John Kendrick Wells, III

John Kendrick Wells, III was a Brown & Williamson Assistant General Counsel. In a January 17, 1985 memo, Wells said he had advised Earl Kornhorst, BWT's Vice President for research, development and engineering, on the need to prune scientific reports from his files. Wells marked certain reports with an "X" to designate those that were "deadwood in the behavioral and biological studies area". The Janus studies--a secret program of biological research on the effects of smoking which showed tumor growth in animals--should be treated as "deadwood". These documents should be segregated, boxed and put in the basement for possible shipment to British American Tobacco Industries in England, but no one "should make any notes, memos or lists of the documents" (L.A. Times 8/2/94).

= Biography =

J. Kendrick Wells III graduated from Paintsville High School in Paintsville, Kentucky in 1960, attended Harvard University and graduated in 1964. He attended the University of Kentucky College of Law, graduated in 1967 with a Juris Doctor degree and was admitted to the bar that fall. After law school, he was clerk for a year to Judge Burt Combs on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He worked for about four years with the law firm then known as Wyatt, Grafton & Sloss, which was the forerunner of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. He started working for B&W in 1972, joining the corporate legal staff as an attorney. He reported to B&W General Counsel Ernest Pepples. In the latter half of the 1980s he was made Assistant General Counsel.

He worked for Brown & Williamson located at 3725 Hillsdale Rd., Louisville, Kentucky, 40222. The phone number was (502)429-5785.

Wells served as Assistant General Counsel for production for litigation for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Wells has knowledge of the editing, suppression and control of scientific research on tobacco and health; the destruction and/or concealment of documentary evidence; and British American Tobacco Industries P.L.C., British American Tobacco and Brown & Williamson operations. Mr. Wells was Assistant General Counsel for Brown & Williamson. (PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996)

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