What happened to billie sol estes

He was Estes, whose name became synonymous with Texas-sized schemes, greed and corruption, died in his sleep at his home in DeCordova Bend, a city about 60 miles southwest of Dallas, his daughter said Tuesday. A local funeral home confirmed it would be handling the services. Estes reigned in the state as the king of con men for nearly 50 years.

Time magazine even put him on its cover, calling him "a welfare-state Ponzi Jekyll seem almost wholesome.

Billy ray estes

Estes was best known for the scandal that broke out during President John F. Kennedy's administration involving phony financial statements and non-existent fertilizer tanks. Several lower-level agriculture officials resigned, and he wound up spending several years in prison. Estes' name was often linked with that of fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson, but the late president's associates said their relationship was never as close or as sinister as the wheeler-dealer implied.

Johnson, then the vice president, and Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman came under fire during the scandal, though the scheme had its roots in the waning years of President Dwight Eisenhower's administration, when Estes had edged into national politics from his West Texas power base in Pecos. Estes was convicted in of mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud.

An earlier conviction had been thrown out by the U. Supreme Court over the use of cameras in the courtroom. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, Estes was freed in after serving six years. But new charges were brought against him in , and later that year he was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy to conceal assets from the Internal Revenue Service.

He was sentenced to 10 more years but was freed a second time in