Billy Carter#Relationship with Libya

William Alton "Billy" Carter was the fourth and youngest child of Lillian and James Earl Carter Sr. He attended Emory University,{{cite news |last1=Pearson |first1=Richard |title=BILLY CARTER, EX-PRESIDENT'S BROTHER, DIES OF CANCER |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1988/09/26/billy-carter-ex-presidents-brother-dies-of-cancer/d807be17-aed7-44ca-af51-e9f11b4639d7/ |access-date=23 February 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=26 September 1988}} served in the United States Marine Corps, and later worked in the Carter family's peanut business.{{cite web |last1=Soper |first1=Susan |title=Billy Carter: Beer Drinker, Book Lover |url=https://www.legacy.com/news/culture-and-history/billy-carter-beer-drinker-book-lover/ |website=Legacy.com |publisher= |access-date=23 February 2023 |date=25 September 2013}}

In 1970, Billy Carter was managing partner and 15% owner of the Carter family's peanut business. By 1976, Billy had increased revenues to $5 million per year.{{cite news |last1=Treadwell |first1=David |title=Billy Carter Is Dead of Cancer at 51 : Ex-President's Brother Capitalized on Country-Boy Image |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-26-mn-1791-story.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=26 September 1988}}

In 1972, Carter purchased a gas and service station in Plains. He owned and operated it for most of the decade.[https://web.archive.org/web/20091109135148/http://www.plainsgeorgia.com/billys_station.html Billy Carter's Station] At its peak he sold 2,000 cases of beer a month and more than 40,000 gallons of gas. In 2009, the station became the Billy Carter Service Station Museum,

• {{cite web |title=Billy Carter's Service Station |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/billy-carter-s-service-station.htm |website=U.S. National Park Service |access-date=23 February 2023 |language=en}}
• {{cite web |title=Billy Carter's Gas Station Museum |url=https://npplan.com/parks-by-state/georgia/at-a-glance-jimmy-carter-national-historic-site/other-sites-of-interest-jimmy-carter-national-historic-site/jimmy-carter-national-historic-site-billy-carters-service-station/ |website=National Park Planner |access-date=23 February 2023}}
• {{cite web |title=Billy Carter Gas Station Museum, Plains, Georgia |url=https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/19421 |website=Roadside America |access-date=23 February 2023 |language=en}}

via the University of Georgia.

Carter ran for mayor of Plains in 1976 but lost the election, 97 to 71 votes, to A.L. Blanton,{{cite news |last1=Ayres |first1=B. Drummond Jr |title=Billy Carter Loses |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/07/archives/billy-carter-loses-blames-antidrinking-vote.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=7 December 1976}} an Albany airport{{cite web |title=Welcome |url=https://airport.albanyga.gov/about-aby |website=Southwest Georgia Regional Airport |access-date=23 February 2023 |language=en}} air traffic controller.{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/07/archives/billy-carter-loses-blames-antidrinking-vote.html | title=Billy Carter Loses | work=The New York Times | date=December 7, 1976 | access-date=March 21, 2019 | author=Ayres, Drummond}}

In the 1970s, Billy Carter was the official spokesperson for Peanut Lolita liqueur.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8e20o_p6cwgC|title=Life in the White House: A Social History of the First Family and the President's House|last=Watson|first=Robert P.|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0791485071|location=Albany, New York|page=119|access-date=April 2, 2017}}

In 1977, although a Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker, he endorsed Billy Beer, introduced by the Falls City Brewing Company, who wished to capitalize upon his colorful image as a beer-drinking Southern good ol' boy.{{cite news |title=Sybil, good ole boy... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13776945/tom-t-and-billy-carter-1/ |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The Tennessean |date=26 June 1977 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |pages=65 |via=newspapers.com}} Billy Carter's name was occasionally used as a gag answer for a Washington, D.C. trouble-maker on 1970s episodes of Match Game.{{cn|date=February 2023}} He was known for his outlandish public behavior;

• {{cite news |last1=Vardeman |first1=Johnny |title=First Brother left friends tales to retell |url=https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/columnists/johnny-vardemans-column/first-brother-left-friends-tales-to-retell/ |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The Gainesville Times (Georgia) |date=2008-10-19}}
• {{cite journal |pages=6–30 |doi=10.1353/scu.0.0108 |title=Becoming Billy Carter: Clothes Make the Man (and His Many Characters) |year=2010 |first1=José F. |last1=Blanco |journal=Southern Cultures |volume=16 |issue=2|s2cid=201768096 }} he once urinated on an airport runway in full view of the press and dignitaries.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Nq0SAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GfkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7188,3794278&dq=billy+carter+urinated&hl=en "Billy Carter Curbs Tongue"], Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 15, 1979

By 1979, he drank half a gallon of vodka and whiskey a day.{{cite news |last1=McLELLAN |first1=DENNIS |title=O.C. Writer Helps Tell Billy Carter Odyssey |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-27-li-769-story.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=27 January 1990}} In February 1979, Carter was admitted to seven weeks of rehabilitation at the Long Beach, California Navy Hospital alcohol treatment facility.{{cite news |last1=Bennett |first1=Tom |title=Billy Carter Dies of Pancreatic Cancer |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/billy-carter-dies-pancreatic-cancer/HLoWKaDqabDiCjMBxlQdeO/ |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |language=English}}{{cite web |title=Betty Ford leaving Long Beach Naval Hospital, Calif. |url=https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz0002rkdf/ |website=calisphere.org |access-date=23 February 2023 |date=6 May 1978}} He later became sober and reportedly extended support to other addicts in their own recovery.

In 1981, he was forced to sell his Plains properties to pay taxes and debts and moved to Haleyville, Alabama where he worked in sales for Tidwell Industries. In 1985, he became Vice President of Scott Housing Systems.{{cite web |title=Billy Carter |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Billy-Carter |website=Britannica |access-date=23 February 2023 |language=en}}

In late 1978 and early 1979, Billy Carter visited Libya three times with a contingent from Georgia. He eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and received a $220,000 loan of which, The New York Times speculated,{{cite news |last1=Hershey |first1=Robert D. Jr |title=Billy Carter Dies of Cancer at 51; Troubled Brother of a President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/26/obituaries/billy-carter-dies-of-cancer-at-51-troubled-brother-of-a-president.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The New York Times|date=26 September 1988}} only $1,000 was repaid.{{Cite news |date=1980-07-23 |title=Billy Carter Role in Iran Hostage Crisis Disclosed |pages=1 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114062182/billy-carter-role-in-iran-hostage/ |access-date=2022-12-04}} However, Edwin P. Wilson claimed he had seen a telegram showing that Libya paid Billy Carter $2 million.Joseph J. Trento, Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network (Carroll and Graf, 2005), p. 162. This led to a Senate hearing on alleged influence peddling which the press named Billygate.{{cite news|last=Sabato|first=Larry|title=Billygate – 1980|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/billy.htm|newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 21, 1998 |access-date=September 28, 2011}} A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter—Libya Investigation).

• {{cite web |title=inquiry into the matter of billy carter and libya report |url=https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/961015.pdf |website=intelligence.senate.gov |access-date=23 February 2023}}
• [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002757169 Inquiry into the matter of Billy Carter and Libya: hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Activities of Individuals Representing the Interests of Foreign Governments of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, August 4, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22, September 4, 5, 9, 10, 16, 17, and October 2, 1980]

{{blockquote|"I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future."|author=Jimmy Carter, August 4, 1980Trento, Prelude to Terror, p. 164. Trento asserts that Libya's involvement with Billy Carter was instigated by Israeli intelligence in order "to compromise the president", who had ended Israel's "special status inside the CIA". Trento, 160, 157.}}

A 1985 Wall Street Journal article suggested that a series of Billygate articles written by Michael Ledeen and published in The New Republic in October 1980 were intended to influence the outcome of that year's presidential election. According to the reporting, Francesco Pazienza, an officer of the Italian intelligence agency SISMI, alleged that Ledeen was handed Billygate information by the Italian Intelligence agency and he co-authored the articles with Arnaud de Borchgrave.{{cite news |last1=Blumenthal |first1=Sidney |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/02/16/journal-in-turmoil/dcd04eee-a204-49b1-8df5-857e687ed660/ |access-date=29 October 2024 |work=The Washington Post |date=February 15, 1987}} Pazienza was later tried and convicted in absentia for using "extortion and fraud to obtain embarrassing facts about Billy Carter".{{cite magazine |last=Unger|first=Craig|title=The War They Wanted, the Lies They Needed|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=July 2006|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/07/yellowcake200607|accessdate=August 5, 2013|quote=A 1985 investigation by Jonathan Kwitny in The Wall Street Journal reported that the New Republic article was part of a larger disinformation scam run by Ledeen and SISMI to tilt the election, and that "Billy Carter wasn’t the only one allegedly getting money from a foreign government." According to Pazienza, Kwitny reported, Michael Ledeen had received at least $120,000 from SISMI in 1980 or 1981 for his work on Billygate and other projects. Ledeen even had a coded identity, Z-3, and had money sent to him in a Bermuda bank account, Pazienza said. Ledeen told the Journal that a consulting firm he owned, I.S.I., worked for SISMI and may have received the money. He said he did not recall whether he had a coded identity. Pazienza was subsequently convicted in absentia on multiple charges, including having used extortion and fraud to obtain embarrassing facts about Billy Carter. Ledeen was never charged with any crime, but he was cited in Pazienza's indictment, which read, "With the illicit support of the SISMI and in collaboration with the well-known American 'Italianist' Michael Ledeen, Pazienza succeeded in extorting, also using fraudulent means, information … on the Libyan business of Billy Carter, the brother of the then President of the United States."}}

Carter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 1987 and received unsuccessful treatments for the disease.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/12/us/billy-carter-has-surgery.html|title=Billy Carter Has Surgery|date=September 12, 1987|newspaper=The New York Times|page=34 (section 1)}} He died in Plains the following year at age 51,

• {{cite news |title=Mourners Arrive In Plains For Billy Carter's Funeral |url=https://apnews.com/article/a75f71b8dcc7b80ec4a7990dab76485d |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=AP NEWS |date=September 26, 1988 |language=en}}
• {{cite news |title=PLAINS SHUTS DOWN TO MOURN BILLY CARTER |url=https://www.deseret.com/1988/9/26/18779325/plains-shuts-down-to-mourn-billy-carter |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=Deseret News |date=26 September 1988 |language=en}}

five years after the death of his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, who also died of pancreatic cancer at age 54. A year and a half later, his older sister, Gloria Carter Spann, died at age 63 from pancreatic cancer. Their father, James Earl Carter Sr., also died of the disease at age 58. His mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, died from breast cancer at age 85. His older brother Jimmy Carter died at age 100 in 2024.

After Billy died, his wife Sybil opened a cafe.{{cite web |title=Jimmy Carter |url=https://booknotes.org/Watch/62763-1/Jimmy-Carter |website=booknotes.org |access-date=23 February 2023}}

• Carter, William "Buddy" (1999) Billy Carter: A Journey Through the Shadows ({{ISBN|1-56352-553-4}}).
• {{cite book |last1=Carter |first1=Billy |editor1-last=Rifkin |editor1-first=Jeremy |editor2-last=Howard |editor2-first=Ted |editor1-link=Jeremy Rifkin |editor2-link=Ted Howard (author) |title=Redneck power : the wit and wisdom of Billy Carter |url=https://archive.org/details/1977-jr-redneck-power_202106 |date=1977 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York, New York}}{{cite news |last1=Mitgang |first1=Herbert |title=Publishing: Words of the Carters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/06/archives/publishing-words-of-the-carters.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=6 May 1977}}

{{Portal|Biography|United States}}

• List of scandals with "-gate" suffix

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10581313 Carter, Billy, 1937-1988] - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
• [http://vault.fbi.gov/Billy%20Carter FBI file on Billy Carter]
• [http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/images/CarRevell/revell-billycarter.JPG Billy Carter's "Redneck Power Pick-up" model]
• {{Find a Grave|2475|access-date=February 10, 2009}}

{{Jimmy Carter|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Billy}}

Category:1937 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:United States Marines

Billy

Category:Gordy family

Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Democrats

Category:People from Plains, Georgia

Category:Emory University alumni

Category:Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:20th-century American businesspeople