John McCain derived his wealth from his marriage to Cindy Hensley McCain, whose father started his road to riches as a bootlegger.
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John McCain derived his wealth from his marriage to Cindy Hensley
McCain, whose father started his road to riches as a bootlegger. As a
politician, the senator has remained beholden to the liquor industry
and the family business
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-02-17/news/haunted-by-spirits/1
By John Dougherty, Amy Silverman Published on February 17, 2000
Would United States Senator John McCain be a presidential contender if
it weren't for his marriage to Cindy Hensley McCain, heiress to the
Hensley liquor fortune?
It's doubtful. The senator's wife and -- more important -- his father-
in-law, James Willis Hensley, are very wealthy people.
Like his father and grandfather before him, McCain was a career Navy
officer. His earning power and his inheritance were modest. At its
peak, his pay as a captain was about $45,000.
But he retired from the military in 1980, divorced his first wife, wed
Arizona native Cindy Lou Hensley and moved here to plunge into the
world of politics. His first job in Arizona was as a public affairs
agent for Hensley & Company, one of the nation's largest beer
distributors. He was paid $50,000 in 1982 to travel the state, touting
the company's wares. But he was promoting himself as much as he was
Budweiser beer. A better job description might have been "candidate."
In 1982, Cindy drew more than $700,000 in salary and bonuses from
Hensley-related enterprises as her husband was elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives in his first political campaign.
Today, McCain is ranked the 26th wealthiest member of Congress by Roll
Call magazine. There are 535 members in the House and Senate.
From Day 1, Hensley money has enabled McCain to be a full-time
politician, free from financial concerns.
This story examines the roots of the Hensley fortune and John McCain's
implacable bond to the liquor industry -- how it has enriched him
personally and as a politician, and how those ties have dictated his
actions on questions of public policy.
John McCain's political allegiances to liquor purveyors and his father-
in-law's interests are subtle. That narrative is marked by a pattern
of patronage.
The Hensley saga, meanwhile, swirls with bygone accounts of illicit
booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime. James Hensley
embarked on his road to riches as a bootlegger.
It was December 6, 1945. World War II had ended a few months earlier.
Joseph F. Ratliff was just about to wrap up another day as office
manager at United Distributors Company when two of his bosses, Eugene
and James Hensley, paid a visit to Ratliff at the company's Tucson
liquor distribution warehouse around 5 p.m.
The Hensley brothers were partners with a powerful Phoenix businessman
named Kemper Marley, who had cornered a large share of Arizona's
wholesale liquor business after Prohibition was lifted in 1933.
Ratliff had gone to work for United Distributors in September 1944.
His job was to oversee shipments of whiskey into and out of the United
Distributors' warehouse by keeping track of invoices, filing tax and
sales reports with the federal government and monitoring cash flow.
During and after World War II, the sale of whiskey was tightly
regulated by the federal government. Demand for whiskey was high,
particularly on the black market, where prices were more than double
the regulated market price.
"'Well,' Gene Hensley says, 'It is five o'clock, why don't you go
home? It is time to close,'" Ratliff told Assistant United States
Attorney E.R. Thurman in sworn testimony in March 1948.
Ratliff went home.
Upon his return to the warehouse the next morning, Ratliff found a
disturbing sight.
"When the warehouse man came down and opened the warehouse, I started
out through the warehouse to go to the men's room, and I noticed there
was two rows of whiskey there the night before that wasn't on the
floor that morning. So I went back to the office. I thought we had
been robbed."
In his office, Ratliff found another surprise.
"There was a bunch of invoices in my desk that had been made out after
I had left the office, apparently," Ratliff testified.
The invoices appeared to be related to the whiskey -- about 50 cases
-- that had disappeared from the warehouse overnight.
Ratliff went outside to empty some trash and noticed "a pile of empty
whiskey cases out there." Tangled up in the pile of boxes were federal
tax serial labels that were supposed to remain with the liquor when
sold to a retailer.
Ratliff recognized the handwriting on the invoices as belonging to
then-25-year-old James Hensley, who had become general manager of the
Tucson operation in June 1945 after a three-year stint in the
military. James Hensley had served as a bombardier on a B-17 and was
shot down over the English Channel on his 13th mission.
Ratliff wasn't sure what was going on until later that day, when James
Hensley returned to his office.
"He came in and paid me for those invoices," Ratliff testified. "Cash
sales."
Ratliff dutifully marked the invoices as paid.
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"In 1976 Arizona Republic Investigative Reporter Don Bolles was blown
up and eventually died from injuries caused by a bomb placed in his
car. This assassination led Investigative Reporters from around the
country to camp out in Phoenix to examine the vast conspiracy that
extinguished the life of a man who was WAY too close to their deep,
dark secrets.
While they shone the light on a ring of thugs and fixers, some of whom
are still in prison, they could never quite finger the Dark Figure
behind the whole deal---Kemper Marley.
This terrible incident led to the formation of Investigative Reporters
& Editors (IRE), still active today.
Yes, John McCain benefitted mightily from the power and influence of
Organized Crime in Arizona."
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/8/19/91954/3445/9#c9
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John McCain's curious relationship with the alcohol industry includes
a family connection to the Ruidoso Downs.
http://newmexicoindependent.com/view/the-politics-of-beer
(By the way, before his murder, Don Bolles had been a member of the
group Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). After his death, a
team of dozens of IRE members from 10 different newspapers and
stations spent a year working to uncover the corruption that caused
the implicated parties to strap 10 sticks of dynamite to Bolles' car.
Their collective effort, called the Arizona Project, resulted in 18
indictments. After decades in an Arizona impound lot, Don Bolles' car
is now at the center of the Journalists Memorial (a tribute to
journalists who have died pursuing the news) at the Newseum in
Washington, D.C.)
Kemper Marley Sr. Is Dead at 83; Name Arose in '76 Slaying Inquiry
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D7113FF93BA15755C0A966958260