Bryan Burrough by The Big Rich: The Rise;Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes

Author:The Big Rich: The Rise;Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Industries, State & Local, Technology & Engineering, OK, NM, TX), Corporate & Business History, Business & Economics, Petroleum, 20th Century, Petroleum Industry and Trade, General, United States, Texas, Southwest (AZ, Energy Industries, Biography & Autobiography, Petroleum Industry and Trade - Texas, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780143116820
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2009-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

II.

The central question running through media coverage of the Big Four’s political activities was simple: “What do they want?” The nation’s business community was wondering the same thing. Only Murchison had aggressively diversified outside oil, and while his investments in real estate, insurance, and publishing had been quiet affairs, any of the Big Four could threaten General Motors or U.S. Steel if so inclined. These vague concerns turned to reality on February 26, 1954, just a week after the Washington Post series, when Murchison stunned Wall Street by confirming that he and Richardson were plunging into the nation’s largest takeover battle, the fight to control the country’s second-largest railroad, the $2.7 billion New York Central.

It was a tangled affair, at the time the largest proxy fight in American history, initiated by a suave Texas-born Wall Street financier named Robert Young, who had traded in his cowboy boots for a Park Avenue apartment and mansions in Palm Beach and Newport. That January Young, who with a partner controlled a competing railroad, the Chesapeake & Ohio, known as the C&O, had suddenly severed all ties with the C&O in order to satisfy federal dual-ownership laws and mount an attack against New York Central. Young left behind the C&O’s 12 percent stake in New York Central—the largest single block of the railroad’s shares. If he was to have any chance to win the shareholder vote scheduled at New York Central’s annual meeting that May, Young had to get that block of shares into friendly hands. He called Murchison.

Murchison was happy to help, especially once he and Young structured a loan package that allowed Murchison to buy the shares with money borrowed from Young and his partners. To spread the risk, Murchison telephoned Richardson in Palm Springs, reaching him as he was heading out to play cards. It wasn’t until he read the newspapers that Richardson realized that in his haste he had agreed to a twenty-million-dollar deal instead of one worth five million dollars. “What the hell did you say was the name of that railroad? ” he called and asked Murchison. Kidded about it later, Richardson said, “Well, Clint mumbles so.”

The investment drew Murchison into Bob Young’s rarified East Coast world, a milieu in which he was never entirely comfortable. While visiting Young’s mansion in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, which was decorated with the paintings of Young’s sister-in-law Georgia O’Keeffe, a valet shadowed Murchison everywhere, even drawing his bathwater and hovering beside the tub. “That’s okay, you can wait outside the door,” Murchison quipped. “I’ve been bathing myself since I was three.” Chatting with socialites at Young’s Palm Beach mansion, Montserrel, he squirmed uncomfortably in an antique French chair as he tried to balance finger sandwiches and a cup of tea on his knee. Sensing his discomfort, Young asked if he would prefer something else to drink. “Yeah,” Murchison snapped. “A double martini.” 4

All through the media tumult over the Big Four’s backing of McCarthy that spring, the New York Central fight grew nastier, captivating the business press.

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