ABSTRACT
One of the striking episodes in twentieth-century Texas history occurred at John Connally’s Floresville ranch in January 1988. Connally was an iconic Texan, born into rural poverty, he became a protégé of Lyndon Johnson as a young man, governor of Texas in 1963, and he was seriously wounded in the Kennedy assassination later that year. After six years as governor, Connally served as Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Treasury in the Nixon administration, switched to the Republican Party, and made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1980. By 1982, Connally was in partnership with Ben Barnes as — what else — a developer. Texas was booming and Connally declared that, “We’re beginning an era of prosperity like America hasn’t dreamed of, and Texas will be at the forefront of it.” 1 But within a very few years the price of oil collapsed and the Texas property markets and the banks that funded them went down as well. Connally declared personal bankruptcy in 1987 and he and Nellie sat through five days of public humiliation as their worldly goods passed under the auctioneer’s gavel.
