Arthur Warren "Sunny" JENKINS

1921 - 2012  (91 years)

• Name	Arthur Warren "Sunny" JENKINS
  Birth	23 Sep 1921	Ava, Douglas County, MO
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	Trucking Executive
  Social Security Number	515-09-3677
  Death	30 Dec 2012	Tomball, Harris County, TX
  Notes	(1) A. W. "Sunny" JENKINS was a close aide of Oklahoma Governor David HALL (1930 – 2016). See the listing of HALL elsewhere in this database. After leaving office, HALL was convicted of bribery and extortion. He became the first Oklahoma governor to be convicted of criminal acts committed during his tenure. He served 19 months of a three-year sentence at a federal correctional institution. JENKINS himself was among several indicted by an Oklahoma County, OK grand jury in December 1973 on charges of conspiracy to defraud the state in connection with kickbacks on contracts for the state's tax and education office buildings. (See Note (4), below.) The charges were later dismissed. (See Note (5), below.) (2) U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 [database online], Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011: Name: Arthur Warren Jenkins Gender: Male Race: White Age: 24 Relationship to Draftee: Self (Head) Birth Date: 23 Sep 1921 Birth Place: Ava, Missouri, USA Residence Place: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Registration Date: 1 Oct 1945 Registration Place: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Employer: Just Out Of Service Weight: 135 Complexion: Ruddy Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Brown Height: 5' 8" Next of Kin: J H Jenkins (3) Arkansas, U.S., County Marriages Index, 1837-1957 [database online], Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011: Name: A W Jenkins Gender: Male Age: 25 Birth Year: abt 1921 Residence: Muskogee, Muskogee, Oklahoma Spouse's Name: Levenia Williams Spouse's Gender: Female Spouse's Age: 28 Spouse's Residence: Muskogee, Muskogee, Oklahoma Marriage Date: 26 Oct 1946 Marriage License Date: 24 Oct 1946 Marriage County: Crawford Event Type: Marriage FHL Film Number: 2132790 (4) The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK, Sunday, February 24, 1974: Jury Transcripts Air Corruption Charges By Bob Bledsoe Allegations of high-level corruption in state government involving Gov. David Hall, collusive bidding on state contracts and kickbacks building contractors were aired this week with the release of an official transcript of an Oklahoma County grand jury's hearings. Lengthy excerpts from that transcript, 1114 pages in length, were detailed in news accounts in the Thursday, Friday and Saturday editions of The Oklahoman and Times. Publication of the testimony before the grand jury has brought denials from some of the key witnesses who say the transcript is not accurate. The Oklahoman and Times stories were taken from a photocopy of the transcript prepared by an Oklahoma County court reporter who recorded the hearings during the grand jury's December session. Some of the many allegations made by grand jury witnesses in the transcript are as follows: • Financial contributions of $550,000 or more were made to Gov. David Hall for payment of personal bills, travel and entertainment expenses and payments to aides by Oklahoma City paint contractor Carl Ballew and former financial adviser to the governor A.W. "Sunny" Jenkins, Tulsa. • A scheme involving the use of fraudulent invoices for work on state building which was never actually performed was devised to pay Ballew back for some of his contributions to the governor which left him in financial distress. • Several contractors and subcontractors involved in bidding on state projects engaged in collusion in submitting illegal, "complementary bids" for one another which guaranteed that a specified contractor would he low bidder for a project, thereby getting the contract. • Gov. Hall knew about some of the alleged activities including fraudulent invoices involving work on the state tax and education buildings. • Lynn Dewayne "Buddy" Hall, former chairman of the State Board of Affairs appointed by Gov. Hall (no relation), was a go-between for contractors in arranging some of the false invoice transactions. • One heating and air conditioning subcontractor failed to get a $1.8 million state job after refusing to pay a $100,000 kickback to the prime contractor, and a second subcontractor got the job after making a $50,000 cash payment to the prime contractor. • Gov. Hall suggested to Ballew that he try to buy City National Bank & Trust Co., Oklahoma City, for the purpose of making loans to the governor. • Records belonging to Jenkins which detailed collections and disbursements of contributions to the governor were stolen from a state capital building office and photocopies of the records were taken in a burglary of Jenkins' home, but Jenkins didn't report the theft to police because of the "confidential" nature of the records. • Gov. Hall decided that roughly $5,000 per month, given to his office by Ballew would be declared as "personal Income" for Mrs. Dorothy Pike, Hall's personal secretary at the time. • Ballew put a Hall campaign worker (during the 1970 governor's race) on the payroll of one of his paint companies for 10 months even though the woman never actually worked for him. • There is an organization known as the "Governor's Club," consisting of several hundred people who contribute to Hall's office to pay various bills. (This was the money collected by Jenkins according to his own testimony.) The grand jury's investigations resulted in the indictment of five persons on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the state in connection with state building contacts. Several other persons, all contractors, were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony. Those indicted include Jenkins; Lynn Hall; E. Allen Cowen II, executive vice president of the E.A. Cowen Construction Co., Shawnee; and Robert A. Berry and Walter Akins, both officers in Cowen's company. Charges Dropped Oklahoma County Dist. Atty. Curtis P. Harris later got the indictment against the five dismissed, then refiled the same charge by information. He explained that the change in procedure would expedite court actions in the case. Preliminary hearings in the case are scheduled for May 19 before Special Judge Jim Barnett in Oklahoma County. Those persons who testified before the grand jury and are immune from prosecution include Ballew; Ted Wolfe, mechanical contractor; Gayle Oller, mechanical contractor; W.A. Nashert Jr., general contractor; Don Lippert, general con tractor; Edgar Blount, general contractor; and R.C. Cunningham and J.J. Cook, both general contractors. Cowen and Cook face another charge not directly rrelated to the grand jury matters. They are both charged with perjury because they signed affidavits of non-collusion filed with the Board of Affairs. The statement says, in effect, that they never entered into collusion with any other contractors in connection with bids on state projects. Affidavits Belied Harris said their testimony before the grand jury belies the affidavits. Several other persons persons testified before the grand jury but were not indicted or granted immunity. They are William Tankersley Jr., general contractor; Jimmy Lee Clay, mechanical contractor; Stanley Anthony, former Clay employee; Nadine Ralls, governor's personal bookkeeper; Barbara Corban, secretary to Cowen; David L. Harter, concrete contractor; John W. Shawver II, electrical contractor; Allen Eugene Coles, steel contractor; Bobby Gene Shook, building supply contractor; Henry Harber Lampl, Shawnee banker; and Richard Steed, Shawnee attorney. Ballew's testimony before the jury panel dealt primarily with his financial contributions to the governor and attempts by governor's aides to help pay some of the money back. Money Given He said he provided about $200,000 for the governor over many months during the early part of Hall's term in office. The money was provided through a ''personal agreement" between him and Hall, Ballew said. He said he put up his business property as collateral for the loans and funded the governor monthly until the debt rose beyond $122,00. At one point, Ballew testified, he was repaid some $50,000 in the summer of 1971 but that within four to six months $28,000 had been borrowed again, "so the relief didn't last long." He said that later, when the banks were threatening to foreclose on some of his notes, ne asked Hall for help. Meeting Set A meeting was arranged between him and Sunny Jenkins at the Habana Inn in Oklahoma City and Jenkins delivered $80,000 in new $20 bills to him, Ballew said. He said the money was furnished by Cowen, who had borrowed it with an unsecured loan from a Shawnee bank. Lampl, an officer of the Shawnee bank, confirmed that Cowen borrowed $125,000 in cash on his signature on Dec. 19, 1972. Ballew testified that he eventually had to bail himself out of the financial hot water without the help of the governor or his aides. He said, though, that he believed the governor had honest intentions of paying him back for the loans. "Every arrangement that I made, I made with David Hall and I assumed, up until a point, it was all legitimate." Invoices Readied "And I trusted him to make the money come back," he said. Ballew also testified that when he was given the $80,000 by Jenkins he was asked to prepare 10 "phony" Invoices on his paint companies to be used by Cowen. The invoices, Ballew said, were to cover for the $80,000, but at the governor's direction, they were never used. He said he never got the invoices back and that Jenkins still has them. Ballew also said that he accompanied the governor to Tulsa in 1972 and that during the trip in the governor's highway patrol airplane Hall said Ballew would get his money back ''from the tax and education building work." He said the governor did not elaborate on that slatement. Size Asked Ballew testified that at one point the governor inquired if the bank he was dealing with was big enough to handle the loans he was making. He said the governor suggested he buy City National Bank, Oklahoma City, and that ''arrangements could be made" with a man in Tulsa who had $5 million or $6 million dollars with which to buy the bank. Ballew said he contacted Fred Boston, the bank president, but that Boston didn't want to discuss such a purchase with him "because he didn't think I was someone who could come up with that kind of money." Ballew also testified that Lynn Hall came to him with a plan to help him get monev. "Buddy (Lynn) Hall came to me and said 'I am told that we are the boiler crew . . . that we're supposed to help you with anything we can.'" Ballew said the boiler crew was a group of campaign workers for the governor including Lynn Hall, D.K. Swan and Larry Kirkland. Scheme Made He said Lynn Hall proposed a scheme involving fake invoices. He explained the scheme as follows: "Well, I would give an invoice to this man. We didn't do any work, but still we got paid and that was handled by Buddy Hall. He brought the invoices — he brought the amount of money for me to invoice and my secretary wrote up the invoice and he carried it to the contractor, picked up a check and brought the money back." Another of the allegations in the transcript — that of collusion among bidders on state contracts, was detailed by Walter A. Kashert Jr., president of Walter Nashert and Sons Inc., after he was granted immunity. He said he plotted with other contractors so that he obtained an $829,000 contract to build a tunnel at the capital complex. Bid Offered "I contacted all of the bidders and said, 'We would like to give you a complentary bid to turn in so that we will In fact be the low bidder,'" he testified. He also admitted to the jury colluding with the E.A. Cowen Construction Co., Shawnee, so that firm could get the contract to build the tax and education buildings. He said he was not surprised when Cowen and Berry approached him to make the complementary bld "because complementary bidding is not an uncommon thing in the construction Industry." Cowen and Berry told him to bid $8,700,000 on the buildings, Nashert said. Cowen's company got the contract with a low bid of $8,539,000. Kickback Refused Mechanical contractor Jimmy L. Clay testified that he worked for several weeks with Cowen and Berry on the plans for heating and air conditioning work on the two buildings and that Cowen told him he had the job for that work for a price of $1.8 million. However, Clay said, Cowen contacted him later and said he had to give the contract to someone else because he was told to do so "by the big man," referring to Gov. Hall. Clay said that news came after he refused to pay Cowen a $100,000 "kickback." Curtis Harris said this week, after excerpts from the transcripts were published, that, according to testimony before the grand jury, Gov. Hall has broken no laws. "There was no criminal law violation by the governor according to any of the evidence given to the grand jury," Harris said. "We have no evidence that the governor knew anything about how the money was being raised for his expenses." he said. (5) The Daily Oklahoman, Tuesday, August 31, 1976: Jury Calls Hall's Ex-Aide By Judy Fossett A.W. "Sunny" Jenkins, a key government witness in an 18-month investigation of former Gov. David Hall, is scheduled to testify Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City. Jenkins, a Tulsa trucking executive, was a top aide to the former governor. Jenkins testified with immunity as the grand jury looked into allegations of kickbacks on state contracts, laundered campaign funds, phony invoicing and diverting campaign money to personal use. That 18-month investigation, led by former U.S. Atty. William R. Burkett, ended without indictments more than a year ago when that jury panel's term expired. Jeakins said trom Tulsa Monday he doesn't have "the slightest Idea" why he was subpoenaed, but assumes it is somehow connected with the Hall investigation. "It's bound to be related to former Gov. Hall. I know of nothing else it could be," Jenkins said. He said he hasn't talked with U.S. Atty. David Russell about his testimony, but is under the impression the questions he will be asked will relate to Hall. Jenkins said the subpoena came "somewhat as a surprise," especially since he had heard the Justice Department had abandoned its plans to pursue its investigation of Hall in light of former governor's conviction of extortion and bribery in March 1975. Russell refused to say what Jenkins will be questioned about. He also refused to say whether the Hall case is open or closed. Asked if he could possibly be under investigation himself, Jenkins said, "I have been cleared by every (federal) agency. There is no tax hassle with me. I was cleared." In previous testimony before the federal panel, Jenkins, who was Gov. Hall's closest aide for more than two years, told grand jurors that: • Funds raised from architects, engineers , and other state contractors on a monthly basis went partly for Hall's personal bills and some went to supplement the incomes of Hall staffers or even officials in the state Democratic party; • Hall helped a Shawnee contractor, E. Allen Cowen II, obtain a $7.8 million state office buildings construction contract in return for a $122,000 kickback; • Hall was involved in arranging a $25,000 kickback and securing a pledge for another $75.000 from a Wall Street investment banking house, Loeb Rhoades & Co. in return for a contract to underwrite $74 million in turnpike bonds in Oklahoma; • Campaign funds were laundered through an Oklahoma City advertising agency, Gelders, Holderby & Smith Inc., with Hall's knowledge, using a system of phony invoices which would allow contributors to claim tax deductions; • Many campaign contributions made in 1969 and early 1970 went into Hall's pocketbook rather than the campaign bank account; • Some campaign funds were used for personal expenses, such as Hall's law office rental, monthly installment payments and payments to a finance company which handled the mortgage on Hall's Tulsa home; • Hall selected engineers for highway and turnpike contracts, then solicited funds in amounts determined proportionate to the size of the contracts. Jenkins himself was among several indicted by an Oklahoma County grand jury in December 1973 on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the state in connection with kickbacks on contracts for the tax and education office buildings. The charges were later dismissed. The investigation of Hall came to an abrupt halt in mid-summer 1975 with a Justice Department ruling stopping Burkett from seeking an extortion indictment naming Hall. The Justice Department stopped Burkett pending the outcome of a related tax investigation. The department policy prohibited the returning of an indictment against a defendant while a related investigation was pending. Midway in that 18-month investigation, the grand jury indicted Hall and two Texas men in connection with a scheme involving millions of dollars in state funds. Hall's appeal on his conviction of bribery and extortion is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. (6) Social Security Death Index: Name: A Jenkins Social Security Number: 515-09-3677 Birth Date: 23 Sep 1921 Issue year: Before 1951 Issue State: Kansas Death Date: 30 Dec 2012
  Person ID	I47546	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 1	Living
  Family ID	F20511	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 2	Levenia WILLIAMS,   b. 7 Dec 1917   d. 30 Dec 2006 (Age 89 years)
  Marriage	26 Oct 1946	Crawford County, AR
  Family ID	F20512	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

• Photos

  Arthur Warren "Sunny" JENKINS