WaPo | Much of “Sons of Wichita” is spent tracing the two-decade legal
battle between the siblings over control of Koch Industries — Charles
and David on one side vs. Bill and, occasionally, Frederick. The fight
became so nasty that the brothers at one point hired private
investigators to dig up dirt on one another. Bill’s investigators
“pilfered trash from the homes and offices of Charles, David, and three
of their lawyers, bribing janitors and trash collectors,” Schulman
writes.
The family war played out before jurors in a Topeka, Kan., courtroom in 1998, in the case of Koch v. Koch Industries,
during which David broke down in tears on the stand recounting his
twin’s attempt to assert control over the company. When Charles and
David prevailed, Bill told reporters that he would appeal, adding,
“These guys are crooks.”
The brothers would not reconcile until
2001, meeting for dinner at Bill’s Palm Beach mansion to sign a final
settlement that divvied up their father’s property. It was the first
time they had shared a meal in almost 20 years.
For those who
follow the Kochs and their political activities, “Sons of Wichita” does
not provide major revelations about how they operate. But Schulman lays
out a cogent narrative of Charles Koch’s political evolution, starting
as a member of his father’s John Birch Society. When an acquaintance
visited the family home in the 1960s, Charles Koch blanched when he saw
him carrying a worn copy of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” Hemingway “was a communist,” Charles explained to the guest, who had to leave the book on the stoop outside.
After
Fred Koch’s death in 1967, Charles broke with the Birch Society over
its support for the Vietnam War. He embraced libertarianism and began
bankrolling the movement, helping launch a new think tank, the Cato
Institute, in 1977. It was the beginning of what would grow into a
far-flung constellation of academic programs, think tanks and
politically active nonprofits that now make up the Koch network. (The term “Kochtopus” was coined early on by a libertarian critic who charged Charles with trying to buy the party.)
As his political involvement deepened, Charles initially regarded the GOP with disdain.
