Investigations: A Senator’s Insurance

Did Walter Jenkins know of any arrangements whereby Don B. Reynolds, a business sidekick of Bobby Baker’s, bought $1,208 in advertising on Lady Bird Johnson’s Austin TV station in return for selling two $100,000 insurance policies on Lyndon Johnson’s life?

The answer, in a sworn affidavit, was a flat no—but that was back on Dec. 16, 1963, when Jenkins was a top White House aide. Last week Jenkins answered again—and this time his no was a lot less than flat. He had meant on that other occasion that he had not known “of the specifics for the purchase of advertising.” But “I did know Mr. Reynolds planned to purchase advertising time, and I have never asserted the contrary.”

“No Secret.” As before, Jenkins did not appear in person before the Senate Rules Committee, which is investigating the Bobby Baker case. He left the White House last October, after being arrested on a morals charge, and his lawyer and two psychiatrists testified that his appearance before the committee would cause such a strain as to endanger his health. Instead, Jenkins replied on paper, but under oath, to 40 written questions from the committee.

In late 1956 or early 1957, Jenkins recalled, he was treasurer of the LBJ Co., which owned the television station, and “I was seeking an insurance company from which insurance on the life of the then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson might be purchased. I made no secret of this search, and I’m confident that Robert G. Baker knew of it, either from me or indirectly. Mr. Baker told me that he knew Don Reynolds, who represented a company which was beginning to specialize in insurance for former heart attack patients. Mr. Baker did not tell me that he had any interest in Mr. Reynolds’ business.”

Baker arranged a meeting between Jenkins and Reynolds, and Jenkins later talked to Baker several times about the proposed insurance. But then Jenkins “received word from the LBJ Co. that it would not be necessary to pursue the matter further because a local agent in Austin had become interested in selling the policies and that he not only had been an advertiser on the radio and television stations for many years, but also had always related the amount of his advertising to the amount of his business done with the station.” This local agent, it turned out, was Huff Baines, a cousin of Lyndon Johnson’s.

Meeting the Competition. Jenkins “communicated this information to Mr. Reynolds,” and presumably was pleased to hear “that Mr. Reynolds wished very much to sell the policies and would also like to purchase advertising time in the event he sold them.” Jenkins studied Reynolds’ “offer to meet the competition,” and “it was decided to accept the Reynolds offer.”

Jenkins insisted that at no time did he “pressure” Reynolds to buy the television time. But in any event, he certainly got the idea across.