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Three Down. Several days after the FBI arrived in Pecos, Texas Attorney General Wilson set off on his own investigation, and his first revelations made the front pages. Employees of Dallas' Nei-man-Marcus luxury store testified that Estes had bought—or gone through convincing motions of buying—expensive clothing for three officials of the U.S.
Agriculture Department. In September 1961, the testimony ran, Estes went into the men's wear department of Neiman-Marcus with Assistant Secretary (for Agricultural Stabilization) James T. Ralph and Ralph's assistant, William E. Morris; Ralph and Morris selected more than $1,000 worth of clothing, which was billed to Estes. In October, Estes came in again, this time with Emery E. Jacobs, deputy administrator of the Commodity Stabilization Service. After Jacobs had selected $1,433.20 worth of clothing, including a $245 suit and a $195 sports coat, Estes went into the fitting room with him.
When they came out, Jacobs proceeded to pay the entire bill himself—with cash.
One by one, Ralph, Morris and Jacobs have all departed from the Agriculture Department since the Neiman-Marcus revelations. Morris proved to have other links with Billie Sol. His wife had been on Billie Sol's payroll as "Washington columnist" for the paper in Pecos, and in Estes' files were some very friendly letters that Morris had written to him.
When Morris failed to appear for departmental questioning about his relations with Estes, Secretary Freeman fired him outright.
Jacobs denied that Billie Sol bought any clothing for him. The only gifts he ever accepted from Estes, he said, were two rides in Estes' private plane, several meals, a box of cigars and a 5-lb. bag of pecans. Yes, Billie Sol did go into Neiman-Marcus with him, Jacobs admitted, but "I had my own money." Jacobs resigned his post anyway. Maybe he knew it would be hard for people to believe that a $6,500-a-year Government official would be carrying around $1,433.20 in cash to spend for clothing.
Ralph was the last to go and the most vehement in his denials. He actually went to Texas to submit to questioning by Wilson. But while he kept insisting that he never received any clothing, he did admit, under hard questioning, that a salesman had come up with a chalk and tape measure and worked on a suit that Ralph was trying on. Since Ralph persisted in denying that he got any clothing, his case remained hanging until last week, when further investigation showed that he had used an Estes credit card to pay for personal telephone calls. Freeman fired him.
"Good Investment." Besides the Agriculture men, one other Administration official has lost his job because of ties to Billie Sol: Assistant Secretary of Labor Jerry Holleman, former president of the Texas