir!
”
:
Jenkins and Frost, p. 42; Webb, p. 527.
“Calmly observed”
:
The description of this incident is from Kahl, p. 119.
“Most fearless”
:
Webb, quoted in Jenkins and Frost, p. 281.
“It’s embarrassing”
:
Jenkins and Frost, p. 79.
“Hate to bust a cap”
:
Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” p. 29.
Dock strike:
Jenkins and Frost, p. 262; Kahl, p. 120.

Scene in Alice:
Described in Jenkins and Frost, p. 277; article in
San Antonio Express-News
, Aug. 7, 1977, based on interviews with, among others, Dibrell and Gardner; and in detail by Clyde Wantland, a writer close to Stevenson and his aides, in
Texas Argus
, Spring, 1964. Also see Dugger, pp. 330, 457, and Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” pp. 29, 30. Dibrell, quoted in Miller, p. 128; Dibrell, Lloyd, Rowe, Salas, Stevenson,
Jr., interviews. Some of these descriptions differ from each other in some details.
“He appeared to be”
:
Dibrell, quoted in Miller, p. 128.
“I was being deprived”
:
Stevenson, quoted in Kahl, p. 131.
“Like
a glacier”
:
Rowe interview.

Scene at bank:
Brownlee, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 14–16; Gardner, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 41–45; Dibrell, quoted in Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” pp. 29–30; Dibrell, Rowe interviews.
Same ink; same handwriting; alphabetical order:
Adams, DC Hearing transcript, p. 10; Brownlee, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 15–16; Gardner, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 32–33; Groce, DC Hearing transcript, p.
45; Dibrell, Rowe, Salas interviews; Graham OH; Dibrell, quoted in Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” pp. 29–31. In a speech later on, Groce, Stevenson’s attorney, said: “According to the sworn testimony of witnesses, the names of the first 841 voters on the list were written in black ink, but the remainder were written in blue ink.…”He also said, “Most of the names on the poll list … run in alphabetical order
after voter 841.” Dibrell told Rowe he, too, had seen the poll list at the bank, and had seen that “the last 200 names” were in alphabetical order. “Also, the last 200 names were made with the same colored ink and in the same handwriting, whereas the earlier names in the poll list which had been kept on election day were written by different individuals and in different colored ink.”
Changing the 7 to a 9:
Gardner, DC Hearing
transcript, pp. 42, 43, 44.

“People live longer”
:
Dibrell, quoted in
San Antonio Express-News
.
Soliz affidavit:
DC Hearing transcript, p. 34.
Cerda not in Jim Wells County:
Cerda, DC Hearing transcript, pp. 27–30.
Three
“voters”
dead:
Lynch, p. 57;
Kahl, p. 174. An article in the
San Antonio Express-News
, Aug. 7, 1977, based on interviews with, among others, Dibrell and Gardner, states that the two attorneys “also discovered the names of three people on the list who had been permanent residents in a city cemetery for many years.” Dibrell, in an interview, confirms that three “dead” voters were found on the list at the time of that first, hurried inspection.

“A small army”
; Stevenson’s affidavit:
CCC-T
, Sept.
H
.
Meeting of the Jim Wells Democratic Executive Committee;
“I am confident”
:
DMN
, Sept. 12.
Committee’s resolution:
Copy signed by H. L. Poole and Adams, Sept. 9, to Vann M. Kennedy;
HC
, Sept. 9; CCC, Sept. 11.
It is
“expected”
:
AA-S
, Sept. 11.

“With proof”
:
Stevenson, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 13.
“SENATE RACE”
:
HP
, Sept. 10.
“SPOTLIGHT TURNS”
:
CCC-T
, Sept. 14.
“Voting Precinct 13
”: CCC-T, Sept. 11.
“All of a sudden”
:
Rowe interview.
“The Duke Delivers”
:
Time
, Sept. 27.
“
200 VOTES GIVEN
”
:
HC
, Sept. 9.

Democratic Convention; Influence of national politics:
Stuart Long, quoted in Miller, p. 130. Dugger, pp. 332–33; Banks, pp. 92–93; Calvert, pp. 120–29; Kahl, pp. 137–56; Miller, pp. 129–30;
AA-S, FWS-T, DMN, DT-H, HP, HC
, Sept. 12–16;
State Observer
, Sept.–Oct.; Clark, Connally, Boyett, Kennedy, Jenkins, Oltorf, Brown interviews; Groce, Calvert, Kennedy, Pickle OHs.

“Johnson was interested”
:
Eckhardt, quoted in Dugger, p. 333.
“Connived”
:
Eckhardt, quoted in Robert Sherrill, “Texan vs. Big Oil,”
NYT Magazine
, Oct. 12, 1980.

“Strangely silent”
:
Johnson, quoted in
DMN
, Sept. 7.
Dallas changes:
DMN
, Aug. 29-Sept. 5, Sept. 14; Kahl, p. 108.
“Corrected that error”
:
DMN
, Sept. 5.
And see Dugger, p. 459.
Voting patterns in three big cities:
DMN, FWS-T, HP, HC
, Aug. 29–30;
State Observer
, Sept. 13.
River Oaks Box:
State Observer
, Sept. 13.
Brown County contest:
DMN
, Sept. 2; Kahl, p. 108.
Kenedy County vote; No comparison:
Texas Almanac
, p. 474.

“Home turf”
;
“Loyal supporter”
:
Lynch, p. 63. Johnson’s affidavit:
AA-S, DMN, CCC-T
, Sept. 12. Archer’s order: Telegram, Helen Sellers, Clerk of the District Court of Travis County, to M. L. Adams, undated, in author’s possession.
“Amazed and angered”
:
Kahl, pp. 130–31. An “obvious attempt”: Stevenson, quoted in
DMN
, Sept. 12. And see Small, quoted in
CCC-T
, Sept. 15.
“Even if it was stolen”
:
Adams, quoted in Dugger, p. 331. “Of course”: Poole, quoted in
DMN
, Sept.
12. Poole also said that he was convinced the returns from Box 13 were fraudulent. Poole expressed his outrage at Archer’s order, however, likening political conditions in the Valley to those in Russia, asking “help from the citizens of Texas who live outside the Iron Curtain to give us back our franchise.” He said, “I am confident there are more than 200 people shown as voting who did not vote. I helped gather the evidence and obtain affidavits from more
than 200 such people.” Other members of the committee felt that if they were prevented from investigating the results themselves, they should ask the United States Senate to do so
(CCC-T, HP
, Sept. 13).
Not until Monday morning:
Broeter, quoted in
DMN
, Sept. 12.