Justification For Killing

by Larry Edward Hunt

  Forrest jumped in at this time. “What’s my job Grandpa?”

  “Forrest, I believe you should stay here and help Spook and Tinker.”

  “What? No, Grandpa!! No, I want a part in the mission too!”

  “Forrest, honestly I believe you could be more helpful here with Spook and Tinker.”

  “I could check out Lyndon Johnson’s involvement. I’ve been researching everything I could find on President Johnson, I have found some information but it’s never been proven, that he had a meeting at an estate owned by a Dallas oilman, Clint Murdock. The Murdock mansion is located just on the outskirts of north Dallas. The meeting was the night before the assassination with a bunch of big shot political bigwigs. From what I have read he might have even been involved in planning the shooting of Kennedy. Please, let me go with you and look into it.”

  “Forrest you do not know how much danger you are talking about? I don’t want to put you in that type of situation. If they had a hand in killing Kennedy, they would not think twice about killing you too!”

  “Wait a minute!! If they killed me, then I wouldn’t be here today, right?”

  “You forget Forrest – that meeting took place before the un-successful attempt on President Kennedy’s live, in another Parallel Universe. Yes, Forrest, you could have been killed in an alternate Parallel Universe.

  “You’re right, Grandpa, I know you are always looking after our best interests, so I’ll stay here, and help Spook and Tinker. Yep, stay here and help Spook and Tinker. That’s what I’ll do. Help... Yeah I’ll help out.” Forrest said sarcastically, but the wheels inside his head were turning.

  The Captain thought, what’s he up to? That was too easy. When he’s after something he doesn’t surrender that quickly!! Determined to give Forrest more thought later he said, “Okay, it is getting late and I know everyone has had enough for today. What about continuing this planning tomorrow? How about 9 a.m., is that good with everyone? Fine, then I’ll see you all tomorrow morning... have a good evening.”

  The time was 5:20 p.m., Monday, December 5, 2012.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  _________________________________________________________________

  FORREST AND ‘THE PLAN’

  By the time the Captain said, “Forrest, I believe you should stay here...” Forrest had already started formulating his ‘Plan’.

  What was Forrest’s ‘Plan’? To be honest, at that precise moment he didn’t know either, it was a more ‘flying by the seat of his pants type plan’. Since the Captain was not going to allow Forrest to go with them to Dallas, Forrest had to figure out his own way to get there himself. There was only one way – Pegasus!!

  Forrest was ‘fit to be tied’ as the meeting broke up and everyone was leaving. He was just mad... no, he was furious with his Grandpa. The gears in his head were spinning like a top. He had to have a plan – not just any old plan – he had to have ‘The Plan’. He knew he had to use Pegasus, but that was all he had... that wasn’t much. He had to have more. He had to think! Think!

  Forrest started going over the obstacles to using the time-traveling machine - Pegasus. At the top of the list was access. The machine was located in the subbasement confines of SCAR headquarters, three stories down from street level, so breaking in was obviously out of the question. The only method to gain access to the laboratory was through the elevator. The staircase was locked with steel bars at the basement, and the security guard was the only person with the key. The elevator required authorized personnel have an official “access” card that must be swiped through the card reader and a four-digit code was required to be correctly entered at the same time. Forrest didn’t have a card and surely did not know the secret four-digit code. This card is only allotted to the personnel who work in the lab, and he did not know any of them well enough to bribe, threaten or coerce them into letting him use theirs. He had to put his brain to work.

  The last to leave the conference room Forrest walked across the outer office. He was still steaming when Krista, his mother, called to him from her office, “Forrest you are not going to leave without saying ‘bye’, are you?”

  Continuing to walk, he was oblivious to her question.

  “Forrest!”

  His reverie was snapped. He turned and walked over to her office door, “Sorry, Mom, I guess my mind was elsewhere – I was absorbed in this next mission, trying to figure out how I can contribute.”

  Flash! He had the beginning of a plan!! He had forgotten, not only did the people working in the lab have access cards so did Grandpa, Spook, Tinker, Sam Lin, Si Lei AND his Mom!!

  Forrest knew his Mom kept all her credit cards, and the... the access card in her wallet and the wallet always stayed in her purse, but her purse never left her sight. Hmmm, maybe this wasn’t as good a plan as he had originally envisioned.

  “Come into my office Forrest, we haven’t talked for quite a while.” Opportunity!

  “Yeah, okay Mom,” Forrest said walking across the soft, close weave carpet of her office. Flopping down on one of her large leather chairs, she asked how he had been doing. Back and forth they went with the ‘I’m okay’. ‘How about you?’ ‘Am I seeing anyone?’ You know the typical mother and son question and answer session. These sessions are more suited for the mother to quiz the son on his life than it is for the son to talk to his mother, but he saw a golden opportunity in this particular little chit chat.

  His Mom had removed her wallet from her purse and had the wallet lying on the desk in front of her. He had to get her away from her desk. Forrest could see Part 1 of ‘The Plan’ beginning to shape up. If he played his cards right, he could get the access card from the wallet. She never went downstairs to the laboratory, so she would not miss it, at least not until Forrest had accomplished ‘The Plan’. At a break in the interrogation, he asked his Mom if she might have something cold to drink. He complained about having to sit in that conference room all afternoon with nothing but water to drink. Forrest tried to sound as pitiful as possible. Moms are suckers for pitiful sons.

  It worked; sons know how to play moms. She had a fully stocked office bar she used to entertain Grandpa’s guests before they were allowed to enter the ‘Inner Sanctum’. On request by Forrest, she walked to the bar opening the frig door, and asked, “What is your pleasure?” Forrest named some obscure soda he had heard at one time or another, knowing full well she would not have that particular brand, but she looked through the bottles and cans anyway. While she had her head buried deep within the refrigerator’s innards, he quickly arose from his chair and quietly reached for her wallet. The access card was in the first credit card slot. He quickly slipped it out of its secure resting place, and silently replaced the wallet back in its previous spot on the desk and soundlessly slipped back into his chair. “I’m sorry Forrest, I don’t seem to have that type soda,” his Mom said peeking out from behind the mini-frig door.

  “That’s fine Mom, anything you have will be okay,” he didn’t care if she brought water now - he had the card. Forrest loved it when a plan came together. What was he thinking? Yes, he might have the card, but he didn’t know the access code needed to gain entrance to the lab!! He didn’t have a plan all he had was the ‘want’ to have a plan. Forrest’s Mom, apologizing, handed him a Coke, and for the next few minutes, they chatted amicably until Forrest excused himself with the pretense he had to pick-up some clothes before the dry-cleaner closed.

  On the elevator headed to the ground floor, Forrest gazed intently at the little card slot on the elevator wall next to the buttons controlling the floor destination. Thinking to himself all he had to do was slide the card, currently in his pocket, through the narrow opening and punch in four random numbers on the keypad he could arrive at the basement laboratory. No guard would be on duty – the lab closed at five p.m. sharp. Only people with access cards could get in, so no security other than this piece of thin plastic was necessary, or so Captain Scarburg and the others thought. They never figure
d they needed security from one of their own. They never thought about Forrest and ‘The Plan’.

  The drive back to his apartment was trancelike. He did not even remember driving out of SCAR’s parking lot. His mind was racing. How could he get back into the building? All he had to do was tell the guard at the main entrance door he had forgotten something... some work, his computer... his jacket... he would think of something when the time came. Right now he had to come up with the access code.

  Forrest opened his apartment door and went straight to his computer. He typed in Studies Concerning Antiquated Records, and the web search popped up a number of SCAR web sites. He had remembered a security person or maybe it was an FBI guy, he couldn’t remember whom, but one of them said most people use something familiar when making up a code or even a combination to a safe. They might use their birthday or the birthday of their wife or husband (as the case may be), children or grandchildren. He said about 80% of the time he could decipher the combination or code number by using this method. What the heck, Forrest decided he had nothing to lose.

  First he looked up Grandpa’s birthday September 7, 1943. Now he thought, what can he make out of those numbers. September is the 9th month, okay there’s a nine. Well the 7 is obvious, but 1943 has four numbers, and he only needed two more. Which two? He went with ‘43’. There now, he had 9...7...4...3... okay, the next was Baba, then Spook and Tinker. On and on he went right on down the list with everyone, he could think of in the SCAR facility. After each person’s name, he wrote a four-digit number corresponding to his or her birthday.

  This operation consumed the better part of two hours. When he finished he had almost two pages of numbers, but what if Grandpa didn’t use birthdays what else could he have used to program the access code? What about street addresses of their homes? Again he wasted another two hours and had a couple more pages of code numbers. What if the four-digit code isn’t a street address, he thought. Suddenly he stopped... this is crazy... he looked at the pages of numbers he had already assembled... he’ll be in that elevator all night just trying those numbers. Now he reasoned he would go back to SCAR headquarters, with the list he had, get past the entrance guard, enter the elevator and start playing with the numbers and see what happened. If none of those numbers worked then he would come back to his apartment and start with Plan B, whatever ‘B’ was, shoot he hadn’t even come up with a good ‘A’ yet.

  The time was 12:05 a.m., Tuesday, December 6, 2012.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  OLIVE MARIE, ARE YOU CRAZY?

  Grabbing the manila folder full of information he had amassed on Lyndon Johnson, Forrest slipped on his jacket, attached his SCAR identification badge, and was about to open the door and go downstairs to his car. Reaching for the apartment’s doorknob, he was startled by a knock on his door. Was he hearing correctly? Was that actually a knock? Before he could take a look out the small security peephole, another rasp was heard coming from the other side of the door. This time the knock was louder and more pronounced than the first. What the... he thought peeping out the hole into the hallway. “What...” he said opening the door. “Olive Marie!! What are you doing here? And at this time of night?”

  Without as much as a how-do-you-do, she bolted into his apartment. “You’re up to something Robert Scarburg. I know you; I saw that look in your eye when Grandpa said you couldn’t go to Texas. You’re going to Texas, isn’t that right? What’s our plan?”

  “Our plan? Our plan? YOU don’t have a plan!!”

  “Ah ha!! Got you!! But YOU DO have a plan, and I want in on it. Grandpa wouldn’t let me go to Texas either. Now tell me. Let me have it. What is OUR plan? I want to go too! Give me our plan!”

  “Olive Marie, are you crazy? Even if I did have a plan I wouldn’t tell you. Everyone would know about ‘my plan’ in five minutes.”

  “There, you said it again. You DO have a plan. If I’m not in on it, five minutes will be too long. I will tell Grandpa you are up to something and then see where you will be! This isn’t a threat Forrest Scarburg... I want in!! Or else!!”

  “I’m not saying yes, and I’m not saying no, take off your coat and sit down, and I’ll fill you in on my ‘Plan’, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, promise?”

  For the next few minutes, he explained to Olive Marie how he slipped the access card from Krista’s purse. He showed her the pages of notes he had written trying to figure out the four-number access code to use in the elevator. He explained the codes were necessary so he could gain entry to the laboratory where Pegasus was ‘parked’!”

  “Gain access to Pegasus! What in the world for?” She said listening intently to Forrest’s every word. Only occasionally she would grunt ‘Un huh’ or ‘Hmmm’ as Forrest explained how he was going back to Dallas to the Clint Murdock estate. He explained how it had been reported that Vice President Johnson attended a party at the Murdock mansion the night before the Kennedy Assassination along with other Washington bigwigs. The rumor was they were planning the assassination of President Kennedy the following day. Forrest had discovered this information and wanted personally to validate who had attended the party.

  This was as a convenient a time as any for Forrest to explain to his sister the story about Clint Murdock, whom he was and how Murdock was connected to Lyndon Johnson.

  “Get comfortable Olive and I will explain it all to you.” He began telling the entire chronicle to Olive Marie.

  The story began with a woman by the name of Margaret White.

  MARGARET WHITE

  Who was Margaret White? Ms. White said she was the girlfriend of President Lyndon Johnson. It sounded like a fabrication, but what can anyone say, it was her story as she told it to a TV reporter for the program, ‘Who Had An Affair’.

  Murmurings had begun after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Lyndon Johnson might have been involved. The gossip concerned a man by the name of Clint Murdock and Lyndon Johnson. Ms. White stated she had been invited to a party - a party given at the mansion of a Texas millionaire named Clinton Murdock. Her exposé of Lyndon Johnson began with that party she said. A party at the Murdock estate, would not, in and of itself, be worthy of a mention. They had the reputation of throwing lavish parties all the time; however something was different about this particular party she was so eager to tell about. What made this evening unique? Unique enough that later Ms. White would recall specific events that happened that eventful November night. What night? Oh, nothing special about that night other than it was only the night before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, that’s all! Thursday, November 21, 1963.

  CLINT MURDOCK

  Before Forrest continued with Margaret White’s story, he guessed it wouldn’t hurt to give Olive Marie a little background on Clint Murdock since he did play a crucial part in Ms. White’s tale.

  Forrest explained that Clinton Murdock, Jr was born in Dallas, Texas, on May 10, 1925. His father had made a fortune from real estate, land development, railroads, and especially oil. Clint was well educated with a degree from the University of Texas in a field of study concerning oil and oil exploration. Forrest, at the moment, could not remember the exact discipline of Murdock’s college major, but he believed Clint also had an advanced degree from some university back east, Harvard, Yale or another of those Ivy League schools.

  Murdock’s father passed away in 1961. At this time, Clinton, his brother and younger sister inherited the entire Murdock family fortune. The headquarters of the Murdock Empire was located in Dallas. Clint and his siblings now owned the Techno Manufacturing Company, Columbia Construction, the ‘Texas Hunting & Fishing’ magazine, Murdock Publishing Company and MurCo Oil.

  In the late 1940s, Murdock Sr and his close friend, another Texas oil mogul, Keith Bales met quite by accident, the Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover. A friendship developed that lasted for years. In fact, it was claimed Hoover was deeply invested in the MurCo Oil Company.

  Another startling fact
: Murdock had ties with the Mafia. In the mid ‘50s the Senate Select Committee on Criminal Affairs discovered Carlos Mancini, the head of the crime family out of New Orleans, owned almost forty percent of the MurCo Oil Company. They also looked into allegations that Murdock Sr had close financial ties with Johnny Russolli. Russolli reportedly was head of the Hollywood crime syndicate.

  Later, one Senator on a subcommittee of the Criminal Affairs Committee claimed, "Murdock had J. Edgar Hoover in his back pocket. People, with plenty of money, seem to always ‘invest’ their money on law enforcement officials. To insure their interests are protected, they look for officials in high places to help them.” Hoover was the poster boy for the law and order in this country and made it a lifetime goal to wage war with mobsters, gangsters and the like, so it was a feather in Murdock’s hat to let it be known Hoover was his friend. That's why men like Murdock made it their business to drop Hoover’s name in their conversation every chance they got. If the head of the country’s FBI is your buddy, you can get away with a lot of things. Things some might say are on the hazy side of legal.

  Murdock developed extreme right-wing political opinions and along with some of his close friends, supported extreme groups like the ‘Society for the America Way’. Murdock also donated money to a number of candidates for congress with anticommunist campaigns. Also, it was reported Murdock was also a quick source of fast money for the American Nazi Party, and its leader, Lawrence Honeywell.

  Also in the early ‘50s, Murdock joined forces with some of his wealthy friends to gain control of the Pennsylvania Southern Railroad. This involved buying 650,000 shares worth $65 million.

  Murdock’s construction company Columbia was involved in several projects including providing the maintenance for the Panama Canal and the construction of a tunnel under Havana harbor for Fidel Castro, the military dictator of Cuba. In 1960 Murdock purchased the ‘Lone Stars’ pro football team for $800,000 and provided the bulk of money for the construction of the Dallas Stadium.