John McCain Calls Convicted Felon with Ties to the Mob a "Role Model"
dmwhipp | 08/25/2008
John McCain Calls Cindy's Father A "Role Model"
If abandoning your wife and child, being a convicted felon, and starting a business with help from mob ties makes one a role model, then Jim Hensley was indeed a role model.
In an interview with Katie Couric on August 23, 2008, McCain stated, "Cindy's father, who barely finished high school, went off and distinguished himself in World War II in a B-17 and came back with practically nothing and realized the American dream, and I am proud and grateful for that, and
I think he is a role model
to many young Americans who serve in the military and come back and succeed."
Hensley Dumps His First Family
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Jim Hensley, Cindy McCain's father, and Mary Jeanne Hensley were married in 1937. In February 1943, their daughter Kathleen Anne Hensley was born. Jim was a bombardier in WWII and was injured while flying in Europe.
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While recovering in West Virginia, he met Marguerite Smith. He divorced Mary Jeanne and he and Marguerite were married in 1945. Their daughter, Cindy Lou Hensley, was born May 20, 1945.
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Jim Hensley, was for the most part, an absentee father to his first child. According to Portalski, "I saw him a few times a year. I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes, and he called occasionally."
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After becoming a multi-millionaire, Hensley helped Portalski, giving Kathleen and her husband appx. $10,000 a year for about a decade and paying the college tuition of her children - his own grandchildren. Yet upon his death, Kathleen and her husband were left $10,000 and the grandchildren received nothing.
Bootlegging, Mob Ties, and Gambling
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in 1945, Jim Hensley and his brother Eugene began working for Kemper Marley. Kemper Marley owned United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson.
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Kemper Marley was purportedly a mob boss. According to the
Albuquerque Journal
, in a 1953 New Mexico State Police report, Kemper Marley, "is reputed to be the financial backer for the bookies" and "owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang." And though never charged, Marley is suspected of ordering the car bomb assassination of journalist Don Bolles in 1976.
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In 1948, Jim and Eugene Hensley were indicted for falsifying liquor records to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Both men were convicted in U.S. District Court on federal charges of conspiracy and Jim Hensley was also convicted on seven counts of filing false liquor records. While Eugene was sentenced to one year in federal prison, Jim received a six-month suspended sentence.
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In the early 1950s, Jim and Eugene Hensley bought into the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in New Mexico with equal partner Clarence "Teak" Baldwin. Yet a few months later, at a hearing before the New Mexico State Racing Commission, Jim and Eugene concealed the existence of Baldwin. Because of his illegal bookmaking, Baldwin had been banned from any ownership role. Additionally, New Mexico State Police discovered Kemper Marley was a financial backer for bookmakers with ties to Baldwin and with the bookmaking operations of organized crime. Despite that, Jim and Eugene were given their Ruidoso Downs racetrack license in 1953, a decision John F. Simms, governor of New Mexico's following administration called appalling.
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In 1953 Jim Hensley and Kemper Marley were again charged with falsifying liquor records. This time Jim was defended by future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. He and Kemper Marley were both men were acquitted.
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In spite of being a convicted felon, Jim Hensley was somehow granted a state liquor license in 1955 (and later a federal liquor license) to found a beer distributorship. Hensley later switched to distributing exclusively Anheuser-Busch beer, and by 1980 Hensley & Company Distributors and Hensley & Company Wholesale had made Jim Hensley a multi-millionaire.
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In 1981, Hensley hired his new son-in-law, John McCain, as Vice President of Public Relations for Hensley & Company. It was Hensley's money and influential ties throughout the state of Arizona that help McCain win his first campaign for the U.S. Senate.
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