The Great Texas Oil Heist

The Great Texas Oil Heist PDF Author: Robert Cargill
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
ISBN: 9781622884025
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
It was 1946. World War II was over. The thieves went to work. They drilled deviated wells from outside the East Texas Oil Field back into the oil that remained after 16 years of production. This was the oil field that supplied the oil needed for an Allied victory in 1945. The deviators continued their nefarious activity until an angry and aggressive attorney general led his posse of lawmen, including the Texas Rangers, into East Texas to stop the theft and administer Texas justice. I tell this story on the basis of 35 years of research and my father's well files. Yes, he drilled six of the nearly 400 deviated wells. I first learned of the so-called Slant-Hole scandal in late spring 1962. That's when colleagues in my research group at the University of California at Berkeley accosted me with the morning's San Francisco Chronicle. They knew my father was an East Texas oilman. One pointed to an article reporting that oilmen in East Texas had drilled "deviated" oil wells from beyond the known productive limits of the East Texas Oil Field to steal oil. "Has your dad been stealing oil?" "Of course, not!" I replied. I had known nothing of the illicit activity until that morning. Then a report in TIME further exposed the East Texas oil scandal that had erupted in my hometown of Longview. Here, then, for the first time, I reveal the story of how a few dozen oilmen stole up to 20 million barrels from the East Texas Oil Field. I am eager to share what I have learned and to tell the truth of the slant-hole scandal--the circumstances that made it inevitable, who did what to whom, and how the matter eventually reached its conclusion. Much of what I reveal in this book has been the tightly guarded secrets of the families of the participants so that grandchildren can be kept from knowledge of granddaddy's scandalous behavior. But most of what I reveal here lies barely hidden in the public record. The slant-hole story is a significant piece of Texas history, and it must be told before no one is left to tell it.

The Great Texas Oil Heist

The Great Texas Oil Heist PDF Author: Robert Cargill
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
ISBN: 9781622884025
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book Here

Book Description
It was 1946. World War II was over. The thieves went to work. They drilled deviated wells from outside the East Texas Oil Field back into the oil that remained after 16 years of production. This was the oil field that supplied the oil needed for an Allied victory in 1945. The deviators continued their nefarious activity until an angry and aggressive attorney general led his posse of lawmen, including the Texas Rangers, into East Texas to stop the theft and administer Texas justice. I tell this story on the basis of 35 years of research and my father's well files. Yes, he drilled six of the nearly 400 deviated wells. I first learned of the so-called Slant-Hole scandal in late spring 1962. That's when colleagues in my research group at the University of California at Berkeley accosted me with the morning's San Francisco Chronicle. They knew my father was an East Texas oilman. One pointed to an article reporting that oilmen in East Texas had drilled "deviated" oil wells from beyond the known productive limits of the East Texas Oil Field to steal oil. "Has your dad been stealing oil?" "Of course, not!" I replied. I had known nothing of the illicit activity until that morning. Then a report in TIME further exposed the East Texas oil scandal that had erupted in my hometown of Longview. Here, then, for the first time, I reveal the story of how a few dozen oilmen stole up to 20 million barrels from the East Texas Oil Field. I am eager to share what I have learned and to tell the truth of the slant-hole scandal--the circumstances that made it inevitable, who did what to whom, and how the matter eventually reached its conclusion. Much of what I reveal in this book has been the tightly guarded secrets of the families of the participants so that grandchildren can be kept from knowledge of granddaddy's scandalous behavior. But most of what I reveal here lies barely hidden in the public record. The slant-hole story is a significant piece of Texas history, and it must be told before no one is left to tell it.

The Big Rich

The Big Rich PDF Author: Bryan Burrough
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594201998
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
Recounts how Texas oil transformed wealth and power in America through the stories of the state's four most influential oil families, tracing how they rose from modest backgrounds, shaped the government, and bankrolled the rise of modern conservatism.

The Black Giant

The Black Giant PDF Author: James M. Day
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781571686169
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The discovery of the Black Giant in 1930 was the largest oil strike in the U.S. at that time, and its gushers changed the face of the oil industry. Oilmen, promoters, oil patch workers, and the nation's unemployed streamed into the tiny hamlets of East Texas for their share, but they faced wars between "big oil" and independent oilmen, bootleg or "hot oil," martial law, and legalized price fixing. Yet the Black Giant turned out to be the salvation of the drought-stricken farmers, helped in the fight against Germany and Japan, and made lots of folks "Texas rich." In "The Black Giant," the characters, times and oil industry skullduggery are recalled and explained in dozens of sidebars full of humorous facts and trivia. The author, law professor at Washing College of Law, The American University, practiced oil and gas law for more than 35 years and focused on oil and gas matters during the Arab oil embargo for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Wildcatters

Wildcatters PDF Author: Roger M. Olien
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585446063
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In the 1970s and 1980s the Texas wildcatter was a recognizable figure in popular culture. Since then, the wildcatter's role is less celebrated but still important, as shown in the new introduction to this edition of a book originally published in 1984 by Texas Monthly Press. Drawing heavily on oral histories, this book tells the story of the West Texas independents as a group, looking at their business strategies in the context of their national, regional, and local conditions. The focus is on the Permian Basin and southeastern New Mexico over the sixty-year period in which the region rose to prominence on the American oil scene, producing about one-fifth of the nation's output. It is a story that covers vast technological change, governmental regulation, and economic fluctuation with profound implications for the oil and gas community. The new introduction brings the story up-to-date by addressing not only the subsequent careers of the wildcatters described in the book but also the role of independents in the current economy. ROGER M. OLIEN, who holds a Ph.D. from Brown University, lives in Austin and is a member of the TSHA Speakers Bureau.DIANA DAVIDS HINTON holds the J. Conrad Dunagan Chair in regional and business history at the University of Texas-Permian Basin. Her Ph.D. is from Yale University.

The Last Boom

The Last Boom PDF Author: James Anthony Clark
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Includes material on H.L. Hunt, Lone Wolf Gonzaullas, and Kilgore, Texas.

Dad and Doc, with Harry Harter's East Texas Oil Parade

Dad and Doc, with Harry Harter's East Texas Oil Parade PDF Author: Michelle M. Haas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780988435773
Category : Oil fields
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Biographies of the two men credited with the great East Texas Oil Field discovery of 1930 - C. M. Joiner and A. D. "Doc" Lloyd. Also includes the text of Harry Harter's book on the East Texas discovery.

The Santa Claus Bank Robbery

The Santa Claus Bank Robbery PDF Author: A. C. Greene
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 9781574410716
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Master storyteller A. C. Greene re-creates one of America's most bizarre holdups -- one that began as a lark. On Christmas Eve 1927, four men set off to rob the First National Bank of Cisco, Texas. Soon the lark turned into a tragedy -- and at times a comedy -- of errors. The robbers did not realize the car they had stolen for their get-away was running on empty. The leader did not anticipate the attention his disguise would draw, even though it was a bright red Santa Claus suit. And they could not have known that all of Cisco would have guns at hand because the Bankers Association had offered a reward of $5000 for any dead bank robber, no questions asked. The Santa Claus bank robbery set off a chain of events that would lead to violence and the death of six men and launch the largest manhunt Texas had ever seen. A. C. Greene's factual account of the unusual crime reads like a novel -- fast paced, full of unexpected turns, and rich with the flavor of life in Texas at the beginning of the end of the Old West. This new edition contains an Afterword with photographs, some of them never before published, and follow-up information on the lives of the participants, including the surviving robber, witnesses and kidnap victims.

Kingdom

Kingdom PDF Author: Jerome Tuccille
Publisher: Beard Books
ISBN: 9781587982262
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
This is a reprint of a previously published work. It deals with the life of H.L. Hunt, the oil tycoon, and his family.

Historic Photos of Texas Oil

Historic Photos of Texas Oil PDF Author:
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1618584316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
On January 10, 1901, near Beaumont, Texas, an unremarkable knoll of earth the world would soon call Spindletop shot a geyser of oil a hundred feet into the air, confirming the belief of Pattillo Higgins that black gold lay buried there. The Texas oil industry had begun in earnest, and neither Texas nor the world would ever be the same. In the years to come, Texas oil would fuel the nation’s automobiles and help to bring victory to the Allies in both world wars, shaping America’s destiny throughout the twentieth century. Join author and historian Mike Cox in this photographic visit to the heyday of Texas crude as he recounts the stories of key oil-patch discoveries around the state. Nearly 200 images in vivid black-and-white, with captions and introductions, offer a roughneck-close look at this uniquely American tale of dry holes and gushers, ragtowns and riches, boomtowns, blowouts, and wildcatters gone broke.

Wildcatters

Wildcatters PDF Author: Charles Moncrief
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621570959
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This true story of greed, corruption, and scandal follows one of the most famous oil families in Texas. Moncrief reveals how petty office politics in his family's business led to a frame-up, explores the effects from the subsequent IRS raid, and details the years-long trial that ended with the Moncrief family absolved of all charges.