Nelson Bunker Hunt

Bunker Hunt was a jovial 275-pound eccentric who looked a bit like the actor Burl Ives. In the 1960s and ’70s, he was one of the world’s richest men, worth up to $16 billion by some estimates. With his five siblings, heirs of the oil billionaire H. L. Hunt, who sired 15 children by three women and died in 1974, he controlled a staggering family fortune whose value was not publicly reported. He was an evangelical Christian close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and supported right-wing politicians and causes, including the John Birch Society. He loathed the federal government, warned of international communist conspiracies, spouted anti-Semitic sentiments, did business with the Saudi royal family and bankrolled expeditions to salvage the Titanic and to find Noah’s Ark. Nelson Bunker Hunt was born in El Dorado, Ark., on Feb. 22, 1926, one of seven children of Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. and Lyda Bunker Hunt. One girl died in infancy. H. L. Hunt had already struck oil riches, and by 1935 trust funds had been set up for Bunker; two sisters, Margaret and Caroline, and three brothers, William Herbert, Lamar and Haroldson III, who was incapacitated with mental illness. It was not until years later that they discovered their father had two other families: four children each with Ruth Ray and Frania Tye. In the ensuing internecine intrigues, all were given trust funds and some became beneficiaries of the patriarch’s will. He attended the University of Texas, joined the Navy in World War II and, after being discharged, attended Southern Methodist University. He worked with his father and brothers in the oil business for a time, then began his own ventures in cattle, horses and oil. He made $5 billion in Libya before Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi nationalized the oil fields. In 1951, he married Caroline Lewis. They had three daughters, Elizabeth Hunt Curnes, Ellen Hunt Flowers and Mary Hunt Huddleston, and a son, Houston Bunker Hunt. As oil prices rose in the 1970s, the family’s wealth skyrocketed — as did inflation. The Hunts insisted their pursuit of silver was merely a hedge against inflation. Much of the hoard was bought on margin or financed with borrowed money. By mid-January 1980 they owned or controlled such vast quantities of silver that they were reaping $100 million in paper profit with every $1 increase in the price. Then the bubble burst. After the market had collapsed and the family had been forced to put up billions in collateral, the oldest sister, Margaret, a dominant voice in family councils, confronted Bunker, demanding to know what he had intended to accomplish. “I was just trying to make some money,” he replied.