Scandals, McCain/Palin
From Bwtm
Married to the Mob
Gee, the more you learn of McCain, the more interesting he becomes. Like the fact that his wife's father, Jim Hensley, made his money courtesy of the Az mob, and that McCain's campaign was funded by the mob. What a tangled web we weave in this election - the first half-black candidate against the first mob candidate.
"Hensley still went to prison, but took the fall when the rest of the company was cleared. According to an article in American Mafia.com, Marley rewarded Hensley for his loyalty to the organization:
When Hensley strolled out of the joint, Marley bought his silence with a lucrative Phoenix-based Budweiser beer distributorship.
That distributorship and the rest of Marley's empire did very well over the decades for both Hensley and Marley, making both men multi-millionaires."
"On June 2, 1976, (Az Republic reporter) Bolles climbed into his car and was blown apart by a bomb under the driver's seat. Pieces of his body were strewn around the parking lot."
"[McCain] retired from the military in 1980, divorced his first wife, wed Arizona native Cindy Lou Hensley and moved here to plunge into the world of politics. His first job in Arizona was as a public affairs agent for Hensley & Company, one of the nation's largest beer distributors. He was paid $50,000 in 1982 to travel the state, touting the company's wares. But he was promoting himself as much as he was Budweiser beer. A better job description might have been "candidate."
Then in 1982, McCain ran for Congress. That takes some quick money, and McCain had access to it-- thanks to his father in law (whose employees at his liquor distributorship were 'persuaded' to donate thousands of dollars to McCain), and one of Hensley's friends, Charles Keating of the Lincoln S&L (I won't get into the Lincoln S&L scandal here because it is pretty well known by now that McCain was one of the 'Keating Five.') To seal the deal, Jim Hensley and Cindy Hensley McCain invested $359,100 in one of Keating's projects.
It has been said that the Mafia never really left, they have just moved upscale. "
http://tiodt.blogspot.com/2006/12/married-to-mob.html, http://www.city-data.com/forum/2008-presidential-election/383865-john-mccain-married-mob.html
