Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel by Chauncey Holt | eBook

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Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

A Memoir of Spooks, Hoods and the Hidden Elite

By Chauncey Holt

Trine Day LLC

CHAPTER 1

The Die is Cast

Looking back over my checkered career, I can see that I was programmed for this fate from the start. My ancestral background almost guaranteed that mine would be a complex life, and I have unfailingly taken the more interesting – and crooked – path at every fork in the road, though sometimes the choice was already made for me.

I was born on October 23, 1921 in Pine Knot, Kentucky, a small hamlet nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, at Cumberland Gap, where the Wilderness Trail entered the "Dark and Bloody Ground" as Kentucky was referred to. This trail, over which hundreds of thousands of pioneers moved westward, was carved out by my forefathers and other relatives, including Daniel Boone and Thomas Walker, the surveyor who discovered and named this entryway Cumberland Gap after the Duke of Cumberland.

My ancestors – both paternal and maternal – included some of the most famous names etched in Kentucky's history. My paternal line has been traced back to 1620, when Randall Holt immigrated to Jamestown, Virginia when he was eighteen years old. His descendants have been a dichotomous group: either teachers, preachers, politicians and public servants on the one hand, or freebooters, brigands, cutthroats, moonshiners, bootleggers and killers on the other. Many of them were involved in the illegal whiskey business.

To say that the drinking and making of liquor came naturally with the American frontier is an understatement. The pioneers came to look upon alcohol beverages as essential to survival. Backwoods stills are a tradition that lives on in Appalachia, a culture that is largely a relic of our past.

Several members of my father's side of the family rose to prominence during the past three centuries. Among those were Hamilton Holt, former president of Rollins College and Rush D. Holt, who was a senator from West Virginia. Most notable of all, however, was Joseph Holt, my first cousin several times removed, who served first as postmaster-general, then as secretary of war in the Buchanan cabinet; then when Lincoln succeeded to the presidency as judge advocate general. It was his destiny, as judge advocate general, to preside at the Lincoln assassination trial. For this reason, and because of my involvement, innocent though it was, in the assassination of John F. Kennedy nearly a century later, I have been doubly fascinated by this distant relative.

Joseph Holt was born near Hardinsburg, in Breckinridege County on January 6, 1807. His parents were John and Eleanor (Stephens) Holt.

Joseph Holt's brother John Holt, Jr. was my great, great, great grandfather. I have in my collection a portrait of Joseph Holt painted by the noted American painter, Thomas Eakins, painted after the civil war when he was accused of having permitted Mary Surratt, one of the alleged conspirators of John Wilkes Booth to go to the gallows, Eakins recorded a stern visage that revealed a sadness the weighed upon him heavily throughout his long life.

Although Holt was a southern Democrat, he was a staunch Unionist and was one of many who were instrumental in keeping Kentucky loyal to the Union.

This cost him many old friends and alienated much of his family, including his mother and brother, whom he thereafter bitterly referred to as "traitors and rebels."

In common with many from the border-states, where the social fabric was rent asunder for a generation, Joseph Holt died a lonely old man in 1894 (barely five years before my own father was born), never forgiving his kin, nor receiving mercy in turn. He is buried in the family cemetery in Holt, Kentucky, which I visited more than once. Standing there, one can easily imagine the bitterness born of those chaotic times.

The Holts of my generation spread to all points of the compass to escape the drudgery of life in the backwoods of Kentucky. My cousin, Milton, fled to New York where he became the treasurer of a Teamster's local, which was controlled by him, Abe Gordon and Johnny Dioguardi (Johnny Dio), one of the most notorious gangsters in America. All three, my cousin, Gordon and Johnny Dio were convicted of extortion regarding a sweetheart deal with New York Airways and were sentenced to ten years in Lewisburg penitentiary. After his release, Milton moved to California and using his connections became a labor consultant (what else?).

He became very close to James (Blackie) Licavoli, a notorious member of the powerful Licavoli branch of the Mafia.

Bud fled to Detroit, became a member of Peter Licavoli's organization and worked with Harry Bennett, chief of security for Ford, in their strike breaking campaigns. Bud and a bootlegger named Eddie Percelli, were hired to murder Walter Reuther. Due to a fluke, they botched the job and were subsequently tried for assault and attempted murder. With some assistance from Peter Licavoli, who "persuaded" witnesses to recant their testimony, Bud and Eddie were acquitted. Acting on orders from Peter Licavoli, they were involved in an attempt on the life of Harry Bennett, who was involved in a dispute with Licavoli over wages to be paid for his goons that were being used as strike breakers.

Another colorful member of the Holt clan was my uncle, Henry Harding Holt who left Kentucky during World War II. He moved to a small town in Lassen County, California and found a job as a telegraph operator for a railroad company. He became embroiled in a dispute with a truculent railroad brakeman and they settled the matter in the same way it had been done in Kentucky for two centuries; Uncle Henry shot and killed the brakeman. He was subsequently tried and convicted for first-degree murder by a jury which obviously did not understand these matters. He was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court. Uncle Henry was never retried. He returned to Kentucky where the citizens were more enlightened where the matters involving gunplay were concerned.

On the other hand, my cousin Pat stayed on the straight and narrow and became an assistant to Senator Fulbright from Arkansas.

On my mother's side of the family – which was every bit as diverse in inclinations and far more prolific – she was related to many famous pioneering families and a direct descendant of Squire Boone, my fifth great grandfather, who was the father of Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman. Sarah Boone, Daniel's older sister, was my 4th great grandmother. My mother's maiden name was Ball and she was a direct descendant of Joseph Ball, Martha Ball Washington's father who migrated from England. Joseph Ball of Warren Commission fame – or infamy as the case may be – was also a descendant of Joseph Ball, making him my first cousin, several times removed. One of Joseph Ball's direct ancestors was John Ball, who was executed for treason by the British.

Other famous pioneers appear in my maternal line: Brashears, Walker, Wilcoxin (Wilcox) and Eisenhower. It is ironic that both Daniel Boone, the famous Indian fighter and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who commanded the most awesome military force in history, were Quakers, a group dedicated to peace at any cost.

My fifth great uncle, Dr. Thomas Walker, first entered Kentucky in 1750 as the head of a survey party. He discovered and named Cumberland Gap. He also named Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland River and Cumberland Falls after this British nobleman.

Charles Walker, my 5th great grandfather was a member of this survey party but he chose to remain in Kentucky rather than return to Virginia. He was subsequently joined by his son, Nathaniel. The Walkers were an adventuresome clan but none was more colorful than my great-great grandfather, William Walker.

In the 1850s America was obsessed with acquiring more territory and any means was justified to do so. William Walker was a restless lawyer/journalist, bored with his existence. In 1853, he formed an army of mercenaries, sailed to Mexico, and landed at La Paz. They then tore down the Mexican flag and Walker declared himself president of Baja Sur. Not satisfied with this accomplishment he declared himself president of Sonora in 1854. He was chased out of Mexico by Guadalupe Melendrez in May of 1854.

In June of 1855, his ragtag army landed in Corinto, Nicaragua and attacked Granada on October 23, 1855. A peace treaty was signed and he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. In 1856, he became president. This was more than the British and the other Central American countries could tolerate and they mounted an offensive, assisted by Cornelius Vanderbilt, against Walker. Unable to hold Granada, Walker burned the ancient colonial city to the ground.

On May 1, 1857 Walker and his followers surrendered to the U.S. Navy and were granted amnesty.

Despite the warnings of the U.S. and the Central American countries he made two more forays, at the head of mercenary forces, against Central American countries. His luck ran out on September 12, 1860 when he was executed by a firing squad in Honduras.

One of his brothers, Lucius March Walker graduated from West Point in 1850 and became a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. He was killed in a duel with General John Marmaduke in 1863.

Another brother, Winfield Walker served with distinction in the Confederate Army. After Lee surrendered, he and a group of Confederate officers fled to Brazil and founded the city of Santarem, which is at the confluence of the Tapajoz and Amazon rivers. Their descendants still live in this lovely city.

At the frequent family gatherings of the Ball/Patrick family, it was like the gathering of the clans, and all my relatives were separated into the good guys and the bad. On one side we had the pious preachers and the erudite educators; on the other we had the iconoclastic bootleggers and killers.

This led to spirited conversations to say the least since each group was contemptuous of the other. The preachers tried to convert their sinful brothers, who simply laughed at them.

At one such meeting, one of the preachers took the occasion to preach to those assembled and chose – quite appropriately – the theme that the meek shall inherit the earth. This fire eating, raw boned part-time preacher, who supported his wife and twenty two children by working in the coal mines, made the statement that "there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together."

"Yes," retorted Uncle Lincoln Ball, an eccentric genius, who taught school when he was not making moonshine, "but only the lion will get up."

Uncle Lincoln once confided to me, "You know my natural intelligence tells me that there is no God; that man is not a creature of special creation, but then I think: why should I take the chance?"

Before leaving the subject of my forebears, I would like to elaborate on the role of Joseph Holt in the trial of the Lincoln conspirators. Unusual discretionary power had been conferred on Holt by Abraham Lincoln in his famous proclamation of September 24, 1862, which subjected an individual accused of "disloyal practices" to trial by court martial.

John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, considered Joseph Holt to be the principal agent by which Lincoln had extended military control over political prisoners, the practice so widely condemned as unconstitutional and despotic, normally utilized by a tyrant.

Whether or not Joseph Holt's conduct, during the Lincoln trial, was objective contributed to a controversy that has raged for over 100 years.

One student of the period has stated, "Holt was hated and denounced only because of the faithfulness and efficiency with which he carried out his duties. A purer man, a truer patriot, a braver, more intelligent and able officer than General Joseph Holt never will grace the pages of American history."

On the other hand, another equally distinguished scholar stated, "Not one of the nine military judges chosen to try these unfortunate prisoners would have withstood the challenges allowed in the civil courts to the most depraved criminal in choosing his jury. At the foot of the judge's table sat three prosecutors. Holt, whose special duty as special judge advocate was to cross-examine and brow beat the witnesses for the defense, had distinguished himself on many a bloody court martial."

I have spent days pouring over Joseph Holt's papers, which are reposited in the Huntington Library in San Marino, along with magnificent paintings by Gainsborough, Lawrence, Constable and other masters.

Although I realize that it is dangerous to attempt to critique behavior out of context in the period that it occurred, I can state, with certainty, I would not have liked to have had Joseph Holt preside at my trial.

The truth will never be known, but there is no gainsaying the fact that, during the trial, when passionate desire for vengeance was at its height, any scoundrel or perjurer, attracted to Washington by the smell of the reward money, which totaled $100,000 was eagerly welcomed by the Bureau of Military Justice, headed by Joseph B. Holt. The scurrilous testimony to be found in the files is stark evidence of that fact. The uniformed soldiers who captured the alleged conspirators were paid over $72.000. Snitches, even in those days, were paid well; the practice has continued to this date.

From perusing the evidence in Joseph Holt's papers, it is apparent that he was a very hard man. In fact, he make the statement that, "not enough women are hung."

Of course, one of the defendants in the Lincoln assassination trial was Mary Surratt and she was sentenced to hang and, in fact, was hung. From reading the court records, it is apparent that the other members of the court were very much opposed to sentencing her to death. Joseph Holt opposed this viewpoint and argued that if Mary Surratt escaped the noose, simply because she was a woman, then this would encourage other conspirators to hire women to actually commit the assassination. The death penalty had to be confirmed by President Johnson and all the members of the court signed a recommendation for leniency, in regard to Mary Surratt.

Unfortunately, the recommendation was written on the reverse side of page five of the court's report and President Andrew Johnson claimed he never saw the recommendation. This is probably not true. The fact is that Johnson had barely settled in Lincoln's chair, when he began scheming to be elected by the people to the presidency. There was a hue and cry throughout the land over the execution of Mary Surratt and Johnson was not about to admit that he had turned down the recommendation for leniency from the court. Joseph Holt, however, claims that he and Johnson were alone and that Johnson did examine the statement asking for leniency. No one knows who made the decision to write the plea on the back of page five. It was easy for Johnson to turn aside the wrath and indignation and place the blame on General Holt, since they were alone at the time the report of the commission was examined.

The rumor was circulated that Judge Holt had suppressed the recommendation and the fact that he argued against leniency in the first place gave more credence to the rumors. Joseph Holt went to his grave maintaining to the very last that he showed the recommendation to Johnson, who was motivated by ambition to place the blame on him. It is a fact, that motive certainly changed the whole attitude of Johnson – changed his political thought and, in fact, spoiled the purpose of his life.

Our own family was ripped asunder by this event, as well as the Civil War itself and, as so often it happened during that chaotic period we had members of the family who fought on both sides of this tragic conflict.

Very little is known of my paternal grandfather, except that he was a moonshiner and died at an early age in an insane asylum. Of course, many people died in asylums in those days without suffering from some mental illness but, rather, from some undiagnosed illness.

The same is true of my paternal grandmother, so my father was practically an orphan. My father was a moonshiner, a gambler, sometimes a soldier, a notorious womanizer, who gravitated to the most dissolute women and was a brute who beat my mother and the children at the slightest provocation, real or imagined. One sage remark, regarding sex, which he passed on to posterity was, "never cull anything – you might miss something good." He certainly practiced what he preached.

Although my mother was Irish, she did not inherit the famous, uncontrollable Irish temper. Still she would not shrink from standing up for her rights.

One incident is illustrative of her determination, when her patience became frayed or she was pushed too far.

My father, who was in the army at the time, had been having an affair with the town prostitute. He had returned to duty and the whore had transferred her affections to a traveling preacher, who was holding a revival meeting in the church, next to the school that my brother, sister and I were attending.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel by Chauncey Holt. Copyright © 2013 Wim Dankbaar. Excerpted by permission of Trine Day LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

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A Memoir of Spooks, Hoods and the Hidden Elite

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Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

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Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel

A Memoir of Spooks, Hoods and the Hidden Elite

Trine Day LLC

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