0:02

President Carter is on the line. Hello, Mr

0:05

President, this is Morocca. Thank you

0:07

very very much for speaking with me this morning.

0:10

Most talk to you got one of my favorite service.

0:14

This isn't a prank call. I'm actually

0:16

on the phone with President Jimmy Carter

0:19

and we're not talking about Habitat for Humanity

0:21

or his Nobel Peace Prize. Um.

0:24

What what are your fondest memories of your

0:26

brother? Billy? H good

0:28

human hard work. Back

0:31

when Jimmy Carter was president, his

0:33

younger brother Billy wasn't just known

0:36

to insiders. He became

0:39

the most famous person family,

0:42

ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first brother of America,

0:45

Billy Carter. Billy, you are a fantastic

0:47

You could make a Carreon, show business anything.

0:50

Billy Carter became a bona fide

0:52

celebrity. Mama Field as small

0:55

as one of the boys. You

0:58

can see Brother Billy. This brother

1:01

Billy Carter is on the cover of

1:03

Newsweek magazine holding a can of his new

1:05

beer, Billy Beer. Yes

1:07

he even had his own beer, which

1:09

I remember him plugging on TV. Is

1:12

the best beyond ever taste, and I've tasted a lot.

1:18

As a presidential history buff I've

1:21

long been fascinated by first families

1:23

and the striking pattern of unruly

1:27

presidential brothers. They go

1:29

way back to John Quincy adams

1:31

brother Charles, who was described

1:33

as a madman possessed

1:35

by the devil Ulysses

1:37

as Grant's brother Orville got mixed

1:40

up in a kickback scheme. And

1:42

remember Roger Clinton. I

1:44

have one of his CDs.

1:54

Roger became such a nuisance that his

1:56

secret Service code name was Headache.

1:59

Really, but no

2:02

other presidential brother made headlines

2:04

the way Billy Carter did. Billy's

2:07

doing great. He's making five hundred

2:09

thousand dollars a year lecturing

2:11

and acting, while Jimmy Carter makes two hundred

2:13

thousand dollars a year lecturing and

2:16

acting. It

2:18

was all in good old boy fun until

2:21

the character became a caricature,

2:23

getting mixed up in a truly bizarre

2:26

international scandal and adding

2:28

to the woes that would cost his brother

2:30

reelection. He started out as a national

2:32

amusement. He's become a national

2:34

liability. He was trying to be who

2:37

the press had tried to turn him out

2:39

to be. A written brother

2:42

with the help of his family, will tell

2:44

the story of the real Billy

2:46

Carter. I'm the president, brother,

2:48

right, I'll play it to

2:51

the hill, to the Hill from

2:53

CBS Sunday morning, and Simon and

2:55

Schuster, I'm Morocca

2:58

and this is mobite Harry's

3:02

dismobid Billy Carter

3:06

September death

3:10

of the first Brother. Therefore,

3:26

I shall resign the presidency effective

3:28

at noon tomorrow. Vice

3:31

President Ford will

3:33

be sworn in as president at

3:36

that hour. In this office

3:41

was the first presidential election since

3:43

the trauma of Watergate and Richard

3:45

Nixon's resignation two years earlier.

3:48

Vice President Gerald Ford had taken

3:50

the reins a kind of caretaker

3:52

commander in chief, best remembered

3:55

for this a full, free

3:57

and absolute pardon under rich Nixon

4:02

for all offenses against

4:04

the United States, which he America

4:07

was looking to renew itself, so

4:09

it turned to a peanut farmer from

4:12

Plains Georgia. Jimmy

4:19

Carter was a man on a mission.

4:21

The future of our counch is not in my hands,

4:25

it's in your hands. And I want

4:27

to elevate the spirits of our nation. He

4:29

put a friendly face on his own story

4:32

of spiritual rebirth that

4:34

managed to appeal to religious and non

4:36

religious people. America

4:38

would be born again with him as president,

4:42

even though he had been governor of Georgia. Carter

4:44

seemed to come out of nowhere. There was

4:46

intense curiosity about him

4:49

and his family. Every family

4:51

is different, unique. If

4:55

I have a doubt that, I have to look at my own family.

4:58

Look. Historians can argue about his

5:00

single term in office, but there's no

5:02

question the Carter family belongs

5:05

in the Hall of Fame for sheer

5:07

colorfulness. There was the matriarch,

5:10

Lillian Carter, better known as

5:12

Miss Lillian. You know how today

5:14

everyone just throws around the word authentic,

5:17

Well, Miss Lillian was the real thing.

5:19

Here she is describing how she disciplined

5:21

the future president. When we got a whipping.

5:24

People asked me, what was he hit with aboard

5:27

a bell? There's a little you know what a pas

5:29

tree switches. That's what it was out

5:31

of That's what it is. And her four kids

5:33

were the ultimate variety pack. First

5:37

came Jimmy, the teetotaling, squeaky

5:40

clean former naval officer. Then

5:43

King's sister Gloria, who was

5:45

named most Outstanding Female motorcyclist

5:48

in America in eight

5:52

well most

5:55

of the time, and then I ride some

5:57

big ones too. Next up was

5:59

Ruth the faith healer. Morally

6:02

Safer profiles her for sixty minutes.

6:04

Do you think that this country I can use a lot of healing.

6:07

I think the country is desperately in

6:09

need for heley and bringing up the

6:11

rear. Thirteen years younger

6:13

than Jimmy was Billy. I

6:16

have one such as hotory preaching.

6:18

I've got one of the motor cycle out, I got a brother.

6:21

I feel I'm almos slaying one of the family. I

6:23

want to stay in plains now. Maybe it's

6:26

because I'm from Maryland, but I have a little

6:28

trouble understanding him. What he said there

6:30

is that he was the only sane one

6:32

in the family. There was a clear

6:34

family resemblance between Billy and Jimmy.

6:37

Both had big, toothy grins, but

6:39

Billy was a little heavier set and wore

6:42

thick, blocky, black framed glasses

6:44

the kind of today would be totally hip,

6:47

but not back then. I just remember

6:49

saying when I first met

6:52

him, those glasses look awful.

6:55

And what I'm sure that endeared

6:58

you to him, and now we want

7:00

to say it to him. What's

7:03

what? What was those crazy glasses? That's

7:05

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather

7:08

he profiled Billy back in January

7:12

seven. We went to planes a few days ago to spend

7:14

some time with Billy, to find out if he is,

7:16

as he is so often painted, just another

7:18

South Georgia redneck. Billy Corner was

7:20

genuinely entertaining. Whether you liked

7:23

him or not, agree with you or not, he

7:25

was entertaining. He was good for a laugh.

7:28

Did you like him when he went down there? I loved him.

7:31

I liked him, and I liked his family. I liked

7:33

everything about it. What Dan found

7:35

in Billy was a man of surprising

7:37

depth. But what about these stories do you read? Oh?

7:41

And how many books a week lately? I've been going to go

7:44

three? Maybe four?

7:47

I read off one day one

7:49

night. In the piece, Billy seems utterly

7:52

unimpressed by the network newsman

7:54

who has come down to interview him. Somebody

7:56

told me that you said most report is goodn't get

7:58

a job doing anything else. That's right about

8:01

on whalefaith, it wasn't quotas And I

8:03

still say that. H the

8:06

writing reporters take the news off the ap and

8:08

U P I and about

8:11

of the television reporters get the information

8:14

reproducing and what the

8:16

hell goes on? And I've

8:18

come through the only reason anybody's a television porter because

8:20

he can't read and write at all. There

8:23

were a lot of people who

8:25

heard that, and we're saying, you know what, old

8:27

Billy is right. And not only that, but

8:30

he told that God damn den rather

8:32

write to his face. He won the

8:34

anti press primary. Right there, Billy

8:38

talks about he's smoking six

8:41

five six, citing backs to day, and he's

8:43

drinking. He's drink anything with anybody,

8:45

don't make no difference, would or what time of the day of

8:47

United is sure. There are moments when

8:49

he's just trying to get a rise out of Dan. At

8:52

one point, Billy claims that if his brother

8:54

hadn't been running, he devoted for segregationist

8:57

George Wallace. Yeah, I'm

8:59

gonna want its dinner bad? How

9:02

you putting me on as

9:05

kid of my wife got vot kid voters.

9:10

But overall watching him hold

9:12

court with reporters and visitors, it

9:15

occurs to me what an asset Billy

9:17

must have been. At the beginning. I took a poll in

9:19

playing John who was the biggest songs and

9:31

I want hands down. While

9:34

voters may have respected boy scout

9:36

Jimmy. They liked good

9:39

old boy Billy. Now we'll

9:41

probably talk about, well, how much of

9:43

the good old boy image that Billy

9:45

Carter put forward, how much of that was an act,

9:48

and how much of it was What

9:50

do you think? What do you think? Do you think part of it was an

9:52

act? I think part of it

9:55

became an act, but I don't think

9:57

it started that way. Okay,

10:02

So we are entering Planes,

10:05

Georgia now, and this is

10:07

one of the few presidential

10:09

hometowns I've not been to. It's

10:12

always been on my list. End here it says on

10:14

the side of the building, Planes, Georgia, home

10:16

of Jimmy Carter, our thirty ninth President.

10:20

Planes is a small town in southwest

10:23

Georgia. This is Peanut Country,

10:25

population seven hundred, but

10:28

during the Carter years it was inundated

10:30

with thousands of tourists daily.

10:33

If Planes became a circus, Billy

10:35

was center ring Billy

10:39

Carter's service station museum.

10:41

And I think I'm guessing at that Civil

10:43

Carter right there, I'm greeted

10:45

by Civil Carter, Billy's wife

10:47

of thirty three years. Very

10:50

good, wait

10:52

wait great, well, I love

10:54

that. That's very thank you. So much.

10:57

She introduces me to three of their six

10:59

children. Him there

11:02

was the oldest Kim, middle child

11:04

Buddy, how are you, God Morocco,

11:07

and the youngest of the family, Earl. He

11:10

was born at the tail end of the ninety

11:12

six campaign.

11:16

How are you? Yeah?

11:19

Yeah, I want to go in and see the station. I

11:22

recognize this filling station from the

11:24

Dan Rather piece. It was here

11:26

that Billy parried with the press and talked

11:28

it up with tourists. I feel like

11:30

I've stepped back into the nineteen seventies.

11:33

And look at that coke machine. If you knew

11:35

the right combination, you could get beer out of it.

11:38

Is that right, are you? Billy

11:42

loved beer so much that he did something

11:44

unusual when he bought his station with Sybil

11:46

back in seventy two. Well,

11:49

the story goes that Billy always

11:52

wanted his own personal bar and

11:54

he's sold beer and

11:57

that was as far as he could go. You

11:59

know, So a bar and a filling station,

12:01

which is which in and of itself is kind of

12:03

a filling station. I got's a bar today.

12:06

It's a quaint little museum

12:08

devoted to Billy. Um. There's a

12:10

bust of Billy All

12:12

magazine cars at least two newsweeks.

12:15

Yeah, the memorabilia is mine. I

12:18

just realized that this may be the

12:20

only first Brother museum.

12:22

Probably there's a healthy quotient

12:25

of kitch here. The patchwork

12:27

overalls Billy wore on he hall,

12:33

a shoe jacket lined with what else

12:35

a picture of Billy. Well,

12:40

but it cross It's one of those things that it's so hideous

12:42

it crosses over into being break.

12:47

And then there's this a letter from

12:49

a six year old Billy to his

12:51

older brother Jimmy. This is

12:54

uh, dear Jimmy, I want

12:56

to see you. How are you? I

12:59

made? I'll lay's and bees

13:02

love William Alton Carter When

13:05

I read that, that's the kind of letter you write to your father,

13:07

right right. William

13:15

Alton Carter was born on March ninety

13:18

seven. Tell me about Billy, your youngest child.

13:22

He's eighteen. He is younger than Jimmy, and

13:24

he didn't come along with the other children. He was

13:26

a baby, and he was a little spoiled

13:29

maybe, but he was a good boy. That's

13:31

Dan Rather. Speaking to Miss Lilian

13:33

back in ninety seven, Jimmy

13:36

says that I've always loved Billy

13:38

the best. Maybe I did

13:41

because we were so close. Was he a

13:43

little bit of a mama's boy?

13:45

Now he was not really,

13:47

I don't think he was. He was his

13:50

daddy's son. He worshiped his daddy.

13:52

Billy's father, James Earl Carter Sr.

13:55

Was known as Mr Earle. He

13:57

ran the family peanut business. Jimmy

14:00

left for the Naval Academy when Billy was

14:02

just six years old, so the brothers

14:04

didn't really know each other in those early years.

14:07

Billy, working alongside his father,

14:10

dreamt of taking charge of the business one

14:12

day. But in nine

14:15

Mr Earl died of pancreatic cancer.

14:18

Billy was just sixteen. I

14:20

mean, he lost his hero. That's

14:23

Billy's son, Buddy. And I think it was

14:25

understood that my

14:27

dad was going to carry on, you

14:29

know, he was gonna you know, fall in vented his

14:32

footsteps and go through. But when he

14:34

died, you know, everything suddenly changed.

14:36

That future wasn't there anymore, because you know, Jimmy

14:38

had to come back after Mr Earl's

14:41

death, and through the front door came

14:43

big brother Jimmy. He was

14:45

going to take over. So he's

14:47

wondering, who the hell, Jimmy, who

14:49

are you doing stepping in here and telling

14:52

me what to do. And uh, I think

14:54

that's when he started, you know, losing

14:56

his way a little bit. I think

14:58

they were both stubborn. Think Jimmy

15:00

is very stubborn and Billy was at

15:03

times. In fact, Billy once

15:05

wrote, as they say in the South, I'm

15:07

bad stubborn. Ask anyone who

15:09

knows me. He said, the best way

15:12

to get him to do something was to tell

15:14

him he couldn't. Sibyl can

15:16

vouch for this. She and Billy were

15:18

childhood sweethearts. They got

15:20

married just after Billy joined the Marines.

15:23

He was eighteen, Sybil was

15:25

just sixteen. I was right on the

15:27

burde of seventeen. We got married in August

15:30

and I was seventeen in November. You were so young,

15:32

but you were sure. Oh absolutely.

15:34

I felt like I would never be bored

15:37

being married to Billy, and

15:39

I can honestly say that

15:42

in the thirty three years that we were married,

15:44

I was never bored one day. I

15:46

don't know that I've ever heard a

15:49

better encapsulation of why

15:52

someone shows their life partner. Then

15:54

I didn't want to be bored. Yeah. Absolutely.

15:58

Billy stayed in the Marines for four years.

16:01

He and Sybil began raising a family.

16:03

It was during this time that he began to drink

16:06

and get into fights. After

16:08

his time in the service, he worked some odd

16:10

jobs and even returned to the family

16:12

warehouse for a brief time, where

16:15

he clashed with Jimmy. He moved

16:17

to Atlanta, where he enrolled in college

16:19

but dropped out. Then in nineteen

16:22

sixty two, he got a call. Jimmy

16:24

was entering local politics and needed

16:27

help with the business. Billy was

16:29

needed back in planes. He

16:31

packed up the family and headed home.

16:34

We raised about within ninety about

16:38

body bibs pins raising Union state. Funny

16:41

enough, Billy was allergic to peanuts,

16:44

but not too hard work, as Buddy

16:46

remembers. So my dad would go out, you

16:48

know, four thirty in the morning. He might be standing

16:50

around the bed of a pickup truck with some farmer

16:53

thirty miles down the road in the middle of phil either

16:55

drinking a cup of coffee or you know,

16:57

nipping from a half painters something, you know, just ending.

17:00

But he was out there. He could he understood

17:02

the farmers, and he could talk to him a lot easier than that

17:05

my uncle could. He was the

17:08

hardest work I Elverys saw and he always

17:11

was small in his face. And do you

17:13

think that that was one of the happiest

17:15

times in his life when he came back and

17:18

and was and was running the business. Well,

17:21

he never did run the business. I actually I ran

17:23

the business and stuff, he said, when I was

17:25

going away from home. And

17:27

uh, but he was. He was very

17:30

good at it. But I made the basic decisions.

17:33

Still, I was a senior partner. There's

17:36

no doubt about that. M By

17:40

all accounts, this returned to planes

17:43

was a more stable time for Billy and his family.

17:46

He wouldn't be for long. My

17:49

name as Jimmy Carter, and I'm running

17:51

for president. You

18:00

coming in. I'm

18:03

at the home of Civil Carter, Billy's

18:05

widow. It's just down the road from

18:07

the service station and right next door

18:09

to Jimmy and Rosalind's presidential compound.

18:12

Let me introduce you to my

18:15

girls. How do

18:18

the ride is? My girls are

18:20

Janna, Marley and Mandy. Jana

18:23

is the second oldest of Billy and sybil six

18:25

kids, Marley's number four and Mandy's

18:28

number five, and that the

18:33

living room is covered with family photos.

18:35

A small painting of Billy hangs in the center

18:38

in the front Hall. There's a beautiful

18:40

full length portrait of Miss Lilian.

18:42

What's that famous story when somebody say, are you proud

18:45

of your son? Which

18:49

is great? And she met that. Even

18:52

though Jimmy Carter had been in Georgia politics

18:54

for more than a decade, he was still largely

18:57

unknown on the national scene. Jimmy

19:00

Carter Jimmy. When

19:03

Jimmy told his family that he was running for president,

19:06

their reactions weren't much different. I

19:08

can remember Ms Lillian saying, president

19:11

of what I

19:14

think everybody was shocked. Was Billy

19:16

enthusiastic about this? Yeah, yeah

19:19

he was. He was. He loved Jimmy and

19:21

he felt like he felt like Jimmy

19:23

would make a good president. He did. In

19:25

recent months, the town of Planes has been virtually

19:28

taken over by promoters as the tourists

19:30

continue to flock in by the thousands.

19:34

In the beginning, it was all of who,

19:36

Me and Buddy who always doing stuff to

19:38

the tourists. Of all the siblings, Jana

19:41

seems to me to be the most like her dad. We

19:43

we let some oranges rotten.

19:46

The tour train would come by and with oranges

19:49

that the train, Yeah,

19:54

that was nothing. Years

19:58

later, Billy talked about the circules. It

20:00

affected that everybody in planes,

20:03

me more so than most people. I was only

20:05

available with Carter. You know. I couldn't

20:07

go in and drink a bill or walked downtown without having

20:10

four pictures taken, which I enjoyed part

20:12

of. Sometimes I wanted sometimes I didn't want it. You know, people

20:15

have no idea how being the president affects

20:17

the rest of your family. I mean, it was just, you

20:20

know, and it was fun for a while. But but

20:22

it's funny when you think about what it would be like today.

20:26

I always say we would have a reality so dat

20:28

he was still leaving. Our next

20:30

point of interest will be the home of

20:32

Billy Carter. It's the great house

20:34

on the left with the basketball goal

20:37

in the yard. Billy lives there with

20:39

his wife Sybil, and their six children.

20:41

The lack of privacy got so bad that

20:43

the family leader moved to another town

20:46

twenty miles away. It was hard.

20:49

I worried a lot about my kids

20:52

and h but as far as

20:54

you know, wanting jim And to win and and and

20:56

be the president. And of course we were all behind

20:58

him and we loved to and campaigned

21:01

for him. When Jimmy won the Democratic

21:03

nomination for president. He gave

21:05

special thanks to Billy, saying quote,

21:08

without you, it couldn't have happened. You

21:10

stayed home and kept everything going.

21:14

That November, Jimmy Carter was elected

21:17

the thirty ninth President of the United

21:19

States. Let's time for Rush to

21:21

get together the correct our mistakes.

21:23

That's a difficult questions, and to make

21:25

god nations right. Just before

21:28

the inauguration, the press asked former

21:31

President Lyndon Johnson's brother Sam

21:33

Houston Johnson to comment on

21:35

Billy. Sam

21:38

had battled with alcohol and at

21:40

times with his older brother. Sam's

21:43

two word advice for Billy be

21:45

careful. Yeah,

21:55

oh my word. I'm

21:58

watching Billy's kids as they watched themselves

22:00

in that ninety seven Dan rather peace

22:03

when the fair Fawce thatt one comes up, best man.

22:07

The girls are shrieking at their nineteen seventies

22:10

hair dues or in the case of baby

22:12

Earl, lack of hair. But

22:20

mostly they're transfixed by their

22:22

dad to keep from crying

22:25

because it

22:27

does make me a little bit of By

22:31

the time of that interview, just weeks

22:33

before Jimmy entered the White House, Billy

22:35

was already a household name and

22:38

surprisingly self aware. You

22:40

said to me yesterday you

22:43

thought you might have created a Frankenstein monster.

22:46

What do you mean by that? I like my would

22:50

my, I don't say act about Riddennick.

22:55

I don't know what to do with it. Now. You saw the crowd, he

22:58

saw the crowd yesterday. I think Hope was

23:00

a little bit too far. He was trying

23:02

to be what the press had tried

23:04

to turn him out to be, a

23:07

written neck brother, and

23:10

he would play to that, and

23:13

he would he would tell out landy stories

23:16

just to see what the press would do. So he

23:19

was smart as a whip, and the press

23:21

made did he look stupid? He was not stupid.

23:24

I can't stand that. But Jenny, you hated

23:26

that, you hated the assumptions that people

23:28

made. Now

23:30

that really was fake news. Patting and Dan

23:34

rather wouldn't call the story that he did fake

23:36

news, but he concedes that it

23:39

was a bit more entertainment

23:41

than news. While I thought the peace turned

23:43

out very well, I do think we got the

23:46

essence of Billy Carter in the piece.

23:49

Uh did we play something to the caricature? I'm

23:51

sorry to say, yes, boy, it's hard

23:53

right not to indulge that because the audience

23:55

wants that. You know that people watching at home

23:58

wanted to hear him be a little bit of a

24:00

redneck, and he knew that as well.

24:02

Dan pointing out something else about Billy

24:05

that's less funny, Well, his eyes

24:07

darted a bit. That's interesting. Why do you

24:09

what do you think that was about? I

24:12

think he spoke to his sense of vulnerability

24:15

and lack of confidence as somebody who

24:17

has worn glasses that are much

24:20

thicker than the ones I wear. Now I really mean

24:22

this, you kind of hide behind them. I

24:25

never had thought of that. Billy

24:27

admitted that he'd been a shy kid due

24:29

to a stutter, something that would return

24:31

from time to time when he was uncomfortable.

24:34

He also had this nervous

24:36

laugh, really more of a giggle.

24:39

Well, good, no question, I said out, What

24:43

was your dad's sense of humor like at home? Depending

24:46

when he came home. We literally

24:48

used to look out the window to

24:51

see the expression on his face because we we

24:53

knew when he was in one of his moods or not when

24:56

he was in a bad mood. We scattered. But when

24:58

he said the moods did that depend on drinking

25:00

or just this is the first

25:03

sense I'm getting from the kids that their

25:05

father's drinking was a problem, and

25:08

when their uncle became president, it

25:10

only got worse. When

25:15

Jimmy Carter went into the White House, the

25:17

peanut business went into a blind trust

25:19

run by a lawyer in Atlanta. When

25:22

Billy tried to buy the business, he was

25:24

turned down, and so he quit altogether.

25:27

And so in place of peanuts, he

25:29

made a career out of being Billy

25:32

Carter. He

25:35

upgraded his look to leisure suits, traded

25:37

in his black rimmed glasses for wire

25:40

framed aviators, and got himself a

25:42

Nashville based agent named Tandy

25:44

Rice. I think everybody I know, including

25:47

you, has a little Billy Carter. Any Soon

25:49

enough, the president's kid brother was

25:52

raking it in. The President's brother

25:54

Billy Carter well got another ten thousand

25:57

dollar fee a week from tomorrow He'll

25:59

play on Billy's Redneck Power

26:02

softball team. Attended

26:04

barn dance, and just generally be himself.

26:06

Apparently, he appeared at mall openings,

26:09

he judged, and of course participated

26:11

in an international belly flop

26:13

contest. And no matter the venue,

26:16

Billy always had a drink in his hand. Wonderful,

26:24

that's socialite celebrity Ja

26:27

Ja Gabor. She gushed over

26:29

Billy when they appeared together with Sybil

26:31

on the MERV Griffin Show for a segment

26:33

on marriage. Vidal Sassoon was

26:36

also there. Quick aside, I first

26:38

learned the word pizzas while watching

26:40

Sassoon's a daytime TV show. Here's

26:43

my favorite part of the MERV Griffin appearance.

26:46

Dined on a peanut from the peanut

26:48

grows on a tree? Or where does it grow? I

26:52

never thought of that either. Billy

26:57

showed off his range playing a rare

26:59

trem attic role in the TV movie

27:02

Flatbed Annie and Sweetie Pie.

27:04

I'm sorry to tell you, Mr Rosa Jackson

27:06

the hospital in Los Angeles. He's been in an

27:09

accident, night hijacking or something.

27:12

There were stunts like a tennis tournament

27:14

with Bobby Riggs and Chris Effort. Tell

27:16

you the truth. I have never held tennis reag in my hand in

27:18

my life. The former president sums

27:20

up this period. He was

27:23

famous people uh

27:26

in order to get published it for himself, and he

27:29

just had a good time. He was on he Hall.

27:31

Also, I know he's

27:34

learning from

27:36

a pet but

27:38

now he needs me and

27:41

he's still but

27:43

I still can't figure out what to do with the outside

27:45

of peanut. That's the whole problem.

27:49

Before a while, being Billy was

27:51

big business. Mr Carter is

27:53

giving his famous brother Billy has some credit

27:56

for helping out with the country's economic problems.

27:58

He says that Billy is pretty well put the beer

28:00

industry back on its feet. Yes, Billy

28:03

Beer perhaps the strangest and

28:05

yet most on brand manifestation

28:08

of the Billy phenomenon. Hey

28:11

that Billy Carter ought to know what a great beer tastes

28:14

like. He had this Billy Beer brewed

28:16

especially for him. No, that's a commercial

28:18

for Billy Beer. It had a pretty great tag

28:21

line. It's the best beyond the taste, and

28:23

I've tasted a lot. The

28:26

white, blue, and orange cans have become something

28:28

of a collector's item. Just to ask

28:30

Homer Simpson, we

28:36

elected the wrong Carter.

28:41

Since Billy had become synonymous with beer

28:43

drinking, it seemed only natural to pair

28:45

the two. Falls City Beer,

28:47

based in Louisville, convinced Billy

28:50

to lend his name to his own personally selected

28:52

specialty brew God Awful

28:54

Stuff. Dan rather

28:57

remembers Billy Beer terrible

28:59

ston. I have very vivid

29:01

membership trying to get down that Billy beer. He

29:05

wasn't a fan. He tried to get the dogs

29:07

to drink it. That told you told

29:09

me something when the dogs wouldn't drink it. Billy

29:12

himself later admitted that it was the worst

29:14

stuff he'd ever tasted, and that you

29:16

had to be an alcoholic to drink it. By

29:19

this time, beer wasn't even his drink of choice.

29:21

He moved on to vodka and whiskey. The

29:24

beer venture was short lived. Sales flatlined,

29:27

the brewery went bust, and

29:29

Billy's reputation began to sour.

29:32

He went from being you know, the funny,

29:35

you know, down to earth, blue collar

29:37

brother to the president, to be in some kind

29:39

of villain, and Billy became more

29:42

than a mere nuisance for Jimmy. More

29:45

on that in a minute, but first

29:49

an installment of black Sheep brother

29:51

trivia. Sibling

29:54

scandals seemed to come with the territory

29:56

of being president, especially

29:59

when money comes into play. Meet

30:01

Donald Nixon, younger brother to

30:04

Richard Nixon. Back

30:06

in the fifties, he had a chain of restaurants

30:09

featuring a Nixon Burger. During

30:11

Richard Nixon's nineteen sixty run for the

30:14

White House. An unsavory loan

30:16

that Donald had received from billionaire

30:18

Howard Hughes came to light. Nixon

30:22

lost the election. When

30:27

Richard Nixon finally made it to the White House,

30:30

his little brother was still at it. Just

30:32

listen to Don try to pitch the president

30:35

on a new water filtration project

30:38

breakthrough that this

30:41

man I happen to be to go one of

30:43

them the foundest fellows.

30:46

One fellow is a big supporting Murphy,

30:49

a wealthy fellow. To

30:53

me, it's less about what Don is saying

30:55

and more about the President's tents. Uhuhuh

31:00

oh. When it turns out the President not only

31:02

tried tapping the d n C headquarters

31:04

at the Watergate complex, he

31:06

was also surveilling his own brother.

31:10

The surveillance involved

31:12

not what he was to it. The surveillance

31:15

involved what others who

31:17

were trying to get him, perhaps

31:19

to use improper influence and so forth, might

31:22

be doing, and particularly anybody who

31:25

might be forward country.

31:27

As for Billy Carter, he did

31:30

come under foreign influence. Billy

31:32

Carter and the Libyans Libya.

31:35

It turned out they both needed each other and

31:37

may have tried to use each other, the

31:40

Libyans to open the door to America Billy

31:43

to get back on his feet financially. This

31:45

was a scandal which came to be known as

31:48

Billy Gate and involved Billy Carter's

31:50

questionable dealings with the government to Libya,

31:53

which was looking for friends in high places. Among

31:56

other things, they wanted to get their hands on some C

31:58

one thirty transport plane. Here

32:00

it is in a peanut shell. After

32:04

he was introduced to some Libyan officials

32:06

in the US, Billy was invited

32:08

over to Libya in the fall of night.

32:12

I thought he was crazy, franctly,

32:16

I thought he was crazy. What

32:18

did he say he was going to do? Well? He did?

32:20

He just didn't know, you know, they

32:24

wanted his help. Georgia, Belly

32:26

Carter, the President's brother, is being host

32:28

to an unofficial goodwill delegation of

32:30

businessmen from Libya, a nation with

32:33

whom diplomatic relations have been strained.

32:35

And then the Libyans came to planes. Which

32:38

sounds like the title of a movie or a book.

32:41

Yeah, the Libyans arrived in Georgia

32:43

all under the auspices of friendship.

32:46

Their visits started with a shall

32:48

we say, unfortunate leak to

32:50

the press. There's this huge story. I don't

32:53

know if he ever read it about He's waiting for

32:55

a plane somewhere and drink

32:57

a lot of beer and he takes a leak on

32:59

the harmac on the turn back. Everybody in South

33:02

George's peat outside at one time or another,

33:04

I mean, and Billy stepped out

33:06

of the car and relieves himself

33:09

against the side of a building. That's

33:12

our president's brother. That's

33:15

the way you find Billy's house and planes. You just follow

33:17

the yellow brick roads, right. Irresistible

33:21

material for Johnny Carson. Saturday

33:24

Night Live had some fun with it too, playing

33:26

Billy Gary busey uh

33:33

uh if I if I uh

33:36

embarrass you for something I said,

33:39

uh or someplace that used

33:44

I want to apologize. But

33:47

Billy was spouting off in more

33:49

controversial ways, making comments

33:52

some viewed as anti Semitic to defend

33:54

his dealings with the Libyans. When

33:57

you say there a hell of a lot more

33:59

Arabs and Jews and you're in expressing your

34:01

feelings, what did you mean? I

34:03

mean Harmonion, the

34:07

Raven Nation and three million Jews pros

34:09

and Carter told NBC News today that he

34:11

loves his brother Billy, but hopes the American people

34:14

understand he cannot control what Billy Carter

34:16

says and that it would be counter productive

34:18

to try. By this point, Billy became

34:21

persona on Grotta on the speaking circuit,

34:23

and his income soon dried up. So

34:26

why not make a return trip to Libya?

34:29

So he said, Honey, I'm going to Libya. We're

34:31

going. When you went with it, and

34:33

what was it like, Well,

34:36

you get off the plane and there are people walking

34:38

up and down military with oozies,

34:41

And that was my first clue

34:43

as to I think I need to go back

34:45

to planes. How

34:49

is the food? Ah,

34:53

the food was when I got

34:55

to the point where I saw two eyeballs on

34:57

the plate, I said, no, I'm

35:00

just not very hungry today. Sybil

35:03

may not have picked up any recipes, but

35:05

Billy did come away with a two d dollar

35:09

loan. Maybe not illegal, but

35:11

definitely not a good look for the White House.

35:14

In August, believe

35:16

made the covers of both Newsweek and

35:19

Time. President Carter remembers

35:22

the news being kind of turned on Billy.

35:26

He had been there, darling, and he became

35:29

kind of a arial right. Well,

35:32

when when, as you say, when the when the press

35:34

turned on him, that must have been very painful

35:36

for you. Well, it was because I've

35:39

been a lot of my time he were defending Billy

35:42

to the press instead of instead

35:45

of explaining my foreign

35:48

policy and the best policies to the news

35:50

media. This is

35:53

a CBS News special report,

35:56

a presidential news conference during

35:59

the most urbulent moment of his presidency,

36:02

with Americans held hostage in Iran

36:04

and a flagging economy, plus an

36:07

ugly fight within his own party for re election.

36:10

And now I'd like to say a word about my brother's relations

36:12

with Libya. President Jimmy Carter interrupted

36:15

primetime television for over an hour

36:18

to address concerns over

36:20

his brother Billy's shenanigans.

36:24

As all of you know by now, Billy is a

36:26

colorful personality. We

36:30

are personally close. I

36:33

love him and he loves me. Billy

36:36

is extremely independent. On

36:39

occasion he has said, I don't tell Jimmy how

36:41

to run the country, and he doesn't tell me how to run

36:43

my life. Imagine having to

36:45

answer to the entire country and the world

36:48

for your little brother meddling in the Middle

36:50

East. Billy has had no influence

36:52

on US policies or actions concerning Libya

36:55

in the past, and he would

36:57

have no influence in

36:59

the future. Mr

37:02

Carter, would you please

37:04

take the oath you

37:06

swear that what you're about to say as the truth, the

37:08

whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Three

37:10

weeks later, Billy himself

37:12

testified before a Senate subcommittee.

37:15

Mr. Chapman, I hope this testimony will

37:17

show, in common sense fashion that Billy

37:19

Cart is not a buffoon, a boo boy

37:22

wacko, as some public figures

37:24

have so so described him. I am

37:26

a common common citizen with uncommon

37:28

financial and family problems. I

37:30

won't restill order. He later wrote, quote,

37:33

Jimmy and I have never sat down and talked

37:35

about my deal with Libya. It's probably

37:38

just as well if we ever started talking

37:40

about Libya, he might want to kill me.

37:43

Of course, none of this stopped Billy from

37:45

talking to the media. Can

37:47

you stand another four years of this? Or I

37:49

can't stand about anything. I would

37:51

I like to uh we own is. I

37:53

would like to compliment Captain Pearson

37:55

Long Beach, Bable Hospital. I haven't had a drink you and

37:57

all this, and I think I think I said in something program.

38:00

Did you catch that? In the middle

38:02

of this fiasco, Billy Carter

38:05

had entered treatment for alcoholism.

38:09

Billy Carter ten pounds later off

38:12

alcohol and cigarettes too. After six

38:14

weeks at the Navy treatment center. In

38:16

April ninety nine, Billy

38:19

Carter admitted something to himself

38:21

and to the world. I am an I am

38:23

an alcoholic, and I do I think it is a disease, alcoholics

38:27

acute. I'm cute as long as I don't take a drink,

38:29

and once I take a drink, I'm not cute any long. Billy

38:31

said he was drinking half a gallon of vodka

38:34

a day before he quit. He was drinking

38:36

to the point where he was bloated

38:39

and the only thing he could hold on his stomach

38:41

was buttermilk. Civil remembers

38:44

their doctor friend telling Billy that he

38:46

would die if he continued to drink. Soon

38:49

after, he turned and he looked

38:51

at the children and he said, oh,

38:55

I want you to know that I'm an

38:57

alcoholic and

39:00

doum I have to go away

39:02

because I have to do something about this. And

39:05

the kids looked at him and said, Daddy, you

39:08

just realizing this. We've known

39:11

it for a long time. It's

39:13

at this point I look back at all those TV

39:15

appearances and see Billy in a different

39:17

light. He had a serious problem and

39:19

it was as plain as day. Here's

39:22

Billy's daughter, Kim. Did I get a kick out

39:24

of seeing him drunk? Somebody? No, I

39:26

mean that that was bad. Daddy was drinking

39:29

all the time when the

39:32

four of us were growing up. Mandy

39:35

doesn't run very much of that at all. Remember

39:38

it. Mandy was just

39:40

a young girl at the time, and Earl

39:42

is so much younger. He only remembers

39:44

a sober Billy. But you, it's

39:46

different for you. It's different for me. I didn't know him when

39:48

he was an alcoholic. He gets sober marks

39:51

seventy nine, so I knew him after

39:53

that, and he was totally I grew up

39:55

differently than they did. And then Earl

39:58

catches me off guard with something very

40:00

personal. The strangest thing is I don't recovering

40:03

alcoholic and being in a meetings

40:05

and uh, people will come in and not know.

40:08

I don't tell people who I am when related to people

40:10

will ring my dad up, saying if they saw him

40:12

on TV and if he got sober, then

40:14

I can to Somebody will bring him up

40:16

as an example to aspire

40:18

to, not knowing that you are his

40:20

son. My father is alive and well within

40:23

the community. Billy stayed

40:25

sober for the rest of his life. He

40:28

said he could do it because he was bad stubborn.

40:32

For years, Billy and Sybil toward

40:35

the country, speaking openly about alcoholism

40:37

and its effect on families. He would later

40:40

write, who's some good old boy Rednick

40:42

and are relate to when he winds up in jail drunk

40:45

and can't remember what he did to get there? Elizabeth

40:47

Taylor Betty Ford a psychiatrist

40:50

or me? If he were

40:52

allowed the day, I think that

40:55

would be the first thing that

40:57

what he would he would bring up about the

40:59

good he's in his life,

41:01

you know, helping other people through alcoholism. Jimmy

41:05

Carter ended up getting walloped by

41:08

Ronald Reagan in the general election of He

41:11

and Mondale won just six states

41:13

plus the district of Columbia. No

41:16

one today blames Billy for the loss, but

41:18

he certainly didn't help. Jimmy

41:21

then began his distinguished post presidency

41:24

as Billy faded from the headlines. But

41:27

even today, the kids received unwelcome

41:29

comments from unsuspecting strangers.

41:32

Oldest daughter Kim remembers one

41:34

incident when she was working at the service station

41:36

museum and one day, this

41:39

woman came in and she said, you

41:41

know, it was such a shame that he was the kind of man

41:43

he was. You know, his family

41:45

must be so ashamed of him, and his brother

41:48

probably doesn't even like to talk about him. And

41:50

I, well, I popped my big old butt

41:52

up and I went to the door and I said,

41:54

ma'am, no, ma'am. I

41:56

said, Billy Carter's family is very proud of

41:59

him and his brother, that I loved him

42:01

and still does. Well, how do you know?

42:04

And I said, because I'm his daughter, he was my

42:06

daddy. Are you sure? They're

42:10

laughing, but none of the kids seemed

42:12

to miss the spotlight. Al He said,

42:14

I don't ever wish the family.

42:16

I don't wish the other side of the family for

42:19

somebody to be president, because I

42:23

think more we

42:25

were hard, more than good stuff came

42:27

out of it. I guess Billy never returned

42:30

to the warehouse. He did return

42:32

to the airwaves doing a commercial

42:34

in that raised eyebrows.

42:38

But I got two hundred thousand dollars in Libya.

42:40

A lot of people thought it was because of my brother. I

42:43

was giving them advice. Whether you believe

42:45

me or not, I'm going to give you some advice, try

42:48

to eat his grand light. Yes, Billy

42:50

used the Libya scandal to sell ice

42:52

cream, but he was struggling financially,

42:55

and that wasn't nearly the extent of his

42:57

personal misfortune. That

43:01

same year, Billy was diagnosed

43:03

with pancreatic cancer, the same

43:05

disease that took not only his father, but

43:07

also his sister Ruth and eventually

43:10

his sister Gloria. It's

43:12

not clear if this was hereditary, environmental,

43:15

may be caused by farming chemicals, or

43:17

just a terrible medical coincidence. Without

43:20

blowing smoke, I think it looked terrific, but I feel

43:23

good. I really feel good. And of

43:27

CBS News paid a visit to Billy.

43:30

He was only fifty one, about my age

43:32

now, but the man on the screen looks

43:34

far closer to how Jimmy looks today

43:37

at Billy

43:39

had lost over fifty pounds. By

43:42

this point, Billy had moved back to planes and

43:44

he seemed in pretty good spirits, encouraged

43:47

by thousands of get well cards. Asked

43:50

if he had any regrets. I don't think

43:52

I got to change anything. I think, knowing mean as I

43:54

do, I did something that you

43:56

shouldn't have done. And something that I should

43:59

have one, and if I had to do it again, I probably scowled

44:01

up worse than I did the first time. And so I don't see that hindsight

44:04

ain't worth a damn. He was still

44:06

one, Billy Carter repeating

44:09

what he told his doctor on my dying. But

44:12

I want you to be giving me a shot in the ass or something trying to

44:14

get me. Well, that's all I want to go with it.

44:21

Just three months after that CBS

44:23

interview, on September, Billy

44:27

Carter died. He

44:29

kept saying, Daddy's there and Mama's waiting

44:31

for me. I mean, he and he. This was after hours

44:34

of him not saying anything. He looked

44:36

up and they're there. He

44:38

was seeing his dad, he was seeing his little

44:40

land. And then the last thing he said, yeah's

44:45

love to me. Tributes

44:53

poured in. I mean it was just

44:55

flowers everywhere, arrangements and stacks

44:57

of uh telegrams, you

45:00

know, on the table there. And Buddy remembers

45:02

when his uncle Jimmy came over to the house. And

45:04

Uncle Jimmy comes walking in and then he picks up

45:06

those telegrams stack this thing. I

45:09

mean, we're from Bob Hope rob

45:11

Rait and uh, he says, civil

45:13

who are all these from and

45:16

all these flowers? And Mom and said, well, they're from there

45:18

from Billy's friends. And he said, I

45:21

never knew he had so many friends. And

45:24

it's not because he didn't want to know. It's just that

45:26

he just he was busy running the world. But

45:30

President Carter says he always knew

45:32

how loved his brother was. They

45:35

always had a group of friends around him. He

45:38

loved other people. He had ten times as many

45:40

friends as I did. All the men at

45:42

the funeral removed their ties in

45:45

honor of Billy. It's

45:48

been over thirty years since Billy Carter

45:50

died. For his kids, uncle

45:53

Jimmy is their last family connection.

45:56

Here's Kim And I tell him, I said, You're

45:58

all we have last. You

46:01

are all we have left and and I

46:03

want him and he knows that. But when

46:06

I look at him now, I

46:08

don't just see him, I see Daddy too.

46:11

And here is Janna. I got to

46:13

miss and Daddy so bad right for his birthday

46:16

and um, which is in March. And I emailed

46:18

like a gimmy and I said, can can I

46:20

come see you? And he said,

46:22

what's the matter? I said, well, nothing, I just want to come

46:24

talk to you. So a couple of days

46:27

I went and he said, what's something. Did

46:29

you need something, Jenna, And I said, no, Sir, I

46:31

said, I just want to talk about that. I just miss

46:33

him. And we sit

46:36

there and talked about him, you know, when

46:38

he was a little boy, and it just made me

46:40

feel so many And I told him the same thing. I said, you're

46:42

all we have left as far as dead again. But

46:45

you know, he said, Jenny, you come up here anytime you want

46:47

to him. We've talked about your daddy, will talk about anything

46:50

you want. You went up just to talk to him about

46:52

your yea, and it made me feel

46:55

a lot better. Yeah, when

46:58

presidents leave off, they get

47:00

libraries and museums and

47:03

eventually memorials. Presidential

47:06

siblings don't get any of that. Okay,

47:09

Billy does have that service station museum,

47:12

which I highly recommend. It

47:17

was really good to talk about Vid. It just

47:19

might us feel good. At the end of my visit, Billy's

47:22

daughter Janna told me that nobody

47:24

had ever really asked her about her father before.

47:27

She thinks maybe people were just scared. She

47:30

thanked me for coming down. I'm

47:32

grateful to her and her siblings,

47:35

and Sybil for telling me about

47:37

their lives and about the man

47:40

behind the caricature. Next

47:50

time on Obituaries we

47:53

give a forgotten founding father the

47:55

send off he deserves. Thomas.

48:02

That's your family. I

48:04

certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.

48:07

If you would, please rate and review our

48:09

podcast. You can also follow

48:12

Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram,

48:14

and you can follow me Morocca on Twitter

48:17

at morocco. For more great

48:19

content about Billy Carter, please visit

48:22

mobituaries dot com. You

48:24

can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever

48:26

you get your podcasts. This

48:28

episode of Mobituaries was produced

48:31

by Megan Marcus. Our team

48:33

of producers also includes Harry Wood

48:35

and me Morocca. It was

48:38

edited by Harry Wood and engineered

48:41

by Dan de Zula. Indispensable

48:43

support from Kate mccauliffe, Genie

48:45

Stanesky, Lucy Kirk Shows

48:48

Siment, Alberto Robina, Jason

48:50

Sacca, Richard Rohrer, and everyone

48:52

at CBS News Radio. Special

48:55

thanks to Jonathan Alter, W T

48:57

t W, the Carter Center, and

48:59

of course the Carter family

49:02

for their hospitality. Our

49:04

theme music is written by Daniel

49:06

Hart and as always undying

49:08

thanks to Rand Morrison and

49:10

John carp without whom Mobituaries

49:13

couldn't live. Hi,

49:24

It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries

49:26

the podcast, may I invite you to

49:29

check out Mobituaries the book.

49:31

It's chock full of stories not

49:34

in the podcast. Celebrities

49:36

who put their butts on the line, sports

49:38

teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten

49:41

fashions, defunct diagnoses,

49:43

presidential candidacies that cratered

49:46

whole countries that went to put and

49:48

dragons, Yes, dragons, you

49:50

see. People used to believe the dragons will real until

49:54

just get the book. You can order Mobituaries

49:56

the Book from any online bookseller,

49:58

or stop by your local bookstore and

50:01

look for me when I come to your city. Tour

50:03

information and lots more at obituaries

50:06

dot com. Mm hmmm