| Birth Name: | Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. |
| Birth Date: | 17 February 1889 |
| Birth Place: | Ramsey, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Petroleum industry |
| Spouse: |
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| Children: | 15, including Margaret, Caroline Rose, Nelson Bunker, William Herbert, Lamar, Ray Lee, June, Helen and Swanee Hunt |
Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. (February 17, 1889 – November 29, 1974) was an American oil tycoon.[1] By trading poker winnings for oil rights according to legend, but more likely through money he gained from successful speculation in oil leases, he ultimately secured title to much of the East Texas Oil Field, one of the world's largest oil deposits. He acquired rights to East Texas oil lands initially through a $30,000 land purchase from oil speculator Dad Joiner, and founded Hunt Oil in 1936. From it and his other acquisitions, which included diverse interests in publishing, cosmetics, pecan farming, and health food producers, he accrued a fortune that was among the world's largest. In the 1950s, his Facts Forum Foundation supported highly conservative newspaper columns and radio programs, some of which he authored and produced himself, and for which he became known.[2] At his death, he was reputed to have one of the highest net worths of any individual in the world, a fortune estimated between $2–3 billion dollars.[2]
Hunt was born near Ramsey, in Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois, the youngest of eight children.[1] He was named after his father, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, who was a prosperous farmer-entrepreneur. His mother was Ella Rose (Myers) Hunt.
Hunt was homeschooled. He did not go to elementary school or to high school. Later, he said that education is an obstacle to making money.[3] As a teenager, Hunt traveled to different places before he settled in Arkansas, where he was running a cotton plantation by 1912. He had a reputation as a math prodigy and was a gambler. Hunt is reported in internal FBI memoranda to have run prostitution activities in Arkansas and, later in the 1950s, a private horse racing and gambling bookmaking operation from his office in Dallas.[4]
It was said that after his cotton plantation was flooded, he turned his last $100 into more than $100,000 after he had gambled in New Orleans. With his winnings, he purchased oil properties in the neighborhood of El Dorado, Arkansas. He was generous to his employees, who, in turn, were loyal to him by informing him of rumors of a massive oil field to the south, in East Texas. In negotiations over cheese and crackers, at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, with the wild-catter who discovered the East Texas Oil Field, Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner, Hunt secured title to what was the largest known oil deposit in the world. Hunt had agreed to pay Joiner $1,000,000 and to protect him from liability for his many fraudulent transactions surrounding the property.
In 1957, Fortune estimated that Hunt had a fortune of $400–700 million,[5] and was one of the eight richest people in the United States. J. Paul Getty, who was considered to be the richest private citizen in the world, said of Hunt, "In terms of extraordinary, independent wealth, there is only one man—H. L. Hunt."[6]
Hunt had fifteen children by three wives.
He married Lyda Bunker of Lake Village, Arkansas, in November 1914 and remained married to her until her death in 1955.[7] His seven children by her were: Margaret (1915–2007), Haroldson ("Hassie", 1917–2005), Caroline (1923–2018), Lyda (born and died in 1925), Nelson Bunker (1926–2014), William Herbert (1929–2024), and Lamar (1932–2006). Their home on White Rock Lake in Dallas was styled after Mount Vernon though much larger.[8]
His first son, Hassie, who was expected to succeed him in control of the family business, was lobotomized in response to increasingly erratic behavior. He outlived his father. Lamar founded the American Football League and created the Super Bowl, drawing on the assistance of his children in selecting the game's name. Two other children, Herbert and Bunker, are famous for their purchasing much of the world's silver, in an attempt to corner the market. They ultimately owned more silver than any government in the world before their scheme was discovered and undone. Bunker Hunt was briefly one of the wealthiest men in the world, having discovered and taken title to the Libyan oil fields, before Muammar Gaddafi nationalized the properties.
While still married to Lyda, H. L. Hunt is said to have married Frania Tye of Tampa, Florida, in November 1925 by using the name Franklin Hunt. Frania claimed to have discovered the bigamous nature of her marriage in 1934, and in a legal settlement in 1941, Hunt created trust funds for each of their four children, and she signed a document stipulating that no legal marriage between them had ever existed. About the same time, she briefly married then divorced Hunt's employee, John Lee, taking the last name Lee for herself and her four children.[9] Her four children by Hunt were: Howard (born 1926), Haroldina (1928), Helen (1930), and Hugh ("Hue", 1934). Frania Tye Lee died in 2002.[10]
Hunt supported and had children by Ruth Ray of Shreveport, Louisiana, whom he had met when she was a secretary in his Shreveport office. They married in 1957 after the death of Hunt's wife Lyda. His four children by her were: Ray Lee (born 1943), June (1944), Helen (1949), and Swanee (1950).[11] His youngest son, Ray Lee, ultimately inherited the business and was a major supporter of President George W. Bush.
His 15 children in birth order are:
A scandal emerged in 1975, after his death, when it was discovered that he had a hidden bigamous relationship, with his second wife living in New York.[13] After marriage to Ruth Ray, Hunt became a Baptist and was a member of the First Baptist Church of Dallas.[14] He was a major financial contributor toward the establishment of the conservative Christian evangelical Criswell College in Dallas.
After several months at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Hunt died at age 85,[15] [16] and was buried in Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.[17]
The founder of the "transcendental black metal" band Liturgy, Haela Hunt-Hendrix, is his grandchild.[18]
Hunt served as inspiration behind the character J. R. Ewing from the television show Dallas.[19]
Multiple sources, including American civil rights icon Malcolm X, implicate Hunt, a Democrat, as a lifelong racist who provided major financial assistance to several far-right organizations, such as the Minutemen and the John Birch Society. Hunt considered African Americans a political threat and made this clear in his radio interviews and broadcasts.[20] One of Hunt's chief allies, Allen Zoll, said that since 1936 Hunt advocated deporting all African Americans to Africa. For this reason, Hunt supplied Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad continuous financial support due to the latter's belief in racial separation from whites.[21]
In 1965, Hunt encouraged Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, a white supremacist, to use the scheme of running his wife, Lurleen Wallace, for election as governor in a bold effort to evade the state's constitutional rule that a governor could not succeed himself.[22]
Madeleine Duncan Brown, an advertising executive who claimed to have had both an extended love affair and a son with President Lyndon B. Johnson, said that she was present at a party at the Dallas home of Clint Murchison Sr. (another oil tycoon), on the evening prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy that was attended by Johnson as well as other famous, wealthy, and powerful individuals including Hunt, Murchison, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon.[23]
According to Brown, Johnson had a meeting with several of the men after which he told her: "After tomorrow, those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again. That's no threat. That's a promise."[23] Brown's story received national attention and became part of at least a dozen John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.[23]
Kennedy assassination investigator Dave Perry refuted this theory with evidence showing neither President Johnson nor Hoover were in Dallas at the time of the alleged party and Murchison had not lived in his Dallas home for a number of years. Witnesses place Murchison at his East Texas ranch.[24]
Books
Articles
"The richest American would like to be no different from you and me. He wears shiny blue suits, cuts his own hair and carries his lunch in a brown paper bag."
Honorable Mention for the Prose Book Award, Association of American Publishers. Covers the rise and fall of prominent right wing radio hosts: H. L. Hunt, Dan Smoot, Carl McIntire, and Billy James Hargis.
This article can be collected in the video game Mafia 3 on the PlayStation 4 and read in its entirety.