I will attempt to restrain The Caped Factoid Buster, much as I enjoy him, and respond semi-seriously.
The purchase of 132,000 shares of Ling-Temco-Vought stock by Alpha-Omega Corp. in 1963 has been known for many years. I've seen references dating back to the early 2000's. Alpha-Omega was indeed an investment vehicle for Ling and Byrd. The Value Line Newsletter from 1-24-1964, wherein the purchase of the 132,000 shares is listed, is the only reference to Alpha-Omega I've ever found. It's not clear whether the purchase actually occurred in 11-1963 or if that's simply when it was reported to the SEC ("These transactions were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Nov. 11 to Dec. 10, 1963").
Joan Mellon's statement that LTV "was about to go under" isn't really accurate. 1959 to 1961 was a time of unprecedented acquisition and growth for Ling Electronics. In 1959, Ling acquired Altec Companies. In 1960, Ling-Altec acquired Temco. In 1961, Ling-Temco acquired Chance Vought. After the latter acquisition, LTV management discovered that Vought had much more serious problems than had been known. Hence, from 1961 to 1965 LTV focused on "restructuring itself by organizing divisions according to technologies and by disposing of divisions not compatible with LTV's future goals." This quote is from a scholarly 1976 paper that used LTV as a case study:
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc663359/m2/1/high_res_d/1002773093-Ling.pdf. I see no evidence that LTV was about to go under; quite the opposite, in fact, as the paper makes clear.
As the paper also makes clear, the 1961 to 1965 restructuring included massive stock exchanges and whatnot. Hence, I don't believe it is fair to leap to the conclusion that there was something suspicious or JFKA-related about Alpha-Omega's acquisition of 132,000 shares in 1963, smack in the middle of the restructuring. This is the product, it seems to me, of Robert Morrow's feverish LBJ-did-it imagination.
One of the earliest books on the JFKA was
Who Killed Kennedy? by Thomas G. Buchanan. He was a serious American journalist with Communist leanings. The book was first published in the U.K. before a revised edition was published in the U.S. The U.K. edition was out before the Warren Commission even got rolling. Several informed, non-lunatic CTers think Buchanan perhaps came the closest to actually solving the JFKA. He didn't name names, but his basic thesis was that the culprits were Texas oilmen like Byrd (he avoided any LBJ angle). It's well worth reading today.
The Texas oilmen theory obviously has far more going for it than the more elaborate and wacky conspiracy theories. LBJ clearly had the motive (about to be dropped from the ticket and probably indicted), folks like Byrd clearly had the motive ($$$ - the oil depletion allowance and potential LTV defense contracts) and means, Byrd had the connection to the TSBD, they all hated JFK for a variety of reasons, the plot would have required minimal participants, etc., etc., etc. Even without LBJ being involved at all, the Texas oilmen theory is quite plausible.
This theory is insufficiently sexy for the loudest voices in the CT community, who will not be happy unless the plot involved the CIA, FBI, Bay of Pigs and a host of other agencies and individuals. They require a conspiracy that will serve to confirm their dark view of the subsequent history of the U.S. As I've said previously, they work backwards from
the Sorry State of the Country Today to
how the JFKA can explain it and why everything would be better if JFK and RFK had lived; if a conspiracy theory won't do this, they aren't really interested. (The second most plausible candidate for a conspiracy theory is clearly the Mafia - but the CT community isn’t really interested in it either, for the same reasons.)
My problems with the Texas oilmen theory are three: (1) It's all speculation. There is not a shred of actual evidence on which to hang the vast body of speculation. It's simply the most plausible of a number of reasonably plausible but entirely speculative theories, all of which are superficially plausible because JFK was so widely despised. (2) Given what we do know about the events in Dealey Plaza, I have a difficult time seeing what any conspiracy scenario would actually have looked like and how it would have made any real-world sense. (3) Given what I know about Oswald, which is absolutely everything that can be known at this time, I do not see him as plausibly involved in a conspiracy as either a witting or unwitting participant whereas I do see him as an entirely plausible lone assassin. YMMV.
The problem, as always, is Oswald. LBJ and the Texas oilmen didn't need Oswald, for crying out loud. His involvement would do nothing but exponentially increase the risk. They didn't need any patsy - what would that accomplish? But since Oswald has to be accounted for somehow, EVERY conspiracy theory plugs him - or a cardboard him who bears no resemblance to the actual guy - into the scenario like a round peg in a square hole.
