[2] From that acquisition and others including diverse interests in publishing, cosmetics, pecan farming, and health food producers, he accrued a fortune which was among the world's largest.
In the 1950s, his Facts Forum Foundation supported highly conservative newspaper columns and radio programs, some of which he authored and produced himself, and for which he became known.
Hunt is reported in internal FBI memoranda to have run prostitution activities in Arkansas and, later in the 1950s, a private horse racing and gambling bookmaking operation from his office in Dallas.
He was generous to his employees, who in turn were loyal to him by informing him of rumors of a massive oil field to the south, in East Texas.
J. Paul Getty, who was considered to be the richest private citizen in the world, said of Hunt, "In terms of extraordinary, independent wealth, there is only one man—H.
[7] His seven children by her were: Margaret (1915–2007), Haroldson ("Hassie", 1917–2005), Caroline (1923–2018), Lyda (born and died in 1925), Nelson Bunker (1926–2014), William Herbert (1929–2024), and Lamar (1932–2006).
Lamar founded the American Football League and created the Super Bowl, drawing on the assistance of his children in selecting the game's name.
Bunker Hunt was briefly one of the wealthiest men in the world, having discovered and taken title to the Libyan oil fields, before Muammar Gaddafi nationalized the properties.
's 15 children in birth order are: A scandal emerged in 1975, after his death, when it was discovered that he had a hidden bigamous relationship with his second wife living in New York.
[19] Multiple sources, including American civil rights icon Malcolm X, implicate Hunt as a lifelong racist who provided major financial assistance to several far-right organizations, such as the Minutemen and the John Birch Society.
For this reason, Hunt supplied Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad continuous financial support due to the latter's belief in racial separation from whites.
[22] Madeleine Duncan Brown, an advertising executive who claimed to have had both an extended love affair and a son with President Lyndon B. Johnson, said that she was present at a party at the Dallas home of Clint Murchison Sr. (another oil tycoon), on the evening prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy which was attended by Johnson as well as other famous, wealthy, and powerful individuals including Hunt, Murchison, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon.
"[23][nb 1] Brown's story received national attention and became part of at least a dozen John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.