Barr McClellan
Encyclopedia
Oliver Barr McClellan, entrepreneur, counsel and author, born in 1939 in Cuero (aka Rawhide), Texas, became widely known by his 2003 book Blood, Money & Power on the Kennedy assassination. He has also written on globalization.
's presidential bid. After qualifying as a lawyer in 1964, he went to work for the administration of Kennedy's successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson
. Initially he was attorney-clerk for the National Labor Relations Board
; soon after, he became attorney for a Commissioner of the Federal Power Commission
.
In 1966 McClellan joined the legal firm of Clark, Thomas, Harris, Denius and Winters, based in Austin
. At that time the firm was run by the partners Edward Clark
, Sam Winters, Don Thomas, Martin Harris
and Frank Denius. The firm was closely associated with Lyndon B. Johnson
and the Democratic Party
in Texas. McClellan's work included advising on political strategy, campaign contributions, media issues, and labor disputes. McClellan was a registered lobbyist for several major Texas energy companies. His main focus was utility regulation and oil and gas litigation. He was lead counsel in setting natural gas rates for the Rocky Mountain Area. He also chaired the industry committee setting Railroad Commission administrative procedures. He obtained a Supreme Court
ruling to protect San Antonio parklands from freeways. McClellan was lead counsel in a proceeding to consolidate oilfields over a five county area in North Texas. In addition, he was host for the Austin TV series, "The Law and You."
In 1972, McClellan became a full partner in the firm but later resigned from the firm after a dispute with Clark and Leon Jaworski over representing a client in direct conflict with existing clients. After one year as University Attorney, McClellan established his own law firm in 1977. Some of McClellan's cases included litigation for exploding Ford Pinto
s, tobacco
-caused expenses on the health care system and the licensing and regulation of cell phones.
Barr McClellan was convicted of forgery in 1982, for which criminal charges were dismissed in 1992.
McClellan's first wife was former Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Carole Keeton Strayhorn
. He is the father of Scott McClellan
, former White House press secretary
, and Mark McClellan
, former Food and Drug Administration
Commissioner and former director of Medicare
for the George W. Bush
administration* http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/01/18/fdas_economist_in_chief/ Two other sons, Dudley McClellan and Bradley McClellan, are attorneys in Austin, Texas. McClellan is also related to Union General George McClellan, the Democrat's presidential candidate in 1864, and to George B. McClellan, New York City Mayor, 1903-07.
McClellan and his wife Cecile live in Gulfport, Mississippi
. The McClellans are also business consultants with offices in New York City. He is rewriting a novel on the death penalty, and is producing a play first presented in Houston in 1992 plus a new one (as promised) for Cecile, on happiness.
and Edward Clark
were involved in the planning and cover-up of the Kennedy assassination. McClellan also named Malcolm Wallace as one of the assassins. The book includes allegations surrounding the theft of the 1948 Senate election, an Austin murder by Wallace, belated grand jury action regarding Johnson in another murder by Wallace, and what happened on the Sixth Floor in Dallas. The killing of Kennedy, McClellan alleges, was paid for by oil millionaires such as Clint Murchison, Sr.
and H. L. Hunt
. McClellan purports that Clark got $6 million for this work, including a $2 million bonus. McClellan notes the conspiracy background disclosed in the book shows how some power lawyers abuse the legal and political systems. Extensive citations are in the book. French journalist William Reymond
published a book the same year in which he claims that Cliff Carter and Malcolm "Mac" Wallace were key to helping plot the murder of JFK. McClellan's book has been translated into Japanese. McClellan is completing the sequel to the first book, disclosing the continuing cover-up, plus a book with new insights into the Kennedy family.
After McClellan made his allegations on the History Channel on November 18, 2003 (in "The Guilty Men," part 9 of "The Men Who Killed Kennedy"), former presidents Gerald Ford
and Jimmy Carter
protested, and former LBJ staffers Bill Moyers
and Jack Valenti
asked the History Channel to investigate the charges. On April 2, 2004, after having three historians examine the charges, the History Channel issued a press release stating that the claim of LBJ's complicity "is entirely unfounded and does not hold up to scrutiny. ... [the show] fell short of the high standards that the network sets for itself. The History Channel apologizes to its viewers and to Mrs. [Lady Bird] Johnson and her family for airing the show."
In addition to disclosing the many motivations for Johnson, McClellan states that the assassination of Kennedy allowed the oil depletion allowance to be kept at 27.5 percent. It remained unchanged during the Johnson presidency. According to McClellan this resulted in a saving of over 100 million dollars to the American oil industry. During President Richard M. Nixon's term, in 1970, it dropped to 15 percent.
Life & Career
Barr McClellan in 1944-1951 lived in Maracaibo, where he learned Spanish, spent time in the oilfield swamps and learned soccer. He also survived an airline crash in Mexico City in 1946. He graduated from Jefferson High School in San Antonio in 1957 (class president, graduation speaker), then enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin where he won the O.Henry and William Jennings Bryan literary awards. He graduated with honors, BA, with special honors in international studies, 1961, JD, 1964. As a student McClellan was an active supporter of Senator John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's presidential bid. After qualifying as a lawyer in 1964, he went to work for the administration of Kennedy's successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. Initially he was attorney-clerk for the National Labor Relations Board
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...
; soon after, he became attorney for a Commissioner of the Federal Power Commission
Federal Power Commission
The Federal Power Commission was an independent commission of the United States government, originally organized on June 23, 1930, with five members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate...
.
In 1966 McClellan joined the legal firm of Clark, Thomas, Harris, Denius and Winters, based in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. At that time the firm was run by the partners Edward Clark
Edward Clark (diplomat)
Edward Aubrey Clark served as the United States Ambassador to Australia from 1965 to 1968. Mr. Ed., as he was known to those who worked with him, was a taciturn man with a slight lisp who was able by position and hard work to influence both local and national policy.-Notes:...
, Sam Winters, Don Thomas, Martin Harris
Martin Harris
Martin Harris was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who underwrote the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated.- Early life...
and Frank Denius. The firm was closely associated with Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in Texas. McClellan's work included advising on political strategy, campaign contributions, media issues, and labor disputes. McClellan was a registered lobbyist for several major Texas energy companies. His main focus was utility regulation and oil and gas litigation. He was lead counsel in setting natural gas rates for the Rocky Mountain Area. He also chaired the industry committee setting Railroad Commission administrative procedures. He obtained a Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling to protect San Antonio parklands from freeways. McClellan was lead counsel in a proceeding to consolidate oilfields over a five county area in North Texas. In addition, he was host for the Austin TV series, "The Law and You."
In 1972, McClellan became a full partner in the firm but later resigned from the firm after a dispute with Clark and Leon Jaworski over representing a client in direct conflict with existing clients. After one year as University Attorney, McClellan established his own law firm in 1977. Some of McClellan's cases included litigation for exploding Ford Pinto
Ford Pinto
The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for the model years 1971–1980. The car's name derives from the Pinto horse. Initially offered as a two-door sedan, Ford offered "Runabout" hatchback and wagon models the following year, competing in the U.S. market with the AMC...
s, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
-caused expenses on the health care system and the licensing and regulation of cell phones.
Barr McClellan was convicted of forgery in 1982, for which criminal charges were dismissed in 1992.
McClellan's first wife was former Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is an executive branch position created by the Texas Constitution. As with nearly every other executive branch head, the Comptroller is popularly elected every four years concurrently with the Governor and the other elected executive branch positions...
Carole Keeton Strayhorn
Carole Keeton Strayhorn
Carole Keeton Strayhorn is the former Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts....
. He is the father of Scott McClellan
Scott McClellan
Scott McClellan is a former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, and author of a controversial No. 1 New York Times bestseller about the Bush Administration titled What Happened. He replaced Ari Fleischer as press secretary in July 2003 and served until May 10, 2006...
, former White House press secretary
White House Press Secretary
The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
, and Mark McClellan
Mark McClellan
Mark Barr McClellan is currently the Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Leonard D. Schaeffer Director's Chair in Health Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. McClellan served as Commissioner of the United States...
, former Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
Commissioner and former director of Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
for the George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
administration* http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/01/18/fdas_economist_in_chief/ Two other sons, Dudley McClellan and Bradley McClellan, are attorneys in Austin, Texas. McClellan is also related to Union General George McClellan, the Democrat's presidential candidate in 1864, and to George B. McClellan, New York City Mayor, 1903-07.
McClellan and his wife Cecile live in Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
. The McClellans are also business consultants with offices in New York City. He is rewriting a novel on the death penalty, and is producing a play first presented in Houston in 1992 plus a new one (as promised) for Cecile, on happiness.
John F. Kennedy assassination
McClellan published Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK, which became a best-seller in November 2003. In the book McClellan presents the theory that Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and Edward Clark
Edward Clark (diplomat)
Edward Aubrey Clark served as the United States Ambassador to Australia from 1965 to 1968. Mr. Ed., as he was known to those who worked with him, was a taciturn man with a slight lisp who was able by position and hard work to influence both local and national policy.-Notes:...
were involved in the planning and cover-up of the Kennedy assassination. McClellan also named Malcolm Wallace as one of the assassins. The book includes allegations surrounding the theft of the 1948 Senate election, an Austin murder by Wallace, belated grand jury action regarding Johnson in another murder by Wallace, and what happened on the Sixth Floor in Dallas. The killing of Kennedy, McClellan alleges, was paid for by oil millionaires such as Clint Murchison, Sr.
Clint Murchison, Sr.
Clinton Williams Murchison, Sr. , was a noted Texas-based oil magnate and political operative. He was also the father of Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, Jr..-Personal:...
and H. L. Hunt
H. L. Hunt
Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. , known throughout his life as "H. L. Hunt," was a Texas oil tycoon and conservative activist. He built one of the world's largest fortunes by trading poker winnings for oil rights, ultimately securing title to much of the East Texas Oil Field, one of the world's very...
. McClellan purports that Clark got $6 million for this work, including a $2 million bonus. McClellan notes the conspiracy background disclosed in the book shows how some power lawyers abuse the legal and political systems. Extensive citations are in the book. French journalist William Reymond
William Reymond
William Reymond is a French writer who is famous in Europe and Canada for publishing the detailed account of Billie Sol Estes on the Kennedy assassination. Author of JFK : Le Dernier Témoin, he claims that Cliff Carter and Malcolm "Mac" Wallace were key to helping plot the murder of the US President...
published a book the same year in which he claims that Cliff Carter and Malcolm "Mac" Wallace were key to helping plot the murder of JFK. McClellan's book has been translated into Japanese. McClellan is completing the sequel to the first book, disclosing the continuing cover-up, plus a book with new insights into the Kennedy family.
After McClellan made his allegations on the History Channel on November 18, 2003 (in "The Guilty Men," part 9 of "The Men Who Killed Kennedy"), former presidents Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
and Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
protested, and former LBJ staffers Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
and Jack Valenti
Jack Valenti
Jack Joseph Valenti was a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38-year tenure in the MPAA, he created the MPAA film rating system, and he was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world...
asked the History Channel to investigate the charges. On April 2, 2004, after having three historians examine the charges, the History Channel issued a press release stating that the claim of LBJ's complicity "is entirely unfounded and does not hold up to scrutiny. ... [the show] fell short of the high standards that the network sets for itself. The History Channel apologizes to its viewers and to Mrs. [Lady Bird] Johnson and her family for airing the show."
In addition to disclosing the many motivations for Johnson, McClellan states that the assassination of Kennedy allowed the oil depletion allowance to be kept at 27.5 percent. It remained unchanged during the Johnson presidency. According to McClellan this resulted in a saving of over 100 million dollars to the American oil industry. During President Richard M. Nixon's term, in 1970, it dropped to 15 percent.
Globalization
McClellan also wrote Made in the USA: Global Greed, Bad Tax Laws and The Exportation of America's Future published in June 2010 by Hannover House. Taking a positive look at the greatest generations since 1945, McClellan notes Pax Americana was in place by 1990. He traces the subsequent collapse of the economy to government-induced programs for an unacceptable imbalance of trade, declining family income, unworkable mortgages, high prices at the pump, and collapsing billfolds forcing homeowners to walk away from their homes. Banks also collapsed and then the economy collapsed. This tragedy for individuals and families is not acceptable; however, after two years, the economy has not recovered and jobs have not been available. Recommending initiatives to buy America with strong support for private enterprise, McClellan says open trade must replace free trade in the new paradigm of ten common markets. The budget and trade deficits will be corrected by encouraging American free enterprise. Extensive citations are in the book. Emphasizing the human side, the book shows the impact on individuals from economic policies.Books
- Blood, Money & Power, Hannover House, 2003, ISBN 0-9637846-2-5.
- Made in the USA: Global Greed, Bad Tax Laws and The Exportation of America's Future, Hannover House, 2010.