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The Big Rich. One big reason Murchison is able to swing such varied deals is the tax bonanza enjoyed by all oilmen. This is the depletion allowance which permits them to pocket 27½% of their gross income (up to 50% of their net) before paying a cent of taxes. Such old-time Texas millionaires as Jesse Jones, who owns dozens of Houston's choicest buildings, and Publisher Amon Carter, whose Fort Worth Star-Telegram is Texas' biggest paper (circ. 241,582), were able to amass their first riches in other fields. So was Dallas' Leo Corrigan, who has pyramided his real-estate holdings to an estimated $500 million (latest project: a $5,000,000 resort hotel in Nassau). But by & large, the big Texas fortunes are now founded on oil and the liberal tax provisions that go with it. Samples: ¶Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, 65, of Dallas, who got his start running one of the tables in an Arkansas gambling house, is probably rivaled only by Sid Richardson for the title of richest man in the U.S. Richardson figures that Hunt's production is higher, but that his own oil reserves are bigger (estimated at as high as 750 million bbls.). Hunt, a lone wolf who hardly knows the new Athenians, uses his oil wealth to spread his far-right views through such media as radio & TV's Facts Forum. He lives in a Texas version of Mount Vernon, i.e., bigger. ¶ Hugh Roy Cullen, 72, of Houston, is another far-right winger, but no friend of H. L. Hunt. He is Senator McCarthy's patron saint in Texas, has contributed to McCarthy's campaigns and right-wing Republican causes. Cullen has also contributed much to Houston, has put aside an estimated $160 million for colleges, hospitals and charitable organizations. ¶Sam Wilson, 49, of Corpus Christi, is a wildcatter described as a "Glenn McCarthy who managed to hold onto it." With part of his oil wealth, Horse Lover Wilson built a huge office building in his home town, topped it with a giant revolving neon W in his racing colors. ¶ R. E. (Bob) Smith, 59, of Houston, a great, friendly bull of a man who is one of a new group of civic-minded oilmen. While not in the same financial class as Cullen or Hunt, he has quietly amassed millions in an office labeled simply with his name and the words "Oil Operator." Smith headed Houston's swank Petroleum Club, spends much of his time and money on such civic functions as civil defense and hospitals, is No. 1 layman of Houston's First Methodist Church, the nation's largest.