<h3>Below the two newspaper page images, I have posted a transcript of what I read on the two pages, concerning the background's of John McCain's father-in-law, James w. Hensley, and his brother Eugene.</h3>
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~qvc/hensley2.png" length=2025 width=1350><br>
The article begins above this sentence, at the right bottom of the page above.
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~qvc/hensley3.png" length=2025 width=1350><br><p>
Quote:
Riudoso Race Track Owners Tied to Arizona Gambling
By Robert V. Beier
Former associated of Phoenix wheeler dealers and gambling interests once controlled Riudoso
Downs race track and whiile in New Mexico they apparently kept their business operations to
themselves.
Eugene V. Hensley and his brother James W. Hensley who purchased controlling stock of Riudoso
Racing Assn in December 1952, once worked for and with Kemper Marley, Phoenix millionaire
rancher and wholesale liquor dealer.
<h3>And When the Hensley brothers purchased control of the Lincoln County track, Phoenix gambler
Clarence E. "Teak" Baldwin simultaneously bought one third of the race track stock-- something
the Hensleys denied in a State Racing Commission hearing in May, 1953.</h3>
Marley, 70 was named recently in a police affadavit as the man who requested the contract
killings of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, slain in a bomb attack last June and Arizona
Atty Gen Bruce Babbitt.
No attempt was made on Babbitt's (continued on A-16)
(Continued from A-1)
Ex-Owners Knew Arizona Gamblers
life. Marley has not been criminally charged.
An Investigative Reporters and Editors "IRE" report in it's Phoenix Project revealed Marley also
ran an organized crime ???? wire service for bookies that was managed at one time by Baldwin who
was convicted of income tax evasion in 1956.
The IRE investigation showed the Hensleys were associates of Marley and Baldwin in the 1930s,
1940s and early 1950s in Phoenix.
A search of commission records in Albuquerque by the Journal showed the racing body in the early
1950s was aware of the associations and leary of Mr. Baldwin connected with the Hensleys in
their purchase and operation of the track.
At a May 1953 commission hearing in Albuquerque records show the Hensley brothers readily told
of their connections with the Arizona wholesale liquor business and Marley in the 1930s and
1940s and the federal convictions in 1948 for making false entires on government records
regarding ???? liquor sales.
However, the Henleys denied at the same hearing that Baldwin their old croney in Phoenix, had
any stock interest in Ruidoso Downs.
But two years later, at another hearing records reflect Baldwin did have stock interest in the
track.
And the records show a federal lawsuit against Eugene Hensley in Albuquerque filed by trustees
for Baldwin to recover 362 shares of Ruidoso Racing Assn stock was settled for $40,000 and the stock was released to the Hensleys. This was in November, 1955.
Efforts by the Journal to contact the Hensley brothers were unsuccessful. Eugene, who now lives in El Paso, and James, a resident of Phoenix, were reported in Mazatlan, Mexico.
At the May, 1953 hearing, records show that the late Tom Closson, as chairman of the commission, told the Hensleys, "The namr of Teak Baldwin keeps creeping up as we go along in what the commission conveyed to you. The commission would not have Baldwin connected in any way, shape or form down there at Riuduso Downs."
The Hensleys, records show told the commissioner Baldwin had no money in the track, known as Hollywood Race Track prior to 1953.
It was brought out in the May 1953 hearing that Baldwin had been charged in Phoenix of doctoring drinks of patrons at his restaurant and then fleecing them in gambling games, according to IRE.
Baldwin later was acquitted of grand theft charges. Eugene Hensley revealed it was Baldwin who steered him to look at Ruidoso Downs which he and his brother purchased from the late OM "Hop" Lee Sr., a member of the commission and some Texas proncipals in December, 1952.
Eugene Hensley told the commission Baldwin was allowed to run the ???? men's kitchen at the track and had spent some of his own money for equipment.
In 1965, Baldwin also sued over a concession contract he allegedly had at the track. The suit in federal court in Albuquerue was dismissed.
As a result of reports concerning an alleged connection between the Hensleys and Baldwin, the commission in 1953 had the New Mexico State Police investigate the trio in Arizona.
The State Police investigation revealed Eugene Hensley had filed a suit against Baldwin in 1951 in an Arizona Court seeking $6,500 he allegedly had loaned to Baldwin. No disposition of the civil suit was mentioned in the records.
After his federal conviction and nine months in a Tucson federal prison camp Eugene Hensley told the commission he owned and operated a number of bars and cafes in Phoenix until ge purchased the Ruidoso Downs track.
James Hensley sold out his interest in the track in April, 1955. He was secretary-treasurer of the Ruidoso Racing Assn at the time and record do not reflect any further connection with the track.
Also testifying at the May 1953 hearing was RS "Stan" Snedigar, who was designated as secretary of racing at the track.
Formerly connected with Phoenix tracks as a racing official, Snedigar told the commission he was acquainted with the Hensleys and Baldwin in Arizona and detailed for the commission his knowledge of their business interests.
Snedigar later became a member of the Ruidoso Racing Assn board of directors and a minor stockholder in the track.
An IRE report lists RS Snedigar as a partner with Baldwin and others in three Phoenix restaurants and bars.
<h3>The 1953 State Police report in connection with it's Arizona investigation of the Hensleys and Baldwin noted Marley "owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang."
The same report listed Baldiwn as a "bookmaker for leading tracks" and said that Marley "is reputed to be the financial backer for bookies..."</h3>
The 1953 State Police report to the commission also included a transcript of a phone conversation between an officer in Sante Fe and a detective with the Phoenix Police Dpt. who said, "Our confidential files built upon Baldwin (and others) was loaned to some officials and never returned. We've never been able to locate them."
In November, 1966, Eugene Hensley was convicted of federal income tax evasion and failure to file income tax returns. Later, Eugene Hensley was barred from Ruidoso Downs by the Commission.
After unsuccessful appeals of the federal income tax comnvictions and the serving a sentence at ?? ????, Tex. federal reformatory, Eugene Hensley and his former wife, Martha Hensley, sold their controlling stock in the track in 1969.
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I searched for and found the 1977 article after reading the reporting displayed in the middle of my last post, at this link:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-...y-spirits/full
The Albuquerque Journal ran their story of the Hensley brothers to coincide with the 23 part "Arizona Project", a 1-1/2 year investigative journalists' effort to find out who killed Arizona Republic newspaper's investigative reporter, Don Bollles, in June, 1976.
If you download the two Albuquerque Journal pages, you can read one installment of the 23 part IRE report that 40 journalists issued after their Arizona investigation, it appears next to the Hensley brothers article on page A1 and A16 and details more about the Hensley's patron, Kemper Marley.
My point is that John McCain used, at the least, flawed judgment in working for James Hensley, accepting his consistant campaign financial backing, and the political backing from Hensley's cronies.
Added to this is the "problem" that McCain's wife would be, if he won the presidential election, a first lady who is chair of a $300 million Arizona corporate conglomerate that was clearly founded and financed via "mob" connections and activities.
At what point in the founding and then in the progression of a business such as Hensely & Company beer distributors, is the company and the proceeds from it, suddenly "clean money"?
I cannot answer thatr question, and I don't think anyone else can. It is a situation which seems to tell us that it would be best to take a pass on John McCain, and his run for the presidency. How low must we sink to find our next president?