This is Part 13 of the mini-series that covers the story of Bobby Baker. Today we continue to tell the story of Don Reynolds, the Maryland insurance broker who who made Bobby Baker a nominal partner in his insurance agency and engaged in other business with Baker. Today, we tell the story of the performance bond related to the D.C. stadium build, with Baker's portion of the commissions disguised and paid in the form of a loan to avoid questions surrounding his conflict of interest in the commission split. Baker would receive $4,000 from Reynolds commissions which totaled around $10,000. Baker's decision to have the receipt of his portion of the commissions take the form of a loan from Reynolds to Baker, was an attempt at further obscuring the nature of the payment and also turning it into a a scheme to avoid income taxes on the receipt. In its ugliest vernacular, it was simply a kickback that Baker received related to the commissions on the performance bond insurance premium. The story gets more complicated as Reynolds agrees to overbill on the insurance bond and collect an additional $35,000 over the original price of the bond, disguising what turned out to be an illegal campaign contribution to the Democratic party. $25,000 of that amount was allegedly intended to be delivered to the Kennedy Johnson campaign fund but was never proven to have arrived there. This mini-series is part of a larger series covering Billy Sol Estes, Mac Wallace, Bobby Baker and other members of Johnson's Texas inner circle. All of these men were quite intertwined around Johnson at the time of the assassination. They were involved in circumstances that were closing in on Johnson too and that provided him great motive in the killing of the President. The story is extraordinary. We began the story of Don Reynolds in Episode 11 whereby Reynolds crafts an arrangement whereby Baker became a nominal VP of his insurance agency (with a non-voting stock interest) in exchange for Baker's help in expanding sales and profits. Commission payments for referrals were also a part of the deal. Reynolds would become friends with Baker and travel on lavish junkets to New York and Miami, living the high life all while cultivating clients made available through Baker's contacts. His tight relationship would lead him to be a bagman too for Baker. Once these and other scandals were revealed during investigation by the Senate Rule and Administration committee's investigation and the work of senator John Williams, the scandal threatened to take the Vice President down politically. Perhaps, if the tragic events of November 22nd had not occurred, these events might have sent Johnson to jail as other indiscretions were also being investigated. Reynolds testimony regarding the stereo and the television advertising kick backed to Johnson were taking place in closed session at a senate office building literally at the moment that the shots rang out in Dealey Plaza. Informed of the president's assassination as the meeting was finishing up, Reynolds shook with the gravity of the situation and the fact that the man he had just accused of engaging in graph...Lyndon Johnson, had just become the most powerful man in the world. Rumors of Johnson's involvement in the assassination began to swirl almost immediately after the President's murder and there is a defined school of thought within the JFK assassination research community that staunchly believes in Johnson's involvement. His involvement in both the assassination and its cover up. Join us in one of the most fascinating story tells of the Kennedy assassination and stick around as we will be returning to the Mexico City series right after we complete this min-series.
