(From left to right) House Speaker Gus F. Mutscher (D), Governor Preston Smith (D), former president Lyndon B. Johnson (D), and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes (D), at "Gus Mutscher Day" in Brenham, Texas, August 17, 1970. Within two years, the political careers of Mutscher, Smith, Barnes, and numerous other state officials would be ended by the Sharpstown scandal. President Johnson was not involved.
The Sharpstown scandal was a stock fraud scandal in the state of Texas in 1971 and 1972 involving the highest levels of the state government. The name came from the involvement of the Sharpstown area of Houston.
