A Diary by Deoliver 47 appeared earlier today entitled, "Cindy's Dad Jim Hensley - Mob Ties?" http://www.dailykos.com/... The Diary has now faded away but it asked some very pointed questions about the sources of the Hensley family wealth, a family fortune that has made John McCain a successful politician and one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Specifically, these questions relate to the criminal history of various members of the Hensley family, including Cindy McCain's father, Jim Hensley, and the alleged connections the family has had to organized crime. These questions are certainly worthy of scrutiny, and hopefully, they will find their way out of the blogosphere and into the mainstream media.
At the outset, I would like to point out one of the shortcomings of the earlier Diary. The Diary cited to information posted on a highly unreliable right-wing, anti-Semitic and racist website. Indeed, much of the information on the Web relating to the criminal connections of the Hensley family comes from right-wing sources (including the estimable [snark] Jerome Corsi) who have long-standing vendettas against McCain. Unfortunately, these tainted sources may have caused many people in the media to shy away from the story, assuming that it is merely the lunatic ravings of McCain's right-wing enemies. But the information is real, and it can be verified through numerous sources independent of the right-wing lunatic fringe.
A second problem with this story is, why is it relevant? Much of the information about the Hensley family's criminal past goes back many years, and one can legitimately ask what bearing this should have on McCain's current candidacy. I believe the story is relevant for several reasons.
First, the Hensley family wealth, and the political connections that went along with it, have been the key to McCain's success. The Hensley family history is well-known in Arizona. Even better known is the history of Kemper Marley, the principal benefactor of the Hensleys and a man who was, in possibly every sense of the word, the Godfather of the Arizona Republican Party. When John McCain married Cindy Hensley, starting his political career almost immediately thereafter, it is inconceivable that McCain could have been ignorant of the connections he was making.
Second, the unsavory Hensley history links directly with some of the most distasteful aspects of McCain's own career. The Hensleys introduced McCain to Charles Keating, a long-standing friend of the Hensleys and a co-venturer in a shopping mall in which the Hensleys invested a great deal of money (approximately $400,000). Keating contributed heavily to McCain's campaigns and provided private jets for McCain's usage. McCain returned the favor.
Finally, the most egregious aspect of the story is the way this has all been covered up by the mainstream media. For that reason alone, the story of the Hensley family's criminal background is highly relevant to the current campaign.
A good place to start looking at this story is with the puff-piece cover story that Newsweek ran about Cindy McCain in its June 30, 2008 edition entitled "In Search of Cindy McCain." http://www.newsweek.com/... The full extent of what Newsweek reported about the history of the Hensley family wealth is as follows:
"Her [Cindy's] father, Jim Hensley, was one of the most prominent men in the state. A World War II bombardier, he was shot down over the English Channel. After the war, he and his wife, Marguerite, borrowed $10,000 to start a liquor business. Through the years, it grew to become one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributorships in the country."
A reader of this story would view the Hensley success story as a sort of Mom and Pop operation that made good through old-fashioned hard work. The truth appears to be a good deal more complicated, and sordid. An article entitled "Haunted By Spirits", which appeared in the Phoenix New Times in February 2000, provides an excellent overview of the story. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/...
In fact, the funding for the Hensley distributorship did not come from a mere "loan"; it reputedly came from Kemper Marley. Marley is the key figure in the history of the Hensleys, and therefore McCain, and a towering figure in Arizona politics. Marley was also a criminal who is widely believed to have had extensive connections to organized crime. Jim Hensley had worked for Marley going back to the 1920s, when Marley was the most powerful bootlegger in Arizona. After World War II, Hensley again went to work for Marley, who had by then started a major liquor distributorship, United Distributors, following the repeal of Prohibition.
In 1948, Jim Hensley and his brother, Eugene Hensley, were convicted in Arizona Federal Court of conspiracy to falsify the records of United Distributors. According to the testimony at trial, the Hensley brothers had created phony invoices to cover up unreported cash sales of liquor out of the business. Eugene Hensley was sentenced to one year in prison and Jim Hensley received a sentence of six months, which was later suspended. Marley was not charged, and neither Hensley testified.
Jim Hensley was again indicted for Federal liquor violations in 1953. This time Hensley, as well as Marley's company, were acquitted. A young Arizona lawyer named William Rehnquist was part of the defense team.
Jim Hensley started his Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Phoenix in 1955. Allegedly, Marley bestowed this business upon Hensley as a favor for having kept his mouth shut during the earlier criminal trials. According to AmericanMafia.com, Marley was closely connected with Peter Licavoli, Jr., the so-called "Mafia Prince" of Arizona. http://www.americanmafia.com/...
Notably, Hensley's criminal record did not prevent him from owning a liquor distributorship, at least not in the eyes of Arizona authorities. Hensley filed a false disclosure form in 1988 concealing his Federal conviction, but Arizona authorities took no action against Hensley.
The Budweiser distributorship was not the only business venture that the Hensleys entered into with Marley. In December 1952, Jim and Eugene Hensley purchased a controlling interest in Ruidoso Downs, a racetrack in Albuquerque. However, subsequent litigation revealed that a concealed owner of Ruidoso was Teak Baldwin, a well-known Arizona bookmaker and associate of Marley. According to the New Mexico State Police, the Hensleys and Baldwin were acting as fronts for Marley in the venture. Baldwin would later be convicted of tax evasion. In 1955, Jim Hensley sold his stake in Ruidoso to his brother Eugene.
In 1966, Eugene Hensley was convicted of Federal tax evasion for having skimmed large amounts of money out of Ruidoso to make improvements on his home in Scottsdale and to transfer funds to his family. Eugene Hensley was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Before reporting to prison, Hensley transfered ownership of Ruidoso to Newco Enterprises, which immediately entered into a long-term contract with Emprise Corporation. Emprise had a long history of problems with governmental authorities as a result of organized crime connections. Emprise reorganized and moved its operations to Arizona, with strong backing from Kemper Marley. Marley had contributed heavily to then Arizona Governor Raul Castro, and Castro appointed Marley to Arizona's racing commission in 1976.
Marley's dubious activities drew the attention of Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic. As a result of Bolles' revelations, Governor Castro removed Marley from the racing commission. In June 1976, Bolles was killed by a car bomb. The organization Investigative Reporters and Editors ("IRE") started the "Arizona Project" to probe the background of Bolles' murder. http://www.ire.org/... A tow-truck driver and dog track operator, John Charles Adamson, pleaded guilty to having planted the bomb that killed Bolles and testified against two others who had hired Adamson to commit the murder. Bolles' last words were, "Adamson, Emprise, Mafia." Adamson later testified that he was told by the man who paid him to plant the bomb that killed Bolles that Marley had wanted Bolles killed, as well as then Arizona Attorney General Bruce Babbitt, who was conducting an antitrust investigation of the Arizona liquor industry. Marley was never charged for the murder of Bolles.
In the wake of Bolles' murder, the subject of organized crime infiltration of Arizona businesses and politics became a matter of national attention. In March 1977, the Albuquerque Journal ran a major story about the Hensleys and their connections to organized crime, which was posted on Daily Kos in February 2008. http://www.dailykos.com/... The story was also reported in the New Mexico Independent this past June. http://newmexicoindependent.com/... Time magazine ran a major story in March 1977 entitled "Putting the Heat on the Sunbelt Mafia" addressing Marley's alleged role in Bolles' murder. http://www.time.com/...
It is in this context that McCain comes on the scene. McCain met Cindy Hensley in 1979, he divorced and remarried in 1980, and after retiring from the Navy, McCain settled in Arizona and promptly went to work for the Hensley distributorship in a "public relations" capacity. The job gave McCain a handsome salary and a high profile in the state. It is inconceivable that McCain was unaware of the Hensley family history and the family's close connections to Marley, one of the most powerful men in the state. A few years later, in 1982, McCain won a seat in Congress and in 1986, he took over Barry Goldwater's Senate seat. As noted, another Hensley family friend and business partner, Charles Keating, helped finance McCain's rise.
I think this is a story worth knowing about, don't you? It would be nice if somebody reported it.