diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-0.txt | 6245 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-0.zip | bin | 132792 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h.zip | bin | 2354910 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/62864-h.htm | 7424 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 251208 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo026.png | bin | 63021 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084a.jpg | bin | 191122 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084b.jpg | bin | 240268 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084c.jpg | bin | 116713 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084d.jpg | bin | 182748 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084e.jpg | bin | 234781 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084f.jpg | bin | 232993 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084g.jpg | bin | 234431 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084h.jpg | bin | 233091 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/62864-h/images/illo084i.jpg | bin | 244315 -> 0 bytes |
18 files changed, 17 insertions, 13669 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fe880f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62864 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62864) diff --git a/old/62864-0.txt b/old/62864-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 07dcba5..0000000 --- a/old/62864-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6245 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Huey Long Murder Case, by Hermann B. Deutsch - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Huey Long Murder Case - -Author: Hermann B. Deutsch - -Release Date: August 6, 2020 [EBook #62864] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUEY LONG MURDER CASE *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Harry Lamé and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_. - Small capitals have been changed to ALL CAPITALS. Superscript-t has - been transcribed as ^t. - - More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text. - - - - - The Huey Long - Murder Case - - by Hermann B. Deutsch - - Doubleday & Company, Inc. - Garden City, New York, 1963 - - - - - Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 62-15869 - Copyright © 1963 by Hermann B. Deutsch - All Rights Reserved - Printed in the United States of America - First Edition - - - - - In Boundless Affection, This Modest Volume - Is Dedicated to - _THE LYING NEWSPAPERS_ - A Generic Term Applied by Huey P. Long to - _The Free Press of a Free Republic_. - Especially is it dedicated to any and all who - during almost half a century have been - My Fellow Workers - As Typified by - John F. Tims and Ralph Nicholson - And Most Specially Is It Dedicated to the Memory of - Richard Finnegan and Marshall Ballard. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Foreword ix - - Chapter 1: Prelude to an Inquest 1 - - Chapter 2: Profile of a Kingfish 13 - - Chapter 3: August 8, 1935: Washington 29 - - Chapter 4: August 30 to September 2 39 - - Chapter 5: September 3 to September 7 53 - - Chapter 6: September 8: Morning 69 - - Chapter 7: September 8: Afternoon 75 - - Chapter 8: September 8: Nightfall 81 - - Chapter 9: September 8: 9:30 P.M. 91 - - Chapter 10: September 8-9: Midnight 103 - - Chapter 11: The Aftermath 127 - - Chapter 12: Summation 145 - - Chapter 13: The Motive 157 - - Epilogue 171 - - - - -FOREWORD - - -Until I undertook to gather all available evidence for what I hoped to -make a definitive inquiry into the circumstances of Huey Long’s -assassination, I had no idea of how many gaps there were in my knowledge -of what took place. Yet except for the actual shooting, which fewer than -a dozen persons were present to see, and for what then took place in the -operating room of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium, most of what had any -bearing on the circumstances took place before my eyes. - -Consequently I am so deeply indebted to so many who were good enough to -fill those gaps with eyewitness reports, that no words of mine could -begin to settle the score. Chief among those whose claims on my -gratitude I can never wholly acquit are Dr. Cecil A. Lorio of Baton -Rouge, one of the only two surviving physicians who played any part in -the pre-operative, operative, and post-operative treatment of the dying -Senator; Dr. Chester Williams, the present coroner of East Baton Rouge -parish, who made it possible for me to see, study and understand the -microfilmed hospital chart sketchily covering the thirty hours that -elapsed between the time of the shooting and its fatal termination; Col. -Murphy J. Roden, retired head of the Louisiana State police, who was the -only person to grapple with Dr. Weiss; my friend and for many years -colleague, Charles E. Frampton; Sheriff Elliott Coleman of Tensas -parish; Chief Justice John B. Fournet of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; -and Juvenile Court Judge James O’Connor, who carried the stricken -Kingfish to the hospital after the shooting. - -No less am I under obligations to Earle J. Christenberry, Seymour -Weiss, and Richard W. Leche, to whom I owe so much of the information on -background elements that alone make intelligible some of the otherwise -enigmatic phases of what actually occupied no more than a fractional -moment of crisis. - -My thanks are likewise tendered to Captain Theophile Landry, formerly an -officer of the state police; to General Louis Guerre who was that -organization’s first commandant; to Adjutant-General Raymond Fleming of -Louisiana; to Charles L. Bennett, managing Editor of the Oklahoma City -_Times_; and particularly to Dr. James D. Rives and Dr. Frank Loria of -New Orleans. - -To my one time professional competitor but always close friend, -Congressman F. Edw. Hebert, I tender this inadequate word of -appreciation for the assistance so freely rendered by him in gathering -material. To another friend and colleague, Charles L. Dufour, I am -deeply indebted for assistance in proofreading. - -And finally, I am more grateful than I can say to my brother Eberhard, -an unfaltering--and what is more, successful--champion before the courts -of the principle of press freedom, for advice in preparing the final -draft of this manuscript; to LeBaron Barker for invaluable suggestions -in revising the original draft; and to all others who, in ways great and -small, have been of assistance in making possible the completion of this -task. - - Hermann B. Deutsch. - - Metairie, La. - October 31, 1962 - - - - -_The Huey Long Murder Case_ - - - - -1 ---- PRELUDE TO AN INQUEST - - “_Assassination has never changed the history of the world._” - - ----DISRAELI - - -The motives which prompt a killer to do away with a public figure are -frequently anything but clear. On the other hand, the identity of such -an assassin rarely is in doubt. The assassin himself sees to that, in -obvious eagerness to attain recognition as the central figure of a -world-shaking event. - -President McKinley, for example, was shot down in full view of the -throng that moved forward to shake his hand at the Pan-American -Exposition in Buffalo. Czolgosz, his anarchist assassin, boasted of his -deed, making no effort to escape. John Wilkes Booth, one cog in a large -plot, did not withdraw in the dimness of the stage box from which he -fired on Lincoln, but leaped into the footlights’ full blaze to posture -and declaim: “_Sic semper tyrannis!_” - -In recent times the perpetrator of an unsuccessful attempt at mass -assassination actually clamored for recognition. When the late Cardinal -Mundelein became archbishop of Chicago in 1919, community leaders -tendered him a banquet of welcome. At the very opening of the repast, -during the soup course, the diners became violently ill. By great good -fortune--probably because so much poison had been introduced into the -soup that even the first few spoonfuls caused illness before a fatal -dose could be taken into the system--none of the diners lost his life -as a result of the decision of an assistant cook, Jean Crones, to do -away with the leaders of Catholicism in Chicago. - -The cook made good his escape. He has never been apprehended. But for -days he sent a letter each morning to the newspapers and to the police -telling just how he had kneaded arsenic into the dumplings he had been -assigned to prepare for the soup, how he had later bleached his hair -with lime whose fumes almost overcame him, in just which suburbs he had -hidden out on which days, and so on. Short of surrendering to the -police, he did all that lay in his power to identify himself as one who -had attempted a mass murder of unprecedented proportions. - -One could go down a long list of political assassinations throughout the -world during the past century, and find that almost without exception -the identity of the extroverted killer was not a matter of the slightest -doubt. No one questions the fact that a Nazi named Planetta murdered -Engelbert Dollfuss in his chancellery, that Gavrilo Prinzip shot the -Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, or that President Castillo Armas -of Guatemala was killed by a Communist among his bodyguards, Romero -Vasquez, who underscored his part of the plot by committing suicide. - -In modern history, however, one political assassination is still being -hotly debated, not merely as to the motives which prompted the deed, but -as to the identity of the one whose bullet inflicted the fatal wound. -This was the killing of Huey P. Long, self-proclaimed “Kingfish” of -Louisiana, who was on the very threshold of a bold attempt to extend his -dominion to the limits of the United States via the White House when Dr. -Carl Austin Weiss, Jr., fired on him, and was almost instantly mowed -down by a fusillade from the weapons of the bodyguards with whom Senator -Long surrounded himself wherever he went. - -To this day, nearly thirty years after the event, there are those who -believe that the assassination was part of a plot of which President -Franklin Roosevelt had cognizance and in which representatives of his -political organization participated. Only a month prior to his death -Huey Long had charged publicly on the Senate floor that, at a secret -conference in a New Orleans hotel, representatives of “Roosevelt the -Little” had assured the other conferees the President would undoubtedly -“pardon the man who killed Long.” - -There are those who accept the coroner’s verdict that the homicidal -bullet was fired by young Dr. Weiss from the eight-dollar Belgian -automatic pistol he had purchased years earlier in France where he was -doing postgraduate work in medicine. According to his father, testifying -at the inquest which followed the deaths of the two principals, Dr. -Weiss carried this pistol in his car at night, ever since intruders had -been found loitering about the Weiss garage. - -A great many others--quite possibly a majority of those who express an -opinion on the matter--insist that the bullet of whose effects Long died -was not the one fired by Dr. Weiss, but a ricochet from one of the -bodyguards’ guns in the furious volley that followed. - -Still others, and among these are many of the physicians and nurses who -knew Dr. Weiss well, feel certain to this day that he did not fire a -shot at all, that he was not the sort of person who could have brought -himself to take the life of another human being. It is their contention -that Dr. Weiss merely threatened to strike the Kingfish with his -fist--may indeed have done so, since Long did reach the hospital with an -abrasion of the lip after he was rushed from the capitol to Our Lady of -the Lake Sanitarium. After the blow or threat of one the young physician -was immediately gunned down, according to this version of the incident, -a chance shot thus inflicting the wound of which, some thirty hours -later, Senator Long died. - -The foregoing contradictory views are still further complicated by the -fact that there are many with whom it is an article of faith that -regardless of who fired the ultimately fatal shot, the leader they -idolized would have been saved but for an emergency operation performed -on him that same night by Dr. Arthur Vidrine. - -Finally, there is no agreement to this day on what could have prompted -Dr. Weiss to commit an act which almost everyone who knew him still -regards as utterly foreign to his nature. No valid motive for this deed -has ever been definitively established. One assumption has it that the -doctor was the chosen instrument of the “murder conference” whose -discussions Long made the text of the last speech he delivered on the -Senate floor. - -Others feel that inasmuch as Long was on the point of gerrymandering -Mrs. Weiss’s father, Judge Ben Pavy, out of the place on the bench he -had held for seven successive terms, Dr. Weiss’s act was one of -reprisal. At least one connection of the Weiss and Pavy families has -held that Dr. Weiss was actuated purely by a patriotic conviction that -only through the death of Long could his authoritarian regime be -demolished and liberty be restored to Louisiana. - -In view of the foregoing, one question poses itself rather relentlessly: -At this late date is an effort to compose such far-ranging differences -of conviction and surmise worth while? Can any purpose beyond a remotely -academic recording of facts be served thereby? Is there anything that -distinguishes in historical significance the assassination of Huey Long -from the public shooting which in time brought about the death of, let -us say, Mayor William Gaynor of New York? - -It is because those questions seemed to answer themselves, and -unanimously, in the affirmative that the data chronicled in the -following narrative were gathered. They represent among other items the -statements of every surviving eyewitness to the actual shooting, and of -surviving physicians who were present during, or assisted in, the -emergency operation performed by Dr. Vidrine. They include the never -previously revealed hospital chart of the thirty hours Senator Long was -a patient at Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. - -This was no easy search for truth. There are still those who refuse to -discuss the assassination of Huey Long with anyone who does not share to -the fullest their individual views of what took place. None the less, -the significance of two figures--Franklin Roosevelt and Huey Long--so -curiously alike and yet so dissimilar, indicated a genuine need to weigh -every scrap of obtainable evidence and assess any rational conclusions -to be drawn from them. - -During the early 1930s no two names were better known in the United -States than those of Roosevelt and Long. The former was the product of a -patrician heritage plus the gloss of Groton and Harvard. The latter had -received no formal education beyond that afforded by the Winnfield high -school. An intermittent career as a book auctioneer, Cottolene salesman, -and door-to-door canvasser in the rural South did nothing to soften the -rough edges of his early environment. No two modes of address could have -differed more radically than the polished modulation of F.D.R.’s -fireside chats and the bucolic idiom of one of Huey Long’s campaign -rodomontades: “Glory be, we brought ’em up to the lick-log that -time”--“He thinks he’s running for the Senate but watch us clean his -plow for him come November”--“Every time I think of how I was suckered -in on that proposition I feel like I’d ought to be bored for the hollow -horn.” - -It was once stated that before Seymour Weiss, the New Orleans hotel man -who was perhaps his closest friend, took him in hand, he dressed like a -misprint in a tailored-by-mail catalogue. The description was apt. -Early photographs prove it, if proof be needed. Even when he was -oil-rich from his expanding law practice in Shreveport, he wore a ring -in which a huge diamond gleamed, and a tie-pin in which another, equally -large, was set. - -“Stop talkin’ po’-mouth to me, son,” an elderly legislator at Baton -Rouge once advised him. “You got di’monds all over you. Bet you even got -di’mond buttons on yo’ draw’s.” - -None the less he was superbly endowed with what, for want of a better -term, might be called personal magnetism, a quality that drew crowds as -sheep are drawn to a salt trough. Nowhere was this manifested more -strikingly than in Washington, where throngs packed the Senate galleries -the moment it was known that he was about to deliver a speech. - -He was a superb actor, too. Telling the same anecdote seven or eight -times a day, day after day in campaign after campaign, he would none the -less deliver it with the same chuckling verve at the thousandth -repetition with which he had told it initially. Little bubbles of -laughter escaped him as though involuntarily when he built up to the nub -of a jest. The effect of such tricks of stagecraft was heightened by the -unhurried but uninterrupted flow of words, the affectation of homely -idiom, the Southerner’s easy slurring of consonants. - -In Arkansas, at the time of the unparalleled Caraway campaign of 1932, -every gathering set a new attendance record for the time and place. The -address Long delivered from the band shell at Little Rock drew the -largest crowd ever assembled in the history of the state. And when the -motorized campaign party whipped from one city to the next to meet the -demands of a tightly co-ordinated speaking schedule, crowds lined even -the back roads through which the cars passed; crowds of those who, -unable for one reason or another to leave their small farmsteads in that -depression-harried autumn, waited patiently by the dusty roadsides for -a fleeting glimpse of the limousine in which Huey Long whizzed by them. - -He was at his best in the rough and tumble of partisan politics, both on -the hustings and on the Senate floor. When Harold Ickes said Huey had -“halitosis of the intellect,” Long retorted by dubbing him “the chinch -bug of Chicago.” To be sure, this was after he had broken with the -Roosevelt administration, when, scoffing at the Civilian Conservation -Corps, he offered to “eat every pine seedling they’ll ever grow in -Louisiana.” At the same time, when arguing fiscal policy with the -Senate’s veteran on such matters, Carter Glass, he said bluntly in the -course of debate that “I happen to know more about branch banking than -the gentleman from Virginia does.” - -In these respects, as in matters of politesse, Roosevelt was the very -antithesis of the gentleman from Louisiana. Yet neither would brook -opposition from within his partisans’ ranks. The breach between -Roosevelt and as selfless a supporter as James A. Farley was to all -intents and purposes identical with the disagreements that broke the -ententes between Long and every campaign manager and newspaper publisher -who had ever supported his candidacy. Escaping conviction on impeachment -charges, he announced: “I’ll have to grow me a new crop of legislators -in Louisiana.” When some of Roosevelt’s early New Deal legislation was -nullified by the Supreme Court, the President promptly sponsored a bill -to increase the number of Supreme Court justices, with himself to name -at one swoop six additional members; and he did his best to force what -was widely referred to as his “court packing” measure through Congress. - -Long campaigned vigorously through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and -other northern Midwest states for Roosevelt in 1932. Some of these -states went Democratic for the first time in more than a generation. -Admittedly this was not all due to Long’s stump speeches. But no one -knew better than Franklin Roosevelt that much of his success in the -Long-toured regions was due to the gentleman from Winnfield. He was one -of the few political leaders who did not underestimate the Long -potential, who correctly evaluated the Long influence in overturning the -politics of Arkansas to make Hattie Caraway the first woman ever elected -to a full term in the United States Senate. He had few illusions, if -any, on the score of the national organization of personal followers -Long was building through his Share-Our-Wealth clubs. - -Under the circumstances it was inevitable that these two, neither of -whom would ever admit a potential palace rival into the inner circle of -his aides, should become implacable opponents. Long was on the point of -announcing his candidacy for president against Roosevelt for the 1936 -campaign when a bullet cut short his career. The challenge he proposed -to fling at the man who subsequently carried all but two of the Union’s -states was neither a forlorn token like that of Governor Landon, nor a -visionary crusade like the campaign of Henry Wallace and Glen Taylor. No -one appraised this more realistically than Roosevelt himself. He never -underestimated the sort of monolithic organization Long could create -around the hard core of existing Share-Our-Wealth clubs, the amount of -whose mail, as delivered to the Senate office building, dwarfed that -delivered to any other member of the Congress. - -In pursuance of his objective, Earle Christenberry, with Raymond Daniell -of the New York _Times_, had completed, by midsummer of 1935, the -manuscript of a short book to be signed by Huey Long, under the title of -_My First Days in the White House_. He had written no part of this -rather naïve treatise himself, though he had discussed it in general -terms with those who did draft it. An earlier book “by Huey P. -Long”--_Every Man a King_--was actually a collaboration in which the -prophet of Share-Our-Wealth had dictated sections to the late John -Klorer, then editor of Long’s weekly _American Progress_ (née _Louisiana -Progress_), who later became a successful scenarist in Hollywood. But -the helter-skelter discussions in which Long outlined his ideas for _My -First Days in the White House_ were turned into reasonably coherent -prose by Daniell and Christenberry; much of the manuscript Long never -even saw until it was in final form. - -It was an artless bit of oversimplified future history, written in the -past tense to describe the inauguration of President Huey Long, his -appointment of a cabinet (Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Alfred -E. Smith were among its members), and the adoption of national -Share-Our-Wealth legislation under the supervision of a committee headed -by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew W. Mellon! But it was gauged for -an audience which already believed that it was possible to redistribute -all large fortunes among the nation’s have-nots. It was never meant to -convert economists, financiers, and magnates. On the contrary, its -principal purpose was to notify all and sundry, especially “all,” that -Huey Long was a candidate for president and was confident of victory. - -During that early autumn of 1935 the United States stood at a windy -corner of world history. In Europe totalitarians had taken over Italy’s -tottering liberal monarchy in 1922, and in 1933 the “republic” of -Germany. In Louisiana a home-grown fascist with complete dominance over -his own state was challenging the national leadership. Long had already -put into operation at the local level an authoritarian principle of -governmental sovereignty. Legislative and judicial functions were almost -wholly concentrated in the hands of an executive who was in reality a -“ruler.” The architect of that change was setting himself to expand it -to national dimensions. - -The seriousness of this situation was recognized by observers of the -national scene. Raymond Gram Swing listed five public figures in a -volume entitled _Forerunners of American Fascism_ and named Huey Long as -the one of potentially greatest national danger. The others were Fr. -Coughlin, William Randolph Hearst, Sr., Theodore G. Bilbo of -Mississippi, and Dr. Townsend. George Horace Lorimer, long-time editor -of the _Saturday Evening Post_, ordered a three-part serial profile of -the senator from Louisiana. Most of this was published posthumously, as -was all of what was to have been Long’s _Mein Kampf_: _My First Days in -the White House_. - -_Kingfish_ was thus tapped for a vaulting effort to become America’s -_Duce_ or _Führer_ when violence put an abrupt end to the design and to -the life of its protagonist. Official records in the coroner’s office at -Baton Rouge give no details beyond those embodied on a printed form, -whose blank spaces were filled in to note the name, age, bodily -measurements, color, and sex of the decedent, together with a curt -notation ascribing death to a “gunshot wound (homicidal).” - -Nearly thirty years have passed since those notations were entered on an -official form to be filed in the archives of East Baton Rouge parish. -Death has by now claimed many of the witnesses whose testimony might -have been of value in determining what actually took place in the -marble-walled corridor where the Kingfish, hurrying along with -characteristically flapping stride, received his mortal wound. But many -other presential witnesses yet survive. - -No inquest worthy of the name has ever been conducted to decide and -record officially what the circumstances of Huey Long’s assassination -were. The family refused to authorize a necropsy. The death of Dr. -Vidrine in 1955 was a portent of the rapid and inevitable approach of -the day when the last eyewitness would have passed on. No one would then -be able to relate at first hand any detail of the violent moment which -averted a conflict pitting the two best-known public figures in the -United States against one another for virtual sovereignty over this -nation. - -That violent moment would thus pass into history as a confused welter of -mutually contradictory versions, of rumors, half truths, and whole -untruths. Amid these the Huey Long murder case would remain an unsolved -and probably insoluble mystery. It was for this reason that I undertook -several years ago to gather and collate whatever eyewitness testimony -might still be available. I had known Senator Long and his family for -many years. Of the newsmen who heard Huey Long make his first state-wide -political address at Hot Well on July 4, 1919, I am the only one still -actively reporting the course of events and the doings of public -figures. I had accompanied him not only on any number of his state -campaigns, but also on the remarkable Caraway campaign of 1932. - -I knew nearly all of his intimates, and was on first-name terms with -most of them then in the easy camaraderie of journalism. Without -exception every surviving witness I approached has given me his version -of what took place in the capitol corridor at the time of the shooting. -With but one exception every witness who was present in the operating -room and in the sickroom where Huey later died, has told me all that he -saw, heard, or did on that occasion. - -These several accounts do not agree at every point. Indeed, here and -there they are rather widely at variance. For that very reason they -merit belief. Such differences validate the integrity of testimony so -given. Had these accounts tallied in every minute particular after the -passage of more than a quarter of a century, or even after the passage -of twenty-five minutes, they would have been suspect, and properly so. -It is axiomatic that eyewitness accounts of the same event invariably -differ, even when given at once. The classic illustration of this is the -prize fight at whose conclusion one judge awards the victory to Boxer A, -the referee calls the combat a draw, and the other judge selects Boxer -B as the winner. - -The fact that there is no variance whatever between accounts given by -several witnesses, especially when their testimony concerns an -occurrence involving violence, is as certain an indication of collusive -fraud as is the fact that two signatures, ostensibly penned by the same -individual, show not the slightest difference in form, shading, or pen -pressure at any point. Unless one or both such signatures are forgeries, -absolute identity is a practical impossibility. - -The question of whether or not the Kingfish could have wrested political -control of the United States from Franklin Roosevelt became academic -when a bullet found its mark in his body. But a glance at the highlights -of his career offers some of the clues to what happened to him on -September 8, 1935. - - - - -2 ---- PROFILE OF A KINGFISH - - “_The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals - with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity._” - - ----SIR THOMAS BROWNE - - -One day some of the VIP’s of the Long political hierarchy were gathered -in the office of Governor Oscar Allen when a matter of legislative -procedure was under discussion. It is worth noting for the record that -the Governor’s chair was occupied by Senator Huey Long. Governor Allen -sat at one side of his desk. The names of the others do not matter. -Among them were highway commissioners, a state purchasing agent, floor -leaders from House and Senate, the head of an upstate levee board, and -the like. - -Huey was issuing orders and lost his temper over the apparent -inattention of some conferees, who were conducting a low-voiced -conversation in a corner of the room. - -“Shut up, damn it!” he shouted suddenly. “Shut up and listen to me. This -is the Kingfish of the Lodge talking!” - -From that day on he was “Kingfish.” Even Franklin Roosevelt, telephoning -him from New York during the hectic maneuvering which preceded that -summer’s Democratic national convention, greeted him with the words: -“Hello, Kingfish!” - -The self-proclaimed Kingfish was named Huey Pierce Long at his birth on -August 30, 1893, the third of four sons born to Huey Pierce Long, Sr., -and Caledonia Tyson Long. The family farm was near Winnfield, and by the -standards of that place and time the Longs were well off; not wealthy, -to be sure, but never in want. Winnfield, seat of Winn parish, is a -small wholly rural community not far from the center of the state. - -“Just _near_ the center of the state?” Westbrook Pegler once asked -Senator Long incredulously after watching him put his legislative -trained seals through their paces. “Just _near_ the center of the state? -I’m surprised you haven’t had the legislature declare it to _be_ the -center of the state.” - -Scholastically, Huey did not distinguish himself, and he took no part in -athletics, lacking the physical pugnacity that is the heritage of most -young males. His brother Earl, two years younger than Huey, frequently -asserted that “I had to do all Huey’s fighting for him.” But as long as -he remained in high school (he left after a disagreement with the -principal and before graduation) he was the best debater that -institution ever numbered among its pupils. - -His first essay into the realm of self-support came at age fourteen, -when he loaded a rented buggy with books and drove about the countryside -selling these at public auction. In doing so he laid the foundation for -what became the largest personal acquaintance any one individual ever -had among the farm folk of Louisiana. - -“I’d never stay at a hotel, even later on, when I was out selling -Cottolene or baking powder or lamp chimneys or whatever,” he would -boast. “I always drove out beyond town to a farmhouse where they’d take -me in and put up my horse, and I would pay them something and put in the -evening talking to them, and later I would make it my business to drop -those folks a post card so they’d be sure to remember me.” - -At summer’s end he entered Oklahoma University at Norman, hoping to -work his way through law school as weekend drummer for the Kaye Dawson -wholesale grocery. That did not work out. After a heated disagreement -with the head of the business he returned to Louisiana and became a -door-to-door salesman for Cottolene. In glorifying this product he held -cake-baking contests here, there, and yonder. - -“My job was to convince those women they could fry chickens, steaks, or -fish in something else besides hog lard, and bake a cake using something -else besides cow butter,” he explained. “I would quote the Bible to them -where it said not to use any part of the flesh of swine, and if I -couldn’t convince them out of the Bible, I would go into the kitchen and -bake a cake for them myself.” - -First prize for one of his cake-baking contests in Shreveport was -awarded to pretty Rose McConnell. Not long thereafter, she and Huey were -married. With all his savings and a substantial loan from his older -brother Julius, he managed to finance nearly a year of special study at -Tulane University’s law school in New Orleans. He and Rose shared a room -in a private home not far from the university, where among other -furnishings, a rented typewriter was installed. - -Young Mr. Long would bring home a law book, drive through it in furious -haste while his phenomenally retentive memory seized every really -salient detail, “and then I would abstract the hell out of it, dictating -to my wife, who would type it out for me.” With barely enough money for -housing, carfare, short rations, and such essentials as paper and -pencils, it is none the less probable that these were the least -troubled, most nearly contented and carefree days the couple would ever -know. Before year’s end he was admitted to the bar, and returned to -Winnfield with Rose to begin practice. - -He soon realized that despite local successes, the ambitious goals he -had set for himself could be attained only in a much larger field. So he -moved to Shreveport, which was just at the threshold of a tremendous -boom following the discovery of oil in the nearby Pine Island areas. By -accepting royalty shares and acreage allotments for legal services in -examining titles and the like, Huey was on the threshold of becoming -very wealthy, when he and the other Pine Islanders discovered that they -could not send their black gold to market unless they sold it at -ruinously low prices to owners of the only available pipeline. Long’s -implacable hostility toward the Standard Oil Company had its inception -then and there. - -As first step in a campaign to have pipelines declared common carriers, -he became a candidate for the Railroad (now Public Service) Commission -and was elected. The brothers Long presented a solid front on this -occasion, Julius and Earl working like beavers to help Huey win. George -(“Shan”) had moved to Oklahoma by that time to practice dentistry. Only -once thereafter were they politically united, and that was when Huey ran -for governor in 1928. - -Commissioner Long made his first state-wide stump speech the following -year at a rally and picnic which six candidates for governor had been -called to address. He had not been invited to speak, but asked -permission to say a few words--and stole the show! - -One must picture him: a young man whose bizarre garb was accented by the -fact that since he was wearing a bow tie, the gleaming stickpin with its -big diamond sparkled from the otherwise bare band of his shirt front. -The unruly forelock of rusty brown hair, a fleshy, cleft chin, and a -general air of earnest fury all radiated anger. His blistering -denunciation of the then governor as a pliant tool of the Standard Oil -Company, and his attack on the state fire marshal, an anti-Long politico -from Winnfield, as “the official barfly of the state of Louisiana” -captured all the next day’s headlines. - -Thenceforth the pattern of his future was set. He continued his attacks -on trusts and large corporations, certain that this would enlarge his -image as defender and champion of the downtrodden “pore folks.” His -assaults became so intemperate that in 1921, Governor John M. Parker -filed an affidavit against him with the Baton Rouge district attorney, -and thus brought about his arrest and trial on charges of criminal -libel. - -His attorneys were his brother Julius, Judge James G. Palmer of -Shreveport, and Judge Robert R. Reid of Amite. He was found guilty, but -his reputation as a pitiless opponent was already so great that only a -token sentence was imposed: one hour’s detention, which he served in the -Judge’s chambers, and a one-dollar fine. He was so delighted by the -outcome that he gave his youngest son, born that day, the names of his -attorneys: Palmer Reid Long. Also, some years later, he saw to it that -the judge who had imposed the token penalties was elected to the state -supreme court. - -Continuing his onslaughts against millionaires and monopolies, he ran -for governor in 1924 on a platform of taxing the owners of great -fortunes to aid the underprivileged in their struggle for a reasonable -share of the better life: education for their children, medical care for -all who could not afford to pay, and some sort of economic security for -all who toiled, be it in factory, market place, mine, or farm. - -He now inveighed against Wall Street as a whole, not merely against -isolated corporations as before. The Mellon fortune and the House of -Morgan came in for their oratorical lumps; but it is a matter of record -that later, when Earl and Huey had fallen out, the former testified -under oath before a Senate investigating committee that he had seen his -brother accept $10,000 from an official of the Electric Bond and Share -Company “in bills so new they looked like they’d just come off the -press.” - -However, from every stump Huey proclaimed that “ninety per cent of this -nation’s wealth is in the hands of ten per cent of its people.... The -Bible tells us that unless we redistribute the wealth of a country -amongst all of the people every so often, that country’s going to smash; -but we got too many folks running things in Louisiana and in Washington -that think they’re smarter than the Bible.” - -None the less he ran third in a three-man first primary. In view of the -fact that he had no organized backing it must be conceded that it was a -close third, an amazing achievement the credit for which must be given -to his wide acquaintance among the farm population and the matchless -fire of his eloquence. A number of factors contributed to his defeat. -One of them undeniably was his refusal, or inability, to recognize that -he “could not hold his liquor.” After a convivial evening at a -lake-front resort in New Orleans, he drove back to town with his -campaign manager at a wildly illicit speed and was promptly halted by a -motorcycle officer. His campaign manager hastily explained to the -patrolman that the car was his, and that his chauffeur, one Harold Swan, -had merely acted under orders. But the fact that Huey Long and Harold -Swan in this instance were one and the same came out later, along with -accounts of how Huey had gone tipsily from table to table at the Moulin -Rouge inviting all and sundry to be his personal guests at his inaugural -ball. - -Ordinarily, this might have won him votes in tolerant south Louisiana, -where prohibition was regarded as the figment of sick imaginations, like -the _loup garou_. But in south Louisiana he had few backers in that -campaign to begin with, being a north Louisiana hillman; and in north -Louisiana, where drinking had to be done in secret even before the -Volstead Act became nominally the law of the land, such reports were -sheer poison. - -Finally, the weather on election day turned foul. The wretched dirt -roads of the hinterlands where Huey’s voting strength was concentrated -became impassable, so that many of his supporters could not reach their -polling places. But four years later, when he once more ran for governor -in yet another three-man race, he barely missed a majority in the first -primary. No run-off was held, however, because one of his opponents -announced he would throw his support to Long, pulling with him many -followers, including a young St. Landry parish physician, Dr. F. Octave -Pavy, who had run for lieutenant governor. Under the circumstances a -second primary would have been merely an empty gesture of defiance. - -As governor, he rode roughshod over all opposition to his proposal to -furnish free textbooks to every school child, not merely in the public -schools, but in the Catholic parochial schools and the posh private -academies as well; for a highway-improvement program which he proposed -to finance out of increased gasoline taxes. Nor was he one to hide his -light under a bushel in pretended modesty. On the contrary, after each -success he rang the changes on Jack Horner’s classic “What a good [in -the sense of great] boy am I.” Moreover, it made little difference to -his devotees whether his promises of still greater benefits for the -future, or boasts about the wonders he had already achieved, were based -on fact or fiction. - -By way of illustration: Dr. Arthur Vidrine, a back-country physician, -was catapulted into the superintendency of the state’s huge Charity -Hospital at New Orleans, and later was additionally made dean of the new -state university College of Medicine Long decided to found. Vidrine had -won the new governor’s warm regard by captaining the Long cause in Ville -Platte, where he was a general practitioner. - -In some quarters there is a disposition to regard Arthur Vidrine as no -more than a hack who relied on political manipulation to secure -professional advancement. While it is obvious that his original support -of, and later complete subservience to, Huey Long brought him -extraordinary preferment, it must not be overlooked that in 1920, when -he was graduated from Tulane University’s college of medicine, he was a -sufficiently brilliant student to be chosen in open, nonpolitical -competition for the award of a Rhodes scholarship, and that for two -years he took advantage of this grant to pursue his studies abroad. - -After his return he served for a time as junior intern at New Orleans’ -huge Charity Hospital ... and within four years he was made -superintendent of that famous institution and dean of his state -university’s new medical school, both appointments being conferred on -him by newly elected Governor Huey Long, who lost no opportunity to -picture his protégé as something of a miracle man in the realm of -healing. - -To an early joint session of the legislature, His Excellency announced -that under his administration Dr. Vidrine had reduced cancer mortality -at Charity Hospital by one third. This was obvious nonsense. Had it not -been, the medical world would long since have beaten a path to the -ornamental iron gates of the century-old hospital in quest of further -enlightenment. - -One of the newspapers finally solved the mystery of this miracle of -healing. It stemmed solely from a change in the system of tabulating -mortality statistics. Calculated on the old basis, the death rate was -precisely what it had been before, a little better in some years, a -little worse in others. All this was set forth publicly in clear, simple -wording. But except for a few of the palace guard, who cynically -shrugged the explanation aside, not one of the Long followers accorded -it the slightest heed. They and their peerless standard bearer continued -to glory in the “fact” that he had reduced Charity’s cancer death rate -by a third. - -This accomplishment was by no means the only one of which young -Governor Long boasted. Less tactfully, and certainly less judiciously, -he made vainglorious public statements to the effect that “I hold all -fifty-two cards at Baton Rouge, and shuffle and deal them as I please”; -also that he had bought this legislator or that, “like you’d buy a sack -of potatoes to be delivered at your gate.” - -Within a year the House of Representatives impeached him on nine counts. -Huey had learned that such a movement was to be launched at a special -session in late March of 1929, and sent word to his legislative legions -to adjourn _sine die_ before an impeachment resolution could be -introduced. But an electric malfunction in the voting machine made it -appear that the House voted almost unanimously to adjourn, when in fact -opinion was sharply divided. A riot ensued, which was finally quelled -when Representative Mason Spencer of Tallulah, a brawny giant, bellowed -the words: “In the name of sanity and common sense!” Momentarily this -stilled the tumult and Spencer, not an official of the House, but merely -one of its members, called the roll himself, by voice, on which tally -only seven of the hundred members voted to adjourn. - -The committee of impeachment managers in the House was headed by Spencer -and by his close friend, another huge man, George Perrault of Opelousas. -However, the impeachment charges were aborted in the Senate, when Long -induced fifteen members of that thirty-nine-man body to sign a round -robin to the effect that on technical grounds they would refuse to -convict regardless of evidence. Since this was one vote more than enough -to block the two-thirds majority needed for conviction, the impeachment -charges were dropped. - -Spencer and Perrault remained inseparable friends, occupying adjacent -seats in the House to the day of Perrault’s death during the winter of -1934. On the night of September 8, 1935, Huey stopped to chat -momentarily with Spencer, who took occasion to protest against the -appointment of Edward Loeb, who had replaced his friend Perrault - -“All these years I’ve got used to having a man the size of George -Perrault sitting next to me,” he complained. “Did you have to make Oscar -appoint a pint-size member like Eddie Loeb to sit in his place here?” - -“You remind me,” retorted Long, “of the old nigger woman that was in a -bind of some sort, and her boss helped her out, giving her clothes or -money or vittles or whatever. So she said to him: ‘Mist’ Pete, you got a -white face, fo’ true, but you’s so good you’s bound to have a black -heart.’ That’s you, Mason. Your face is white, but you’ve sure enough -got a black heart.” - - * * * * * - -A year after the abortive impeachment Long announced he would run for -the Senate forthwith, though his gubernatorial tenure would not be -terminated for another two years. In this way, he said, he would submit -his case to the people. If they elected him, they would thereby express -approval of his program. If not, they would elect his opponent, the -long-time incumbent senator. Long was elected overwhelmingly, and then -went from one political success to another, electing another -Winnfieldian, his boyhood chum Oscar Allen, to succeed him as governor, -and smashingly defeating a ticket on which his brother Earl was running -for lieutenant governor with his brother Julius’ active support. It was -later that year that Earl testified against Huey before a Senate -committee. - -In that same year Huey Long entered Arkansas politics. Mrs. Hattie -Caraway, widow of Senator Thad Caraway, had been appointed to serve the -few remaining months of her husband’s term, then announced as a -candidate for re-election. Huey had two reasons for espousing her -candidacy. First, she had voted with him for a resolution favoring the -limitation of individual incomes by law to a maximum of a million -dollars a year. Secondly, the senior senator from Arkansas, Majority -Leader Joe T. Robinson, who had turned thumbs down on this resolution, -had endorsed one of the candidates opposing Mrs. Caraway’s election. -Thirdly, he felt it was time to put the country on notice that -Kingfishing could be carried successfully beyond the borders of its home -state. - -Mrs. Caraway was accorded no chance to win. Every organized political -group in the state had endorsed one or another of her six opponents, -among whom were included a national commander of the American Legion, -two former governors, a Supreme Court justice, and other bigwigs. The -opening address of the nine-day campaign Huey Long waged with Mrs. -Caraway was delivered at Magnolia, just north of the Louisiana border. -At its close, a dazed local political Pooh-Bah wired a major campaign -headquarters in Little Rock: “A tornado just passed through here. Very -few trees left standing, and even those are badly scarred up.” - -It was here that Long first formulated what later became the -Share-Our-Wealth clubs’ credo. - -“In this country,” he proclaimed, “we raise so much food there’d be -plenty for all if we never slaughtered another hog or harvested another -bushel of grain for the next two years, and yet people are going hungry. -We’ve got enough material for clothes if in the next two years we never -tanned another hide or raised another lock of cotton, and yet people are -going barefoot and naked. Enough houses in this land are standing empty -to put a roof over every head at night, and yet people are wandering the -highways for lack of shelter.” - -The remedy he proposed was simple: share our wealth instead of leaving -almost all of it in the hands of a greedy few. - -“All in this living world you’ve got to do,” he insisted, “is to limit -individual incomes to one million dollars a year, and fix it so nobody -when he dies can leave to any one child more than five million dollars. -And let me tell you something: holding one of those birds down to a -measly million dollars a year’s no sort of hardship on him. At that rate -of income, if he stopped to bathe and shave, he’d be just about five -hundred dollars the richer by the time he got his clothes back on. - -“What we got to do is break up those enormous fortunes like the -billion-dollar Mellon estate. By allowing them a million dollars a year -for spending-money you’ll agree we wouldn’t be hurting ’em any to speak -of. We’d have the balance to distribute amongst all the people, and that -would fix things so everybody’d be able to live like he could right now -if he made five thousand a year. Yes sir, like he was having five -thousand a year and a team of mules to work with, once we share the -wealth!” - -Today it is almost impossible to visualize the effect of so alluring a -prospect on a countryside forced at that time to rely on the Red Cross -for seed corn and sweet-potato slips to assure a winter’s food supply. -The rural Negroes in particular, their “furnish” sadly shrunken as a -result of the depression, accepted it almost as gospel that Huey Long -was promising them five thousand dollars a year and a team of mules. - -The impact of Long’s oratory was so clearly obvious that a special -committee waited on him at Texarkana, where he planned to close the -campaign on Saturday night, to ask that he remain in Arkansas over the -weekend to address meetings in the tier of counties along the -Mississippi River on Monday, the day before the election. He agreed to -do this, canceled plans to drive to Shreveport from Texarkana, and drove -back to Little Rock instead. Since this left the accompanying newsmen -with no grist for the early Monday editions, and since he had been -quoting the Bible right and left in his speeches, not to mention the -fact that in the glove compartment of his Cadillac a well-thumbed Bible -reposed beside a loaded revolver and an atomizer of throat spray, he was -asked where he expected to attend church the next morning. - -“Me go to church?” he inquired incredulously. “Why I haven’t been to a -church in so many years I don’t know when.” - -“But you’re always quoting the Bible and so....” - -“Bible’s the greatest book ever written,” he interrupted, “but I sure -don’t need anybody I can buy for six bits and a chew of tobacco to -explain it to me. When I need preachers I buy ’em cheap.” - -Mrs. Caraway’s first primary victory was a landslide. Well pleased, Huey -returned to Louisiana to defeat two-term incumbent Senator Edwin S. -Broussard and elect one of his chief attorneys in the impeachment case, -John H. Overton, in his stead. It was this election which a Senate -committee later investigated to sift allegations of fraud. The -investigation was recessed midway to give Senator Long an opportunity to -halt a threatened bank run by the simple expedient of having Oscar Allen -proclaim Saturday, February 4, a holiday celebrating the fact that -sixteen years before, on February 3 and 4, 1917, Woodrow Wilson had -severed diplomatic relations with Germany! - - PROCLAMATION - - STATE OF LOUISIANA - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT - BATON ROUGE - - Whereas, on the nights of February 3 and 4, 1917, Woodrow Wilson, - president of the United States, severed diplomatic relations with the - Imperial German government; and - - Whereas, more than 16 years has intervened before the great American - people have turned their eyes back to the lofty ideals of human uplift - and new freedom as propounded by Woodrow Wilson; and - - Whereas, it is now fitting that due recognition be given by the great - State of Louisiana in line with the far-reaching principles enunciated - by the illustrious southerner who sought to break the fetters of - mankind throughout the world; - - Now, therefore, I, Oscar Kelly Allen, governor of the State of - Louisiana, do hereby ordain that Saturday, the fourth day of February, - 1933, the 16th anniversary of the severance of diplomatic relations - between the United States and the Imperial German government be, and - the same is hereby declared, a holiday throughout the State of - Louisiana and I do hereby order that all public business, including - schools, colleges, banks and other public enterprises be suspended on - said day and that the proper ceremonies to commemorate that event be - held. - - In witness whereof I have caused to be affixed the great seal of the - State of Louisiana on this, the third day of February, in the year of - Our Lord, A. D. 1933. - - [Illustration: Oscar Kelly Allen - - Governor] - - [Illustration: Attest: - - E. A. Conway - - Secretary of State.] - -This meant that all public offices, schools--and banks--were legally -forbidden to open their doors on that Saturday; by Sunday the Federal -Reserve authorities had put $20,000,000 at the disposal of the menaced -bank and the run which might have spread panic throughout the country -died a-borning. However, bank closures on a national scale were thus -postponed for only a month. March 4, while Franklin Roosevelt was taking -his first oath as president, state after state was ordering its banks to -close, as financial consternation (vectored from Detroit, however, and -not from New Orleans) stampeded across the land. - -One of the newly inaugurated President’s first acts--“The only thing we -have to fear is fear itself!”--was to order all the nation’s banks to -close until individually authorized by executive permit to reopen. But -the onus of having initiated the disaster had been averted from -Louisiana by Huey’s bizarre bank holiday, and this underscored the fact -that for some time past, the number and ratio of bank failures in -Louisiana had been far, far below the national average. It also -strengthened the growing conviction that Louisiana’s Long was something -more than another Southern demagogue like Mississippi’s Bilbo or Texas’ -Pa Ferguson. - -Franklin Roosevelt was probably never under any illusions on that score. -He gauged quite correctly the omen of Share-Our-Wealth’s growing -strength. It had been blueprinted for all to see when Mrs. Caraway’s -candidacy swept the boards in Arkansas, and again when this movement, -plus the oratorical spell cast by the Louisianian in stumping the -Midwestern prairie states, carried them for Roosevelt later that same -autumn. According to Long’s subsequent diatribes, he had campaigned thus -for “Roosevelt the Little” on the express understanding that the -president-to-be would back the program for limiting individual incomes -and bequests by statute. - -There is ample ground for the belief that Long was secretly gratified -when he realized that the New Dealers would have none of this proposal. -The issue which had served him so well in the past could thus be turned -against Roosevelt four years later, when Long planned to enter the lists -as a rival candidate for the world’s loftiest office. Publicly, to be -sure, he professed himself outraged by “this double cross,” bolted the -administration ranks once more, repeated an earlier, defiant fulmination -to the effect that if the New Dealers wished to withhold control over -Louisiana’s federal appointments from him, they could take this -patronage and “go slap dab to hell with it.” - -Roosevelt and his _fidus Achates_, Harry Hopkins, took him at his word, -and gave the anti-Long faction, headed by Mayor Walmsley of New Orleans, -a controlling voice in the distribution of federal patronage. The -breach between the two standard bearers--one heading the New Deal and -a federal bureaucracy tremendously swollen by a swarm of new -alphabetical agencies, the other all but worshiped as archangel of -Share-Our-Wealth--widened from month to month. - -Roosevelt left the anti-Long philippics to members of his cabinet and -other department heads: Hugh Johnson, NRA administrator, for example, or -Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. The climax to these interchanges came -in the late summer of 1935, when in an address delivered on the Senate -floor, Long charged that “Franklin Delano Roosevelt the first, the last, -and the littlest” was linked to a plot against his--Huey Long’s--life. - - - - -3 ---- AUGUST 8, 1935: WASHINGTON - - “_I haven’t the slightest doubt but that Roosevelt would pardon anyone - who killed Long._” - - ----UNIDENTIFIED VOICE FROM A DICTOGRAPH RECORD QUOTED BY HUEY LONG IN - AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE - - -Long’s charge that he had been selected for assassination by a cabal in -whose plot President Roosevelt was involved at least by implication made -headlines from coast to coast and filled page on page of the -_Congressional Record_. But it fell quite flat, being taken in a -Pickwickian rather than in any literal sense. Even the unthinking elders -of the Share-Our-Wealth clubs, their numbers now sadly shrunken by -reason of the march of time, still cling to a rather pathetic belief in -this extravagant bombast only by reason of an uncanny and unrelated -coincidence: within less than thirty days after making the charge Long -actually was assassinated. - -His climactic thrust at the White House was not taken too seriously at -the time, however, because, for one thing, Long had cried “plot against -me” too often. By the fall of 1935 the story was old hat, even though it -had never before been blazoned in so august a tribunal as the Senate, -and had never before involved, even by indirection, a chief executive. -On two previous occasions he had placed Baton Rouge under martial law, -calling out the militia, to defend him against plots on his life. Only -seven months before making the Senate speech in question he had -“exposed” the plot of a group of Baton Rouge citizens, a number of high -officials among them, to waylay his automobile on a given night while he -was being driven to New Orleans, and kill him at a lonely bend of the -River Road where the car would of necessity have to slow down. - -In proof of this he put on the witness stand an informer who had -infiltrated into the ranks of the supposedly plotting group, and who -testified as to the details of a conspiracy. - -Early in his senatorial career he had made himself so offensive in the -washroom of a club at Sands Point, Long Island, that the irate victim of -a demand to “make way for the Kingfish” slugged him. Since the blow -split the skin over an eyebrow, the incident could not be concealed. -Long promptly charged that hired bravos of the House of Morgan had -assaulted him in the club washroom, intent on taking his life. - -Finally, when what he told the Senate on that August day in 1935 was -boiled down in its own juices it made pretty thin gruel, as anyone who -cares to wade through the fine print of the _Congressional Record_ for -that date can see for himself. The truth is that on the eve of Congress’ -adjournment, Long was trying to build up against Roosevelt something he -could tub-thump before the voters in the next year’s presidential -campaign. - -On the principle that “the best defense is an attack,” he was keeping -the New Deal hierarchy in Washington so busily occupied on another front -that he could take advantage of their preoccupation to infiltrate -Louisiana’s federal patronage with his followers. - -Presumably control over these appointments to all sorts of oddball -positions under the PWA, WPA, and other auspices was now in the hands -of the anti-Long contingent, headed by among others a good half of the -state’s members in the lower house of Congress. But these were parochial -politicians, fumblingly inept at organizing such matters on a state-wide -scale. To cite but a single example, one project sponsored under the -anti-Long dispensation was a review of the newspaper files in the New -Orleans City Hall archives. By direction of Mayor Walmsley, so many -appointees were packed into this particular task that they had to work -in one-hour-a-day shifts in order to find physical room in the small -garret-like space set aside for it. - -Theoretically, they were to index these files, and to repair torn pages -with gummed tape as they came across them. Actually, they would for the -most part merely turn the leaves of the clumsy bound volumes until they -came to the Sunday comics or other such features, and read these at -leisure. Then they repaired to Lafayette Square when their hour of -demanded presence was up, and joked about the way they would put out of -joint the noses of the anti-Long leadership on election day; for of -course most of them were dedicated Share-Our-Wealthers eagerly looking -forward to $5000-a-year incomes when Huey Long got around to -redistributing the nation’s wealth. - -Meanwhile their Kingfish was giving the anti-Long leaders a real -Roland--an entire battalion of Rolands, in fact--for their patronage -Oliver. The spoils-system theory of a patronage plum is that its -bestowal is good for three votes; in other words, that the recipient and -at least two members of his family or circle of friends will vote for -the party favored by the job’s bestower. A United States senator would -normally be consulted about appointments to all federal patronage posts -not covered by civil service in his state: Collector of the Port, -Surveyor of the Port, Collector of Internal Revenue, district attorneys, -federal judges, and the like. During the early New Deal era this roster -was tremendously amplified by the staffs of numerous new alphabetical -agencies and their labor force. - -Huey Long may not have expected to be taken quite so literally when he -told the Roosevelt hierarchs they could take their patronage “slap-dab -to hell” as far as he was concerned. But when he saw that he was indeed -given no voice in any Louisiana federal appointment, he initiated an -entire series of special sessions of the state legislature which -subserviently enacted a succession of so-called “dictatorship laws.” -Under these statutes he took the control of every parochial and -municipal position in every city, village, and parish out of the hands -of the local authorities, and vested the appointive power in himself. - -He did this by creating new state boards, composed of officials of his -own selection, without whose certification no local public employee -could receive or hold any post on the public payroll. A board of teacher -certification was thus set up and without its--which is to say, Huey -Long’s--approval, no teacher, janitor, school-bus driver, or principal -could be employed by any local parish or city school board. No municipal -police officer or deputy sheriff throughout the state, no deputy clerk -or stenographer in any courthouse, no city or parish sanitary inspector, -and so on down the entire line of public payroll places, could continue -in his or her position unless specifically okayed by Senator Long. In -those pre-civil-service days the appointive state, parish, and city -employees in Louisiana outnumbered the federal patronage places within -the state by hundreds to one, even during the New Deal’s era of -production controls and “recovery.” - -Hence, for each federal patronage job he had nominally lost to his -opponents he gained hundreds--literally--of local appointments which -were thenceforth at his disposal. When this was pointed out in the -anti-Long press and he was asked for comment, he chuckled and said: -“I’m always ready to give anybody a biscuit for a barrel of flour.” - -In sum, he had brought practically all local public employees, including -those who staffed Mayor Walmsley’s city administration in New Orleans, -under the Long banner by the summer of 1935. Only a scant handful of -“dictatorship laws” yet remained to be enacted, and these were already -being drafted to his specifications. The moment Congress adjourned, when -he would be released from Washington and could return to Louisiana, they -would be rushed to enactment. - -Meanwhile he readied his parting shot against the White House. The -incident on which he based the grotesque charge that President Roosevelt -abetted, or at the very least knew of and acquiesced in, an -assassination plot was a supposedly _sub rosa_ political caucus held at -the Hotel De Soto in New Orleans on Sunday, July 21, 1935. The gathering -had been convened presumably without letting any outsider (i.e., -“nonplotter”) know it was to be held. Its ostensible objective was the -selection of an anti-Long gubernatorial candidate whom all anti-Long -factions would agree to support against any nominee the Senator might -hand-pick for endorsement. - -However, with what still appears to be a positive genius for fumbling, -the anti-Long leadership guarded with such butter-fingered zeal the -secret of whether, where, or when they were to meet that even before -they assembled, Long aides had ample time to install the microphone of a -dictograph in the room where the anti-Long General Staff was to confer. -The device functioned very fuzzily. Its recording (which it was hoped to -duplicate and replay from sound trucks throughout the ensuing campaign) -was only spottily intelligible. But a couple of court reporters had also -been equipped with earphones at a listening post, and their stenographic -transcript, though incomplete, afforded some excerpts which Senator -Long inflated into what he presented as a full-scale murder plot. - -His fulmination was delivered before a crowded gallery, as usual. This -popularity annoyed many of his senior colleagues, none more so than -Vice-President Garner, whom John L. Lewis was soon to stigmatize as -“that labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking evil old man.” More -than once, as the galleries emptied with a rush the moment Long -finished, Mr. Garner would call to the departing auditors, saying: “Yes, -you can go now! The show’s over!” - -In this instance, as on many previous occasions, there was no advance -hint of the fireworks to come. The fuse was a debate over the -Frazier-Lemke bill, and Senator Long contented himself at the outset -with charging that the administration was conducting “government by -blackmail.” In making this statement he was referring to NIRA, which had -succeeded NRA, the latter having been declared unconstitutional some -three months earlier. This had nothing to do with the Frazier-Lemke -bill, but it gave Mr. Long an opportunity to charge that no contracts -for PWA work were being financed unless the contractor agreed to abide -by all the provisions of the NRA code which the Supreme Court had -invalidated. - -That led to the statement that “we in Louisiana have never stood for -[such] blackmail from anybody,” which in turn led to a section of his -arraignment the _Congressional Record_ headed: - - “THE PLAN OF ROBBERY, MURDER, - BLACKMAIL, OR THEFT” - -He then loosed his farewell salvo. - -“I have a record of an anti-Long conference held by the anti-Long -Representatives from Louisiana in Congress,” he said in part. “The -faithful Roosevelt Congressmen had gone down there to put the Long -crowd out.... Here is what happened among the Congressmen representing -Roosevelt the first, the last and the littlest.” - -Holding aloft what he said was a transcript of the dictograph record, he -listed the names of those present, naming a collector of internal -revenue, an FERA manager for the state, and giving as the first direct -quote of one of the conferees a statement made by one Oscar Whilden, a -burly horse-and-mule dealer who had headed an anti-Long direct-action -group calling itself the Square Deal Association. Whilden was quoted as -saying at the very opening of the meeting that “I am out to murder, -kill, bulldoze, steal or anything else to win this election!” - -An unidentified voice mentioned that the anti-Long faction would be -aided by more “income tax indictments, and there will be some more -convictions. They tell me O. K. Allen will be the next to be indicted.” - -“That,” explained Mr. Long for the benefit of his hearers and the press -gallery, “is the governor of Louisiana. Send them down these culprits -and thieves and thugs who openly advocate murdering people, and who have -been participants in the murder of some people and in their undertaking -to murder others--send them down these thugs and thieves and culprits -and rascals who have been placed upon Government payrolls, drawing from -five to six thousand dollars a year, to carry on and wage war in the -name of the sacred flag, the Stars and Stripes. That is the kind of -government to which the administration has attached itself in the state -of Louisiana!” - -Four of Louisiana’s congressmen were named as having taken part in the -caucus which Senator Long dubbed a “murder conference.” They were J. Y. -Sanders, Jr., Cleveland Dear, Numa Montet, and John Sandlin. But it was -another of the conferees whom Senator Long quoted next, reading from -the transcript, as suggesting that “we have Dear to make a trip around -the state and then announce that the people want him to run for -Governor, and no one will know about this arrangement here ... as you -all know we must all keep all of this a secret and not even tell our own -families of what is done.” Whereupon, according to the record, another -voice proposed that “we should make fellows like Farley and Roosevelt -and the suffering corporations ... cough up enough to get rid of that -fellow.” - -Commented Senator Long: “Yes, we should make the Standard Oil Company -and the ‘suffering corporations’ cough up enough ... says Mr. Sandlin -... [but] I am going to teach my friends in the Senate how to lick this -kind of corruption. I am going to show them how to lick it to a -shirttail finish.... I am going to give you a lesson in January to show -you that the crookedness and rottenness and corruption of this -Government, however ably [_sic!_] financed and however many big -corporations join in it, will not get to first base.” - -More of the same sort of dialogue was read from the transcript. -Congressman Sandlin assured the meeting that President Roosevelt will -“endorse our candidate.” Another of the conferees, one O’Rourke, was -described by Long as having refused to testify when another witness at -an inquiry into one of Huey Long’s earlier murder-plot charges “swore -that he had hired O’Rourke to commit murder in Baton Rouge. I was the -man he was to kill so there was not much said about it except that he -refused to testify on the ground that he would incriminate himself, -whereupon Roosevelt employed him. He was qualified and he was -appointed.” - -The statement most frequently quoted in the weeks and months that -followed was that of an unidentified voice which the transcript reported -as saying: “I would draw in a lottery to go out and kill Long. It would -take only one man, one gun and one bullet.” And some time thereafter, -according to the transcript, another unidentified voice declared that “I -haven’t the slightest doubt but that Roosevelt would pardon any one who -killed Long.” Thereupon someone asked: “But how could it be done?” and -the reply was: “The best way would be to just hang around Washington and -kill him right in the Senate.” - -The conference was adjourned after notifying Congressman Dear that the -people would clamor to have him run for governor of Louisiana. (The -significance of this is that in one of Dear’s final campaign speeches he -made the statement that gave rise to a widely disseminated and still -persistent version of the shooting that followed, by almost exactly one -month, the delivery of Long’s attack on the New Deal.) - -Long concluded his address to the Senate with the assertion that he had -exposed this presumably hush-hush meeting “to the United States Senate -and, I hope, to the country ... and I wish to announce further they have -sent additional inspectors and various other bureaucrats down in the -State.... - -“The State of Louisiana has no fear whatever of any kind of tactics thus -agreed upon and thus imposed. The State of Louisiana will remain a -state. When you hear from the election returns in the coming January ... -Louisiana will not have a government imposed on it that represents -murder, blackmail, oppression or destitution.” - -The Senate then resumed the business of the day. But most of the -correspondents in the press gallery had left and the talk was all of -Huey Long’s excoriation of the New Deal, of his promise that “if it is -in a Presidential primary, they will hear from the people of the United -States,” and of his declaration that rumors of the New Deal leaders -plotting to have him murdered were now “fully verified.” - -NOTE: Most of the purely local references, repetitions, adversions to -extraneous matters, and the like have been omitted from the foregoing -condensation of Senator Long’s last speech before the Senate. Those who -may wish to read the full text of his address will find it in the -_Congressional Record_ for August 9, 1935, pages 12780 through 12791. -The section headed “The Plan of Robbery, Murder, Blackmail, or Theft” -begins on page 12786, second column. - - - - -4 ---- AUGUST 30 TO SEPTEMBER 2 - - “_Behold, my desire is that mine adversary had written a book. Surely - I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown to me._” - - ----JOB - - -Congress did not adjourn its 1935 session until seventeen days after -Senator Long had delivered his blast about “the plan of robbery, murder, -blackmail, or theft” at the Roosevelt administration in general and at -its head in particular. This was, as he clearly stated in his reference -to presidential primaries, the opening move in launching his 1936 -candidacy for president; the next step would be publication and -distribution of _My First Days in the White House_. - -He devoted himself to revision of this manuscript during the fortnight -in which Congress remained in session, and marveled at the difficulties -he encountered. Like many another magnetic orator, he was no writer, and -in spite of the ghosts who had helped bring it into being, _My First -Days in the White House_ eloquently testifies to that fact. None the -less, had he lived, the book would have won him adherents by the -million. In all its naïve oversimplification, it was still a triumph of -classical composition beside the helter-skelter phraseology of his -senatorial and stump-speaking oratory. But the latter, like his many -other public utterances, his early political circulars, and even the -jumbled prose of his first book: _Every Man a King_, had been accepted -almost as gospel by Longolators who jeered at literate anti-Long -editorials as propaganda dictated and paid for by the Money Barons. - -Congress did adjourn in due course, and now it is time to follow Long -almost hour by hour through the final ten days of his life, assembling -an unbiased chronicle in order to dispel myths and reveal truths about -his assassination. His first concern was the publication of his book. -His only other fixed commitment before having Governor Allen call the -legislature into special session for the enactment of a final dossier of -dictatorship laws, was delivery of a Labor Day address at Oklahoma City -on September 2. He had accepted this invitation gladly, since it would -afford him an opportunity to couple evangelistic grandiloquence about -wealth-sharing with kind words about blind Senator Thomas Gore, who -faced stiff opposition in his campaign for re-election. - -Earle Christenberry was left in charge of the Washington office, where -he was to pack for transportation all documents and records which might -be needed to elect a Long-endorsed governor and other state officials in -Louisiana. Meanwhile, Mr. Long with the manuscript of his book and three -of his bodyguards went to New York for a few days of relaxation. - -It was also part of his long-range design to seek the Democratic Party’s -nomination for president at the 1936 convention. To be sure, he was -under no misconception as to the sort of fate this bid would encounter. -For one thing, Roosevelt’s personal popularity had reached new heights -as his first term drew to a close. His nomination for a second term was -all but inevitable. Long had attacked not only the administration as -such. He was carrying on corrosive personal feuds with Postmaster -General Farley, Interior Secretary Ickes, NRA Administrator Hugh -Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson, and a host of other party -bigwigs. - -Naturally, Louisiana’s Kingfish realized fully that these leaders, -controlling the party machinery in the convention of 1936, would see to -it not merely that F.D.R. received a virtually unanimous nomination for -a second term, but that even were Roosevelt eliminated from contention, -Huey Long’s effort to become the party’s standard bearer would be -rejected. - -Unquestionably, that is exactly what the Kingfish wanted. He already had -a virtually crackproof national organization in his swiftly expanding -Share-Our-Wealth clubs. The growth of this movement was now so rapid -that his staff found difficulty in keeping pace with it. So valuable had -its name become that both “Share _Our_ Wealth” and “Share _the_ Wealth” -were copyrighted in Earle Christenberry’s name. - -Long’s purpose was to rally from both the Republican and Democratic -camps the many who were still embittered by their struggles to escape -the Great Depression. Times had undeniably bettered. The economy would -reach a peak figure in 1937. But even the WPA “shovel leaners” were -convinced that the government owed them much more than was being doled -out on payday, and were entranced by the vision of a future in which -Huey Long would soak the rich to provide for each toiler, however lowly -his station, an income of $5000 a year and a span of mules. - -In the prairie corn and wheat belts, in the Dakotas and in Oklahoma, in -all the places where Long had preached wealth-sharing while campaigning -for Roosevelt, desperate landowners on the verge of eviction from -mortgaged or tax-delinquent acres their forebears had carved out of the -wilderness, were still rallying their friends and neighbors to help keep -potential bidders from foreclosure auctions. These too would recall -Long’s clamorous efforts to bring the Frazier-Lemke bill to a vote, and -the conservatives’ success in holding it back from the floor. One and -all, they would read _My First Days in the White House_, and they would -learn in its pages how readily a wealth-sharing miracle could come to -pass if only Huey Long were president.... - -None the less, publishers were chary of bringing out the book under -their imprint. To Long this was no matter for concern. Over a period of -at least three years a war chest for the presidential campaign he -planned to wage in 1936 had been growing steadily. It included not -merely money--a levy on the salaries of all public employees under his -domination in Louisiana, and major campaign contributions from -corporations that felt themselves obligated to show tangible -appreciation for past favors or sought to insure themselves against -future reprisal--it included also a solid stockpile of affidavits about -the boondoggles of divers federal agencies. Hard-pressed men, driven to -almost any lengths by the crying need of their families for such bare -necessities as food and shelter, were being forced to promise they would -“praise Roosevelt and cuss Long” before being granted a WPA laborer’s -pittance. - -At the outset of Long’s senatorial career this entire trove of cash and -documentary dynamite was kept in some strongboxes of the Mayflower -Hotel, where the Senator first established his capitol residence. But -for various reasons, at least one of which was the hotel’s refusal to -bar his political opponents from registering there while in Washington, -his relations with the Mayflower deteriorated rapidly to the point where -he moved to the Broadmoor, at 3601 Connecticut Avenue. The view from one -of the windows of his apartment overlooking Rock Creek Park charmed him. -At the same time the campaign cash and documents were transferred to the -safety-deposit vaults of the Riggs National Bank, where the Senator kept -a Washington checking account, or rather, where Earle Christenberry kept -it for him. - -Hence the question of paying for the publication of _My First Days in -the White House_ presented no problem. For that matter, neither did the -seeming permanence of a few scattered centers of anti-Long resistance in -Louisiana. Since the dictatorship laws enacted during the previous -twelvemonth made it virtually impossible to defeat Long proposals in the -legislature, or Long candidates at the polls, the fixity of a few -isolated opposition enclaves was desirable because, to quote Mr. Long, -“it gives me somebody to cuss out, and I can’t make a speech that’s -worth a damn unless I’m raising hell about what my enemies are doing.” - -Only one stubborn stronghold of this sort really irked him by its -refusal to capitulate. This was the parish of St. Landry, whose seat was -Opelousas. Always independent of alien dictation, this fourth-largest -county in Louisiana had remained uncompromisingly anti-Long under the -leadership of a couple of patriarchal autocrats: Judge Benjamin Pavy, -tall, heavy-set, and wide-shouldered, with a roundish countenance -against whose rather sallow complexion a white mustache stood out in -sharp contrast; and District Attorney Lee Garland, short and plump, his -features pink beneath a flowing crest of white hair. - -Garland, much the elder, had held office continuously for forty-four -years, Judge Pavy for twenty-eight. The latter had been elected to the -district bench in 1908, after an exceptionally bitter local contest in -which the leader of the anti-Pavy forces, Sheriff Marion Swords, went so -far as to charge that one of Ben Pavy’s distant relatives-in-law was an -individual the purity of whose Caucasian ancestry was open to challenge. -Since Judge Pavy was elected not only then, but continuously thereafter -for the next twenty-eight years in election after election, it is -obvious the report was given no credence at the time. With the passage -of years, the incident was forgotten. - -The situation in the parish of St. Landry would not have disturbed Huey -Long too greatly, had there not been the possibility that in some -future state Supreme Court election the heavy vote of that parish might -upset the high tribunal’s political four-to-three Long-faction majority. -On this ground alone it might be important for the Kingfish to alter the -political climate of the St. Landry judicial district before the larger -demands of an approaching presidential campaign monopolized his time and -energy. - -A matter of prestige was likewise involved. It was Long’s purpose to -take the stump personally in the St. Landry area, in order to bring -about the defeat of its heavily entrenched Pavy-Garland faction and -score a personal triumph. On the other hand, if through some mischance -his persuasive oratory and the well-drilled efficiency of his cohorts -failed to carry the day, the result would be hailed not merely in -Louisiana, but throughout the nation, as a personal defeat for the -Kingfish. Hence, nothing must be left to chance. Matters must be so -arranged that failure was to all intents and purposes impossible. - -This involved no very serious difficulties. Earlier that summer, when he -first outlined to his lieutenants plans for liquidating the Pavy-Garland -entente as a politically potent factor, he gave orders to prepare for a -special session of the legislature, this one to be called as soon as -Congress adjourned. Once convened, the lawmakers were to gerrymander St. -Landry from the thirteenth into the fifteenth judicial district. This -would leave Evangeline (Dr. Vidrine’s home bailiwick), small but -overwhelmingly pro-Long, as the only parish in the thirteenth district, -thus assuring the election of a friendly judge there. - -At the same time, it would annex St. Landry to another district which -already included three large pro-Long parishes. Admittedly, the enlarged -district would be given two judges instead of one, but under the new -arrangement neither could possibly be elected without Long’s -endorsement. - -Senator Long took it for granted that his wishes--commands, -rather--would be complied with at once. But some close friends earnestly -urged him to forgo the gerrymander, at least temporarily. Political -feeling was running too high as matters stood to risk possible violence, -perhaps even a popular uprising, through such high-handed and summary -procedures. Reluctantly, he agreed to hold this particular project in -abeyance, but only for the moment. - -At the close of August, however, with Congress in adjournment, and in -view of the need to neutralize the federal government’s policy of -patronage distribution solely for the benefit of his political foes back -home, he decided that the time for action was at hand. Once more he sent -word to Baton Rouge that preparations for a special legislative session, -the fourth of that calendar year, be started without further delay. It -should be convened on the night of Saturday, September 7. - -Meanwhile certain bills, embodying the statutory changes he wanted, -should be drafted forthwith by Executive Counsel George Wallace, so that -he--Huey--could check their wording in advance, and make any amendments -he deemed necessary. This must be done with secrecy--not the sort of -puerile intrigue with which his opponents had assembled their hotel -conference, but under a tight cloak of concealment, so as to catch the -opposition unawares. The gerrymander that would retire Judge Pavy to -private life was to be the first measure introduced and passed, becoming -House Bill Number One and later Act Number One. The date of the state’s -congressional primaries was also to be moved up from September 1936 to -January. These should be held at the same time as the primaries for -governor and other elective state officers. And there was another -measure, one still in the planning stage, the details of which he would -give later; something to take the sting out of Roosevelt’s punitive -dispensation of federal patronage in Louisiana. - -Having disposed of these matters, Long left Washington for New York with -three of his most trusted bodyguards--Murphy Roden, Paul Voitier, and -Theophile Landry. All he had in mind at the moment was a day or two of -relaxation. August 30 was his birthday. He would be forty-two years old. -This in itself called for some sort of celebration. Besides, in view of -the busy weeks ahead--the Labor Day speech in Oklahoma on September 2, -the special session of the legislature, the need to rush _My First Days -in the White House_ into print, the fall and winter campaign for state -offices, the presidential campaign to follow--this might well be, for no -one knew how long, his last opportunity for casual diversion. - -“We flew to New York from Washington,” Captain Landry recalls, “and went -straight to the New Yorker Hotel, where they always put the Senator in a -suite on the thirty-second floor. We got there on August 29. I remember -that because the next day, a Friday, was his birthday, and Ralph Hitz, -the owner of the hotel, sent up a big birthday cake. Lila Lee, a New -Orleans girl who was vocalist for Nick Lucas’ band that was playing the -New Yorker’s supper room, came up to the suite with the cake to sing -Happy-birthday-dear-Huey. After the cake had been cut and we all had a -taste of it, he gave the rest to Miss Lee. - -“About that time Lou Irwin came up to take us out to dinner. I think the -Senator had talked to him on the phone about finding someone to publish -his book, and that Lou had said this was out of his line, since he was a -theatrical agent, but he would inquire around and see what could be -done. Earle Christenberry wasn’t with us. He had remained in Washington -to gather up all the things the Senator might need in Louisiana, papers -and so on, and he was going to take his time driving home with them -while we went on to Oklahoma City. - -“Anyway, Lou Irwin said he had just booked a show into some place -uptown. I have forgotten the name of it; all I remember is it was quite -a ways uptown, and Lou told us they had just imported from France some -chef that made the best onion soup in the world. - -“So we went there to eat, and we had hardly sat down when who should -come over to our table but Phil Baker, the radio star. He said: -‘Senator, I want you to meet the two most beautiful girls in New York, -my wife Peggy and her niece.’ I don’t remember the niece’s name, but she -was a young girl that looked to be about eighteen, and she was very -pretty. Baker was all excited, talking about having just signed a -contract that very day with the Gulf Refining people to take over their -radio show, the one Will Rogers, who got killed in a plane crash with -Wiley Post up in Alaska a couple of weeks before that, used to do.” - -The name of the niece was Cleanthe Carr. Her father, Gene Carr, was one -of the best-known cartoonists and comic-strip originators in the -country. His work was widely syndicated. - -“The Senator got up to dance with Mrs. Baker,” the Landry account -continues, “and she must have told him, while they were dancing, about -this niece being an artist, because when they came back to the table he -picked up a napkin and gave it to this girl, saying: ‘Young lady, I -understand you’re quite a cartoonist. Let’s see you sketch me here on -this napkin!’ Well, she made a perfect sketch of him, with his arms out -and his hair flying, as though he were making a hell-fire speech. He -thought the sketch was fine, but Phil Baker said we ought to see some of -her serious work, and we all should come up to his apartment, where he -had quite a few of the paintings she had done. - -“So we left. I don’t think Lou Irwin came with us. But anyway, after we -had been quite a long while at the Baker apartment, Senator Long said -the niece would have to do the pictures for his book that he had written -about how he was already elected president and what he did in the White -House to redistribute the wealth after he was inaugurated. By the time -we got back to the hotel it was three o’clock in the morning. - -“The Senator went over to the newsstand to look at the headlines in the -morning papers, and a gentleman who had been in the lobby when we came -in got up and came over to me and asked if my name was Captain Landry. I -told him yes, that was right, and he said he wanted to talk to Mr. Long. -I said: ‘Man, don’t you see what time it is? You haven’t got a chance to -see him now. You better come back tomorrow.’ - -“So he said it was very important for him to talk to the Senator right -away, that he had been sent up from Washington by Earle Christenberry, -and that was how he knew what my name was. He also said he represented -the Harrisburg _Telegraph_ Publishing Company in Harrisburg, -Pennsylvania, and they were anxious to publish the Senator’s book about -his first days in the White House. Naturally, that made a difference, -because that was one of the things Senator Long had come to New York -for, so I went across the lobby to the newsstand and told him what the -story was. - -“At first he said he wasn’t about to talk to anybody that time of night, -but when I told him how Earle had sent the man up special because the -Harrisburg _Telegraph_ people wanted to publish the book, and how the -man said he had just missed us when we went out to supper, and had been -waiting in the lobby ever since, the Senator said: ‘Well, all right, -then. Tell him to come up to 3200 in about ten minutes, but make him -understand he’ll have to talk damn fast when he gets there.’ So I did, -and the man--I have forgotten his name; that’s if I ever knew it--didn’t -have to talk so fast after all, because the meeting didn’t break up -till after five o’clock, when we all just about barely had time to get -packed and catch the first train for Harrisburg. - -“This was Saturday morning, August 31, and we went from the station at -Harrisburg right to the office of the newspaper and I know they must -have reached an agreement about printing the book, because when we left -by train for St. Louis that evening, two stenographers and a sort of -editor from the Harrisburg _Telegraph_ came along, and they were working -most of the night and all the next morning, cutting down the manuscript -for this book. It was too long the way it was written. Anyhow, as I -remember, they cut out two hundred pages, and finished just about the -time we got ready to cross the bridge and pull into St. Louis, where we -only had about five minutes to change to the train for Oklahoma City. - -“This was a Sunday morning, and while I don’t know how the word had got -around St. Louis that Huey Long was passing through, I tell you that old -station there was packed and jammed like nobody ever saw before, with -people that were not working, it being Sunday, so they just wanted to -catch one glimpse of the man while he was passing through.” - -Senator Long, Theophile Landry, and Paul Voitier, another bodyguard, -reached Oklahoma City late that afternoon. Only one public official, -Mayor Frank Martin, was at the station to greet the distinguished -visitor. - -“Officials in Fadeout as Huey Lands” headlined the Oklahoma City -_Times_. Most conspicuous among the absentees was State Labor -Commissioner W. A. Murphy who, when invited by the local Trades and -Labor Council some days earlier to appear jointly with Long as one of -the Labor Day speakers, replied: - -“I won’t be near or in a parade or program with that fellow.... A man -trying to destroy the only President who ever tried to help union labor -doesn’t deserve the support of labor, let alone being its guest.” - -Long was suffering from an attack of hay fever and from near-exhaustion -when he reached the Black Hotel. He had had almost no sleep since the -previous Friday morning. But he was in better spirits the next day when -he greeted among others Kaye Dawson, the produce merchant for whom he -had been a part-time salesman in Norman during his brief interlude of -trying to work his way through the law school of the University of -Oklahoma. It is worth noting, however, that when Dawson invited him to -visit his home, Long stipulated that both Landry and Voitier be included -in the invitation. - -He rode in the Labor Day parade that morning, too, and returned to his -hotel suite to hold an impromptu press conference about his -Share-Our-Wealth program. But when one of the reporters asked him -whether he had ever pressed the charge, made only two or three weeks -earlier, that several Louisiana congressmen were plotting his death, he -snapped: - -“I’m tired of talking. If you can’t stay here without asking questions, -get the hell out. Can’t you see I’m tired?” - -That afternoon the Labor Day crowd at the Fair Grounds cheered his -speech lustily, even his attacks on Roosevelt and Hoover, whom he -compared to the peddler of two patent medicines, High Popalorum and Low -Popahiram, both being made from the bark of the same tree. - -“But for one the peddler peeled the bark off from the top down,” he -explained, “and for the other he peeled it off from the bottom up. And -that’s the way it is at Washington. Roosevelt and his crowd are skinning -us from the ear down, and Hoover and the Republicans are doing the job -from the ankle up. But they’ve both been skinning us and there ain’t -either side left now.” - -“Huey May Toss Hat,” headlined the _Oklahoman_ next day, and quoted -Huey’s promise that “if Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Hoover are the nominees -next year, or anyone that looks like Roosevelt or Hoover, we will have -us another candidate.” - -He left almost immediately after the rally, even though the only -available eastbound train would carry him no farther along the road to -Louisiana than Dallas. From that point he and his two bodyguards motored -to Shreveport, where they were met by another of the bodyguards, George -McQuiston, who had been dispatched from Baton Rouge in a state-police -car to await the Senator’s coming. - -They passed the night at the Washington-Youree Hotel, where the Kingfish -conferred with his local political satraps. The following morning he and -his entourage left for Baton Rouge, arriving in time to begin a -day-and-night series of meetings with Governor Allen, George Wallace, -Secretary of State Eugene Conway, and others. There Landry and the -Senator parted company. - -“He said for me to go to New Orleans and rest there, and go on a -vacation if I wanted to,” Landry added. “He said something about all of -us going on a vacation soon, just as soon as things in Baton Rouge got -settled. If only I had stayed with him I might have been where I could -save his life! But the one thing that never came into my mind was that -anybody would try anything in Baton Rouge. Not in Baton Rouge, where he -was always surrounded by some of us ... not in Baton Rouge where you’d -think he’d surely be safe....” - - - - -5 ---- SEPTEMBER 3 TO SEPTEMBER 7 - - “_There is nothing more difficult to undertake, more uncertain to - succeed, and more dangerous to manage, than to prescribe new laws._” - - ----MACHIAVELLI - - -Tuesday far into the night, throughout Wednesday, and again Thursday -until well past noon, Long labored with attorneys, officials, -secretaries, and typists, going over and over the measures to be -introduced when the forthcoming special legislative session was -convened. The streamlined rush with which such bills were speeded to -final enactment in less than five days did not allow for delays to -correct them once they had been dropped into the hopper. - -The system that made this possible was not original with the Kingfish. -It had been devised by two astute parliamentarians, Oramel Simpson and -George Wallace, to meet the exigencies of a flood crisis in 1927. - -By convening the legislature late at night, with all bills whipped into -final shape before the lawmakers assembled, having one member introduce -all the bills, suspending the rules to have them all referred at once, -and all to the same committee, regardless of content, what would -otherwise be delayed by being parceled out on two separate legislative -days could be accomplished in a matter of minutes. - -Then, immediately after midnight, or even the next morning, the -committee could meet, gallop through the dossier, give all -administration-sponsored measures a favorable report, and turn thumbs -down on all anti-administration proposals (the record was forty-four -bills thus “considered” in an hour and seven minutes), report them back -to the House, and order them engrossed and put on the calendar for final -action the next morning. That would be another legislative day. - -On the morrow the House would then pass the bills as fast as the clerk -could mumble a few words of the title and the members could press the -electric-voting-machine buttons. Immediately thereafter the bills would -be rushed across the corridor to the Senate, where the same routine -would be followed. - -Thus the third legislative day in the House would also be the first -legislative day in the Senate, so that a few minutes after the fourth -midnight, the governor could sign the bills into law, each measure -having been read “in full” on three separate days in each house. - -This was a brilliant device for meeting an emergency; the iniquity of it -lay in the fact that, when employed as routine, it shut off all real -study of the proposals, and barred opponents or representatives of the -public from being heard on them before committees. - - * * * * * - -By Thursday noon, September 5, everything was in readiness for the -introduction at a moment’s notice of thirty-one administration- (i.e., -“Long”) sponsored must bills--all this without one official word to -indicate that a special session was so much as contemplated. None the -less, among the press correspondents in the capitol gallery it was taken -for granted that such an assembly would be convened at the weekend; but -when they pressed Senator Long to confirm or deny the surmise, he -professed complete ignorance. - -“As far’s I know,” he said blandly, “Oscar hasn’t made up his mind -about if he’ll call one any time soon. Leastaways he never said a word -to me about it.” - -“When are you going to make up his mind so he can tell you?” quipped one -of the reporters. - -“He’d near about kill you if he heard you say that,” chuckled the -Kingfish good-naturedly, “and his wife would finish the job.” - -He spent some time then chatting informally with rural well-wishers, -while waiting for Murphy Roden, who had driven the Cadillac with License -Plate Number 1 from Washington to New Orleans and was to call for its -owner that afternoon in Baton Rouge. The Senator was due to make one of -his fiery radio broadcasts over a state-wide hookup that night at eight -in the Roosevelt Hotel. After a late lunch at the Heidelberg Hotel -coffee shop he read the first installment of a biographical sketch of -his career which had just appeared on the newsstands that day in the -_Saturday Evening Post_. Then at length, with a group of friends and a -cadre of bodyguards to see him off, he left for New Orleans. The -bystanders urged him in parting to “pour it on ’em, Kingfish ... give -’em hell, Huey, you’re just the boy that can do it!” The party reached -the Roosevelt barely five minutes before he was scheduled to begin -broadcasting. - -He spoke that night for a little more than three hours, interrupting the -early portion of his program from time to time to say, as was his custom -on such occasions: - -“This is Senator Huey P. Long talking, and since the lying newspapers -won’t tell you these things, I’ll get the boys to play a little music -for the next five minutes or so, and while they’re doing that you go -call some friends and neighbors on the telephone and let them know I’m -on the air, and if they really want the truth they can turn on their -radios and tune in.” - -One of the major proposals he made public that night was a project for -enabling unusually gifted high-school students to continue their -education through college at virtually no cost to themselves or their -parents. Education for the underprivileged--e.g., the free-schoolbook -law--had been one of the most potent elements in the grand strategy of -his drive for popular support when he first entered public life. It -highlighted the last public address of his career as well. - -“One thousand boys and girls,” he pledged, “will be given a practically -free college education at L.S.U. next year. We’ll select the ones that -make the best grades and send them through college, a thousand of them -for a starter. I already asked Dr. Smith [Louisiana State University -president] whether he could do it beginning this fall, if we came up -with a hundred thousand dollars extra for the University appropriation, -and he said, well, he might be able to do it, anyway he would try. So I -asked him could he do it if we gave him an extra two hundred thousand -dollars, and he said yes indeed he sure could. So I told him we would -give him _three_ hundred thousand dollars just to make sure he had -enough.” - -Of course he attacked the Roosevelt administration at the national level -and for its intrusion via patronage into the local arena of Louisiana -politics; and equally of course he “poured it on” Mayor Walmsley, -Congressman Sandlin, “the whole old plunderbund that you’ve done got rid -of once and that Roosevelt is trying to saddle back onto you.” - -At intervals the musicians would play “Every Man a King,” and Senator -Long, who claimed authorship of the lyrics but could not carry a tune, -would recite one chorus to the band’s accompaniment; and once he recited -a chorus of “Sweetheart of L.S.U.,” for which he had also written the -lyrics to music composed by Castro Carrazo, the state university’s -bandmaster. - -At the end of his three-hour stint he was driven to his home in posh -Audubon Boulevard and spent the night there with his family. But he was -up and away early enough the next morning--Friday--to eat breakfast in -the Roosevelt Hotel coffee shop, talking with an uninterrupted -succession of callers while he was at the table, and again in his -twelfth-floor suite, access to which could be gained only if one were -passed by a succession of bodyguards. Technically, these were officers -of the State Bureau of Investigation and Identification, which had come -into being during Long’s term as governor. - -The bill creating it was introduced by an anti-Long member as a -nonpolitical measure, at a time when Louisiana had no state -constabulary. The jurisdiction of each sheriff and his deputies was -restricted to his county. What the backers of the new measure sought was -the creation of a force which, working in conjunction with the F.B.I., -would have state-wide jurisdiction. - -Instead of opposing this, on the ground that it was inspired by -political opponents, Long espoused it enthusiastically, and then turned -it into a personal elite guard whose powers were broader than those of -any mere local peace officer. Certain particularly trustworthy members -of the group were assigned to duty as his bodyguards. - -They screened all who sought to approach him in his twelfth-floor -retreat at the Roosevelt where he remained throughout Friday, busily -instructing influential leaders on how best to speed the work of the -special session which would be convened on the following night. Earlier -he had summoned Earle Christenberry from his home to the hotel, hoping -to straighten out his income-tax situation. Two ninety-day postponements -on making a return had already been extended to him by the Bureau. -However, there would be no further extensions, he was told. A return -would have to be made by September 15. None the less, an unending stream -of visitors made it impossible for these two to seclude themselves to -prepare the belated return. - -Much of the day’s discussion concerned itself with the potential -candidates for the Long slate in the approaching January election. Most -of the minor officials--state auditor, register of the land office, -commissioner of agriculture, and the like--would be endorsed for -re-election as a matter of course. All had been Long stalwarts for -years. But under the constitution a governor was prohibited from -succeeding himself, and since Justice Fournet’s elevation to the state -Supreme Court, the lieutenant-governorship had been filled by an acting -president pro tem of the Senate. - -A number of top-echelon figures in the Long organization each advanced -claims to selection as gubernatorial candidate. Each regarded himself as -the logical choice. - -Meanwhile, as late as Friday afternoon, the Kingfish continued to insist -to reporters who inquired about the rumored special session that “Oscar” -had not yet told him when or whether a summons to such a legislative -assembly would be issued ... and even while he was telling the newsmen -this, highway motorcycle officers were delivering to every rural doorway -in the state a circular which had been rushed into print at Baton Rouge -two days earlier. - -The text on one side of this fly-sheet followed the standard pattern of -a Long attack on all who might oppose the program to be furthered by the -special session, those who “want to put [us] back into the hands of -thugs, thieves and scoundrels, who loaded the state down with debt and -gave the people nothing, who kept the people in the mud and deprived -their children of education....” - -The other side of the sheet bore an equally vehement excoriation of -President Roosevelt and his regime, which was using the weight of -federal patronage and federal tax money to defeat “our” movement ... -“the man who promised to redistribute the wealth, but we know now he is -not going to keep his word....” - -He remained in his suite until dinnertime, when he joined Seymour Weiss -in the Fountain Lounge, and made an engagement to play golf with him at -the Audubon Park Club’s course in the morning. To Earle Christenberry’s -admonition about the inescapable need to file his income tax before the -fifteenth he said: - -“Come up to Baton Rouge Sunday morning, and we’ll work in the apartment -in the State House where we won’t be interrupted. Bring the papers with -you.” - -He slept well that night--Friday--and rose refreshed to drive out to -Audubon Park with Seymour Weiss in the latter’s spandy-new Cadillac, -which had been delivered only the afternoon before, and would be ruined -the next night by the reckless speed with which, not yet broken in, it -was driven to Baton Rouge after news of the shooting reached New -Orleans. - -The morning was pleasant, and Senator Long enjoyed the game to the -fullest. An indifferent golfer at best, he played primarily for the -thrill of sending an occasional long drive screaming down the fairway. -Whenever he achieved this, and more particularly if in doing so he -outdistanced his friend Seymour’s drive, he shouted with a delight which -not even an ensuing flubbed approach could quench. - -The game also gave him an opportunity to discuss current developments -and problems with one of the few friends he trusted completely. That -Saturday he and Weiss seated themselves on a tee bench, and let foursome -after foursome go through while they talked in the only relative privacy -available to them. What about the federal patronage impasse? - -“I told him,” Mr. Weiss recalls, “that some of the leaders were -worrying. After all, if the Walmsley-Sandlin people were the only ones -who could give out those federal jobs.... And he interrupted me at that -point and asked me had I ever heard of the tenth article of the Bill of -Rights? Well, of course I had, and told him so. He said yes, everybody -had heard of it, but did I realize what was in it? - -“Then he went on to explain that while it was only about three lines -long, it provided that anything not specifically permitted to the -federal government or forbidden to the states by the Constitution was -straight-out reserved to the individual states or to the people. - -“I said something like all right, so what then, and he said, as nearly -as I can remember his words: - -“‘So then there’s a bill going into that special session tonight--Oscar -must have done issued the call by this time--providing a thousand-dollar -fine and one hell of a heavy jail term for any federal employee who -interferes with Louisiana’s rights under Article Ten. So anybody that -uses federal funds to interfere with our program is going to be arrested -and tried under the law we’re about to pass. That’ll give them something -to think about up yonder.’ - -“I didn’t believe any such law as that could be made to hold water and -said so, and even he admitted that it was open to interpretation, though -he still thought it was perfectly sound. But he also said it wouldn’t -make any difference because long before the question could reach the -Supreme Court at Washington and be settled, that federal-patronage deal -would be so badly scrambled up it wouldn’t affect the outcome of our -election in January one bit. He also said he had been telling all our -people to take every slick dime of Washington money that was offered to -them, and then go to the polls and vote for our candidates, because his -program would do more for them than they ever would get out of those -lousy WPA jobs. - -“The main thing he tried to impress on me that morning was that I could -forget all my worries about the presidential campaign. ‘Everything’s in -wonderful shape,’ he said to me. ‘It’s never been in better shape. All -the money we’re going to need we already have in hand, I mean we’ve got -it right now, not just pledges but cash; and on top of that we’ve got a -load of affidavits and other documents about some of the things that -have been going on, a stack of papers heavy enough to break down a -bullock.’ - -“As I remember, I asked if this was the material in the vaults of the -Riggs National Bank, and that was when he really surprised me. He said -no, everything had been taken out of the Riggs vaults just a few days -before he left Washington, and put in another place for safekeeping. But -he didn’t say where he had put it, and I didn’t ask. After all, he was -the one to decide where he wanted it, and why, and if the time ever came -when it was important for me to know where it was, he would tell me. And -besides, he was so confident about everything being in the best possible -shape, so sure things couldn’t be better, that I felt no anxiety about -it. - -“‘We’re going to handle the campaign exactly the same way as we did in -the West for that double-crossing Roosevelt in 1932,’ he told me. -‘Between us, we’ll pick out the main towns in each state, and you’ll go -there five or six days in advance and try to line up someone who will -serve as chairman of the meeting when I get there.’ That is how we did -it in 1932, and it wasn’t always easy, because hunting for Democrats in -the Dakotas in those days, or in Minnesota, was exactly like the old one -about the needle in a haystack. In some of those towns there just wasn’t -a Democrat. But I would stick to it and find someone, no matter who. If -the only Democrat I could produce was a truck driver, all right. Huey -would have a truck driver for chairman of the meeting he would address -on behalf of Franklin Roosevelt for president. - -“‘It’ll be a lot easier this time,’ Huey went on while we were talking -during that Saturday golf game, ‘because you know and I know I make my -best speeches when I’m taking the hide off of somebody. I never could -make a decent Fourth of July oration in my whole damn life. But give me -something to raise hell about and somebody to blame for doing it, like I -had when I was campaigning for Mrs. Caraway in Arkansas, and nobody can -stop me! - -“‘Not only that, but you’ll get on the radio and give out interviews to -the newspapers before I hit town, with all that same old business about -this interesting and controversial personality that’s about to come to -town, the man they had been reading and hearing so much about, and they -would have this chance to come out and find out the truth for -themselves. Also what date he’ll be there and so on, and how he would -talk about a topic of importance to the whole country, and most of all -to them, with Joe Whoozis to preside over the meeting, and that’ll draw -a big crowd every time, no matter if they’re Democrats or what. And no -matter if they’re Democrats or what I’ll have every last, living one of -them talking and thinking and voting my way before I get through.’ - -“You see, all Huey ever wanted was to get a crowd in front of him. You -could leave the rest to him. He had done just that in Arkansas three -years before, and everything was better organized by 1935. Not only -would I be there with arrangements and interviews, but the boys would -have come to town and distributed literature and cartoon circulars to -every house in the place and printed copies of some of Huey’s speeches -about share-the-wealth and so on. - -“‘We’ll do it just like Arkansas, only on a hell of a lot bigger scale,’ -he said. ‘We’ll have all the copies we need of _My First Days in the -White House_ along with the Share-Our-Wealth book, which we didn’t have -in ’32, and when I come to town with the sound trucks and deliver the -speech of my life, you just watch them flock over to our side.... Yes, -sure, there’s enough money to pay for all those books and pamphlets and -everything else we’ll need.’ - -“How much money was in that box? I haven’t any idea, and I don’t think -anyone else ever knew. It came from all sorts of sources. State and city -employees contributed two per cent of their pay for campaign purposes. -Those were the so-called deducts. Then there were campaign contributions -from people who disliked Roosevelt and believed Huey could whip him, and -didn’t care whether he called himself Republican or Democrat or -Vegetarian, just so long as he licked Roosevelt or made it possible for -somebody else to lick him. Also, there were contributions from people -who were under obligations to Huey, like the banks he kept solvent in -Louisiana. I don’t believe even he had any idea how much the total came -to. A million, maybe; maybe several millions. All I know for certain -sure is that he said for me not to worry about financing the campaign, -that we had every round dollar we ever would need of campaign expenses -already put away for safekeeping after he took it out of the Riggs bank -vaults--and to this day nobody has ever been able to find out what -became of it! - -“During the course of our game that morning, walking down the fairways, -we talked a lot about the governorship too. As I remember it, Huey -mentioned a number of names, and some he said just didn’t have what it’d -take to run a state, and about some he said he didn’t want to buck the -north Louisiana prejudice against voting for a Catholic for governor, -because there was no use making a campaign any harder than you -absolutely had to, even if you could win it anyway. - -“The one thing he said we’d have to be careful about was that if he -picked one of the half dozen or so that regarded themselves each one as -the rightful Long candidate, he would make some of the others so sore -there would be a chance of a split in the party, and that was one thing -he wanted to avoid. - -“Well, with all our time out for talking, it was about two o’clock in -the afternoon when we finished our round. He had certainly seemed to -enjoy it, both the exercise and the chance to talk without having every -Tom, Dick, and Harry coming over to interrupt and say he just wanted to -shake hands. Also it must have been a relief to be able to talk without -worrying about people listening in or repeating what he was supposed to -have said. - -“We went back to the hotel for lunch. He said there was no need of me -coming up to Baton Rouge either that night or the next day, as the first -time the bills would come up for passage would be in the House on Monday -morning; it would be just routine up to that time. So I said Bob Maestri -[State Conservation Commissioner and later for ten years mayor of New -Orleans] and I would be in Baton Rouge on Monday morning, and then we -parted. Murphy Roden had been waiting to drive Huey to the capitol, and -they left, right after lunch. Everything indicated the going would be so -smooth and easy. Who could have dreamed that the next time I saw him, -only a day later, he would be waiting for Dr. Maes to come up from New -Orleans and try to save his life?” - - * * * * * - -Baton Rouge’s hotel lobbies and the State House corridors alike were -crowded by the time Murphy Roden and the Senator reached the skyscraper -capitol, where they went at once to his apartment on the twenty-fourth -floor. He had the state maintain a suite for him there because he felt -that at that height the freedom from pollen and dust enabled him to -sleep better. - -Most of the House members were already on hand, but many of the senators -did not trouble to put in an appearance until the following day. Since -all bills were to be introduced in the House, the Senate had nothing -more momentous on its agenda than to meet, answer roll call, listen to -the chaplain’s invocation, and appoint two committees. One of these -would solemnly inform the governor, and the other the House, that the -Senate of Louisiana was lawfully convened and ready for business. Having -conveyed this somewhat less than startling intelligence, the token -quorum by which a constitutional mandate had been fulfilled could, and -in fact did, adjourn until Monday afternoon, at which time all bills -duly passed by the lower house would be laid before them. - -These would be headed by House Bill Number One, the anti-Pavy -gerrymander, and a somewhat similar measure which was designed to keep -Congressman J. Y. Sanders, Jr., from returning to his home in Baton -Rouge to run for a judgeship. His father, a former governor and -congressman, stood at the very head of Huey Long’s _bête noire_ list. -Another measure high on Long’s “must” roster made provision for the fact -that his current senatorial term would expire unless renewed in the fall -of 1936 by re-election. - -But in one-party Louisiana, the Democratic primary was the only actual -election, even though technically it selected merely a party nominee. -Its date was fixed for September by the state election law as this -statute currently stood. Obviously, a campaign for a senatorial primary -to be held in the fall of 1936 would play hob with Long’s plans to run -against Roosevelt for the presidency that same season. Consequently, one -of Huey’s thirty-one must bills amended the state election law by -setting the primary’s date ahead from September to January. Thus Mr. -Long could win the Democratic nomination (equivalent to election in -Louisiana) for senator at the year’s outset; with that as paid-up -political insurance he would be free to devote the balance of 1936 to -his presidential campaign. - -Another of the must bills is significant in this connection in spite of -the fact that it was rooted in a strictly personal grudge, because it so -strikingly exemplifies the savagery with which at an earlier stage of -his career Long made Negro affiliation the prime target of political -attack. - -Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Southwest Louisiana Acadian, had run for governor -several times, had been a legislator off and on, and would one day -become a millionaire as author and high priest of a nostrum called -Hadacol. He and Long had been allies as members of the Public Service -Commission in the old days, but had fallen out and had been at swords’ -points ever since. - -Defeated by the Kingfish when he sought to retain his office, LeBlanc -organized a burial-insurance society of a type immensely popular among -the Negroes. Since he catered primarily to this segment of the -population, he put in a Negro nominal president of the “coffin club,” as -Long invariably called it. In the columns of his weekly newspaper, _The -American Progress_, Long thereafter lost no opportunity to reproduce -what purported to be one of the brochures issued by LeBlanc’s company, -showing pictures of LeBlanc and the Negro officers of the company -together. Ultimately, Long had a law passed banning from Louisiana that -type of insurance society. - -LeBlanc thereafter moved the company’s home office across the state line -into Texas, and continued in business. Although no longer pillorying -opponents by reason of Negro affiliation, Long included in his must -bills a prohibition against publishing, printing, or broadcasting in -Louisiana any advertising matter by insurance companies not authorized -to do business in the state. - -Occupied with these and a thousand and one other such minutiae of -legislative procedure, Long remained on the main floor of the capitol -that Saturday night until the House adjourned, trailing a nimbus of -bodyguards as he dashed back and forth between Governor Allen’s office -and the House chamber. Some of his leading supporters tried vainly to -keep up with him: Dr. Vidrine, “Cousin Jessie” Nugent, Dr. Clarence -Lorio, Louisiana State University president James Monroe Smith. These -had little to occupy them, for all the must bills were introduced by -their “official” author, Chairman Burke of the Ways and Means Committee; -and under a suspension of the rules, each was immediately referred to -Mr. Burke’s committee as quickly as he could say “Ways and Means” and -Speaker Ellender could utter a contrapuntal “Any objections? Hearing -none, so ordered!” - -Thrill seekers behind the railings and in the gallery had anticipated at -least some show of oratorical fireworks. Disappointed when they found -the proceedings about as exciting as listening to a couple of clerks -take inventory in the kitchenware stockroom of a department store, they -drifted away and left the capitol for their homes, while Long and the -faithful Murphy Roden retired to the Senator’s twenty-fourth-floor -retreat. - - - - -6 ---- SEPTEMBER 8: MORNING - - “_Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government - shall be on his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful._” - - ----ISAIAH - - -Young Dr. Carl Weiss, his wife, and his baby son occupied a modest home -on Lakeland Drive, not far from the capitol, and therefore likewise -conveniently near Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium, where he did most of -his surgical work. The capitol had been built on what was formerly the -state university campus. From its north façade the windows of the -governor’s office looked out across a small, artificial body of water, -still known as University Lake, to the big hospital on the opposite -bank. - -Thus Dr. Weiss, Jr., and Huey Long were within but a few blocks of one -another when they rose early Sunday morning. Yvonne Pavy Weiss rose -early too. Together she and her husband woke, fed and dressed their -three-months-old son, Carl Austin Weiss III, and went with him to the -home of Dr. Weiss, Sr., where two doting grandparents fondly took over -the baby’s care, while the young couple went to Mass. As the elder Dr. -Weiss put it in a subsequent statement: - -“I was with [my son] practically all day. He and his wife came with -their baby to our house early in the morning. They left the baby with me -and my wife while they went to St. Joseph’s Church for Mass. After -that, his wife returned to our house, while my son went to Scheinuk’s [a -Baton Rouge florist] to inquire about a patient who had consulted him -the day before. - -“Mr. Scheinuk gave my son a bouquet of flowers, saying he had not sent -any flowers when the baby was born, and my son came home saying: ‘Look -what Mr. Scheinuk sent the baby.’ My son and his wife then went to their -home, and returned to take dinner at my house at 1 P.M.” - -Dr. Weiss, Jr., was twenty-nine years old. He had been graduated at -fifteen from Baton Rouge High School and had begun his premedical work -at Louisiana State University, transferring to Tulane, where he received -his academic degree as Bachelor of Science in 1925, and his degree as -Doctor of Medicine in 1927. - -“He served as an intern at Tulane,” his father once related, “and then -at the American Hospital in Paris. He studied under the masters at -Vienna, and after completing his work in Paris, served at Bellevue -Hospital in New York. The last six months of his stay at Bellevue he was -chief of clinic. He then came to Baton Rouge to practice here.” - -He had sailed from Hoboken on the _George Washington_ on September 19, -1928, and returned to New York on May 19, 1930, aboard the _American -Farmer_. On his customs declaration, filed when re-entering the United -States, he listed $247 worth of purchases made during his twenty months -abroad, including twenty dollars’ worth of surgical instruments, a -forty-five dollar camera, five dollars’ worth of fencing equipment, old -swords for which he had paid six dollars, and a pistol for which he had -paid eight dollars, a small Belgian automatic, made on the Browning -patents. - -In college and in his postgraduate work he devoted himself to his -studies with a single-mindedness that excluded athletics, though he -seems to have taken up fencing while abroad, a sport of many European -surgeons. One may therefore take it for granted that while at Tulane he -neither shared pilgrimages to the wide-open gaming establishments just -across the parish line from New Orleans in adjoining areas, nor -patronized the peep-hole Joe-sent-me establishments where needled beer, -home-brew, raisin wine, and cut whisky were retailed in the sanctified -era of national prohibition. - -At one time a story was current that he had met Yvonne Pavy while both -were students in Paris. This was not the case. She did not leave for -France until a year after he had returned to the United States. An honor -graduate of Tulane University’s Newcomb College for Women, she had been -immensely popular in the social and sorority life of her student years. -In 1931 she was selected as one of a group of girls who were sent to -Paris to represent Acadian Louisiana. At the same time she was awarded -on a competitive basis a French-government scholarship to the Sorbonne, -and extended her Parisian sojourn to pursue language studies there. - -Returning to Opelousas, she was appointed to a teaching position in the -grade school at St. Martinville, where Emmeline Labiche, who according -to Louisiana tradition was the prototype of Longfellow’s Evangeline, had -died nearly two centuries before. The following year she went to Baton -Rouge to study for her master’s degree at the state university, where -she taught a French class at the same time. - -Short-lived as it then was, her professional teaching career did follow -a Pavy family tradition. Her sister Marie taught in one of the Opelousas -grade schools, and one of her father’s brothers, Paul Pavy, was -principal of the high school there until Huey Long, as inflexible in his -attitude toward the Pavy family as Judge Pavy was in his attitude toward -him, dismissed them out of hand by invoking one of the “dictatorship -statutes”--the one requiring the certification of every public-school -employee by a Long-controlled state board. - -When Carl Weiss, Jr., returned to Baton Rouge, he joined his father in -the practice of medicine. However, he was so determined not to -capitalize on the wide esteem and affection in which the elder Dr. Carl -Weiss was held that for a time he called himself “Dr. C. Austin Weiss.” -It was not long, however, before he built up a substantial practice on -his own account. - -During the course of her postgraduate year at Louisiana State -University, Yvonne Pavy had occasion to visit the office of the senior -Dr. Weiss for treatment of some minor ailment. When the physician -learned of her year at the Sorbonne he told her of his son’s studies at -the American Hospital in Paris. So they met, Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr., -and the daughter of Judge Ben Pavy of Opelousas. They fell deeply in -love and were married in December 1933. In midsummer of 1935 their son, -the third Carl Austin Weiss, was born, and the sense of fulfillment this -kindled in the happy young parents was no greater than the affection -lavished on him by his grandparents. - - * * * * * - -That same Sunday morning Huey Long ordered breakfast sent up from the -capitol cafeteria to his twenty-fourth-floor suite. He telephoned Earle -Christenberry in New Orleans, reminding him of their engagement -concerning the income-tax return that must be filed before another seven -days passed. Earle had already packed all the necessary papers, the -receipted bills, the canceled checks drawn by the Senator against his -two accounts, one in the Riggs National Bank at Washington and one in -the National Bank of Commerce at New Orleans. Earle customarily made out -all the checks for Huey to sign, and deposited the Kingfish’s senatorial -salary to Long’s account. - -“Huey and I had signature cards on file at the Riggs bank in Washington -and the National Bank of Commerce in New Orleans,” Christenberry -explained. “The only checks he wrote were the ones he issued in New -York, and the first I would know of it was when the cancelled check came -with the monthly statement, or a call from the bank that the account was -overdrawn.” - -Many persons were under the impression that Long also had a large -financial interest in a Win-or-Lose Oil Company but, says Christenberry, -“to my knowledge as secretary-treasurer of the company, he had no -interest in this corporation, and I so testified in federal court. -Months after Huey’s death one of the stockholders testified that one -certificate issued in his name in reality represented Huey’s holdings, -but if he received dividends they were paid to him in cash by the holder -of that stock certificate, by whom the canceled checks were endorsed and -cashed.” - -Earle reached Baton Rouge some time before noon, and prepared to go over -all the papers with his friend and employer. But within a short time, -the work being little more than well begun, Long threw up his hands in a -characteristic gesture, as though brushing a distasteful matter out of -existence. - -“He said to me,” reported Mr. Christenberry, “‘You know what this is all -about, don’t you?’ and I said I did. ‘Well, all right then,’ he told me, -‘you take all this stuff back to New Orleans with you and fill out the -forms, and then bring the whole thing back Monday or Tuesday, and I’ll -sign the damn papers and we’ll be rid of them. Look, I’m not even going -to stay here till the end of this session. I’ll leave Tuesday, maybe -even tomorrow, right after the House passes the bills, and come down to -New Orleans and sign them there. And you know what we’ll do then? We’ll -go on a vacation together, just you and me, no bodyguards or anything. -We’ll get in your car and go wherever we want to go without making one -single, slivery plan in advance.’ - -“After that, he and I went down to the cafeteria and had lunch. -Naturally, there was the same steady procession as always of people -coming to the table to say hello, but not so many as there would have -been any other time except Sunday noon. Most of the legislators and -out-of-town politicians would not be in till later that evening because -the Senate was to be in recess till Monday and the House wasn’t going to -meet till eight, and it was going to be just a short session to order -the bills put on the calendar for the next morning.” - - * * * * * - -John Fournet was one of the out-of-town notables whose arrival that -evening was expected. He had been a member of the Long peerage for -years, but had refrained from political activity of that sort ever since -his elevation to the state Supreme Court a year or so earlier. - -None the less, he had been Speaker of the House for four years, he had -been elected to the lieutenant-governorship on the Long-supported Allen -ticket in 1932, and was one of those whose name was frequently mentioned -as Long’s likely choice for endorsement to become Oscar Allen’s -successor. - -Senator Long had requested him to come to the capitol for a conference, -and he had left New Orleans early that morning for the home of his -parents in Jackson, planning to invite his father to accompany him to -Baton Rouge. It would be a proud thing for the elder Fournet to see the -deference paid his son as a state Supreme Court justice, as an intimate -of the Kingfish, and perhaps as a candidate for governor of Louisiana. - - - - -7 ---- SEPTEMBER 8: AFTERNOON - - “This day may be the last to any of us at a moment.” - - ----HORATIO NELSON - - -The thirty-one must bills which were certain to be enacted into law -within no more than three more days were the subject of Sunday’s -mealtime talk throughout Louisiana that noon. Huey Long was expressing -complete confidence as to what these would do to “put a crimp into -Roosevelt’s notion he can run Louisiana.” Everyone who paused at his -table in the capitol cafeteria was given the same heartening assurance. - -In private homes everywhere authentic information as to what the new -laws would provide was available for the first time on this day. In New -Orleans, Baton Rouge, Monroe, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Lake Charles -the morning papers had carried full accounts of the introduction of -these measures, giving the subject matter of each bill in summary form. - -Thus the members of the Weiss family at last had before them full -information about the measure which would displace the father of young -Mrs. Weiss from the judicial position he had held continuously since -before she was born. But the table talk at the senior Dr. Weiss’s home -was anything but dispirited. - -“My son ate heartily and joked at the dinner,” he said when referring to -the occasion; and this was borne out in a statement by Yvonne’s uncle, -Dr. F. Octave Pavy, who was in Baton Rouge for the session as one of -St. Landry parish’s three House members. - -In any case, while the gerrymander was not ignored in the Weiss family -conversation, it was not looked upon as a disaster; and after dinner all -five--three men named Carl Austin Weiss and the wives of the two older -ones--motored to the Amite River where Dr. Weiss, Sr., had a summer -camp. - -Frequently on such occasions, but by no means always, Carl and Yvonne -took with them the small-caliber Belgian automatic pistol he had brought -back from abroad and customarily kept in his car when he went out on -night calls. He and his wife would engage in target practice, shooting -at cans either while these were stationary or as they floated down the -placid current of the river. - -But on this particular Sunday they did not bring the gun. Carl and -Yvonne went swimming and had a gay time of it, while the elders, seated -on the warm sand of the high bank, dandled their wonderful -three-month-old grandson. - -“While they were swimming,” Dr. Weiss, Sr., recalled later, “I remarked -to my wife: ‘That boy is just skin and bones,’ and she said: ‘Yes, we -have got to make him take a rest, he has been working too hard lately.’” - -Seeing them there, that pleasant afternoon, any observer would have -concluded that this was a family group whose members gave no indication -of being troubled by forebodings of an impending disaster. - -Obviously the wonderful baby must have had a feeding and an occasional -change sometime during the afternoon, and no doubt he slept in his -mother’s arms once the party tidied up the camp ground, got into the -car, and headed homeward a little after sundown. - - * * * * * - -In his high apartment Huey Long, who had not left the capitol since -Murphy Roden drove him to Baton Rouge from New Orleans on the previous -afternoon, gathered his top legislative and political leaders for a -consultation about the candidate his faction should endorse for -governor. His brother Earl was not among those present, nor was he under -consideration for any elective office. The breach between them stemmed -from the time Earl ran for lieutenant governor on an anti-Huey ticket -three years before. - -Justice Fournet, who stood high in the Kingfish’s favor, was not present -at the conference either. He did not reach the capitol until well after -dark. Another absentee was Judge Richard W. Leche of the Circuit Court -of Appeal, but---- - -“Huey had telephoned me to come up for the session,” he said in -recalling what he could of the day’s events. “However, I had been thrown -from a horse just a fortnight or so before, while vacationing with Mrs. -Leche in Arizona. The fall fractured my left upper arm just below the -shoulder. Huey had joked with me about it, saying it was a pity I hadn’t -broken my neck instead, and I replied that this illustrated once more -his readiness to make any sacrifice for the good of the state. - -“When he asked me if I would come to Baton Rouge for the session, I -assumed this was because I had been Governor Allen’s secretary and knew -all the legislators. But since it was hardly proper for a judge of the -appellate bench to be a lobbyist even on behalf of the administration to -which he owes his position, I told him that with my left arm in an -airplane splint it was almost impossible for me to get around, and that -I would have to stay in New Orleans right along to have dressings -changed, and the like. He didn’t seem pleased, but nothing more was said -about it at the time. - -“However, when he called me at my home in Metairie Sunday afternoon he -had something else in mind. The first thing he asked me was: ‘Dick, what -the hell are you, outside of being an Indian?’ For a moment this had me -stumped. I couldn’t imagine what he meant. Then I remembered that two -or three years earlier, a group of us were chatting about one thing and -another, and the question of religion came up. That was one thing Huey -never bothered about. I mean what any man’s religious beliefs were. -Anyway, someone in the crowd asked me what my religion was. I answered -that as I saw it, religion was something that dealt with the hereafter, -and the only people who had a hereafter I thought I could enjoy were the -Indians. They believed in a happy hunting ground, and as for me, give me -a gun and a dog and some shells and you could keep your harps and your -wings. Anyway, I said I guessed that by religion I would be classed as -an Indian. So when Huey asked me over the phone what I was, aside from -being an Indian, I said: - -“‘You mean you’re asking me what my religion is?’ - -“‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ he answered. ‘You’re going to be my -candidate for governor, and some of the boys here said I couldn’t run -you because you’re a Catholic and it’s too tough to swing north -Louisiana’s vote to a Catholic for governor.’ - -“‘Well, I was born a Catholic,’ I told him. - -“‘You didn’t run out on them, did you?’ he demanded. - -“‘No,’ I told him, ‘but I changed to the Presbyterian church a long time -back. Now listen, Huey. I’ve got no idea of running for governor. I’ve -got exactly the kind of position I like, and down here they make a -practice of re-electing judges who have not been guilty of flagrant -misconduct, so my future’s secure.’ - -“He said something about how I had better leave all that to him, and he -would see me in New Orleans as soon as the session was over and we would -talk further about it. That ended the conversation. I never spoke to him -again.” - - * * * * * - -Another of the intimates Huey Long summoned to Baton Rouge that -afternoon was Public Service Commissioner (now Juvenile Court Judge) -James P. O’Connor. The reason for this was never disclosed, for when -O’Connor arrived “we just chatted about a lot of inconsequentialities. -One of the things he was all worked up over was writing some more songs -with Castro Carrazo for the L.S.U. football team.” - - * * * * * - -The afternoon wore on. Apparently Judge Leche was the only one in whom -the Senator confided about the gubernatorial selection. - -“Senator Long did not leave the capitol all day,” Murphy Roden says in -telling about the events in which he played so large a role. “As long as -he was in his apartment there was no break in the stream of people who -came to call on him. The House was to meet that night and approve the -committee’s favorable report on the bills so they could be passed and -sent to the Senate the next day. - -“After he dressed, the Senator was in and out of the apartment, spending -some of the time in Governor Allen’s office. I brought his supper up to -him from the cafeteria, and several persons were there talking to him -while he ate, but no one ate with him. He went down to the governor’s -office about seven o’clock, even though the House wasn’t scheduled to -meet until eight.” - - - - -8 ---- SEPTEMBER 8: NIGHTFALL - - “_The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their - friends hope or their foes fear._” - - ----THOMAS HUXLEY - - -Huey Long came down to the main floor of the capitol an hour before the -House was to go into session to arrange for an early morning caucus of -his followers the next day. Primarily he wanted to make certain that -there would then be no absentees among votes on which he knew he could -rely. - -At regular sessions of the legislature, when House and Senate were -normally convened during the forenoon, such early conferences were daily -affairs. But since in this instance the ordinary routine did not apply, -he was bent on making assurance doubly sure. - -Behind closed doors he always took charge of caucuses in person, -outlining step by step what was to be done on that particular day: who -should make which motions, at what point debate should be cut off by -moving the previous question, how the presiding officer was to rule on -certain points of order, should these be raised by the opposition, and -so on. - -Since the next morning’s session of the House would be the only -genuinely important one of the current assembly, the one at which all -thirty-one must bills were to be passed and sent on to the Senate, he -was taking no chances on unexpected difficulties due to absenteeism. -Not only must every one of his partisans be in his seat when the Speaker -called the House to order, but all the House whips and other aides must -attend the morning’s caucus without fail, to rehearse in the most minute -detail every procedural step to be taken on the House floor, and every -counter to each procedural obstacle any anti-Long member might seek to -raise. - -That Sunday evening, seated at Governor Allen’s desk, Long was sending -for his legislative leaders, one by one, and giving them the names of -the men they each had to bring to the caucus by eight the next morning. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile, as nearly as can be determined, the five members of the Weiss -family returned from their Amite River outing shortly after nightfall. -The young physician and his wife left his parents’ home with the baby -for their own Lakeland Avenue residence. A composite of various -subsequent accounts pictures the scene there as one of tranquil -domesticity. - -Yvonne prepared the baby for bed while Carl went out to the yard and -remained there for a time, petting the dog. Coming back indoors about -8:15, he made a telephone call to his anesthetist, Dr. J. Webb McGehee. -Yvonne assumed that this call was to a patient, but Dr. McGehee later -confirmed the fact that Dr. Weiss called “and asked me if I knew that -the operation for the following day had been changed from Our Lady of -the Lake Sanitarium to the General Hospital. I told him I knew that.” - -Miss Theoda Carriere, one of the registered nurses later called to -attend Senator Long, lived not far from the home of Dr. Weiss. After a -twelve-hour day stint at the Sanitarium, in attendance on a -traffic-accident victim, she was taking her ease on the front gallery of -her home. She saw Dr. Weiss leave his house at this time, and depart in -the direction of Baton Rouge General Hospital. There he checked the -condition of the patient on whom he was to operate the next day. - -In view of the time factor involved, he must have gone from the hospital -directly to the State House, leaving his car in the capitol’s parking -area, where it was found later. At least five eyewitnesses place him in -the north corridor of the Capitol’s main floor a little before 9:30, -waiting in a shallow niche opposite the double door to Governor Allen’s -anteroom. - - * * * * * - -Charles E. Frampton is now manager of the State Museum at the Cabildo in -New Orleans, the building in whose _sala capitular_ the transfer of -Louisiana from France to the United States was consummated. But in 1935 -he was one of the veterans of the press gallery at Baton Rouge. He -describes what he saw as follows: - -“Some time after eight o’clock on this particular Sunday night I was -seated with Governor Allen at his desk when George Coad, then editor of -the _Morning Tribune_ in New Orleans, called me by phone from the office -and said a hurricane had wrecked a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in -southern Florida, and that a number of ex-soldiers had been drowned. He -asked me if Senator Long was there, and I said I believed he was in the -House chamber. Then he asked me to tell him about the storm, and the CCC -disaster, and get any comment he might want to make. I told Coad to hold -the line; I thought I could get Huey on the phone. - -“I picked up another phone on the governor’s desk and called the House -sergeant-at-arms. Joe Messina answered and said yes, the Senator was -right there. I asked if I might talk to him, and he told me to wait a -minute. After an interval Huey got on the phone. I relayed what Coad had -told me, and asked if he cared to comment on it. He said, ‘Hell, yes! -Mr. Roosevelt must be pretty happy tonight, because every ex-soldier he -gets killed off is one less vote against him.’ We chatted for a minute -or so longer, and I asked whether he intended to do anything about this -when he got back to Washington, and he replied by asking where I was. -When I told him I was in Oscar Allen’s office, he said: ‘Wait there. I’m -coming there myself in just a few minutes.’ - -“I hung up, picked up the other phone, and relayed the conversation to -Coad, telling him that since Huey was on the way over I might have an -add for him, and to hang on the line. He said he would, and again I laid -down the phone without breaking the connection. - -“Oscar and I talked for a couple of minutes, and then I thought to -myself I had better not wait for Huey to come to me; after all, he was a -United States senator and I was a reporter looking for a story, so maybe -I’d better go see him. Telling Coad to hang on, I then went out of the -governor’s private office into the big reception room adjoining it, and -opened one of the double doors leading into the corridor that extends -from the House chamber to the Senate. As I opened the door this whole -thing blew up right in my face.” - - * * * * * - -Justice Fournet takes up the narrative at this point. Here is his -statement: - -“In the late afternoon my father and I drove from Jackson to Baton -Rouge, and I went to the twenty-fourth floor of the capitol in search of -Huey. He was not in his apartment, so I returned to the main floor, and -looked into the House chamber, where I was informed the Senator was. -Sure enough, he was there on the House floor, followed or attended by -Joe Messina and talking to Mason Spencer. - -“Just as I caught sight of Huey he rushed to the Speaker’s rostrum and -began to talk with Ellender. When he left there it looked to me as -though the House was about to adjourn. Huey rushed by Joe Messina and -me. We tried to follow as best we could and got into the north corridor, -into which the House and Senate cloakrooms, the Speaker’s and lieutenant -governor’s office, as well as the governor’s office and those of his -secretary and executive counsel all open. - -[Illustration: 1 February, 1935: On the Speaker’s rostrum in the House -chamber at Baton Rouge, Huey Long is shown with Hermann Deutsch. Left, -Speaker (now U. S. Senator) Allen J. Ellender; right foreground (back to -camera) Executive Counsel George M. Wallace. - -(LEON TRICE)] - -[Illustration: 2 Official transcript (not the original) of customs -declaration filed by Dr. Weiss on returning to this country from medical -studies abroad. The seventh item on it is the Belgian automatic found -beside his lifeless hand after Huey Long was shot.] - -[Illustration: 3 Dr. Weiss’s pistol, which normally holds seven -cartridges, contained only five unfired ones (and an empty, jammed in -the ejector) when it was picked up after the shooting.] - -[Illustration: 4 & 5 The watch which was shot from Murphy Roden’s wrist -while he was grappling with Dr. Weiss. The dial shows the time of the -struggle, the dent in the back was obviously made by a small bullet.] - -[Illustration: 6 No “small blue punctures” were left by the bullets of -bodyguards who mowed down Dr. Weiss in the niche where he had waited for -Senator Long. The photograph was made after authorities, seeking to -establish his identity, had turned over the body which fell face down.] - -[Illustration: 7 The funeral cortege, moving from the capitol to a newly -prepared crypt which is now the site of a monument. Right foreground, -the L.S.U. student band playing “Every Man a King” in a minor key as the -Kingfish’s dirge.] - -[Illustration: 8 Huey Long’s casket, as it was borne down the capitol’s -48 granite steps followed by members of his family. The two leading -pallbearers are (left) Seymour Weiss and Governor Oscar Allen.] - -[Illustration: 9 Laborers work around the clock to prepare a vault in -time for Huey Long’s funeral, as crowds wait on the capitol steps to -file past the bier where his body lies in state.] - -[Illustration: 10 & 11 Huey Long was enshrined as a saint by some of his -followers as shown by these personals from want-ad pages of the -_Times-Picayune_. The one at left appeared on March 26, 1936, the other -on January 11, 1937. - - Left hand advertisement: - - THANKS to the late Senator Huey P. Long for favor granted. Mrs. H. - Gomme. - - Right hand advertisement: - - THANKS S^t. Raymond, S^t. Anthony, Sen. Huey P. Long favor granted. - ROSE ANDERTON. - -“There was not a soul in that corridor when we got there except Louis -LeSage and Roy Heidelberg, who were seated on the ledge of the window at -the east end of the corridor. I asked them where Huey had gone and they -said he was in the governor’s office, so Joe and I walked to the door of -that office at a leisurely pace, and as we approached the door I could -hear a voice which I recognized as that of Senator Long ask: - -“‘Has everybody been notified about the meeting tomorrow morning?’ and a -voice which I identified as that of Joe Bates of the Police Bureau of -Identification answered: ‘Yes, Senator.’ - -“At this point I noticed three or four people lined up against the -marble recess in the corridor wall opposite the door to the governor’s -anteroom. I don’t remember the exact number but I definitely recall -there were more than one. Just then Huey walked out of the office door -of the governor’s secretary and....” - - * * * * * - -The third eyewitness to what took place was Elliott Coleman, on special -assignment as one of the Senator’s bodyguards and later for many years -sheriff of Tensas parish. He says of the night in question: - -“I was an officer of what was then known as the Bureau of Criminal -Identification, which was headed by General Louis F. Guerre. He had -directed me to come from my home in Waterproof for duty at the state -capitol during the special session of the legislature. There was nothing -specific of an alarming nature, but there was a general feeling of -uneasiness in view of the murder-plot probe against the Senator earlier -that year, after the Square Deal Association disorders. - -“Nothing particularly noteworthy happened on Saturday, but on Sunday -night, when the special session was meeting, I went into the House -chamber and was standing back of the railing with State Senator Jimmie -Noe, and he was trying to get me to help him in his effort to get Huey’s -endorsement as a candidate for governor in the campaign that was about -to begin. - -“Huey was in the House, circulating about the floor, talking to this -member and to that, with Murphy Roden and George McQuiston remaining -outside the railing but as near to him as they could. Huey was talking -to Mason Spencer and they were probably joking with each other, or -telling a funny story, because they laughed, and then Huey went up on -the rostrum and sat with Speaker Allen Ellender for a time. All this -while I was outside the railing with Jimmie Noe, and he was talking -about getting Huey to back him for governor. - -“While Jimmie was talking to me, Huey jumped up all of a sudden, from -where he was seated on Ellender’s rostrum, and hurried down the side to -the corridor. I figured the House was about to adjourn, so I left Jimmie -and turned to hurry into the corridor myself. There were not many -persons there and I saw Huey, followed by Murphy Roden, go into Allen’s -office, and it seemed to me like he wasn’t in there hardly at all, that -it was almost as if he had turned right around and come back out. He was -met as he came out by Justice Fournet, and they were walking toward the -elevator and toward where I was standing, with Murphy Roden following.” - - * * * * * - -Judge James O’Connor’s testimony logically follows that of Sheriff -Coleman. He says: - -“I was in the House chamber when Huey came sort of storming in and sat -down beside Allen Ellender on the rostrum. I was standing in the space -between the railing and the wall, chatting with friends, when Huey -beckoned to me as though saying: ‘Come on over, I want to talk to you.’ - -“When I got there he said something that struck me as unusual, because -he had not been smoking in months, maybe not in as much as a year. He -said: ‘I want you to get me half a dozen Corona Belvedere cigars.’ I -asked him where to get those, and he said: ‘Downstairs in the cafeteria. -They have a box of them there.’ - -“When I came downstairs something else struck me as very peculiar. There -wasn’t a soul in that basement on this Sunday night. I walked into the -cafeteria. They had just air-conditioned it, and the new glass doors -were very heavy. There was no one in that restaurant either, except -three or four of the girls behind the counter. I got the cigars and then -sat down to drink a cup of coffee, and was about to finish it, when I -heard a noise like cannon crackers going off. It was coming faintly -through those heavy glass doors....” - - * * * * * - -Murphy Roden, who recently retired as Superintendent of State Police -with the rank of colonel, is last of the surviving eyewitnesses to take -up the tale. A graduate of the F.B.I. school and therefore a specially -trained observer, his memory is sharp and vivid in recalling what took -place during the violent interlude in which he played so large a role. -He says: - -“Whenever the Senator returned to the governor’s office I would wait in -the anteroom, and as he went out I would leave just ahead of him, and -Elliott Coleman would walk just behind him. He made several trips into -the House chamber and back while the House was briefly in session that -night. - -“On the last such trip the Senator spent a little time on the floor, -talking jocularly to several of the members, and then sat for a time -with Speaker Ellender on the rostrum. At such times I would follow his -movements as best I could from outside the railing, and when he hurried -out I would try to anticipate his movements so as to be just ahead of -him when he left the hall. The House seemed to be about ready to adjourn -then, and he rose and hurried from the rostrum toward the governor’s -office. I was ahead of him and when he turned in I went into the -anteroom and waited for him there. He went into the inner office where -Governor Allen was. Joe Bates, a special agent of the Bureau of Criminal -Identification and Investigation, and A. P. White, the Governor’s -secretary, were in there too, along with some other persons whose -identity I do not recall except for Chick Frampton of the _Item_, who -was standing over Allen’s desk and using the telephone in there. - -“Senator Long was in that office only a moment or two. It seemed to me -as though he had walked right in, turned around, and gone right out, -going through the anteroom and heading back toward the hallway. I -realized he was going back out, and managed to get into the hall just -ahead of him, so as to be in front of him when he got out there. But he -was walking fast and caught up to me and was just about beside me at my -left. We are speaking now in terms of my being just one step ahead of -him as he came out. - -“Judge Fournet was standing at the partly opened door that led from the -hallway directly into the governor’s inner office, a private entry and -exit to that office. Behind us was Elliott Coleman. Chick Frampton had -also hurried out of the governor’s outer office and anteroom right -behind us. The Senator was going back in the direction of the House -chamber from which he had just come, and from which people were just -beginning to move out. But at the private door to Governor Allen’s inner -office he stopped, and we were standing still as Judge Fournet came up -and started to talk to him. I have no idea what they were talking about, -because I was not watching them or paying attention, but looking around -us as always to see what other persons nearby were doing. - -“One of them was a young man in a white linen suit....” - - * * * * * - -It is 9:30. One floor below, in the otherwise deserted basement -cafeteria, Judge O’Connor is still sipping the last of his coffee when, -muffled by distance and the heavy glass doors of the restaurant, he -hears a noise like exploding cannon crackers. - - - - -9 ---- SEPTEMBER 8: 9:30 P.M. - - “_Do we ever hear the most recent fact related in exactly the same way - by the several people who were at the same time eye-witnesses to it? - No._” - - ----LORD CHESTERFIELD - - -The stage is set for a violent climax. Huey Long has turned through -the anteroom of the governor’s office, where Chick Frampton, -bending over the desk with his back to the door, is preparing once -more to lay down the telephone without breaking the long-distance -connection to New Orleans. He has told his editor, Coad, to hang on -while he--Frampton--goes in search of the Senator, and does not see -Huey just behind him. Intent on his conversation with Coad, he has -heard neither the Senator’s question as to whether everyone has been -notified about the morning’s early caucus, nor Joe Bates’s affirmative -reply. - -By the time he puts down the telephone and turns, Huey Long has already -dashed out into the hallway where John Fournet steps forward to greet -him. The Senator stops momentarily to talk to A. P. White in the partly -opened private doorway to the inner office. He has noticed, while -looking over the House from the Speaker’s rostrum, that some of his -legislative supporters are absent, and asks White where the hell this -one, that one, and the other one are, adding: “Find them. If necessary, -sober them up, and have them at that meeting because we just might need -their votes tomorrow!” Then he turns, facing the direction of the House -chamber. - -For that one fractional moment every actor is motionless: Huey Long, -with John Fournet at his left elbow and Murphy Roden just behind his -right shoulder; Chick Frampton in the very act of stepping into the -corridor from the double doors of the governor’s anteroom; Elliott -Coleman down the hall in the direction of the House, near the door of -the small private elevator reserved for the governor’s use; and among -three or four individuals standing in the marble-paneled niche recessed -into the wall opposite the double doors where Frampton is standing, a -slim figure in a white suit. - -The fractional moment passes. Let us turn once more to Murphy Roden’s -graphic account of what transpired: - -“... a young man in a white linen suit, who held a straw hat in his hand -loosely before him, and below the waist, so that both of his hands -seemed to be concealed behind it. He walked toward us from the direction -of the House chamber and I did not see the gun until his right hand came -out from beneath his hat and he extended the gun chest high and at arm’s -length. In that same instant I realized that this was no jest, no toy -gun, and leaped. I seized the hand and the gun in my right hand and bore -down, and as I did so the gun went off. The cartridge ejected and the -recoil of the ejector slide bruised the web of my right hand between -thumb and forefinger, though I was not conscious of the hurt and did not -see the injury, a very minor one, until later. - -“I tried to wrest the gun away, but saw I could not do it in time, so -shifted my grip on it from my right hand to my left and threw my right -arm around his neck. As I did this, my hard leather heels slipped on the -marble floor and my feet shot out from under me, so that we both went -down, the young man and I, with him on top. That is the last pair of -hard leather heels I have ever worn. While we were falling, my wrist -watch was shot off, but again I was not conscious of it. I did not even -miss my watch until I was being treated at the hospital, later that same -night. - -“It has always been my belief that it was Dr. Weiss who fired a second -shot as we were falling and that it was this one which shot off my -watch. There are several reasons for this conclusion on my part. -Firstly, his gun was of small caliber, 7.6 millimeter, which is about -the equivalent of our .32-caliber automatic, a Belgian Browning which he -had brought back with him from abroad. When it was examined later, it -had only five cartridges in it. Normally it holds seven. I have always -had a deep conviction that Dr. Weiss fired twice, and that I saw the -first shell ejected. When his gun was recovered from the floor, a shell -was found caught in the ejecting mechanism which I am convinced was the -second shell. The dent on my watch, which was later recovered and which -I still have, was made by a small-caliber bullet. - -“As we were falling--Dr. Weiss and I--I released his gun hand, and -reached for my pistol, a Colt .38 special on a .45 frame, loaded with -hollow-point ammunition, which I carried in a shoulder holster. By the -time we hit the deck I had it out and fired one shot into his throat, -under his chin, upward into his head and saw the flesh open up. I -struggled to get out from beneath him, and as I partially freed myself, -all hell broke loose. The others may have waited till I got partially -clear before they fired, for I think I got to my knees by the time they -started, and that probably saved my life. But I was being deafened and -my eyes were burning with particles of powder from those shots. - -“Moreover, for all I knew this might have been an attack in force, which -was why I was struggling so desperately to get to my feet. But by the -time I really was on my feet, I could not see any more because of the -muzzle blasts from other guns. While I did not learn this until later, -shots had passed so close to me that the powder burns penetrated my -coat, shirt, and undershirt, and burned my skin beneath, all along my -back. I felt my way blindly down the hall in the direction of the Senate -chamber, with my left hand on the corridor wall and my gun still in my -right hand, till I turned a corner and reached a niche where there was a -marble settee. This was right near the stairway where Huey had gone -down, as I learned later. I was practically blinded for the time. The -settee had a padded seat, and I waited there till Ty Campbell, a state -highway patrolman, saw me and took me to the hospital. - -“It was there that I missed my watch and saw the furrow plowed across -the back of my wrist where the scar of it is still visible; also the -pinch or scratch in the web between my right thumb and index finger. I -did not know for two days what had become of my watch, but it was -returned to me later by King Strenzke, chief of the Baton Rouge city -police. Someone had picked it up off the floor at the scene of all the -shooting, and had turned it over to the police while authorities were -still trying to establish the identity of Dr. Weiss.” - - * * * * * - -Justice Fournet’s statement differs from Roden’s at several points, as -it does from the accounts of Coleman and Frampton, each of which differs -in one detail or another from all the others. Just as it was given, with -none of the discrepancies modified, altered, or omitted, the Fournet -account of what took place continues in the narrative which follows: - -“... Just then, Huey came out of the door to the office of the -Governor’s secretary.” (Actually, he had come out of the main double -doors of the anteroom, and was merely pausing at the other point to -impress on White the importance of getting in touch with certain -absentee members.) “We walked toward each other, but instead of the -usual air of greeting I saw a startled, terrified expression, a sort of -look of shock, and simultaneously I saw this fellow who had been -standing in the recess oppose Huey with a little black gun. This was -right within a foot of me, so I threw my hands at him to grab him, just -as he shot, and Murphy Roden--I don’t know where he came from but I -presume he had followed the Senator out into the hall from the inner -office--anyway, at the same instant when I threw my hands and the shot -was fired, Murphy Roden lunged and seized the gun and the man’s hand in -his left hand. This must have been at almost the very instant the shot -was fired, for Murphy’s hand kept the shell of the little automatic from -ejecting, which is why the man whose body was later identified as that -of Dr. Weiss could not fire another shot. - -“It is hard to describe in sequence all the things that were happening -in practically one and the same instant. As Murphy grappled with Weiss, -the gesture I had made to push the man away was completed, and my hands -pushed the two struggling men partly to the floor. Weiss had both hands -around his gun, trying to fire again, and this time at Roden; and Roden, -while holding his desperate clutch about the gun which was waving wildly -this way and that, was trying to get his own gun from his shoulder -holster, and I was still standing there with my hands outstretched from -pushing them, when Elliott Coleman from quite a ways down the hall fired -the second shot I heard that night, as well as two others. - -“In that same instant of general confusion that boiled up I heard Huey -give just one shout, a sort of hoot, and then he ran like a wild deer. I -bent over to help Roden disarm Weiss, and twisted a muscle in my back so -that for a moment I could not move in any direction. It was then I saw -that one of Elliott Coleman’s bullets had shot away Murphy Roden’s wrist -watch, but the next two hit Weiss. At the first one his whole body -jerked convulsively--like this. At the second it jerked again in a great -twitch as he sank into himself and slumped forward, face down, his head -in the angle of the wall and his legs extended diagonally out into the -corridor. - -“It was not until after Weiss was dead that other bodyguards came up and -emptied their pistols into the fallen body. Meanwhile I caught a glimpse -of other armed men, state police and bodyguards, charging from the -[House chamber] end of the hall toward where the body was lying, and I -caught one flash of my father wrestling around with some of them because -he thought I was in trouble and he wanted to stop the shooting. I saw -the crowd down there and I went into the other cross hall [the one in -the direction of the Senate chamber] where there were stairs to the -basement, and asked the girl at the telegraph desk which way Huey had -gone, and she pointed down the stairs....” - -There is general agreement here that of the first two shots, by whomever -fired, the first one penetrated Long’s body, the second ripped Roden’s -watch from his wrist, and that the next two killed Dr. Weiss. The only -discrepancy between the accounts of Murphy Roden and Justice Fournet is -as to who fired these shots. According to Roden, the first two were -fired by Weiss, the third by himself and the fourth by someone else, -presumably Coleman. According to Justice Fournet, the first one was -fired by Weiss, who never fired again; while the second shot, the one -which according to both versions shot away Roden’s wrist watch, was -fired by Coleman, who thereafter also fired the two shots that took Dr. -Weiss’s life. - - * * * * * - -How does Sheriff Coleman’s account of what took place compare with these -two? There is one marked point of difference. It involves a blow with -the fist which no one else describes. Here, then, is that portion of -Coleman’s narrative of what took place: - -“... At this point a slight young fellow in a white linen suit stepped -forward and stretched out his hand with a gun in it and pressed it -against Huey’s right side and fired. Everything happened very fast then, -because the House had just adjourned, seemingly; anyway, people were -coming out. I reached the young man about the same time Roden did, and -hit him with my fist, knocking him down. He was trying to shoot and -Murphy was grappling with him, so that he fell on top of Murphy when I -hit him. I fired one shot. By that time Huey was gone, and I learned -later he had gone down the stairs and had been taken to the hospital. - -“The young man in the white linen suit, whom none of us knew at the -time, was dead, and the gun was lying on the floor several inches from -his hand. It was then that I saw why he had not fired again. A cartridge -was jammed in the ejector. After that a lot of things happened, and -there was a lot of shooting. - -“They called me into the governor’s office. Some fool had run in there, -and Allen said to me: ‘Coleman, I understand you hit that party. Huey -isn’t much hurt, he’s just shot through the arm.’ I said: ‘The hell he -is! The man couldn’t have missed him. He shot him in the belly, right -here.’ Allen said: ‘But they say you hit him and deflected the bullet.’ -And I said: ‘I never hit him till after he shot.’ All of this stuff -about a bullet from one of the bodyguards is a lot of ----! Those boys -all had .44s and .45s and if one of those bullets had gone through him -it would have made a great big hole. Anybody knows that. Besides, when -all the bodyguard shooting was going on, Huey was gone from that place -and on his way downstairs.” - - * * * * * - -This last is also borne out by Frampton, whose account of the actual -shooting includes the following observations: - -“While the conversation” (i.e., between Long and A. P. White about -making sure that all Long supporters would be present at the early -caucus and the morning House session) “was going on, this slight man I -did not know but who had been leaning against a column in the angle of -the marble wall, sort of sauntered over to him, and there was the sound -of a shot, a small sound, a sort of pop. Huey grabbed his side and gave -a sort of grunt, and I think he may have said ‘I’m shot!’ while running -toward the stairs. He disappeared by the time Murphy Roden materialized -out of somewhere--I never did see where he came from--and seized the -man’s hand. There were two shots and he crumpled forward, and fell with -his head on his arm against the pillar where he had been standing, and -his legs projected out into the hall. Huey had already disappeared -around the corner and, as I learned later, down the stairway. The small -automatic had slid out of Dr. Weiss’s hand and lay about four inches -from it on the floor by the time the other bodyguards came up, among -them Messina and McQuiston, and emptied their guns into the prostrate -figure.” - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile Jimmie O’Connor, with Huey’s Corona Belvedere cigars in the -breast pocket of his coat, jumped up as he heard a sound, muffled by the -heavy glass doors of the newly air-conditioned cafeteria, “like cannon -crackers going off.” - -“I started to walk out,” he recalls, “and as I opened the door I saw -Huey reeling like this, with his arms extended, coming down those steps -that were near the governor’s office. He was all by himself, and I ran -over to him and asked: ‘What’s the matter, Kingfish?’ He spit in my face -with blood as he gasped: ‘I’m shot!’ They put in the paper next day he -said: ‘Jimmie, my boy, I’m shot! Help me!’ but he never said a damn word -like that. All he said was ‘I’m shot,’ and he spit blood over me so that -I thought he had been shot in the mouth. - -“With that I grabbed him and I heard more shooting going on. They were -still shooting at the fallen body of Dr. Weiss, as I found out later. -But it shows how quickly it all happened. As fast as that. He had no -blood on his clothes at all at that time, other than what he had spit -out of his mouth. - -“So I half carried and half dragged him outside to the driveway. They -had a fellow out there with an old sort of a beat-up Ford automobile, -and I said: ‘Take me and this man over to the hospital.’ It was an -open-model car, not a sedan. Going over to the hospital Huey said not a -word, just slumped and slid in my arms. When we got over there, I opened -the car door and halfway got him out and got him on my shoulder, and -whoever was in the car just blew. They were gone. Right by the entrance -on the side they had a rolling table. I put him on that and rang the -bell. One of the sisters came down and cried: ‘Oh, oh! What is this?’ -and I said: ‘The Senator.’ - -“She said: ‘Wheel him into the elevator.’ I did that. She operated the -elevator and when we got out--I don’t remember what floor it was--she -and I wheeled him into the operating room, where an intern hurried over -to us. Huey was wearing a cream-colored double-breasted suit, -silky-looking, and I said to the intern: ‘He’s been shot in the mouth.’ -The intern pulled down the Senator’s mouth, swabbed it out, and said: -‘He’s not shot there, that’s just a little cut where he hit himself -against something.’ I suppose he stumbled up against the wall while -reeling around the turns going down the stairs. - -“Then the intern was beginning to open the Senator’s coat when Dr. -Vidrine popped in, and he and the intern opened the coat. There was very -little blood on the shirt, and when they opened that and pulled up the -undershirt we saw a very small hole right under the right nipple.... -While his shirt and coat were being cut off, he asked the Sister to pray -for him. ‘Sister, pray for me,’ he said, and she told him: ‘Pray _with_ -me.’” - -By this time frantic telephone calls to physicians in Baton Rouge and -New Orleans, to Seymour Weiss and Earle Christenberry, to the Long -family, to Adjutant General Fleming, and to a host of politicians had -jammed the switchboards. Both the big buildings facing one another -across the width of the old University Lake--the Sanitarium and the -State House--were swarming hives of confused activity. In the hospital -various officials and others in the top echelon of the Long organization -were crowding the hallways around the wounded Senator’s room, and later -even the operating room itself, while the constant arrival of more and -yet more cars clotted into an all but hopeless traffic snarl in the -Sanitarium’s small parking lot. - -Others made their way to the capitol building as word of the shooting -spread, but here General Louis F. Guerre, commandant of the Bureau of -Identification, and Colonel E. P. Roy, chief of the highway police, -acted promptly to restore some semblance of order. Part of the confusion -stemmed from the fact that up to that very moment no one had been able -to identify the body which later proved to be that of Dr. Weiss; almost -everyone who asked to see if he might perhaps recognize the slight -figure in the bloodstained white suit was admitted to the corridor where -the corpse remained until Coroner Thomas Bird arrived. As described by -Frampton---- - -“A number of people came around after the shooting stopped. Among them -were Helen Gilkison, the _Item_ and _Tribune_ Baton Rouge correspondent -and Colonel Roy. I remember that the Colonel took hold of the fallen -man’s head and lifted it so that the features were visible. He asked -first me and then Helen if we knew him. We did not. I had never seen him -before, as far as I knew then or know now. - -“Then I suddenly remembered that George Coad in New Orleans, who was -still on the phone line I had left open, must have heard the shooting -and was likely going mad. So I went in and picked up the phone and told -him Huey was shot, and the man who fired at him had been killed by the -bodyguards, but that the body had not yet been identified, so he had -better go with just that much for an extra. - -“I then ran back out into the hall and found that Dr. Tom Bird, the -coroner, was there. Colonel Roy and the state police were starting to -clear the corridor of everyone: spectators, newspaper people, -legislators, and all. But Dr. Bird deputized Helen as an assistant -coroner, and she was permitted to stay. I then followed Huey’s course -down the stairs by the route I was told he had taken, and learned for -the first time he really had been shot, because on the marble steps I -saw a few drops of blood. - -“I ran out the back door and was told he had been taken to the hospital -by Jimmie O’Connor, so I ran around the end of the lake all the way from -the capitol to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, climbed the front steps, -went up to the top floor, where Huey was lying on one of those surgical -tables in the corridor outside of a room at the east end of the hallway. - -“Right away I thought of Urban Maes and Jim Rives, and asked Colonel -Roy, who had come there in the meantime, to get the airport lighted, as -I would try to get Maes and Rives to fly up with Harry Williams. I put -in calls for both of them and left messages about what had happened, and -for them to get hold of Harry Williams and fly to Baton Rouge, where the -airport had been lighted.... Actually, this had not yet been done, as I -learned later. Colonel Roy could not raise any airport attendant, so he -drove out there, kicked in a window, and turned on the lights himself.” - -By that time Dr. Maes and his associate, Dr. Rives, were already en -route to Baton Rouge by automobile. They had been called at once by -Seymour Weiss, who then jumped into his new Cadillac with Bob -Maestri--the latter lived at the Roosevelt--and together they ruined the -engine of the car by driving at top speed to Baton Rouge. - -At that time no one yet had given out any reasonably authoritative word -as to whether Long was the victim of a major or minor injury; whether -the prognosis was hopeful or a matter of doubt; whether his condition -could be described as undetermined, satisfactory, or critical. - -But so widespread was public interest in the Kingfish, who had -challenged Roosevelt, and who only a month before had said the New Deal -was at least cognizant of a plot to murder him, that newspapers in many -distant cities lost no time in dispatching special correspondents and -photographers to Baton Rouge to cover the day’s top news story. The -fight to save the Kingfish’s life was just beginning. - - - - -10 ---- SEPTEMBER 8-9: MIDNIGHT - - “_He that cuts off twenty years of life cuts off so many years of - fearing death._” - - ----SHAKESPEARE - - -Among the first of the Long hierarchs to reach the hospital to which -Jimmie O’Connor had rushed the fallen Kingfish were Dr. Vidrine, Justice -Fournet, and Acting Lieutenant Governor Noe. As a matter of fact, -O’Connor had not yet left the capitol’s porte-cochere when Fournet and -Noe reached it. - -“I heard Huey and Jimmie O’Connor talking before I saw them in the -darkness there,” Justice Fournet relates. “Jimmie asked: ‘Where did he -hit you?’ and Huey said: ‘Hell, man, take me to the hospital.’ I reached -them just as they got into the car of a man--his name was Starns, I -think--and I tried to get into the car with them, but it was just a -two-door affair, and I could not get in. By that time Jimmie Noe had -come down, so he and I managed to get to the hospital in another of the -cars around there. They had Huey sort of strapped to a wheeled table, an -operating table, I suppose, by the time we got there and found out what -floor he was on. - -“Dr. Vidrine was there, and starting to take off some of the Senator’s -clothes; but I took out my pocket knife and said: ‘Here, cut it off.’ He -slashed through the clothes and laid them back. I saw a very small -bluish puncture on the right side of Huey’s abdomen, and it was not -bloody. And I saw Dr. Vidrine lift up the right side of Huey’s back, but -he did not lift it very far. Dr. Vidrine put us in a room with a nurse, -then, and gave instructions to let no one else come in. - -“Meanwhile other doctors were taking his blood pressure and pulse rate. -Huey asked one of them what it was, and he told him. Naturally, I don’t -remember the figures, but I do remember Huey saying: ‘That’s bad, isn’t -it?’ and Vidrine or one of the others”--[it was Dr. Cecil -Lorio]--“answered him, saying: ‘Well, not _too_ bad, yet.’ Vidrine asked -him what doctors he wanted called, and he said Sanderson from -Shreveport, and Maes and Rives from New Orleans. While they were waiting -for their arrival, Joe Bates came in. He was allowed to come there so he -could tell Huey who had shot him. He said it was a young doctor named -Weiss. - -“‘What for?’ Huey asked. ‘I don’t even know him.’ - -“‘He’s a fanatic about you,’ Bates replied. ‘But he is friendly with a -lot of others in the administration.’” - -Pending the arrival of surgeons from New Orleans, some semblance of -order was being restored about the hospital. Highway motorcycle officers -unsnarled the traffic jam in the Sanitarium’s small parking lot, set up -guarded barriers, and thereafter admitted to the grounds no one who did -not have a special permit. - -It was during this interlude, too, that Ty Campbell finally brought -Murphy Roden from the capitol to the hospital for treatment. - -“One of the interns washed my eyes out first,” Roden remembers. “They -were smarting and there must have been some powder residue in them. -There were powder burns on the skin of my back, burns that had gone -through my coat, my shirt, and my undershirt. These were cleaned and -swabbed with antiseptic. But it was not until several weeks later, after -a place on my back kept festering, that I went to my family doctor in -Baton Rouge, and he finally removed a small fragment of the copper -jacketing of a bullet, from where it had lodged just under the skin. - -“After the interns finished with me, Ty went to the Istrouma Hotel and -brought me back some clothes, and I changed in the hospital. After that -we went back to the capitol with General Guerre, who took me to the -office of the governor’s executive counsel where General Ray Fleming, -head of the National Guard, had set up his headquarters, and we talked -nearly an hour or so, with me telling all I could recall. From there I -went to my quarters and to bed.” - -When he returned to the capitol with Roden, General Guerre had the State -House hallways cleared. - -“Once I satisfied myself that the Senator had been taken to the hospital -and was in the hands of physicians,” he explains, “I gave orders to my -men to clear the capitol’s lower floor as quickly as possible, and allow -no one else to come in without special authorization from me. I put -officers in charge to see that the body of the assassin was not touched -until the coroner got there. Even Dr. Bird did not know who the man was -till they removed his wallet and saw his identification there.” - - * * * * * - -Unaware of what had taken place in Baton Rouge, Earle Christenberry -reached his New Orleans home shortly after 9:30, having driven in from -the capitol without special haste. His neighbors, seeing the car turn -into the Christenberry driveway, flung open a window and told him -someone in Baton Rouge was trying to get in touch with him. His phone -had not answered, whereupon the caller secured from the telephone -company the number of the adjoining house, asking that when Earle -arrived he be requested to call back immediately. - -Then, adding a bit of news they had heard a short time earlier over the -radio, they told him Huey Long had been shot. - -Christenberry did not pause to call Baton Rouge. Without leaving his -car, he backed out of the driveway and headed for the capitol. He made -but one stop en route. That was at Lousteau’s combination sandwich -counter and automobile agency, where the Airline Highway cut across the -government’s newly completed Bonnet Carre Spillway over a bridge a mile -and an eighth long, spanning the dry channel through which the -Mississippi River’s flood waters could be diverted into Lake -Pontchartrain. Final inspection of the structure had not yet been made; -hence it was not open to general traffic. Wooden highway barriers -blocked entry to it. - -However, Christenberry directed the highway patrolman on duty there to -open the barriers for him, since this would save at least six miles on -the road to Baton Rouge. After ascertaining that Mrs. Long and the three -children had not yet passed this point, he instructed the motorcycle man -to remain on watch for their car, and open the barrier to let it pass -over the bridge too. - -Approximately seventy minutes after leaving his home, he parked at Our -Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. - - * * * * * - -Earlier that afternoon, in New Orleans, General Ray Fleming, Adjutant -General of Louisiana, had taken part at Jackson Barracks in a polo game -between teams representing the 108th Cavalry and the famed Washington -Artillery. During one of the late chuckers a hard-hit ball had banged -against the General’s left foot, inflicting an injury not in itself -serious, but so painful that before retiring for the night he borrowed a -pair of crutches from the post infirmary and secured a left shoe he -could cut to accommodate the swelling which had followed the mishap. - -“Hardly had I retired,” he relates, “than I received a phone call from -Governor Allen, who in a very excited voice said to me: ‘Huey has been -shot!’ Realizing that I must have certain information to deal with such -a situation, I demanded that the Governor stay on the telephone at -least long enough to answer one question before I took action. - -“The question was: ‘Is this an action involving many persons or is it -the act of just one individual?’ This I had to know in order to -determine what troops, if any, were needed to handle the situation. - -“Governor Allen immediately informed me that it was the spontaneous -action of just one individual. With this information in hand, I started -almost at once for Baton Rouge. In a remarkably short time I reached the -capitol, where I immediately set up headquarters in the office of the -executive counsel. From then until about 2 A.M. I talked to a great many -persons regarding events leading up to, during, and after the -assassination. - -“One of the reasons for this inquiry was that I had to make a decision -as to whether or not we were faced with the necessity of dealing with an -armed insurrection on the part of a considerable number of individuals.” - - * * * * * - -Early that Sunday night Judge Leche, still inclined to make light of his -conversation with Senator Long some hours before, was leaving Baptist -Hospital, where his physician, Dr. Wilkes Knolle, had just changed the -dressing of the airplane splint in which his left arm was immobilized. - -“Our chauffeur was driving Tonnie [Mrs. Leche] and me home from the -hospital,” his account of the day’s events continues, “and as we drew up -in front of my house in Metairie I could hear the phone ring. I tossed -my keys to the chauffeur and said: ‘Hurry up and answer it, and tell -whoever it is I’ll be there as soon as I can work my way out of the -car.’ He did so, and I got out awkwardly, my left arm being held rigidly -horizontal at shoulder height with the elbow bent, and when I got to the -phone it was Abe Shushan telling me Huey had just been shot. I called -out to the chauffeur not to leave, we were going to Baton Rouge right -away, and I told Tonnie I would send the car back for her and she could -come up the next day, if that seemed indicated. - -“I went directly to the governor’s office, and Oscar Allen was there, -very nervous and visibly shaken. He was talking on the telephone and -picked up a sheet of paper while holding the other hand over the -mouthpiece, and said: ‘This is what I am going to release to the press.’ -At the time I thought he said he had already released it. In brief, the -statement said for everyone to remain calm, this had been merely the -irresponsible act of one individual, and that it did not mean more than -just one individual’s crazed action. - -“I tore the paper up and handed the pieces back to him, saying: ‘Huey -has been charging in Louisiana and in Washington that there was a plot -on foot to kill him, and that he surrounded himself with bodyguards for -that reason. He conducted a formal investigation into a murder plot with -witnesses who said they had won their way into the confidence of the -plotters, and named them, and carried on an investigation in New Orleans -for days.... How in the world can you take it on yourself to proclaim -officially that this was all twaddle, and that only one individual was -responsible for what happened?’ - -“He said very excitedly: ‘You’re right, you’re right, you’re right!’ I -left, and was driven over to the hospital, but by that time the -operation was either over or in progress, so I did not see Huey. I -stayed in the hotel, and Tonnie joined me there the next day.” - - * * * * * - -The operation was begun at 11:22 P.M., but Drs. Maes and Rives were not -present. What happened is told by Dr. Rives in the following account: - -“Dr. Maes had been called, I have forgotten by whom, and he was asked to -fly to Baton Rouge as Huey Long had been shot; a chartered plane would -be waiting for him at the New Orleans airport, and a highway car at the -one in Baton Rouge. He asked me to go with him to assist him if he had -surgery to do, and I told him there was no sense in flying to Baton -Rouge, because I could drive him there in the time it would take to -drive out to the New Orleans airport, and then, after the flight, from -the Baton Rouge airfield to the hospital. This proved to be not right. - -“We were in my car and I was driving. The road then ran beside the old -O-K Interurban Line tracks, and just outside of Metairie an S-curve -crossed the tracks, a black-top road with graveled shoulders. Just -before we entered this S-curve another car, coming from the opposite -direction, swept through it and put its bright lights right into my -eyes. I was going about forty-five or fifty. I was not racing, in other -words, but I got my right wheel into the loose gravel of the shoulder, -and ended up skidding completely around and facing back in the direction -of New Orleans on the old gravel road beyond the S-curve. - -“My differential housing was caught on the high center of this old -gravel road, with only one rear wheel on the ground. We did no damage to -the car, but with only one wheel on the ground, a car is helpless. We -finally flagged someone driving back toward New Orleans and asked him to -send a wrecker to pull us back on the road. Actually they sent only a -truck, but it took us off the high center and then we went on. I should -say we lost not more than half an hour, but I think we would not have -reached Baton Rouge until after the operation even if we had not met -with this accident. - -“We did not have permission to use the completed but not yet opened -Airline Highway beyond Kenner, so I took the old River Road. As we -finally drove into Baton Rouge, there wasn’t a soul in sight, aside from -a policeman or two. No one was abroad on the streets; lights in the -houses, yes, but no people or cars on the streets. To outward -appearances, it was the most deserted community I ever saw, and going to -Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium we had to drive right through the center -of town. - -“At the hospital we were met by highway police, identified ourselves, -which was required, and then we were conducted to the entrance where -someone else took us up to the ward where Huey had been placed....” - - * * * * * - -Word of the shooting of Huey Long had spread through the capitol’s -corridors and offices with almost explosive speed. The minute she heard -the report, Lucille May Grace (Mrs. Fred Dent in private life), Register -of the State Land Office, tried to telephone Dr. Clarence Lorio, who, -though not Senator Long’s physician, was one of his closest friends in -the Baton Rouge area. Mrs. Dent (since deceased) was devoted to Huey -Long, for he had supported her father for re-election to the office of -Land Register, a post which he held for more than thirty years. Upon her -father’s death Long appointed her to serve in Mr. Grace’s stead for the -unexpired balance of his term, since she had been his principal -assistant almost from the very day she was graduated from Louisiana -State University. - -Since she had retained, and even added to, her father’s tremendous -personal following among the voters, Huey decided at the end of her term -of office in 1932 to put her name on the Allen slate, which would carry -his imprimatur as the “Complete-the-Work” ticket. Hoping to induce Long -to rescind this decision, one or another of the rival aspirants spread a -completely baseless rumor to the effect that Mrs. Dent’s ancestry was -tainted with a touch of Negro blood. - -Huey Long’s almost obsessive response to this sort of aspersion was a -matter of common knowledge; it is only because what ensued may have some -bearing on the motive behind the assassination that this particular -incident is worth giving in some detail. - -Though he had already consented to put the name of Lucille May Grace on -the slate that would carry his endorsement, he lost no time in -retracting this agreement, and made it crystal clear forthwith that -unless she could show to his complete satisfaction that the rumor which -had gained considerable circulation was without even the semblance of a -foundation, he would place another’s name on the ticket for the position -she, and before her her father, had held. - -Miss Grace, the niece of an Iberville parish priest, enlisted the -latter’s aid and that of the late John X. Wegmann, a universally -respected New Orleans insurance man and perhaps the foremost Catholic -layman in Louisiana at the time. Thus birth and baptismal records going -back for generations along the Grace family tree were produced, and they -conclusively demonstrated the utter falsity of the canard. Satisfied, -Long restored her name at once to his personally approved -“Complete-the-Work” ticket of candidates, headed by the name of Oscar K. -Allen for governor. - - * * * * * - -Miss Grace (she did not become Mrs. Dent until a year later) had -attended Louisiana State University with both Clarence and Cecil Lorio, -and knew how close the former’s friendship with Senator Long was. She -began at once to call him, but he was not at his farm in nearby Pointe -Coupee parish, and the telephone at his Baton Rouge residence was -apparently out of order. So she called his brother, Dr. Cecil Lorio. - -“Suppose you let me tell the whole story, exactly as I recall it,” the -latter began, when asked about his recollections of what took place in -the operating room of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium when Huey Long was -admitted there as a patient that September night. Dr. Cecil Lorio and -Dr. Walter Cook were, at the time of this inquiry, the only surviving -physicians who were present throughout all the ensuing surgical -procedure. - -“When she failed to reach my brother Clarence,” Dr. Lorio continued, -“Lucille May Grace called me at my home, and I left at once for Our Lady -of the Lake Sanitarium. Huey’s clothing had been removed by the time I -got there, and he was in bed in his room at the east end of the -third-floor corridor. He was fully conscious and we talked quietly from -time to time during the next hour. He was particularly distressed by the -thought that he might now be unable to carry out his plan to screen -students for L.S.U., so as to make it possible for all exceptionally -bright high-school graduates, however needy their families, to receive -the advantages of college education. - -“I took his blood pressure and pulse every fifteen minutes; he had -evidently learned something about the significance of this, for when he -asked me what the readings were, and I told him his pulse rate was -getting faster and his blood pressure was dropping a bit, he said: -‘That’s not good, is it?’ and I answered him by saying: ‘No, but it -isn’t too bad yet, either.’ ‘It means there’s an internal hemorrhage?’ -he then asked. I said he was probably hemorrhaging some, but that the -relation between blood pressure and pulse rate was one that could also -be attributed to shock. He was very curious about who had shot him, -saying it was someone he had never seen before. - -“He had visibly a small blue puncture on the right side of his abdomen, -and another on the right side of his back where the bullet emerged. Both -were very small. But it was obvious some emergency surgery would have to -be performed sooner or later. I was told that Dr. Sanderson had been -summoned from Shreveport, and that Drs. Urban Maes and James Rives were -already en route from New Orleans. Dr. Maes had been appointed to the -chair of surgery at L.S.U.’s new medical college, of which Dr. Vidrine, -also present in Baton Rouge at the time, was dean, along with his -position as superintendent of Charity Hospital. He was in general charge -of the patient’s case. At some point in the proceedings word was brought -to us that a motoring accident had forced Dr. Rives’s car off the road, -and that they would be delayed some time by the difficulty of securing -service at that time of night to have their car dragged back to the -highway. When informed of this, Dr. Vidrine decided not to wait any -longer.” - -Huey’s very close friends, Seymour Weiss and Conservation Commissioner -Robert Maestri, had reached Baton Rouge some time prior to this. It is -Mr. Weiss’s clear recollection that the decision to wait no longer -before performing an emergency operation was reached “by all of us” -before word was received of the mischance encountered by Drs. Maes and -Rives. - -“As I recall the circumstances,” Seymour Weiss says, “Huey’s condition -was getting worse by the minute. Dr. Vidrine insisted that any further -delay was progressively lessening the Senator’s chances. The other -physicians present agreed that the outlook was not hopeful. Vidrine was -the physician in charge and the rest of us were laymen. The time came -when we either had to agree to let the operation be performed at once, -or take upon ourselves the risk of endangering the man’s life. Mrs. Long -and the children had not yet reached Baton Rouge, but in view of the -medical opinions, the rest of us--all being individuals who were close -to Huey--were just about unanimous in agreeing that the doctors should -proceed.” - - * * * * * - -Amid the almost inconceivable confusion in and out of the hospital, one -person seems to have kept her head, and that was Miss Mary Ann Woods, -now Mrs. Arthur Champagne, the supervisor of nurses. Assigning floor -nurses and trainees to duties so as to make the best possible -disposition of available personnel, she set out to provide four special -attendants for the critically injured Senator, two to serve at night and -two by day. - -The first one she called from the register was Theoda Carriere, who -responded at once, even though she had just come off a twelve-hour tour -of duty. The other three were Loretta Meade, Helen Selassie, and Mrs. -Hamilton Baudin. Miss Carriere was one of the first to reach the -hospital, as she lived nearby; and since by that time Senator Long had -been taken from his third-floor sickroom to the operating theater on the -floor above, she scrubbed up at once and reported for duty there. - -According to her recollection, Dr. Cook was working on the patient, who -was anesthetized by the time she arrived. Being short of stature, she -had difficulty in seeing the operating table, and therefore placed a -stool so that, by standing on it, she could look over the shoulders of -those surrounding the patient. - -Dr. Cook said to her: “This is a gunshot wound; get me some antitetanus -serum.” Miss Carriere left the room for the pharmacy section downstairs -where such supplies were stored, and when she returned with the desired -serum, and gave it to Dr. Cook, Dr. Vidrine was just entering the -operating room. - -“Dr. Cook looked up,” she relates, “and said: ‘Well, my relief has -arrived,’ and left the operating room. Dr. Ben Chamberlain assisted Dr. -Vidrine during the balance of the operation.” - -In this respect Miss Carriere’s recollections are in direct conflict -with those of every physician who was present, and with the operation -report attached to the hospital chart, as well as with the statement of -Dr. Cook himself, when he testified later that he assisted at the -operation. - -As operating procedure was begun in the Sanitarium, neighbors of Dr. -Clarence Lorio, seeing his car parked in front of his home, and -realizing that under normal circumstances he of all men would have been -at the hospital with his gravely wounded friend, managed to rouse him. - -“I had been working for thirteen hours straight,” he explained -subsequently, “and I was bone tired. When I got home I not only went to -bed, but took the telephone off the hook so as not to be disturbed. I -had come to the point where I simply had to rest. Naturally, when some -of my neighbors woke me and told me what had happened, I lost no time in -dressing and rushing off to the Sanitarium, but the operation was -already under way when I got there. - -“Let me say this about Arthur Vidrine: that man faced one of the -toughest decisions that night anybody ever confronted. If he sat idly -by, waiting for someone else to take over the case, while Huey bled to -death, his associates and Huey’s friends would never forgive him, and he -would never forgive himself, either. On the other hand, if he performed -an emergency operation, and it was discovered later that the critically -wounded patient would have had a better chance for recovery if some -other procedure had been followed, he would still be blamed for a great -man’s death. No one could confront a more harrowing choice.” - -On the other hand, it can be taken for granted that Arthur Vidrine must -at least momentarily have entertained the thought of the rewards and -renown that would be his portion if by timely, courageous, and skillful -surgery he, rather than others, saved the life of the Kingfish of -Louisiana. Be that as it may, the decision to operate at once was made; -when it was submitted to Senator Long, he concurred in it; in fact, -according to a monograph by Dr. Frank L. Loria of New Orleans, Huey -himself said: “Come on, let’s go be operated upon.” - -Dr. Cecil Lorio described the incident more prosaically in the following -terms: - -“Someone told him that it had been decided to operate and that Dr. -Vidrine would perform the operation if Huey had no objection. He -indicated that he was willing for this to be done. Dr. Vidrine selected -Dr. William Cook to assist him, and Dr. Henry McKeown as the -anesthetist. It was this latter choice that brought me back into the -operating room and kept me there, for I am a pediatrician, not a -surgeon. - -“Baton Rouge--in fact, all Louisiana--was bitterly divided into Long and -anti-Long factions at this time. One of the most violently partisan -anti-Long individuals in all Baton Rouge was Henry McKeown. He really -hated Huey, though he had many friends among the people who were close -to the Senator. - -“Only two or three nights earlier, he and I were both sitting in at a -poker game in the Elks’ Club, when someone said something or other about -Long--probably something in connection with the special session of the -legislature that might be called any day. Dr. McKeown said in jest, the -way any person might in the course of a sociable card game: ‘If ever he -has to have an operation, they better not let me give the anesthetic, -for I’ll guarantee he’d never get off that table.’ Let me say again, and -with emphasis, that this was not a threat, but a jest, something to -underscore the man’s uncompromising anti-Long partisanship. - -“Naturally, when within a matter of days he actually was summoned to -serve as anesthetist for an operation to be performed on Huey Long, he -demurred. He pointed out that Huey was a bad operative risk in any case, -and for all anyone knew to the contrary, might already be dying from a -wound which was in itself mortal. ‘If the man dies during the -operation,’ Dr. McKeown pointed out, ‘many of those who have heard me -pop off about him might actually think I killed him.’ No one who knew -Henry McKeown, of course, would think any such thing. Finally he agreed -to serve, provided I watched and checked every move he made. - -“I told him I would do so, but while I looked now and then across the -operating table to its head, where he was standing, and saw what he was -doing, I really paid no attention to it, nor did he stop to see whether -or not I was checking on him. - -“Later, while the operation was in progress, Dr. Clarence Lorio, my -brother, came in and stood beside Dr. McKeown to the end of the -operation. On the side of the table at Huey’s left stood Dr. Vidrine. -Opposite him was his assistant, Dr. Cook. Beside Dr. Vidrine at his -left, I stood, handing him instruments and materials as he called for -them. As I said, I am not a surgeon, but a pediatrician. - -“The operating room was a strange sight. All sorts of people, mostly -politicians, I assume, had crowded into the small room. It was not an -amphitheater, and they ranged themselves all along the walls, not even -being suited up. As Mother Henrietta, the head of the hospital, said -later, after she had vainly tried to keep all who were not physicians or -properly gowned out of the operating chamber, it was anything but normal -surgical procedure.” - -It is indeed a pity the original chart, such as it was, could not have -been preserved. But as in the case of most hospitals, the time came when -the absolute limit of storage capacity was exhausted, and the charts on -file were microfilmed. In making these microfilms it was customary in -many hospitals not to include the nurses’ bedside notes in the filmed -record. Hence these do not appear in the film of the chart of Huey Long -at Lady of the Lake. - -But even what does remain is fragmentary, and in many cases unsigned. As -Dr. Rives observed many years later: “The situation that night, even -after I arrived, which was after the operation was completed and Huey -was back in his room, could only be described as chaotic. Several -physicians seemed to be on hand, and in the case of a critically injured -patient, when no one of the attending doctors is actually in command and -giving the orders to the crew of which he is the captain ... well, all I -can say is that even during the four hours or so when I was there -between about 1 A.M. and the time I started back for New Orleans which I -reached at daybreak, the situation was nothing short of chaotic.” - -A transcript of the microfilm was made by Dr. Chester A. Williams, the -present coroner of East Baton Rouge parish. According to this document, -the admitting note, set down on a plain sheet of paper, is not even -signed; obviously the last two lines were added by someone else after -the operation was concluded. It is preceded on the record by a standard -summary form which reads: - - Hospital No. 24179. Sen. Huey P. Long, 42 yr.w.m. - - Admitted Sept. 8, 1935, to Dr. Vidrine. - - Diagnosis: Shot wound abdomen, perforation of colon, Room 325. - - Died Sept. 10, 1935. - -The unsigned “admitting note” on its plain sheet of paper, which follows -the foregoing summary, reads: - -“Pt. admitted to O.R. at 9:30 P.M. Dr. Vidrine present. Exam made by Dr. -Vidrine shows wound under ribs rt. side, clothes and body with blood. -Pulse volume weak and faint. Fully conscious, very nervous. Given -caffeine and sodium benzoate 2 cc by hypo. Dr. Cook present. Put to bed -in 314 at 9:45 P.M. Foot of bed elevated. M.S. gr. ¹⁄₆ by hypo for pain. -Asked for ice continuously. Dr. Cecil Lorio present. External heat, Pt. -in cold sweat. After consultation, patient to O.R. at 11:20, pulse weak -and fast, still asks for ice.” - -Then follow the words, obviously added after the operation: - -“Dr. Vidrine, C. A. Lorio, Cecil and Dr. Cook present, and put to bed in -325 at 12:40 A.M. Foot of bed elevated.” - -The Operating Room record of the chart reads: - - Surgeon: Dr. Vidrine. - - Anesthetist: Dr. McKeown. - - Assistants: Dr. Cook, Dr. C. A. Lorio, Dr. C. Lorio. - - Anesthesia: N₂O started at 10:51 P.M. ended 12:14 A.M. Pulse during - anesthesia 104-114 - - Operation begun 11:22 P.M., ended 12:25 A.M. - - What was done: Perforation--2--Transfer [_sic!_] colon. - - [Signature not decipherable] - -In the monograph previously referred to, Dr. Loria of New Orleans -compiled a more detailed technical description of the surgical -procedure. This was published in 1948 by the _International Abstracts of -Surgery_ (Volume 87) as a treatise dealing with 31,751 cases of -abdominal gunshot wounds admitted to Charity Hospital during the first -forty-two years of the present century. Dr. Loria appended to it a -series of reports on notable personages in American history who had -succumbed to such wounds, including President Garfield, President -McKinley, and Senator Long. Referring to the Senator’s case, he wrote in -part: - -“The bullet which struck Senator Long entered just below the border of -the right ribs anteriorly, somewhat lateral to the mid-clavicular line. -The missile perforated the victim’s body, making its exit just below the -ribs on the right side posteriorly and to the inner side of the -midscapular line, not far from the midline of the back. - -“... At the hospital, arrangements were made for an emergency laparotomy -with Vidrine in charge.... Under ether anesthesia the abdomen was opened -by an upper right rectus muscle splitting incision. Very little blood -was found in the peritoneal cavity. The liver, gall bladder and stomach -were free of injury. A small hematoma, about the size of a silver -dollar, was found in the mesentery of the small intestine. The only -intra-peritoneal damage found was a ‘small’ perforation of the hepatic -flexure, which accounted for a slight amount of soiling of the -peritoneum. Both the wounds of entry and of exit in the colon were -sutured and further spillage stopped. The abdomen was closed in layers -as usual.” - -About one o’clock that morning Drs. Maes and Rives arrived, and somewhat -later Dr. Russell Stone, another noted New Orleans surgeon. None of -these saw any part of the operative procedure, all surgery having been -completed before their arrival. But a sharp difference of opinion -between Dr. Vidrine and Dr. Stone was followed by the latter’s prompt -return to New Orleans without so much as looking at the patient. Dr. -Stone told some of his New Orleans associates and close friends that -Vidrine had given him the details of the abdominal operation and had -also said that the kidney was injured and was hemorrhaging. - -“Did you see the kidney?” he asked Vidrine, and added that the latter -replied: “No, but I felt it.” An acrimonious interchange followed and at -its climax Vidrine said something to the general effect of “Well, go on -in and examine him for yourself.” Stone replied: “Not I. This isn’t my -case and he isn’t my patient. Good night.” Thereupon he returned at once -to New Orleans. - -Dr. Rives’s account of his experiences clearly illustrates on what he -based his opinion that the procedure was “chaotic.” - -“Dr. Maes and I were taken into a room next to the one Huey was in,” he -related, “and there I stopped. Dr. Maes was taken on into the patient’s -room, while I got off into a corner, making myself inconspicuous. At -this time there was still no suggestion that anyone but Dr. Weiss had -shot or even could have shot Huey Long. Meanwhile, people were going in -and out of the sickroom, apparently at will. I did not know many of -them, and certainly most of them were not physicians. Finally someone, -and I think it was Abe Shushan, asked me had I been in the room where -Huey was, and I said no, I was only there to assist Dr. Maes in the -event there was any surgery he had to perform. He said: ‘In something -like this we want the benefit of every doctor’s advice,’ and led me in -there. - -“I did not see the wound of entrance, and I was told by one of the nuns -or one of the nurses that the wound of entrance was beneath the clean -dressing on his belly; and from the location of this dressing it was -clear to me that there was a good chance the bullet might have hit a -kidney. - -“I asked the nurses if there were any blood in his urine. That was the -only contribution I could make. Whoever it was, she said she did not -know. I said that if they did not know, he ought to be catheterized at -once. Later that night, some time before I left for New Orleans, I was -told he had been catheterized and that there was blood in his urine. -That was an absolute indication of injury to the kidney. It was not -necessarily a critical injury, or a hemorrhage that would not stop. But -it did mean that there was an injury, and that if hemorrhage continued, -that was the place to look for it.” - -Dr. Maes said there would be no further surgery, and hence while he -would stay through the day, Monday, there would be no need for Dr. Rives -to do so. The latter thereupon drove back to New Orleans. - -According to Dr. Loria’s monograph, the “postoperative course of the -case continued steadily on the downgrade. Evidence of shock and -hemorrhage appeared to become steadily worse ... the urine was found to -contain much blood. At this time [Dr. Russell] Stone’s opinion was that -another operation to arrest the kidney hemorrhage would certainly prove -fatal....” - -Whether it was Dr. Rives or Dr. Stone who first suggested -catheterization is immaterial. The fact remains that until one or the -other of these physicians, neither of whom was directly connected with -the case, proposed this procedure, nothing of the sort seems to have -been done; according to the progress notes on the microfilm chart, it -was not done until 6:45 A.M., almost nine hours after the shooting, and -six hours after the emergency operation had precluded the possibility of -further surgery. Even after it was discovered that the kidney hemorrhage -was massive and continuing, medical opinion was unanimous on the point -that additional surgery would unquestionably prove fatal. - -Control of such hemorrhage involved removal of the injured kidney, in -order to tie off the vessels supplying it with blood. This in turn would -mean the cutting of ribs to make room for the requisite mechanics of -kidney removal. Such an operation on a patient already in shock from a -bullet wound and from the major abdominal surgery which followed, would, -it was agreed by all, inevitably bring about the patient’s death. All -that remained was to hope for a miracle--and none manifested itself. In -the words of Dr. Cecil Lorio: - -“The patient never really recovered consciousness. He was in shock, and -under sedation, until he died. As the day [Monday] wore on, and Huey’s -blood pressure continued to fall, a transfusion was ordered. It may have -been earlier that the transfusion was given. The hospital records would -show.” - -Unfortunately, the hospital record shows only one transfusion, given at -8:15 Monday night, nearly twenty-four hours after the shooting. However, -it must be borne in mind that in those days, long before blood and -plasma banks had been established as standard hospital facilities, -transfusions were by no means the routine procedure they are today. In -the case of Huey Long, a chart note signed by Dr. Roy Theriot records -the fact that five hundred cubic centimeters of citrated blood were -given, that before transfusion approximately three hundred cubic -centimeters of normal saline solution were given intravenously at a -time when the pulse was very thready, and that the transfusion was -followed by a continuous intravenous drip of glucose in normal saline. -Even after this the patient’s blood pressure was only 114 over 84, while -the pulse rate was still a frightening “170-plus.” - -Almost as soon as Senator Long had been brought to the hospital, -volunteer blood donors were typed, and their blood cross-matched with -that of the patient. According to the laboratory report incorporated in -the hospital chart, J. A. Vitiano, Eddie Knoblock, Colonel Rougon, J. R. -Pollett, M. E. Bird, George Castigliola, and Paul Voitier were marked -“incompatible”; C. J. Campbell, John Kirsch, “no name,” Joe Bates, -Senator Noe, Bill Melton, and a Mr. Walker were found to be compatible. -In addition, “no name,” Bates, Noe, and Melton were also marked with an -“O.K.” - -Senator Noe was the first and apparently only donor, and it is my -recollection that we met in the Heidelberg Hotel elevator Monday night -when he told me he had “just given blood to Huey.” Mrs. Noe was with him -at the time, said she was sure Senator Long would recover, and expressed -the hope that future installments of the _Saturday Evening Post’s_ -biographical portrait would “do him proud.” - -A little after two o’clock that afternoon Dr. Maes had prescribed a -rectal instillation of laudanum, aspirin, brandy, and normal saline -solution. Once this was given, the chart notes: “Resp. less labored, -less cyanosis, P 148 Temp. 103⁴⁄₅ axilla. Quieter.” During the handling -that was incident to the instillation, Senator Long awoke and asked Dr. -Maes whether he would be able to take the stump in the approaching -campaigns. “It’s a little early to tell, yet,” the physician replied. As -before, the patient lapsed into drugged slumber the moment the handling -that had roused him came to an end. - -As concerns the one transfusion recorded on the hospital chart, Dr. -Cecil Lorio reports: - -“I recall clearly the fact that the young physician who was to give the -transfusion was so nervous, and his hands were shaking so, that he was -having difficulty placing the needle in the vein that was to receive the -blood; and my brother Clarence said to me, knowing that I frequently -gave transfusions to children: ‘Dr. Cecil, haven’t you your equipment -here so that you might assist in transfusing the Senator?’ I said I had, -and of course to me, accustomed to performing this with the small veins -of children, it was child’s play to place the needle in the large vein -of a man. A number of volunteers--everybody wanted to volunteer--had -already been typed, and one of those whose blood matched was State -Senator James A. Noe. He was the first donor. - -“But as the day wore on it became evident that the patient was losing -blood about as fast as we were transfusing it into him, and while there -were no external evidences of bleeding, the conclusion was that he must -be hemorrhaging from the apex of the right kidney. So Dr. T. Jorda Kahle -of New Orleans [head of the urology department of Louisiana State -University’s College of Medicine] was sent for. He got to Baton Rouge -Monday night and thrust a needle just under the skin of the kidney -region and drew out a syringeful of blood. That made it evident the -Senator’s case was hopeless, barring a miracle. The only way to stop -such a hemorrhage would have been to remove the kidney, and that would -certainly have killed him. - -“At the end, the dying man threshed wildly about the oxygen tent that -had been put over him. A little after four in the morning his breathing -stopped.” - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Long and the three children--Rose, Russell, and Palmer--did not -reach Baton Rouge until after the operation was over, in spite of the -fact that the Airline’s new bridge across the Bonnet Carre Spillway was -opened to the passage of their car, thanks to Earle Christenberry’s -directions to the highway guards at Lousteau’s. Since the Senator was -never really conscious after he left the operating room, the members of -his family had little or no communion with the man who to them was not -merely a public figure, but husband and father. - -They were given rooms directly across the hall from the one in which -physicians strove unremittingly to save Huey Long’s life. He had not -been a very devoted family man. He was away from home too much in the -pursuit of objectives it seemed impossible for him to share with the -Rose McConnell he had met when he was a brash young door-to-door -salesman of Cottolene. - -Those days were now so long in the past, the happy days of shared trial -when every penny had to be stretched to the uttermost. Success had come -so quickly--the big ornate home in Shreveport, the new Executive Mansion -at Baton Rouge of which Rose had been the first chatelaine, the -elaborate residence on Audubon Boulevard, the days of triumph and -rejoicing that followed the effort to impeach him.... - -All of it was now slipping away forever, while Huey Long’s blood seeped -slowly but relentlessly out of his body, with no possibility short of a -miracle of halting its ebb as some physician, now forever anonymous, -made on his hospital chart a final entry to the effect that even “the -oxygen tent discontinued as pt. grew very restless under it--delusions -of photographers, etc.” - -Once hope for the patient had been abandoned, it was Seymour Weiss who -was the nuncio bringing to the members of Huey’s family, in the room -across the hall, tidings of great grief. Himself emotionally shaken to -the depths of his being, he told Mrs. Long and the three children as -gently as possible that the end was very near. They followed him across -the hall to the bed where the dying man, barely conscious, was drawing -in and expelling shallow, noisy breaths. He made no effort to speak; but -as each of the four laid a hand on the bed beside him, he managed weakly -to pat it in a final, caressing gesture of farewell. - -They returned to their room to await the end. Seymour Weiss accompanied -them, giving voice to whatever comforting phrases he could muster, and -then returned to the sickroom. One vital point remained to be cleared -up. - -“Huey, Huey, can you hear me?” he asked. - -There was a faint stir of response. - -“Huey, you are seriously hurt. Everything that can be done to help you -is being done, but no one can ever say how such things will turn out. -Now is the time to tell me where you put the papers and things that you -took out of the bank vault. Where did you put them? Tell me where they -are, Huey. Please don’t wait any longer.” - -Thus the final thoughts he carried with him out of his life concerned a -political campaign, his campaign for the presidency of the United -States. Hardly audible was the faint breath that whispered: - -“Later--I’ll--tell--you--later....” - -They were his last words. The secret of what became of the affidavits, -the other documents, and the campaign funds that were to provision his -presidential race was one he took with him to an elaborate tomb newly -constructed in the very center of the landscaped park around the capitol -he had built for Louisiana. - - - - -11 ---- THE AFTERMATH - - “_And this was all the harvest that I reap’d--I came like water and - like wind I go._” - - ----THE RUBÁIYÁT - - -A few hours after Huey Long had breathed his last, Dr. Weiss was buried -with requiem services at St. Joseph’s Church, where he and Yvonne had -gone to Mass only three days before. John M. Parker and J. Y. Sanders, -Sr., two former governors prominent among leaders of the political and -personal opposition to the Kingfish regime, attended the funeral, and -were bitterly assailed by Long partisans for doing so. Dr. McKeown, the -anesthetist during the emergency operation performed by Dr. Vidrine, was -one of the pallbearers. - -Yvonne’s uncle, Dr. Pavy, a member of the House of Representatives, had -been delegated by the Weiss family to act as their spokesman in meeting -with reporters who had swarmed into Baton Rouge from near and far. It -should be noted that at this time no one had as yet voiced the slightest -doubt about Dr. Weiss having fired the shot that ended Long’s reign. -Only the question of motive was the subject for argument and dispute. - -“There was absolutely nothing premeditated about what Carl did,” Dr. -Pavy told newsmen gathered at the little cottage he shared with Judge -Philip Gilbert when in Baton Rouge. “On Sunday, while his parents sat on -the beach of their camp with their baby grandchild, Carl and Yvonne -sported about the water. When he returned home, he bade his wife an -affectionate good-by, as he left about 7 P.M. for a professional call. -He even phoned the Lady of the Lake Sanitarium to make an appointment -for an operation Monday morning. - -“He was an earnest lad, and lived for humanity, but he was sorely -distressed about the suppressive form of government he felt existed in -Louisiana. He never talked much about it, and he certainly never -confided to his family or anyone else any plan to kill Long. Our only -explanation for his action is that this suppressive type of rule preyed -on his mind until it unhinged, and he suddenly felt himself a martyr, -giving his life to the people of Louisiana. He must have felt that way, -else how could he have left the wife and baby that he loved above -everything?” - -To a question as to whether the gerrymander that would oust his wife’s -father from the honorable office he had held for so many years could -have prompted the decision to shoot Long, Dr. Pavy replied: - -“In the first place, none of us would kill anyone over such a matter as -the loss of a public office. It is my understanding that while the bill -aimed at my brother’s judgeship was discussed at the Weiss’s dinner -table Sunday, it was treated lightly rather than otherwise.” - -The legislature of which Dr. Pavy was a member had remained in session. -“We’re going to pass every one of ol’ Huey’s bills the same as if he was -still here with us,” was the majority watchword. In addition to these, -the members also adopted a concurrent resolution authorizing the fallen -leader’s interment in the capitol grounds, and the construction there of -a proper tomb to receive the great bronze casket, this to be topped by a -monument later. They also adopted a concurrent resolution “recognizing -and commending and according due recognition” to the valued services and -help of the Senator’s bodyguards, mentioning by name specifically -George McQuiston, assistant superintendent of the state police, Warden -Louis Jones of the state penitentiary, and officers Murphy Roden, -Theophile Landry, Paul Voitier, and Joe Messina. - -During one of the interludes when the House was in session, I took -occasion to go to Dr. Pavy’s desk and ask whether he had reached any -conclusion as to Dr. Weiss’s motive other than the one he had mentioned -on the previous Monday. I had heard vague reports that it was felt in -some quarters Huey Long was planning to revive an old racial campaign -canard against Judge Pavy. This was the allegation made in 1908 by the -then Sheriff Swords to the effect that one of the Judge’s -relatives-in-law had an ancestor of other than purely Caucasian blood. - -The old slur had long since been forgotten by most persons, since it -dated back to 1907-8. In that era, though the quadroon ball had long -since lapsed from the quasi recognition once accorded it, Northern -magazines still published muckraking articles about miscegenation in the -South. On the other hand, memories of relatively recent carpetbag evils -were so vivid that the “taint of the tarbrush” was fatal to any -political aspirant. Thus the fact that in spite of Sheriff Swords’s -allegations in a milieu of that sort, Judge Pavy was not only elected, -but re-elected for five or six consecutive terms, testifies eloquently -to the universal disbelief this imputation encountered. - -Naturally, I did not spell all this out to Dr. Pavy. I merely made a -casual reference to the general spread of all sorts of rumors about Dr. -Weiss’s motives, and asked whether he had any information on this score -other than what he had told us on the morning after the shooting. - -“I tell you again,” he replied with profound conviction, “that this was -an act of pure patriotism on Carl’s part. He was ready to lay down his -life to save his state, and perhaps this entire nation, from the sort of -dictatorship which he felt Long had imposed on Louisiana.” - -None the less, in many minds--my own, for one--the feeling that there -might be some substance to the racial motive would not down. Many -Louisianians, for example, well knew that in his weekly, _American -Progress_, Long never referred to the scion of a certain socially -prominent family as anything but “Kinky” Soandso. - -Even more recent in public memory was his insistent conjunction of -Dudley LeBlanc with Negro officers in his “Coffin Club,” the outlawed -burial-insurance society. Moreover, the knowledge that a derogatory -allegation was untrue never deterred Huey Long from trumpeting it forth -at least by innuendo on every stump during a political campaign. For -example, an office seeker opposing the candidacy of a man Long had -endorsed was in the business of installing coin-activated devices for -jukeboxes and an early type of vending machine, but Long never referred -to him in his tirades as anything but Slot Machine Soandso. - -Amid a fog of conflicting rumors and surmises, the first note of doubt -that Carl Weiss, Jr., had even tried to kill Senator Long was sounded by -the young physician’s father, in a statement he made at an inquest into -the circumstances of his son’s death. Such as it was, this probe was -conducted by District Attorney John Fred Odom, one of the leaders of the -Square Deal Movement. It developed little more than one possible -explanation of the contusion, abrasion, or cut visible on Long’s lower -lip when he reached the hospital. - -“Was Senator Long bleeding from the mouth?” District Attorney Odom asked -Dr. William A. Cook, after the latter stated that he had assisted Dr. -Vidrine in the emergency operation on the mortally wounded patient. - -“Dr. Henry McKeown, who was administering the anesthetic,” responded -Dr. Cook, “called my attention to an abrasion on Senator Long’s lower -lip. It was an abrasion or brush burn. When it was wiped with an -antiseptic, it oozed a little.” - -“Did it appear to be a fresh abrasion?” - -“Yes.” - -Attorney General Porterie, a pro-Long leader, asked Dr. Cook: - -“A man having been shot as Senator Long was, and making his way down -four winding flights of stairs, could perhaps have struck against an -angle of marble or iron?” - -“Any contusion or trauma could have caused such a bruise,” was Dr. -Cook’s reply. - -Only one new development of any potential significance was brought out -by the inquiry. Sheriff Coleman testified that he struck twice with his -fist before firing on Weiss and that “the first time I missed him and -struck someone else, but the second time I hit him and knocked him down -when Roden was grappling with him.” Conceivably, the “someone else” of -the first blow could have been Huey Long, although none of the other -eyewitnesses mention such a blow. As for the remainder of the -investigation, only one brief moment of emotional tension marked its -course. That was when the Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith, a paid organizer of -the Share-Our-Wealth movement, took the stand. He had been dropping -hints here and there indicating his entire readiness to take over the -Huey Long movement as its new leader. The moment he reached the witness -stand he burst out dramatically to the effect that “my leader whom I -worshiped has been killed. He was my hero. I respect this court, but I -do not respect the district attorney, who was one of the co-plotters of -this assassination, and I shall refuse to answer any questions put by -him.” - -Mr. Odom said he had no questions to ask, adding: “I care nothing about -him or his statements, but merely wish to state that whoever says I -plotted to kill Huey Long is a willful, malicious, and deliberate liar.” - -Neither on this occasion, eight days after the event, nor for a long -time thereafter did anyone deny, or offer to deny, that Carl Weiss had -entered the capitol armed with a pistol and had fired it at Senator -Long. Even the bitter-enders among Long’s political foes came up with -nothing more in the way of exoneration for the young physician than the -suggestion that there had been two bullets, and that the second one, a -wild shot or a ricochet from the gun of one of the bodyguards during the -furious fusillade which followed the initial shot, had inflicted the -wound that proved mortal. - -True, Carl Weiss’s father, testifying at the inquest, had expressed the -opinion that his son was “too superbly happy with his wife and child, -and too much in love with them to want to end his life after such a -murder.” But this was generally accepted as a natural expression of -paternal love and grief, and therefore not to be taken as refuting the -uncontradicted testimony of eyewitnesses and physicians. - -The inquest conducted by Coroner Tom Bird into the death of Huey Long -occupied only a few minutes. The family had refused to authorize a -necropsy, the results of which might well have confirmed or silenced -proponents of the two-bullet theory. These still emphasize the fact that -no small-caliber bullet was ever found among the projectiles picked up -from the floor of the corridor where the shooting occurred. They argue -that if a small-caliber bullet were found to be still in Huey’s body, -the wound of exit must necessarily have been made by yet another -missile. - -Huey’s corpse was viewed by a coroner’s jury at the Rabenhorst Funeral -Home, where it was being prepared to be laid out in state in the -capitol’s memorial hall for two days before the funeral. Thomas M. -Davis, now a laboratory supervisor for an oil refinery, was one member -of that five-man panel. Speaking in the living room of his modest home -in the Goodwood subdivision, he recalls that---- - -“I was an L.S.U. freshman at the time. My daddy had come to Baton Rouge -from Alabama to work as a brickmason at the Standard Oil plant. Dr. Tom -Bird, the coroner, was a friend of ours, and knew I wasn’t too well -fixed, so for as long as I was in college, he would appoint me to these -coroner’s juries because he knew the two-dollar fee I got helped me to -stay in school. - -“The day of the inquest--it was a Tuesday and raining like -everything--we met at Rabenhorst’s and were taken out in back where -Long’s body lay under a sheet. The sheet was lifted and then Dr. Tom, he -raised up the right side of the body to show us the wound in the back. -It was so small I doubt we’d have even seen it had it not been pointed -out to us. But they wouldn’t let us get too close to the body, no more -than from here to the other side of the room [indicating a distance of -approximately twelve feet]. They never did let us feel around to see -could we get out another bullet. They did show us the little old Spanish -[_sic!_] automatic that belonged to Dr. Weiss, and then Dr. Tom filled -out the report and we all signed it, and went home through the rain that -was still pouring. That afternoon Dr. Weiss was buried.” - -Long was buried two days later. Throughout the day and night, Tuesday -and Wednesday, his body lay in state as thousands upon thousands filed -slowly past the casket in an apparently endless procession to look their -last upon him. From near and far came floral offerings: elaborate -professional set pieces of broken columns, gates ajar, open schoolbooks, -and the like, with ornately gold-lettered, broad ribbons of white or -lavender silk; but there were likewise many simple wreaths of garden -blossoms, plucked by the hands of those who revered ol’ Huey as the -avatar who had been put on earth to brighten and better the lot of the -common man. Large as it was, Memorial Hall could not begin to hold the -flowers. When they were set up outdoors in the landscaped capitol park, -they occupied literally acres of the grounds. - -Beginning with daybreak on Thursday, mourners began to stream into Baton -Rouge from all sections of the state; by special train from the cities, -by chartered bus, by glossy limousine and mud-spattered farm pickup. -Looking westward from the observation gallery atop the capitol’s -thirty-one-story central section, it is possible to see for nearly seven -miles along one of the state’s principal highways. No bridge had yet -been built to span the Mississippi at this point. Consequently, as far -as the eye could see from this lofty lookout platform, a solid line of -vehicles was stalled. They moved forward only a bit at a time, as the -Port Allen ferries, doing double duty, picked up deckload after deckload -for transfer to the east bank. - -Mrs. Long had asked Seymour Weiss to make all funeral arrangements, and -because Huey, though nominally a Baptist, was not a church member and -thought little of ministers as a class, the problem of selecting an -ordained churchman to conduct the services was a sticky one. Religious -prejudice was no part of Long’s make-up. He had known Dick Leche as a -close friend for years. Yet on the last day, when casting about for a -gubernatorial candidate, he did not even know whether this close friend -was or was not a Catholic. - -Looking back on what happened, and still chagrined by the memory of his -decision to select Gerald Smith as funeral chaplain, Seymour Weiss -relates that “I didn’t know what to do. If I picked a Catholic priest, a -Protestant minister, or a rabbi, I’d offend those that weren’t -represented; even if I picked all three for a sort of joint service, -those who felt that Huey was neither a Catholic nor a Jew might resent -their inclusion, and in addition, the funeral service would be dragged -out too long with three obituary sermons to deliver. Then I happened to -recall that Gerald Smith had severed his connection with a Shreveport -church of which he had been the pastor before being employed by the -Share-Our-Wealth movement as an exhorter. - -“So I went to him and said: ‘You’re a kind of free-lance preacher -without portfolio, and that’s why I’m going to give you the biggest -honor you’ve ever had. You’re going to conduct Huey’s funeral service’ -... and that was the worst mistake I ever made in all my life.” - -Not that anything untoward occurred to mar the service. Under direction -of highway-department engineers, special crews had labored around the -clock to have the vault ready. From the great bronze doors of the -capitol the cortege was led by Castro Carrazo and his Louisiana State -University student band. With drums muffled and the tempo of their march -reduced to slow-step they played “Every Man a King,” so artfully -transposed to a minor key that what was and still is essentially a -doggerel became an impressive and moving dirge. The service that -followed was simple and dignified. - -In Baltimore, Henry L. Mencken, ever ready to sacrifice fact for the -turn of a sparkling phrase, predicted that ere long Louisianians would -dynamite Huey’s ornate casket out of its crypt and erect an equestrian -statue of Dr. Weiss over the site. The truth is that a monument to the -fallen apostle of Share-Our-Wealth has been built above the vault, and -that elders still make worshipful pilgrimages to the spot. - -Indeed, there have been those who literally canonized the memory of the -man who once proclaimed himself Kingfish. Among the personal -advertisements in the daily newspapers of South Louisiana one finds -cards of thanks to this or to that favorite saint. “Thanks to St. Rita -and St. Jude for financial aid.” “Thanks to St. Anthony for successful -journey.” “Thanks to St. Joseph for recovery of father and husband.” And -among them have appeared such cards as this: “Thanks to St. Raymond, -St. Anthony, Sen. Huey P. Long for favor granted.” The last one cited -appeared in the New Orleans _Times-Picayune_ of June 11, 1937. - -Even those who make up a younger generation to whom Huey Long’s name -already has become as impersonal as that of, let us say, Millard -Fillmore, still visit the statue, much as they would pause to look at -any other historical monument in their travels. - -Within twenty-four hours of the most elaborate funeral ever held in -Louisiana, attended by approximately 150,000 participants in the solemn -rites of lamentation, Huey’s Praetorian Guard were up in arms against -one another. Ready to yield instant obedience to their Kingfish, they -were one and all determined never to render such homage to anyone of -their own subordinate rank. - -The climax came about three o’clock one morning, when Gerald Smith not -only proclaimed himself the new head of the Share-Our-Wealth movement, -but announced the ticket which he and his followers had endorsed and -would back in the forthcoming January primary. None of the names Huey -had been considering appeared thereon. It was headed by the names of -State Senator Noe for governor and Public Service Commissioner Wade O. -Martin, Sr., for United States senator. - -Reverend Smith issued his pronouncement from the Roosevelt Hotel, but -was incautious enough to tell such people as Ray Daniell of the New York -_Times_, Allen Raymond of the New York _Herald Tribune_, and myself that -the Huey Long organization would move forward with even greater strides -as soon as it had rid itself of the Jews in it. - -The reaction was so immediate it must have shocked even him. The first -obstacle he encountered was the announcement by Earle Christenberry that -no one not specifically authorized to do so by himself as copyright -owner, could use either Share-Our-Wealth or Share-the-Wealth as party -designations, and that he proposed to turn over the only membership -rolls of that organization to Mrs. Long. - -The next came when the other Long bigwigs, realizing the ominous -implications of Smith’s bid for the scepter, submerged all their -intramural antagonisms in order to prevail on Judge Leche, as the -candidate the late Kingfish himself had tapped, to head an “official” -Long organization ticket. By way of making this ticket’s status all the -more authentic, it also carried the names of Earl Long as candidate for -lieutenant governor, Oscar Allen as nominee to serve out Huey’s -unexpired term in the Senate, and Allen Ellender as candidate for the -ensuing full six-year term, for which Huey himself would have run as -curtain raiser to his bid for the presidency. - -In addition, Russell Long, then only seventeen years old, was enlisted -as one of the speakers who would campaign on behalf of the official -ticket. This was to be his initial bid for political recognition; he was -put on the first team, campaigning right alongside his uncle and Judge -Leche. Gerald Smith, on the other hand, was relegated to obviously -subordinate rank. Realizing the hopelessness of a maverick’s lone foray -against such odds, to say nothing of his inability to secure funds from -the Share-Our-Wealth organization, he returned to the fold, and was -assigned to address rural meetings in small country churches and the -like. - -By and large the platform of the authorized Long ticket was simple: from -the stump and in circulars, over the radio and in newspaper advertising, -the anti-Long slate was branded the “Assassination Ticket.” - -Its backers were additionally handicapped by having Congressman -Cleveland Dear, an Alexandria attorney and a very inept campaigner, as -their candidate. His insistence that he headed a “Home Rule Ticket” -which proposed to return to individual communities those rights of -self-government which dictatorship had usurped, fell upon deaf ears. -Even had Dear and his fellows been skilled and adroit campaigners, their -prowess would have availed little against the hysterical determination -of the great mass of voters to express by their ballots how deeply they -disapproved of assassination--especially of the assassination of their -idolized ol’ Huey. - -There was actually a pathetic overtone to Cleveland Dear’s declaration -that the hotel conference “was attended by about 300 of as fine men as -can be found, who registered openly at the hotel desk, conducted their -conversations openly in rooms and in hallways and not behind locked -doors. There was hardly a meeting at that time where the possibility of -bloodshed was not mentioned, but I heard no discussion of it at that -hotel conference. - -“Yet the governor is going around this state preaching hatred, and -charging that the murder plot was hatched there. If he believes that, he -should have me arrested. I challenge him to have me arrested!” - -This sort of defensive jeremiad fell very flat when in country-school -assembly halls, in churches, in fraternal-lodge rooms and other small -rural meeting places, administration speakers became emotional over -basins of red dye, lifting the fluid in cupped hands and letting it -trickle back in the lamplight while declaiming: “Here it is, like the -blood Huey Long shed for you, the blood that stained the floor as it -poured from his body. Are you going to vote for those who planned this -deed and carried it into execution?” - -It soon became obvious to even the most optimistic leaders of the -self-styled Home Rule faction that something must be done to stem the -“assassination” tide. The climax was reached when Mayor Walmsley was -booed to the echo by the throng that had come to see the first bridge -ever built across the Mississippi at New Orleans formally dedicated and -opened to traffic. The official name of the structure, and so marked on -War Department maps: the Huey P. Long Bridge. The chorus of boos drowned -out every word that Mayor Walmsley uttered at the dedication, and was -maintained until he resumed his seat. - -Whether or not this incident precipitated the final effort of the Home -Rulers to escape the assassination onus in that cheerless campaign no -one can say at this late date. But a charge by Dear in his next address -before a large meeting gave birth to the bodyguard-bullet story, or at -least brought about its acceptance as factual in many circles to this -day. - -“Isn’t it true that one of Huey Long’s bodyguards is in a mental -institution this very minute?” he cried dramatically. “Is he not -muttering to himself over and over again: ‘I’ve killed my best friend! -I’ve killed my best friend! I’ve killed my best friend!’?” - -This was not true. Dear did not name the bodyguard supposedly thus -afflicted, and the newspapers thought so little of his outburst, or were -so reluctant to risk a libel suit, that they did not even include the -quotation in their accounts of the rally. But for some reason which now -escapes the memory of those who recall the incident, it was taken for -granted that the candidate had referred to Joe Messina. - -Marching steadily toward a landslide victory by a larger majority than -had ever been cast for any other Louisiana candidate for governor--even -for the Kingfish himself--Judge Leche was asked whether he knew anything -about the basis, if any, of the Dear statement; specifically, whether -Joe Messina was then or had been confined recently to a mental -institution. - -“I’d say yes to that,” he replied. “At least, he is one of the -doorkeepers at the executive mansion, and whenever I think of how crazy -I am to give up a quiet, peaceful, dignified place on the appeals bench -for a chance to live in that mansion four long years, I’d definitely -class it as a madhouse.” - -None the less, the charge--a countercharge, really--that the bullet -which ended Huey Long’s life came from the gun of one of his bodyguards -was repeated so often thereafter, and with so many elaborations, that it -was permanently embedded in the twentieth-century folklore of Louisiana. - -The Long machine, for the moment an invincible political juggernaut, -rolled on to total victory; but without Huey’s genius for organization, -for expelling undesirables and recruiting replacements, and above all -for having his absolute authority accepted by those serving under him, -it ground to a halt and collapsed within three years. - -Beyond doubt another factor in the swiftness with which a monolithic -organization of incipiently national scope crumbled into nothingness was -the realization that its treasury had disappeared. Naturally, every -effort was made to trace this hoard of dollars and documents. In -November of 1936, while the Long estate was still under probate, the -safety-deposit box which the Riggs National Bank at Washington still -held in the late Senator’s name was opened in the presence of Mrs. Long, -the deputy Register of Wills, Earle Christenberry, a bank official, and -a representative of the Internal Revenue Service. It was found empty, -stripped of the trove which Long told Seymour Weiss he had removed to -another and secret place of concealment. - -With no clue to the new depository to which the contents of this vault -had been transferred, the search for it was as prolonged as it was -bootless. Every key on the ring turned over to Mrs. Long by the Lady of -the Lake Sanitarium after her husband’s demise was examined. Only one of -them proved to have any possible relation to safety-deposit boxes. On -August 11, 1936, Earle Christenberry made a tracing or rubbing of this -key, and sent it to the Yale and Towne Company at Stamford, Connecticut. - -Four days later W. W. Herrgen of that firm replied: “The key which you -sent to me ... is for one of our No. 3401-C safety deposit locks, and a -search of our files shows that this key could be for use in a lock at -the Whitney National Bank of New Orleans.” - -The Whitney, largest and most independent bank in New Orleans at the -time, was for that very reason the last one Huey Long would have been -likely to select. In any case, its officials reported that the key in -question was not for any of the boxes in their vault. Of the money, -aggregating what may well have been several million dollars--enough to -finance an entire presidential campaign on the lavish scale to which -Huey Long was accustomed--no trace has ever been found. - -Even the sale of _My First Days in the White House_ was pitifully small -compared to what it would have been had its author lived to issue it as -a campaign document. - -Up to this day no one has been able to hazard a guess as to what was -done with this accumulation of currency. Long had always levied a -political tribute of two per cent on the salaries of all state -employees. No effort was made to conceal this. Indeed, the Kingfish -boasted that his support came from the people in small, regular -individual contributions, and not in huge individual gifts from the -swollen corporations, the money barons, and something called “the -interests.” - -From 1919 to 1946 Elmer L. Irey was chief of the Treasury Department’s -Intelligence and Enforcement Division. Among other and perhaps lesser -achievements, he had directed the investigation that finally landed Al -Capone behind bars for income-tax evasion. In a 1948 book by Irey, “as -told to William J. Slocum,” one chapter deals with the Roosevelt -administration’s efforts to secure a thorough investigation of the -income-tax returns filed (or not filed) by Huey Long, his top aides, and -even some of their subordinates. - -“We decided that the technique that had put Al Capone and his gang in -jail would be reasonably applicable to Huey Long and his gang,” the -Irey book avers in telling of the investigation that Treasury Secretary -Morgenthau ordered within three days after he took office. - -Evidence was gathered against the smaller fry first, and with former -Governor Dan Moody of Texas as counsel for the Treasury Department, one -of these lesser lights was convicted and sentenced to Atlanta in April -1935. - -By autumn more evidence had been gathered against Long himself. -According to Irey’s memoir, it “convinced Moody. ‘I will go before the -grand jury when it meets next month and ask for an indictment against -Long,’ Moody told us.... That conversation was held on September 7.” - -This was the very day on which, in the course of a round of golf, Huey -Long confided to Seymour Weiss not only that enough cash and other -campaign material was in hand to finance his presidential race, but that -all this accumulation had been removed from the safety-deposit box -he--Long--had rented under his own name in the Riggs National Bank in -Washington. - -It must not be forgotten that Long too had a highly proficient -intelligence service, and that therefore he was beyond question well -aware that the T-men were busily seeking evidence to be used against -him. He knew who their operatives in Louisiana were, where their -headquarters office in the Masonic Temple Building was, and in general, -exactly how the Irey unit functioned. He had no illusions about their -knowledge of his Riggs Bank safety-deposit box. He knew how they had -traced such depositories in other cases, and also that, in the past, -variations of “this money does not belong to me, it is merely the -political campaign (etc., etc.) fund of our association” had proved to -be no valid defense. - -Whether or not that is why he stripped the Riggs Bank box of its -contents no one can say. But it is certain that if Long had lived, and -Dan Moody had impounded the contents of this box for evidence of -unreported income, he would have made a water haul.... The T-men brought -to trial only one other of the indictments pending against Long bigwigs; -they considered it their strongest case, but the jurors found the -defendant “not guilty.” It was not until the government filed charges of -using the mails to defraud that convictions were obtained some three or -four years later. - -What it all came down to is this: the apparently impregnable political -structure created by Huey Long, and the hard-and-fast line of cleavage -that separated Long from anti-Long while the Kingfish was present to -maintain his dictatorial hold on all phases of his organization, began -to disintegrate at 4:06 A.M. of September 10, 1935. As is almost -invariably the case, the dictatorship died with the dictator. After the -Leche landslide majority of 1936 the governor-designate epitomized the -result rather ruefully by observing: - -“They didn’t vote for or against a live governor; only for or against a -dead senator.” - -Today the Long faction, what there is of it, is just another loosely -knit political coalition. The number of those who still recall the -self-anointed Kingfish of the Lodge becomes smaller with each passing -day.... In the spring of 1962 Johnny Carson, then a television -quizmaster, asked a couple of contestants on his “Who Do You Trust?” -program this question: - -“What statesman who was elected governor in 1928, was assassinated at -Baton Rouge in 1935?” - -The two contestants, who had otherwise proved themselves reasonably well -informed, simply looked blank. Neither of them could give the answer. - -Before many more years have gone by, Huey Pierce Long will be just -another vague figure out of a history text, and there will no longer be -any disputes about the architect of his assassination, the manner in -which it was carried out, or the motives that prompted it. But in the -meantime---- - - - - -12 ---- SUMMATION - - “_One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels._” - - ----WOODROW WILSON - - -The various versions of “what really happened” during the assassination -of Huey Long can be grouped into four general classes under some such -headings as the following: - - Dr. Weiss, unarmed, entered the capitol and merely struck at Long, - being gunned down at once by the bodyguards, one of whose wild shots - inflicted a mortal wound on the man they were seeking to defend. - - Dr. Weiss was armed, did fire one shot which missed its target. In the - ensuing fusillade which riddled the young physician’s body, a wild - shot inflicted on Long a wound which proved fatal. - - The small-caliber bullet from Weiss’s weapon did not pass completely - through its victim’s body, and was never found, being buried with him. - The fatal bullet, a ricochet or stray shot from the gun of a - bodyguard, was the missile that emerged from Long’s body in the back, - creasing the kidney in its passage and initiating what later proved to - be a fatal hemorrhage. - - Dr. Weiss’s small-caliber weapon fired the only shot which struck Huey - Long, passing through the right side of the abdomen, and injuring the - right kidney just before emerging at the back. It is possible that - surgery to remove this kidney, rather than the frontal laparotomy - which was performed, might have halted the fatal hemorrhage and thus - have saved Long’s life. - -Taking these up individually and in sequence, it becomes a relatively -simple matter to dispose of the first assumption. This rests on the -undeniable fact that Senator Long’s lower lip bore an abrasion on its -outer surface, and a small cut inside of his mouth; also on the -statement of one nurse who is quoted as saying she heard the patient say -in the hospital: “He hit me.” - -But there is abundant evidence to support the belief that if this bruise -was the result of a blow, it was not struck by Dr. Weiss. There is, for -one thing, the testimony of Sheriff Coleman, that he struck at Senator -Long’s assailant twice, that the first blow missed the assassin and -struck someone else, and that the second felled Weiss, who by that time -was grappling with Murphy Roden. - -There is likewise the statement of the first physician to examine the -gravely wounded man at the hospital, when Judge O’Connor voiced the -belief that Long had been shot in the mouth because of the bloody -spittle that stained his clothing. After an examination the young doctor -declared “that is just where he hit himself against something.” - -There is the unanimous testimony of Justice Fournet, Sheriff Coleman, -and Murphy Roden that the assailant later identified as Dr. Weiss did -have “a small black pistol” and did fire it, as well as the testimony of -Frampton, Justice Fournet, and Coleman that this pistol was lying a few -inches from Dr. Weiss’s lifeless hand immediately after the shooting. - -But above all, the belief that the young physician was unarmed and -merely struck Long with his fist is proved fallacious by one -circumstance: the identity of the bullet-riddled body on the floor of -the corridor where the shooting took place was not established until -long after the weapon was found, in fact, not until the coroner arrived -and examined the contents of the dead man’s wallet. - -It goes without saying that if Dr. Weiss came unarmed to the capitol, -some other person must have brought his gun there from the car where his -father testified he carried it. The argument is advanced that this was -done by a bodyguard, a highway patrolman, or an officer of the state -bureau of identification, to direct suspicion away from the “fact” that -a wild shot from one of the bodyguards was the only missile that -inflicted a mortal wound on Long. - -But this presupposes that those who could not identify a riddled body on -the marble floor of a capitol corridor were none the less able to pick -out the slain man’s automobile from among the hundreds, possibly -thousands, of cars parked on the capitol grounds and along every nearby -street, search it for a weapon, and place that weapon surreptitiously -where it was picked up by the authorities moments after the shooting. -This so far transcends even the most remote possibility, that any -version based on the assumption that Weiss, unarmed, merely struck at -Long with his fist, can be discarded out of hand. - -The second category includes all versions of the proposition that Carl -Weiss did fire one shot, but missed. There is even one account which -holds that, at the time, Long was wearing a bullet-proof vest which -Weiss’s small-caliber bullet could not penetrate. - -Everyone who knew Huey Long well, who traveled with him on his campaign -tours, stopped at the same hotels with him, and so on, can testify to -the fact that he was never known to wear a bullet-proof vest. He -surrounded himself with armed guards wherever he went; a cadre of -militiamen in full uniform, with steel helmets and side arms, -accompanied him to the washroom in what is now the building of the -National Bank of Commerce while he was conducting one of his murder-plot -probes there. But he wore no armor. - -Of my own knowledge I can testify that I have seen him in his suites at -the Roosevelt and at the Heidelberg when, after breakfast, he bathed and -dressed for the street, that I have traveled with him during his -campaigns through Louisiana and through Arkansas, that I have been with -him in his home on Audubon Boulevard, and that never, from the day I -first met him in 1919 to the day of his death in 1935, have I known him -to wear anything that remotely resembled a bullet-proof vest. - -But to make assurance doubly sure, I checked this point with Earle -Christenberry and with Seymour Weiss, his two closest friends. - -“I can’t imagine how that story got about,” Christenberry said, “but I -know exactly on what it must be based. About six months before Huey died -I got the bright idea that it would be a smart thing for him, when he -went out stumping the country in the approaching presidential campaign, -to wear a bullet-proof vest. So without saying a word to him about it, I -wrote to Elliott Wisbrod in Chicago, a manufacturer of such equipment, -and asked that a vest of this type be sent to me for the Senator’s -approval. - -“The thing was delivered in due course, and I put it on and went to his -room and showed it to him, and suggested that on occasion it might be -wise to wear it as a protection against some unpredictable attack. He -told me to send the damn thing back, adding ‘it would be ridiculous for -me to wear it. I don’t need no goddam bullet-proof vest.’ So I sent it -back and that was the end of it. - -“I have never spoken about this incident from that day to this. I didn’t -think another soul knew about it. But evidently the story must have -leaked out somewhere; from the manufacturers, I suppose. At any rate, I -was the one that wore the bullet-proof vest, one day for a few minutes. -He never did in all his life.” - -Seymour Weiss, the sartorial mentor who weaned Long away from the flashy -clothes in which he first came to public notice, put it more succinctly. - -“Huey wouldn’t have known what a bullet-proof vest looked like,” he -said. - -Other aspects of the available evidence cover not merely the category of -stories about Weiss’s bullet missing its target, being deflected by a -bullet-proof vest, etc., but the next category as well. This embraces -what is far and away the most widely believed and oft repeated version -of what took place. It holds that a bullet from the gun of a bodyguard -inflicted the mortal wound of whose effects Huey Long died, even though -Dr. Weiss’s small-caliber missile likewise struck him. - -Three points are the ones most frequently stressed by those who cling to -this theory. - -The first is that “no small-caliber bullet was ever found.” This has -been interpreted to mean that the Weiss bullet was still in Long’s body -and, no autopsy being authorized, was buried with him. There is general -agreement on one point. The fatal injury was sustained near the wound of -exit, in the region of the right kidney. It was there that a continuing -hemorrhage was the immediate cause of death. - -The argument runs that Weiss’s bullet of small caliber never having been -found, and therefore remaining in the body of the victim, the wound of -exit must have been made by some other bullet. No other bullet was fired -by anyone except the bodyguards, who discharged a wild barrage of pistol -fire which left the body of Dr. Weiss riddled with wounds, and pocked -the marble walls of the corridor with bullet scars which for years -official guides pointed out to visitors touring the capitol. The injury -near the point of exit was the only demonstrably fatal one; ergo, a -bodyguard’s bullet killed Long. - -The view that the Kingfish perished from the effects of a bullet-wound -inflicted by one of his own guards also had a certain superficial -plausibility that appealed strongly to dedicated leaders of anti-Long -factionalism and their followers. It carried with it an overtone of -Matthew’s “All-they-that-take-the-sword-shall-perish-with-the-sword” -retributive justice. Finally it was labored in season and out by the -Home Rule campaign speakers who sought to rid themselves of the -Assassination Ticket stigma by proving that Long had died at the hands -of one of his own men. - -It would be difficult to overestimate the fashion in which all this -tended to perpetuate what began as a campaign legend. For example, Elmer -Irey, whose career as postal inspector and finally chief of the Treasury -Department’s Intelligence Division spanned more than a generation, -assuredly must be accounted a professional in the realm of gathering, -sifting, and assaying evidence. Yet in his book he reports that---- - -“Weiss had a .22 calibre pistol in his hand when Long’s bodyguards mowed -him down. Long died as the result of a single bullet wound made by a .45 -calibre slug. Nobody has explained that yet.” - -To cite still another instance, I happened to meet both Isaac Don Levine -(author of, among other works, _The Mind of an Assassin_) and Dr. Alton -Ochsner at a medical gathering some years ago, not long after Dr. -Vidrine’s death. The talk turned on the events of the night when Huey -Long died. - -“Why, I always thought it was a bodyguard, not Dr. Weiss, who killed -Long!” exclaimed Levine. When I spoke of some of the contradictions to -which this view was open, Dr. Ochsner expressed amazed disbelief that -any presumably informed person could entertain the slightest doubt that -Long’s death was due to a bodyguard’s bullet or bullets. - -And yet the weight of all real evidence is wholly against this -hypothesis; so much so, in fact, that it is difficult to select a point -of approach to it. For a beginning, then, one must take into account the -“small, blue punctures” a bullet left on Huey Long’s body as the mark of -its passage. Only one photograph of Dr. Weiss’s body was ever taken. The -official photographer of the State Bureau of Identification made this -picture, which has never before been published. It shows the great -gaping wounds left on his torso by the .44- and .45-caliber bullets of -those who fired into his already lifeless body. Most of the -large-caliber cartridges also carried hollow-point bullets, which have a -mushrooming effect. (Cf. Murphy Roden’s “I saw the flesh open up,” when -he fired into Weiss’s throat as they were locked in a fierce struggle on -the corridor floor.) - -Granted that a wildly ricocheting bullet from one of these guns could -have entered into the same wound made by Dr. Weiss’s small-caliber -bullet, unlikely as this may seem, it could by no stretch of the long -arm of coincidence have made its exit as a small bluish puncture. Even -if it alone caused the wound of exit, leaving a small bullet still in -the body of its victim, the point at which it plowed its way out of -Long’s back would have been a gaping orifice and not, as Thomas Davis -graphically described it, “so small I doubt we’d have seen it had it not -been pointed out to us.” - -Another fact not to be overlooked is that the moment Dr. Rives saw the -clean dressing that had been placed over the wound and the operational -incision in the anterior wall of Long’s abdomen, he came to the -conclusion that any bullet entering at that point in the manner -described, most probably emerged in the area of the kidney, and was -likely to have damaged that organ. It was for this reason that he asked -whether any blood had been found in the patient’s urine, learning to his -astonishment that the critically wounded man had not even been -catheterized to determine the existence and extent of kidney damage. - -The visible abdominal trauma disclosed by the Vidrine operation was -small; so small that only a small-caliber bullet could have caused it. -Two holes had been left in the large bowel at the bend where it turns -horizontally across the abdomen from right to left. These holes were so -small that there was “very little soilage.” Reports that when the -abdomen was opened by Vidrine it was “a mass of blood and fecal matter” -were simply fabrications into which a minute fragment of fact was -expanded, like some of Huey Long’s murder-plot charges. - -Finally, the available evidence is conclusive in one respect: By the -time the bodyguard fusillade began, Huey Long had fled the corridor -where the shooting took place. Coleman, Frampton, and Fournet are -unanimous on that point. Roden, blinded by the searing muzzle blasts of -his comrades’ guns, could no longer see what was going on, but testifies -that the other guards waited until he had struggled to his knees from -beneath the lifeless body of Carl Weiss, before they started their -volley. O’Connor describes how the firing was still audible after Huey -had reeled down four short flights of steps and was being led out of a -ground-floor door into the porte-cochere. - -In sum, every item of credible evidence--surgical, circumstantial, and -the testimony of eyewitnesses--indicates that Huey Long could not have -been struck by a bullet from the gun of one of his bodyguards. That -leaves but one other conceivable hypothesis, namely: Huey Long died of -the effects of a bullet wound inflicted by Carl Weiss and no one else. - -Disregarding the physical circumstances, an intangible consideration -virtually compels the acceptance of this view. We have in the testimony -of all the eyewitnesses a substantial agreement on what took place. -Roden, Fournet, and Coleman saw the gun in Weiss’s hand and saw him fire -it. Frampton, Coleman, and Fournet saw and describe Long’s flight before -the crashing salvo by the other bodyguards began. - -Their stories differ in detail. Frampton says Huey gave “a sort of a -grunt” when he was shot; Justice Fournet describes it as “a hoot.” He -also says the first shot was fired by Weiss, the next three by Coleman; -Roden says the first two shots were fired by Weiss, the third by -himself, and the fourth by someone else (obviously Coleman). Coleman -says Huey was attended by Roden, McQuiston, and himself on his final -visit to the House chamber, Fournet says he was accompanied by Messina, -and Frampton reports that Messina answered the telephone in the office -of the sergeant at arms, which opens off the Speaker’s rostrum and is -entirely separate from the House chamber. - -These discrepancies are natural; only the absence of such variations -would lay the testimony of witnesses to a violent incident open to the -suspicion, nay the certainty, of collusion. Take for example the three -mutually contradictory versions of what happened when the two -principals, Roden and Weiss, locked in literally a life-and-death -grapple, fell struggling to the floor. Roden says his hard heels slipped -on the marble paving; Justice Fournet says he threw out his hands in a -gesture that overbalanced the two; Coleman says a blow of his fist -felled Weiss, who, clasped in Roden’s grip, pulled the latter down -beneath him. - -But on the main point--namely, that the two fell to the floor, and that -Weiss was not killed until after they were down--all are in complete -agreement. If it is assumed that this is a concocted story, made up to -divert suspicion from one or more of the bodyguards as having fired so -wildly that one of their bullets brought about their leader’s death, the -following must likewise be accepted as true: - -Somewhere and sometime before the first of these four witnesses told -what he saw, all of them would have had to agree on the specific -untruths they would tell. - -But at no time was there any opportunity during those initial frantic -moments for the four to have met, either to concoct and agree on a false -story or for any other purpose. Indeed, Frampton was already telephoning -his first story of what had occurred, while the others are all accounted -for elsewhere: Coleman describing to Governor Allen what he had seen, -Justice Fournet in the hospital, Roden out of action and temporarily -blinded until taken to the hospital himself by Ty Campbell. - -Furthermore, after treatment, and not having spoken to any others in the -meantime, Roden gave his statement that night to General Guerre, and -later to General Fleming. These accounts agreed in almost every detail -with one another and with the one he gave me, twenty-four years later, -in the presence of Generals Fleming and Guerre, who verified that this -statement differed in no essential respect from what he had told them at -the scene when questioned by them on the night of September 8, 1935. - -Except for one detail, it also agrees with the testimony he gave on -September 16 of that same year, at the Odom inquest. It was his belief -at first that Dr. Weiss fired but once. However, mulling the violent -images of that night over in his mind, he later came to the conclusion -that the doctor fired twice; this, incidentally, is the only conclusion -that would square with the two minor injuries he sustained on his right -hand and left wrist. - -In any case, the possibility of conspiratorial collusion among these -four in time to have agreed on a falsified account of what took place -before their eyes, would appear to be ruled out in its entirety. The -inevitable corollary of such a proposition is that the otherwise -uncontradicted testimony of these four witnesses is a factual account -of what took place. - -None the less, one cannot dismiss out of hand the possibility, however -remote, that evidence can be framed, as it has been in documented -cases--Sacco-Vanzetti, Tom Moony, Leo M. Frank; and that circumstantial -evidence, even where no single link in the chain appears weak, leads now -and then to false conclusions. But it can be said that in this instance -the overwhelming weight of available evidence indicates that Weiss’s -bullet was the cause of Huey Long’s death, and that no bullet from the -guns of one or another of his bodyguards was a contributing factor in -putting an end to his career. - -The available evidence likewise appears to indicate beyond a reasonable -doubt that the emergency operation was a contributing cause of death in -the following respect: - -Had a decision to perform a frontal laparotomy been deferred, and had in -its stead a removal of the damaged right kidney made possible the tying -off of the blood vessels supplying this organ to halt the hemorrhage -that was draining off the victim’s life blood, Huey Long might none the -less have died of peritonitis, from “soilage” into the abdominal cavity -by the two small punctures of the large bowel. - -But once the decision to operate from the front was carried into effect, -the only door to possible--by no means “certain,” but possible--recovery -was irrevocably closed. Even Dr. Vidrine realized that a second -operation to halt the kidney hemorrhage was something his patient could -not survive. - -By way of conclusion it is logical to say that on the basis of available -testimony and with due regard for the imminence of human error, the -following facts appear to be established by the overwhelming -preponderance of evidence: - -Dr. Weiss was armed when he went into the capitol building on the night -of September 8, 1935, carrying with him the small-caliber Belgian -automatic he had brought back from France and which he customarily took -with him in his car on night calls. - -According to the integrated testimony of four eyewitnesses who had no -opportunity for collusion prior to giving their accounts of what they -saw, he held the gun in one hand, concealing it with the straw hat he -held in the other, so that it was virtually impossible for him to have -struck a blow with his fist. - -Every trustworthy piece of testimony appears to make it clear that only -four shots were fired while Huey Long was on the scene: two by Weiss, -one each by Roden and Coleman; that by the time the general bodyguard -fusillade began, the Senator was already on his way down a flight of -stairs opposite the Western Union office, which is around a corner from -the site of the shooting; and that the fusillade was still in progress -while Long was being led out of the building by Judge O’Connor. - -Medical testimony is unanimous on the point that only one bullet, and -that one of small caliber, traversed Long’s abdomen, leaving small blue -punctures at the points of entry and exit; that the primarily fatal -injury was caused when, just prior to its exit, the bullet damaged the -victim’s right kidney at a point where only removal of the maimed organ -could have halted the ensuing and ultimately fatal hemorrhage. - -Granted then, if only for the sake of argument, that there no longer is -either mystery or even reasonable doubt concerning _who_ killed Huey -Long, one big, crucial question remains unanswered. It is this: - -“_Why?_” - - - - -13 ---- THE MOTIVE - - “_Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient - premises._” - - ----SAMUEL BUTLER - - -The difficulty encountered when seeking to rationalize the assassination -of Huey Long is implicit in two circumstances. The first is the total -absence of fact or testimony about the motive for it, so that -conclusions are necessarily based on surmise. - -The second is the apparently irreconcilable disparity between the known -nature of Carl Weiss, the man, and the obvious nature of his act. Why -would someone whose closest personal and professional associates -unhesitatingly declare him to have been incapable of any dark deed of -violence commit a murder by shooting down an unsuspecting victim as if -from ambush? What could conceivably account for the metamorphosis of a -mild, retiring young man, happily married and fulfilled in the birth of -a dearly beloved son, into an indomitably resolute killer, ready to -sacrifice his own life, rich with promise, in order to take the life of -another? - -In this instance the problem is not merely one of drawing sufficient -conclusions from insufficient premises. Conclusions must be drawn from -_two_ mutually contradictory sets of insufficient premises. - -Barry O’Meara, the Irish ship’s surgeon aboard the vessel that brought -Napoleon to St. Helena, volunteered to remain there with him, but was -one of the first to be deported when Sir Hudson Lowe subsequently took -over the governorship of the island. He was one of the fallen emperor’s -few confidants during the desolate days of that terminal exile. In his -memoirs of their association he quoted Napoleon as saying: - -“A man is known by his conduct to his wife, to his family, and to those -under him.” - -The members of Carl Weiss’s family are still not convinced, or at least -are still unwilling to admit, that he took Long’s life. The nurses who -were his principal subordinates, and many of whom still survive, looked -on him not merely as a physician, but as a teacher. To this day they -agree he could not have done what all available evidence conclusively -proves that he did. - -Miss Theoda Carriere, the first registered nurse called to attend -Senator Long after the shooting, now lives in a piny woods retreat near -Amite. “Dr. Weiss just wasn’t the kind of person who would do a thing -like that,” she insists. “He taught us chemistry when we were in -training, and every girl in our class looked on him as one of the -gentlest and kindest of men. None of us believe he was the one who shot -Long.” - -Admittedly, Dr. Chester A. Williams, Jr., the present coroner of East -Baton Rouge parish, cannot be regarded as a Long partisan. It was he who -pronounced Earl Long insane in 1959 while the latter was still governor, -and committed him to a mental institution. Yet he set down the following -restrained obiter dictum after transcribing and studying the microfilmed -hospital chart of Huey Long’s final hours: - -“Most of the doctors who lived in Baton Rouge and are still living do -not feel that Dr. Weiss shot Long.” - -In a strictly technical sense, only Carl Weiss himself, his lips -irrevocably sealed within seconds after he did what “his family and -those under him,” not to mention his professional associates, still -regard him as incapable of doing, could have given a conclusive solution -to this paradox. - -Since that is out of the question, the best that can now be done is to -list the various possible motives which either have been or could be -considered as impelling Dr. Weiss to sacrifice his own life in order to -put an end to that of Huey Long. From the roster thus compiled, the -obviously impossible and then the logically infirm assumptions can be -eliminated one by one, to see whether any hypothesis which might fit -such of the facts as are ascertainable will withstand searching -scrutiny. - -Four motives have been or can be imputed to Dr. Weiss in connection with -the shooting of Long. They are: - - The young physician was the executioner chosen by a group of plotters - in a cabal of which he was a member, to carry out the death sentence - there secretly decreed against an otherwise invincible political - oppressor. - - The assassination was an act of reprisal for the gerrymander which - would bring to an abrupt end the twenty-eight-year judicial career of - Yvonne Weiss’s father through a fraudulent mockery of legislative - procedure deliberately rigged to deny the parish of St. Landry the - free exercise of home rule. - - An abstract idealism inspired a quixotic young patriot to sacrifice - himself on the altar of the common weal by destroying a dictatorship - through the death of the autocrat who stood at its head. - - Haunted by anxiety born of a suspicion that, in campaigning against - Judge Pavy, Long would raise the specter of an all-but-forgotten and - long since refuted racial slur against the Pavy family, Dr. Weiss paid - with his life for the assurance that libelous words resurrecting the - false stigma would never be uttered. - -The first of these four propositions can be given short shrift. The -Senate speech in which Long sought to implicate the Roosevelt -administration, and in effect President Roosevelt himself, in a “plan of -robbery, murder, blackmail, or theft” was the latest of several -revelations charging others with plotting his murder. It happened also -to be the last one because within a month after making this charge in -the Senate, he was assassinated. - -But significant factors must not be overlooked. The first is that after -none of these spectacular accusations of murder plots was anyone ever -formally charged before any court with conspiracy to commit murder. - -The second is the undeniable fact that the so-called murder conference -in the De Soto Hotel was neither more nor less than a political caucus -of the type customarily held behind closed doors in order to facilitate -full freedom of discussion about personalities, political prospects, and -the like. - -The third is that when all the verbiage about patronage plums and job -distribution and endorsement of candidacies is sifted for substance, a -pitiably small modicum of grain is recovered from a mountain of chaff. -Here are the only specific references to the infliction of bodily harm -by those hotel conferees actually quoted by Long in his Senate speech: - -Oscar Whilden is reported as saying: “I am out to murder, bulldoze, -steal, or anything else to win this election.” An unidentified voice -said: “I would draw in a lottery to go out and kill Long. It would only -take one man, one gun, one bullet.” Another unidentified voice said: “I -haven’t the slightest doubt but that Roosevelt would pardon anyone who -killed Long.” And still another unidentified voice said: “The best way -would be to just hang around Washington and kill him in the Senate.” - -These four remarks were sandwiched in among two days of political -discussion about an approaching state campaign, the selection of -candidates, the use of federal patronage, and matters of that sort! By -way of illustration, a remark in a recent magazine article about another -Louisiana representative, Congressman Otto Passman, would offer a much -firmer foundation for a conspiracy charge along the lines followed by -Long. - -Passman has dedicated himself, in season and out, to opposing and -reducing foreign-aid appropriations, and President Kennedy is quoted as -asking at the signing ceremony of one of these bills: “What am I going -to do about Passman?” - -“Mr. President,” a bystander is reported as replying, “you’re surrounded -by a lot of well-armed Secret Service Men. Why don’t you have one of -them shoot him--by accident, of course? In fact, Mr. President, if you -promise me immunity, I’ll do it myself.” - -No one who read that statement took it in its literal sense; no one -regarded it as a serious proposal to authorize, commit, and condone the -murder of a legislator. Yet that is precisely the construction Huey Long -put on four similar remarks made at intervals during a two-day caucus in -a New Orleans hotel. - -All this would tend to cast doubts upon the complicity of Carl Weiss in -a murder conspiracy, even had he been the sort of person to whom a deed -involving assassination would normally have been possible. However, what -removes the assumption that he was the chosen executioner of a political -camarilla from serious consideration is this: - -Carl Weiss was virtually unknown outside of his immediate professional, -social, and familial circle. Not one of the leading supposed “plotters” -of the hotel conference spoke of him during that meeting, none of the -leaders who were asked about him later could recall having heard of him, -although his wife’s father and uncle were known to virtually all of -them. - -In sum, the hotel meeting of which Long sought to make great capital -was not a murder conference, and no one dreamed of bringing to book on -charges of criminal conspiracy any of those who took part in it; and -even had it been such a conspiracy, the name of Carl Weiss was not even -remotely connected with it. - -The second proposition would have it that Carl Weiss assassinated Long -in reprisal for what the latter was doing to Yvonne’s father by having -him gerrymandered out of office, and virtually out of public life. There -are those who go so far as to say that Yvonne goaded her young husband -into exacting satisfaction from the despot who was persecuting her -family, who had brought about the dismissal of her uncle Paul from a -school superintendency, and of her sister Marie from a position as -teacher, and who was now implacably going to any lengths to close her -father’s long and honorable career as judge. - -The whole idea of such a reprisal motive runs directly counter to every -fact known about the way the Weiss families passed that last Sunday: the -young couple leaving the baby with their elders while they attended -Mass, the family dinner at which the gerrymander was indeed the topic of -conversation, but in a light, rather jocular vein; the young couple -“sporting in the water” at the elders’ camp in the afternoon, while the -latter fondled their precious grandson, the domestic routine that -preceded Carl’s departure for a professional call.... - -As nearly as anything human can be certain, it is sure that neither Dr. -Weiss nor any of the Pavy clan would ever have dreamed of taking upon -their consciences the killing of a fellow being, even in the heat of -passion, over such a matter as the loss of a public office, a -development they had discussed almost jocularly only a few hours before. - -Only two theoretical assumptions thus remain as to the motive of Dr. -Weiss in committing a violent act contrary to all that was known of his -nature. One is the idea advanced by Yvonne’s uncle, Dr. Pavy, that this -was “an act of pure patriotism.” In 1935, when Dr. Pavy served as -spokesman for the Weiss family, he felt that his niece’s husband was -deeply troubled by “the suppressive type of government” that had been -imposed on Louisiana; that he brooded over this until “his mind -unhinged,” and he determined to put an end to the dictatorship even at -the cost of his life. - -Supporting this view are certain plausible factors. Carl Weiss was -indeed an idealist of the type who might voluntarily have sacrificed his -life in the furtherance of any noble cause, such as the liberation of -his community from the thralldom imposed upon it by a ruthless -authoritarian. Negating this view, however, is the fact that he took no -active part in politics, though at that time Baton Rouge, his home, was -the focal point of fiercely contested Long and anti-Long rivalry. - -It is simply not conceivable, in the general sense of that word, that -anyone so deeply and earnestly concerned with “pure patriotism” should -not have been known to a single member of the press gallery at the -capitol, to a single member of the State Bureau of Identification, to so -well known a leader of the anti-Long movement in Baton Rouge as Dr. Tom -Bird--a fellow physician--and above all, to Huey Long himself, a man -whose memory for names and faces was truly phenomenal. - -While Carl Weiss could well have been a crusader for any idealistic -cause, it is difficult to accept unreservedly the proposition that one -who had so very much to live for, whose happiness was so nearly -complete, the best and most rewarding years of whose life still lay in -the future, would give up all this and burden his conscience with two -mortal sins--murder and what was tantamount to self-destruction--for an -abstract concept of the general good. - -It would seem almost self-evident that no man would voluntarily make -such a sacrifice except in seeking to protect from harm those whom he -held dear. - -And there must have been some such motive in the haunting suspicion -that, while campaigning against Judge Pavy, Huey Long would revive that -long-buried, long-refuted tarbrush bugaboo which had been brought up -unsuccessfully as involving one of Judge Pavy’s relatives-in-law thirty -years before. - -In view of Long’s past obsession with racial issues of this sort, Carl -Weiss had good grounds for apprehension on that score. In past campaigns -and polemics Long had never hesitated to use such innuendos, as when he -referred to a prominent Orleanian as “Kinky” Soandso in issue after -issue of his weekly newspaper, _The American Progress_. Nor had he -hesitated to make direct attacks on this front, as in his campaigns -against Dudley LeBlanc in the matter of the latter’s Negro fellow -officers of his burial-insurance society. - -In his fancy the young physician could readily imagine Long’s insistence -that “this isn’t what I’m saying; I’m not even a-saying it’s so. All I’m -telling you is this is what Sheriff Swords said time after time....” - -If Long, true to form, had made up his mind to drag this rejected canard -back into the open, there was one sure way in which Dr. Weiss could keep -him from his purpose and prevent a single syllable of that baseless and -forgotten slander from being uttered. True, he could accomplish this -only at the cost of his life. Surrounded as the Kingfish was by heavily -armed guards, anyone who attacked him, even though he cut him down with -the first shot, was sure to die himself, in the next instant, under a -rain of bullets. Carl Weiss “just wasn’t the sort of person that would -ever do a thing like that,” for any ordinary motive. But to shield the -wife he adored and the infant son he idolized from a slander, groundless -though it be, that would impute to them by innuendo a remote trace of -Negro blood, he could--and in the opinion of many he did--lay down his -life. - -In that case, the real tragedy inherent in his act was not the sacrifice -of his own future, so rich with promise, nor even the extinction of Huey -Long, one of the most notable, challenging, and controversial figures in -the public life of his era. Unschooled in the labyrinthine windings and -turnings of politics in general and more particularly the ins and outs -of Louisiana’s politics during that hectic era, Dr. Weiss had no -intimation of the fact that nothing could have been farther from Huey -Long’s plans than raising any racial issue at this time. - -He did not know that Long was preparing to challenge Franklin -Roosevelt’s bid for re-election by running against him for the -presidency; that he was no longer campaigning merely in the Deep South -where Negroes, disfranchised ever since the final rout of carpetbaggery -in the 1870s, were kept from the polls first by force, then by the -Grandfather Clause, and after that by the Understanding Clause, but -above all by the one-party device of settling campaigns not at a general -election but in a Democratic (i.e., white) primary. - -Running for office as the nominee of what in all likelihood would have -been a new coalition party--the Share-Our-Wealthers?--Louisiana’s -Kingfish would need all the minority-group votes he could attract to his -standard. Primarily this meant the heavy Negro vote of Harlem in New -York, Chicago’s black-and-tan belt, and other such concentrations in -Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, and so on. - -Looking forward, planning far ahead, he had already begun to rid himself -of the “racist” label customarily applied to every far-Southern -politician. As an initial step he abolished the poll tax in Louisiana, -issuing poll certificates free to all applicants, regardless of color, -provided they could meet the age and residential requirements. - -True, this was quite meaningless insofar as enfranchising the Louisiana -Negroes went. The law provided that no one would be permitted to -register or to vote unless he could show poll-tax receipts (or later, -free poll certificates) for each of the two years directly preceding any -given election. Its intent was primarily to keep floaters from being -brought into the state from Mississippi or other adjacent areas, on -election day. But this was by no means the only prerequisite for voting. -One must also be registered, each parish registrar being the sole -arbiter as to whether the applicant had correctly interpreted a section -of the state or federal constitutions. - -In theory the Democratic Party was a private organization, like the -Fifth Ward Athletic Guild, and could thus choose its members at -pleasure, excluding whom it wished not to admit. Coupled with this was -an unwritten agreement to settle political differences not between -parties, but between factions of the Democratic Party, with all hands -pledged to support the Democratic nominee in the ensuing general -election, even if that nominee “happens to be a yellow dog!” - -Abolition of the poll tax did nothing to alter this situation, which -obtained until the Supreme Court invalidated it, many years after Long’s -death. None the less, Negroes queued up by the thousands and treasured -the essentially worthless but to them invaluable slips of paper -officially issued to them. - -The next step was Huey’s Share-Our-Wealth promise that this movement -would recognize no racial bars of any sort, that the division of shared -wealth would include black as well as white on equal terms. “Five -thousand a year and a span of mules,” the poor and underprivileged of -both races told one another ecstatically. “With what I’m making now and -the five thousand Huey Long’s going to give us, we’ll be in high cotton -for true!” - -The final step would have been some sort of a second Emancipation -Proclamation, issued as a campaign document to a mammoth 1936 -Share-Our-Wealth convention to be held in Detroit, or possibly St. -Louis. The unmistakable augury of this was Huey Long’s published apology -during the summer of 1935 for having used the word _nigger_ in the -course of a national network broadcast. A “race” tabloid, referring to -the word he had used as “the epithet n----r,” sent a reporter to him in -his suite at the New Yorker Hotel, and published the ensuing interview -under a two-column headline on its front page. In his statement Long -made it plain his use of “the epithet n----r” was a slip of the tongue, -and was not meant to be derogatory in a racial sense; also that he would -exercise due care not to use the epithet again in either public or -private speech. - -It is all but impossible to convey to non-Southerners how radical a -departure from the _mores_ of Winn parish in central Louisiana was this -sort of retraction. Efforts were made to use the interview as an -anti-Long campaign document. Facsimiles of the front page of the Negro -tabloid were printed by some of the rural weeklies, but it didn’t work. -The Negro Share-Our-Wealthers throughout the land rejoiced. The whites -in the organization shrugged it aside as fabricated anti-Long propaganda -inspired by “the interests” or passed it off with: “As long as I get my -five thousand a year, what difference does it make who else gets it -too?” - -It should not be overlooked that in the case of Judge Pavy, Long needed -no resort to ancient libels to accomplish his longtime opponent’s -defeat. The gerrymander would make it impossible for Ben Pavy to be -re-elected. Long would take the stump against him, of course, in order -to claim the foreordained victory as another personal triumph; but once -St. Landry parish was put into the same judicial district with Acadia, -Lafayette, and Vermillion parishes, even the slightest possibility of a -Pavy election was precluded. Huey Long would no more have gone to -needless lengths to win an already certain victory at the risk of -alienating any large section of the prospective Negro presidential vote -than he would have belabored a dying horse at an S.P.C.A. picnic in an -effort to make the animal run. - -Taking all the foregoing into account, it would seem clearly impossible -to accept either the hypothesis that Carl Weiss, Jr., was the chosen -instrument of a political murder cabal to whose membership he was almost -wholly unknown, or the proposition that his was a nature sufficiently -ruthless to take the life of a fellow being in reprisal for the loss of -a long-held political office by his wife’s father. - -As concerns the idea that Dr. Weiss was motivated by the “pure -patriotism” ascribed to him by his wife’s uncle, Dr. Pavy, there can be -little doubt that this was possible. But it is also not to be doubted -that there is a basis beyond parental affection for the elder Dr. -Weiss’s statement at the inquest into his son’s death that “my son was -too superbly happy with his wife and child, too much in love with them -to want to end his life after such a murder.” - -On the other hand, no such contradiction is an integral part of the -hypothesis that he made this sacrifice to shield his wife and his son -from exposure to groundless odium. This would appear to be the only -assumption in full accord with all the known circumstances, even though -Dr. Weiss’s belief that Huey Long would exhume a long-buried slander -reflecting on his loved ones was tragically erroneous. - -On the basis of the situation as he saw and understood it, the only way -to safeguard them was to silence Long before he could utter the libel. -If the only price at which this assurance could be purchased was the -forfeit of his own life, the compulsive paternal urge to protect his -beloved baby son might well be strong enough to overcome every -inhibition that was normally part of his character and background. He -took no one into his confidence, realizing that anyone to whom he -confided would inevitably thwart his plan. Thus we may picture him -leaving to his family the happy memory of an afternoon of carefree -affection, and departing alone to weigh in solitude one factor of the -situation against another, as he understood them. - -Should he thereupon have decided that “this man will never slander my -son as he has slandered others in the past if I can silence him,” we can -only surmise that it was with this thought in mind that he entered the -marble-walled corridor where he died to make certain that some words -Huey Long never intended to utter would remain unsaid. - - - - -EPILOGUE - - “_Finality is not the language of politics._” - - ----DISRAELI - - -To the Huey Long murder case the preceding chapters offer a solution -which fits every determinate fact of what took place in Baton Rouge on -September 8, 1935, everything pertinent that led up to the climactic -moment of violence, and what followed. Yet it goes without saying that -many will reject this rationalization of available evidence. The -arguments will go on and on. - -We are prone to cherish certain myths. As though in wish-fulfillment we -still tell our children Parson Weems’s absurd fable of the boy -Washington, the cherry tree, and “I did it with my little hatchet.” -Similarly, the myth of the bodyguard’s bullet, product of a compulsive -necessity for political escape from the onus of assassination, will -retain adherents and win fresh believers, despite the obvious fact that -wherever else the truth may lie, the bodyguard-bullet hypothesis is -false. - -Paradox remains a continuing footnote to Huey Long’s career. Surrounded -by fanatically loyal bodyguards, he was none the less done to death by a -shy, retiring young stranger in whom neither he nor his myrmidons -recognized any trace of menace. His injuries were critical and might in -any case have proved fatal; but it was a decision on the part of the -same Arthur Vidrine whom Huey Long had elevated to high command which -sealed the Kingfish’s doom. True, the alternative Dr. Vidrine chose was -one many another physician, confronted by the same circumstances, might -have selected inasmuch as mere delay in taking action could have proved -fatal. - -On the other hand, it is not to be disputed that Dr. Vidrine’s decision -to operate by a frontal incision made it impossible for him or any one -else thereafter to save Huey Long’s life. In consequence, he fell under -the ban of the Long faction’s permanent and extreme displeasure. As soon -as he took office in 1936, Governor Leche appointed Dr. George Bel to -the superintendency of Charity Hospital, thus automatically displacing -Vidrine from that position. Within the year, Dr. James Monroe Smith, -president of the State University, speaking for its Board of -Supervisors, notified him that Dr. Rigney D’Aunoy had been made acting -dean of the medical school but that he--Dr. Vidrine--might retain a -place on the faculty as professor of gynecology. - -Rather than accept such a demotion he resigned in August of 1937. -Returning to Ville Platte, he founded a private hospital there, and -maintained it until his retirement in ill health from active practice in -1950. Five years later he died. - -Death also thwarted Long’s design to place the Pavy gerrymander at the -head of what became his last demonstration of dictatorship as the -legislature’s Act Number One. It became Act Number Three, since the -first two were concurrent resolutions, one expressing the grief of House -and Senate over the leader’s untimely end, the other creating a -committee to select a burial place on the capitol grounds for what -remained of his physical presence among them. - - * * * * * - -As for the gerrymander, it never really took effect, though it -automatically became law twenty days after the legislature adjourned. To -be sure, it did provide for an additional judge in a newly enlarged -judicial district, he to be chosen some fourteen months later at the -time of the Congressional election of November 1936. - -But a new legislature, meeting in May 1936, adopted another statute, -superseding this law and reshuffling Louisiana’s judicial districts once -more to add a new one--the twenty-seventh--consisting of St. Landry -parish alone. This act, a constitutional amendment, would not become -operative until ratified by popular vote at the November elections. That -obviously made it impossible to elect a judge at the same time, so the -new bill provided that within thirty days after its ratification, the -governor should _appoint_ a judge for the new district, his term not to -end until that of the judges _elected_ in 1936 should have run its -course. In other words, the appointee would serve for six years. - -Needless to say, the appointee was not Benjamin Pavy. - - * * * * * - -Another facet of the Long paradox is presented by the saint-or-sinner -image which his contemporaries and their successors yet seek to -preserve. Until the Kingfish’s name has lost all popular significance, -debates will be waged over the issue of whether the man was an -uninhibited genius, or merely a conscienceless opportunist endowed with -exceptional mental agility. On this point the testimony of one of the -three brothers Huey so heartily disliked might well shed some light. - -Some days after the fallen leader’s funeral, and while the legislature -was still in session, a number of the Long satraps were gathered in -Governor Allen’s office, lamenting the confusion into which a virtually -leaderless assembly (in the sense of having too many leaders) had -fallen. - -The leitmotiv of the parley held that things weren’t like that in the -good old days when the Kingfish was around to issue orders and see to it -that they were carried out. The conversation finally veered to what a -remarkable thing it was for a little bit of an old town like Winnfield -to have produced a superman like ol’ Huey, especially when you realized -it had never given to the world anyone else of comparable stature. - -Earl Long, himself one of the thus disprized other products of -Winnfield, listened in morose silence for a time to these observations. -Finally he got up, moved to the door, paused, and said: - -“You folks are right, of course. Huey was the only smart one from -Winnfield. No manner of doubt about it.” He scratched his chin -meditatively and then added: “But I’m still here!” - - * * * * * - -On the other hand, those who casually dismiss Long as a conscienceless -political gangster overlook the number of respects in which he was far, -far ahead of his time. It is only since the mid-century’s turn, for -example, that clamor has become general to provide special advanced -training for school children with well-above-normal mentality. Long -proposed a program of this sort for Louisiana State University in his -last broadcast, delivered two nights before he was shot. One of his last -rational statements, expressed only moments before he lapsed into the -drugged stupor from which he never really returned to consciousness, was -a lament that he would be unable to carry out this project. - -He enormously increased Louisiana’s public debt with what proved to be a -remarkably sound system of funding dedicated revenues into bonds, in -order to give the state a highway network geared to the impending -expansion of motorized traffic. In the 1960s the federal government -followed the same line by laying out and constructing a vast system of -interstate super-highways. - -Almost without formal education himself--he never finished high -school--he was like one possessed in his determination to put schooling -within the reach of all by providing free textbooks, free -transportation, free lunches, and the like. The medical school he -founded at Louisiana State University, as though merely to spite Tulane -for not conferring upon him at least one honorary degree, has won a -recognized place as a great center of research and instruction; it fills -what admittedly became a genuine need ... and while today’s income and -inheritance levies do not set arbitrary limits like those proposed by -Long in the early 1930s, the underlying principle of decentralization of -wealth by heavy upper-bracket taxes is basically what he advocated. - -None of this mitigates the heritage of corruption in public life that he -bequeathed to Louisiana, or his ruthlessness, vindictiveness, and other -reprehensible qualities. But he was very far from being merely another -gangster. - - * * * * * - -The fact that the sons of both men whose lives ended so abruptly in -September 1935 followed brilliantly in their fathers’ footsteps may well -be part of this same pattern of paradox. - -Russell Long, only sixteen at the time of his father’s death, enlisted -in the Navy as a seaman during World War II, serving with distinction in -the invasions of Africa, Sicily, and Italy (at Anzio), and advancing -through promotion until he was a lieutenant at the time of his -demobilization in 1945. In the election of January 1948 he supported the -successful gubernatorial race of his uncle, Earl K. Long. In September -of that same year, when Senator John H. Overton died with two years of -his term yet to run, Governor Long supported his nephew for election to -the vacancy. - -He barely won by the slimmest sort of majority. The city of New Orleans -cast a majority of twenty-five thousand votes against him. But he -received much more ponderable support when he ran for the full Senate -term two years later, and a more impressive vote still when he was -re-elected in 1956. Finally, he was swept back into office in 1962 by a -veritable landslide, receiving some 84 per cent of the votes cast. - -In part this was a response to his generally independent stand on both -local and national issues. In 1952, for example, he supported one of his -father’s uncompromising opponents, T. Hale Boggs, for governor against -the candidate backed by his uncle Earl, then nearing the end of his -first term as governor. But four years later he vigorously supported -Earl against Mayor deLesseps Morrison of New Orleans when the latter -made the first of two unsuccessful races for the governorship. - -Beyond doubt, at least part of Russell’s steadily growing strength was -also due to the unmistakable fashion in which he proved himself an -exceptionally able member of the Senate, being one of the first ranking -figures in United States officialdom to recognize in Castro’s rise to -power a sinister portent, and to advocate immediate revision by this -country of the sugar quota to counter the _Fidelista_ drive toward -Communist affiliation. - -Following his sweeping victory in the late summer of 1962, he issued a -modest victory statement in which he said in part: - -“The most striking feature of my [re-election] was the majority recorded -for me in New Orleans. In some of the wards where I had been defeated by -a margin of seven to one fourteen years ago I was given a majority of as -much as six to one. This could never have happened without a lot of -people casting their first vote for a man who bears my family name.... I -shall always appreciate those tolerant and generous persons who have -seen fit to endorse me as the first member of my family to enjoy their -support.” - -Dr. Carl Austin Weiss III, who was but three months old at the time of -his father’s death, was taken to New York by his mother when she left -Louisiana to make her home in the East. He was graduated from Columbia -in 1958, and set out to make general surgery his field of medical -practice. He was a full-time resident at St. Vincent’s hospital for two -years, but in July 1961 decided to specialize in orthopedic surgery, and -entered the same hospital--Bellevue--where his father had been chief of -clinic thirty years before. - -He was married in 1961, and early in 1962 was called to active military -service, being assigned as an air-force surgeon with the rank of captain -to duty at Barksdale Field. This base is in Bossier parish, Louisiana, -directly across the Red River from Shreveport, the city where Huey Long -was married and where Russell Long was born. Thus the son of Carl Weiss -was practicing medicine in Louisiana at the time the son of Huey Long -won an overwhelming victory there in a campaign for the Senate seat -formerly held by his father. - - * * * * * - -Long’s presidential aspirations left his friend and secretary, Earle -Christenberry an embarrassing $28,000 debt to pay. - -“It is my firm belief now, and was my belief then,” Christenberry -asserts, “that Huey would not have been a candidate for president -himself prior to 1940. He told me in 1935 that he intended to stump the -country, sounding out sentiment before deciding whom he would support -_against_ Roosevelt. - -“To that end he had me purchase from Graybar one sound truck which was -the last word in mobile loud-speaker installations. It came in a day or -two before his death, and I sweated it out for many a month, raising -some $28,000 to pay for it. Graybar looked to me for payment because I -had placed the order. My recollection is that the money was not -forthcoming until late in the Leche campaign, for I would not let them -use the truck until it was paid for.” - - * * * * * - -In retrospect, two predictions about Huey Long hold a certain interest. -One, by Elmer Irey, is merely academic, since it deals with what -_would_ have happened. In closing his chapter on “The Gentleman from -Louisiana” Mr. Irey notes that to him the “important thing about the -Huey Long gang’s downfall” is the following: - -“I hope this story will destroy for all time one of the blackest libels -ever made against the American system of democracy. This libel states -that had not Dr. Weiss (or somebody) assassinated Huey Long, our country -might well have been taken over by the Kingfish as dictator. The -inference is clear. Our country was no match for Huey’s genius and -ruthlessness. - -“I would suggest that the bullet that killed Huey ... merely saved Huey -from going to jail.... Huey had broken the law and was to be indicted -for it when he was killed.” - -When evaluating this forecast, the first thought that comes to mind is a -matter of record: within a month of Long’s death one of his top-echelon -supporters was brought to trial on a tax-evasion indictment. Mr. Irey’s -organization had selected this particular indictment because it was -regarded as the government’s strongest case against any Long -administration official. At the trial’s close the jury verdict was “not -guilty”! - -In the light of past experience the conjecture that Long would in time -have gained the presidency is not one casually to be shrugged aside. Had -he ever attained “My First Days in the White House,” subjection of the -large cities (not the rural areas) would have been his primary -objective. Just as New Orleans was the last foothold of the -carpetbaggers in the 1870s, Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, -Chicago, and others might have learned what it is like to live under the -rule of force from without. - - * * * * * - -The other prediction referred to above was made by Mason Spencer in the -course of a bitter address on the floor of the House of Representatives -in April 1935. Spencer withdrew from public office at the close of this -legislative term, as did also Dr. Octave Pavy. Both died of heart -attacks within weeks of one another in the summer of 1962. But whereas -Spencer forsook politics almost altogether, Dr. Pavy retained a very -active quasi-Warwickian interest in parochial campaigns. - -He retired from forty years of the practice of medicine at an advanced -age, and moved from his home at Leonville on Bayou Teche to Opelousas. -But his popularity along the bayou-side, where by that time he had -delivered more than fifty-eight hundred babies, was so widespread that -patients demanded he continue to treat them, so that he had to establish -a small office. From this GHQ he successfully brought about the defeat -of an opposition sheriff, winning a scandalously large sum of money in -bets on the outcome of the election. He converted most of his winnings -into currency, packed them into an ordinary water-bucket, and carrying -this, he marched triumphantly around and around the Opelousas courthouse -square, shouting his exultation to the four winds. - -He had been among the first to cheer Mason Spencer’s closing remarks in -April 1935 at a special session during which the Kingfish brought about -the enactment of a bill which to all intents and purposes gave him the -sole right to appoint every commissioner and other polling-booth -official in every voting precinct for every election throughout -Louisiana. - -“I am not one of those who cries ‘Hail, Caesar!’” Spencer said in slow -and measured tones, “nor have I cried ‘Jail Caesar!’ But this ugly bill -disfranchises the white people of Louisiana.... I can see blood on the -marble floor of this capitol, for if you ride this thing through, it -will travel with the white horse of death. In the pitiful story of Esau -the Bible teaches us it is possible for a man to sell his own -birthright. But the gravestones on a thousand battlefields teach you -that you cannot sell the birthright of another white man!” - -Within five months there was blood on the marble floor of the capitol. - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - - The source document uses the word capitol both for capitol and for - capital; this usage has been retained. Inconsistent spelling and - grammar have not been standardised. - - - Changes made - - Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been - corrected silently. - - The text underneath Figs. 10 and 11 has been transcribed from the - illustration, not from the actual text. - - Page 70: George Washington (vessel’s name) has been changed to _George - Washington_ (cf. _American Farmer_). - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Huey Long Murder Case, by Hermann B. Deutsch - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUEY LONG MURDER CASE *** - -***** This file should be named 62864-0.txt or 62864-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/8/6/62864/ - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Harry Lamé and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/62864-0.zip b/old/62864-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9e6562d..0000000 --- a/old/62864-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h.zip b/old/62864-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 191936b..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/62864-h.htm b/old/62864-h/62864-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 9788357..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/62864-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7424 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Huey Long Murder Case, by Hermann B. Deutsch. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - - a - {text-decoration: none;} - a:hover - {text-decoration: underline;} - body - {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; max-width: 65em;} - .bordered - {padding: 0; border: solid thin;} - .caption - {text-indent: 0;} - .center - {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} - .centerblock - {text-align: center; margin: 0 auto;} - .centerblock p - {display: inline-block; text-indent: 0;} - .container60 - {width: 60%; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0;} - @media handheld {.container60 {width: 100%;}} - .container80 - {width: 80%; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0;} - @media handheld {.container80 {width: 100%;}} - .figcenter - {margin: 1.5em auto; text-align: center;} - .fsize110 - {font-size: 1.1em;} - .fsize150 - {font-size: 1.5em;} - .generalclasses - {margin: 0 0 .75em 1em;} - h1, - h2 - {text-align: center; clear: both; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; page-break-after: avoid;} - h1 - {text-align: left; line-height: 1.5em; font-size: 2em;} - h2 - {font-size: 1.2em; text-align: left;} - .hospitalform - {margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em;} - .hospitalform p - {margin-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} - hr - {width: 34%; margin: 2em 33%; color: black; clear: none;} - hr.chap - {width: 26%; margin: 3em 37%; page-break-after: avoid; clear: both;} - .illotext - {margin: 0 auto; padding: .25em; text-align: center; border: dotted thin gray; font-size: .9em;} - .tnbot .illotext - {padding: 0 .25em;} - img - {max-width: 100%;} - .motives - {margin: 0 0 .75em 1em;} - p - {margin-top: 0; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0; text-indent: 1em;} - p.blankafter75 - {margin-bottom: .75em;} - p.blankafter5 - {margin-bottom: 5em;} - p.blankbefore75 - {margin-top: .75em;} - p.blankbefore1 - {margin-top: 1em;} - p.blankbefore4 - {margin-top: 4em;} - p.blankbefore5 - {margin-top: 5em;} - p.blankbefore10 - {margin-top: 10em;} - p.center - {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} - p.chapstart - {text-indent: 0;} - p.highline1 - {line-height: 1.1em;} - p.highline3 - {line-height: 3em;} - p.highline10 - {line-height: 10em;} - p.highline15 - {line-height: 1.5em;} - p.noindent - {text-indent: 0;} - .padl5 - {padding-left: 2.5em;} - .padr1 - {padding-right: .5em;} - .padr2 - {padding-right: 1em;} - .pagenum - {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: .75em; text-align: right; color: gray; text-decoration: none; - font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-indent: 0;} - @media handheld {.pagenum {display: none;}} - .pagewidth - {width: 30em; max-width: 100%; margin: 2em auto; text-align: center; padding: 0;} - .right - {text-align: right;} - .righttext - {float: right; padding-left: 1em; display: inline-block;} - @media handheld {.righttext {float: right; display: block;}} - .scr - {display: block;} - @media handheld {.scr {display: none;}} - .smcap - {font-variant: small-caps;} - .smcapall - {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps; white-space: nowrap;} - .startquote - {margin-left: 50%; margin-bottom: 2em; border-bottom: solid medium;} - .startquote p.quote - {text-align: justify; text-indent: 0; line-height: 1.5em;} - .startquote p.quotee - {text-align: justify; text-indent: 0; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: 2em; font-size: .8em;} - .startquote p.quotee.right - {text-align: right;} - sub - {font-size: .6em; vertical-align: -10%;} - sup - {font-size: .6em; vertical-align: top;} - table - {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; border-collapse: collapse;} - table.toc - {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} - table.toc td.chapname - {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; padding-right: 2em;} - table.toc td.chapno - {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 2em;} - table.toc td.page - {text-align: right; padding-left: 1em; vertical-align: bottom;} - .titlepage - {margin: 0 auto; padding: 10em 4em; border: solid medium;} - .tnbot - {border: dashed thin; margin: 1em 10%; padding: .5em;} - .tnbot h2 - {font-size: 1em;} - .tnbot p - {text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 1em;} - .tnbox - {border: dashed thin; margin: 1em 20%; padding: 1em;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -Project Gutenberg's The Huey Long Murder Case, by Hermann B. Deutsch - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Huey Long Murder Case - -Author: Hermann B. Deutsch - -Release Date: August 6, 2020 [EBook #62864] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUEY LONG MURDER CASE *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Harry Lamé and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="tnbox"> - -<p class="noindent">Please see the <a href="#TN">Transcriber’s Notes</a> at the end of this text.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">The cover image has been created for this e-text and is on the public domain.</p> - -</div><!--tnbox--> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="scr"> - -<div class="container60"> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover image" /> -</div> - -</div><!--container--> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -</div><!--scr--> - -<div class="pagewidth"> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>The Huey Long<br /> -<span style="padding-left: 5em;">Murder Case</span></h1> - -<p class="right blankbefore4 fsize150">by Hermann B. Deutsch</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore10">Doubleday & Company, Inc.<br /> -Garden City, New York, 1963</p> - -</div><!--titlepage--> - -</div><!--pagewidth--> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="centerblock"> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore5 blankafter5">Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 62-15869<br /> -Copyright © 1963 by Hermann B. Deutsch<br /> -All Rights Reserved<br /> -Printed in the United States of America<br /> -First Edition</p> - -</div><!--centerblock--> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center fsize110 highline1 blankbefore5 blankafter5">In Boundless Affection, This Modest Volume<br /> -Is Dedicated to<br /> -<i>THE LYING NEWSPAPERS</i><br /> -A Generic Term Applied by Huey P. Long to<br /> -<i>The Free Press of a Free Republic</i>.<br /> -Especially is it dedicated to any and all who<br /> -during almost half a century have been<br /> -My Fellow Workers<br /> -As Typified by<br /> -John F. Tims and Ralph Nicholson<br /> -And Most Specially Is It Dedicated to the Memory of<br /> -Richard Finnegan and Marshall Ballard.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<h2 class="center"><span class="smcap">Contents</span></h2> - -<table class="toc" summary="ToC"> - -<tr> -<td> </td> -<td class="chapname">Foreword</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Pageix">ix</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  1:</td> -<td class="chapname">Prelude to an Inquest</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page1">1</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  2:</td> -<td class="chapname">Profile of a Kingfish</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page13">13</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  3:</td> -<td class="chapname">August 8, 1935: Washington</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page29">29</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  4:</td> -<td class="chapname">August 30 to September 2</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page39">39</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  5:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 3 to September 7</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page53">53</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  6:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 8: Morning</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page69">69</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  7:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 8: Afternoon</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page75">75</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  8:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 8: Nightfall</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page81">81</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter  9:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 8: 9:30 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span></td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page91">91</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter 10:</td> -<td class="chapname">September 8-9: Midnight</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page103">103</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter 11:</td> -<td class="chapname">The Aftermath</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page127">127</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter 12:</td> -<td class="chapname">Summation</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page145">145</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="chapno">Chapter 13:</td> -<td class="chapname">The Motive</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page157">157</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td> </td> -<td class="chapname">Epilogue</td> -<td class="page"><a href="#Page171">171</a></td> -</tr> - -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Pageix">[ix]</span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Foreword</span></h2> - -<p class="noindent">Until I undertook to gather all available evidence for what I -hoped to make a definitive inquiry into the circumstances of -Huey Long’s assassination, I had no idea of how many gaps -there were in my knowledge of what took place. Yet except -for the actual shooting, which fewer than a dozen persons -were present to see, and for what then took place in the -operating room of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium, most -of what had any bearing on the circumstances took place before -my eyes.</p> - -<p>Consequently I am so deeply indebted to so many who -were good enough to fill those gaps with eyewitness reports, -that no words of mine could begin to settle the score. Chief -among those whose claims on my gratitude I can never wholly -acquit are Dr. Cecil A. Lorio of Baton Rouge, one of the -only two surviving physicians who played any part in the pre-operative, -operative, and post-operative treatment of the dying -Senator; Dr. Chester Williams, the present coroner of East -Baton Rouge parish, who made it possible for me to see, -study and understand the microfilmed hospital chart sketchily -covering the thirty hours that elapsed between the time of the -shooting and its fatal termination; Col. Murphy J. Roden, -retired head of the Louisiana State police, who was the only -person to grapple with Dr. Weiss; my friend and for many -years colleague, Charles E. Frampton; Sheriff Elliott Coleman -of Tensas parish; Chief Justice John B. Fournet of the -Supreme Court of Louisiana; and Juvenile Court Judge -James O’Connor, who carried the stricken Kingfish to the hospital -after the shooting.</p> - -<p>No less am I under obligations to Earle J. Christenberry,<span class="pagenum" id="Pagex">[x]</span> -Seymour Weiss, and Richard W. Leche, to whom I owe so -much of the information on background elements that alone -make intelligible some of the otherwise enigmatic phases of -what actually occupied no more than a fractional moment of -crisis.</p> - -<p>My thanks are likewise tendered to Captain Theophile -Landry, formerly an officer of the state police; to General -Louis Guerre who was that organization’s first commandant; -to Adjutant-General Raymond Fleming of Louisiana; to -Charles L. Bennett, managing Editor of the Oklahoma City -<i>Times</i>; and particularly to Dr. James D. Rives and Dr. Frank -Loria of New Orleans.</p> - -<p>To my one time professional competitor but always close -friend, Congressman F. Edw. Hebert, I tender this inadequate -word of appreciation for the assistance so freely rendered -by him in gathering material. To another friend and colleague, -Charles L. Dufour, I am deeply indebted for assistance in -proofreading.</p> - -<p>And finally, I am more grateful than I can say to my brother -Eberhard, an unfaltering—and what is more, successful—champion -before the courts of the principle of press freedom, -for advice in preparing the final draft of this manuscript; -to LeBaron Barker for invaluable suggestions in revising the -original draft; and to all others who, in ways great and small, -have been of assistance in making possible the completion of -this task.</p> - -<p class="right padr2 blankbefore75">Hermann B. Deutsch.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Metairie, La.<br /> -October 31, 1962</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center highline10 fsize150"><i>The Huey Long Murder Case</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page1">[1]</span></p> - -<h2>1 —— <span class="smcap">Prelude to an Inquest</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Assassination has never -changed the history of the -world.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——DISRAELI</p> - -</div> - -<p class="chapstart">The motives which prompt a killer to do away with a public -figure are frequently anything but clear. On the other hand, -the identity of such an assassin rarely is in doubt. The assassin -himself sees to that, in obvious eagerness to attain recognition -as the central figure of a world-shaking event.</p> - -<p>President McKinley, for example, was shot down in full -view of the throng that moved forward to shake his hand at -the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Czolgosz, his anarchist -assassin, boasted of his deed, making no effort to -escape. John Wilkes Booth, one cog in a large plot, did not -withdraw in the dimness of the stage box from which he -fired on Lincoln, but leaped into the footlights’ full blaze -to posture and declaim: “<i>Sic semper tyrannis!</i>”</p> - -<p>In recent times the perpetrator of an unsuccessful attempt -at mass assassination actually clamored for recognition. -When the late Cardinal Mundelein became archbishop of -Chicago in 1919, community leaders tendered him a banquet -of welcome. At the very opening of the repast, during the -soup course, the diners became violently ill. By great good -fortune—probably because so much poison had been introduced -into the soup that even the first few spoonfuls caused -illness before a fatal dose could be taken into the system—none<span class="pagenum" id="Page2">[2]</span> -of the diners lost his life as a result of the decision of -an assistant cook, Jean Crones, to do away with the leaders of -Catholicism in Chicago.</p> - -<p>The cook made good his escape. He has never been apprehended. -But for days he sent a letter each morning to the -newspapers and to the police telling just how he had kneaded -arsenic into the dumplings he had been assigned to prepare -for the soup, how he had later bleached his hair with lime -whose fumes almost overcame him, in just which suburbs he -had hidden out on which days, and so on. Short of surrendering -to the police, he did all that lay in his power to identify -himself as one who had attempted a mass murder of unprecedented -proportions.</p> - -<p>One could go down a long list of political assassinations -throughout the world during the past century, and find that -almost without exception the identity of the extroverted killer -was not a matter of the slightest doubt. No one questions -the fact that a Nazi named Planetta murdered Engelbert -Dollfuss in his chancellery, that Gavrilo Prinzip shot the -Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, or that President -Castillo Armas of Guatemala was killed by a Communist -among his bodyguards, Romero Vasquez, who underscored -his part of the plot by committing suicide.</p> - -<p>In modern history, however, one political assassination is -still being hotly debated, not merely as to the motives which -prompted the deed, but as to the identity of the one whose -bullet inflicted the fatal wound. This was the killing of Huey -P. Long, self-proclaimed “Kingfish” of Louisiana, who was -on the very threshold of a bold attempt to extend his dominion -to the limits of the United States via the White House -when Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr., fired on him, and was almost -instantly mowed down by a fusillade from the weapons -of the bodyguards with whom Senator Long surrounded himself -wherever he went.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page3">[3]</span></p> - -<p>To this day, nearly thirty years after the event, there are -those who believe that the assassination was part of a plot -of which President Franklin Roosevelt had cognizance and in -which representatives of his political organization participated. -Only a month prior to his death Huey Long had -charged publicly on the Senate floor that, at a secret conference -in a New Orleans hotel, representatives of “Roosevelt -the Little” had assured the other conferees the President -would undoubtedly “pardon the man who killed Long.”</p> - -<p>There are those who accept the coroner’s verdict that the -homicidal bullet was fired by young Dr. Weiss from the eight-dollar -Belgian automatic pistol he had purchased years earlier -in France where he was doing postgraduate work in medicine. -According to his father, testifying at the inquest which followed -the deaths of the two principals, Dr. Weiss carried this -pistol in his car at night, ever since intruders had been found -loitering about the Weiss garage.</p> - -<p>A great many others—quite possibly a majority of those -who express an opinion on the matter—insist that the bullet -of whose effects Long died was not the one fired by Dr. Weiss, -but a ricochet from one of the bodyguards’ guns in the furious -volley that followed.</p> - -<p>Still others, and among these are many of the physicians -and nurses who knew Dr. Weiss well, feel certain to this -day that he did not fire a shot at all, that he was not the sort -of person who could have brought himself to take the life of -another human being. It is their contention that Dr. Weiss -merely threatened to strike the Kingfish with his fist—may -indeed have done so, since Long did reach the hospital with an -abrasion of the lip after he was rushed from the capitol to -Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. After the blow or threat -of one the young physician was immediately gunned down, -according to this version of the incident, a chance shot thus<span class="pagenum" id="Page4">[4]</span> -inflicting the wound of which, some thirty hours later, Senator -Long died.</p> - -<p>The foregoing contradictory views are still further complicated -by the fact that there are many with whom it is an -article of faith that regardless of who fired the ultimately -fatal shot, the leader they idolized would have been saved -but for an emergency operation performed on him that same -night by Dr. Arthur Vidrine.</p> - -<p>Finally, there is no agreement to this day on what could -have prompted Dr. Weiss to commit an act which almost -everyone who knew him still regards as utterly foreign to his -nature. No valid motive for this deed has ever been definitively -established. One assumption has it that the doctor was the -chosen instrument of the “murder conference” whose discussions -Long made the text of the last speech he delivered -on the Senate floor.</p> - -<p>Others feel that inasmuch as Long was on the point of -gerrymandering Mrs. Weiss’s father, Judge Ben Pavy, out of -the place on the bench he had held for seven successive terms, -Dr. Weiss’s act was one of reprisal. At least one connection of -the Weiss and Pavy families has held that Dr. Weiss was -actuated purely by a patriotic conviction that only through -the death of Long could his authoritarian regime be demolished -and liberty be restored to Louisiana.</p> - -<p>In view of the foregoing, one question poses itself rather -relentlessly: At this late date is an effort to compose such -far-ranging differences of conviction and surmise worth while? -Can any purpose beyond a remotely academic recording of -facts be served thereby? Is there anything that distinguishes -in historical significance the assassination of Huey Long from -the public shooting which in time brought about the death of, -let us say, Mayor William Gaynor of New York?</p> - -<p>It is because those questions seemed to answer themselves, -and unanimously, in the affirmative that the data<span class="pagenum" id="Page5">[5]</span> -chronicled in the following narrative were gathered. They -represent among other items the statements of every surviving -eyewitness to the actual shooting, and of surviving physicians -who were present during, or assisted in, the emergency operation -performed by Dr. Vidrine. They include the never previously -revealed hospital chart of the thirty hours Senator -Long was a patient at Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium.</p> - -<p>This was no easy search for truth. There are still those who -refuse to discuss the assassination of Huey Long with anyone -who does not share to the fullest their individual views -of what took place. None the less, the significance of two -figures—Franklin Roosevelt and Huey Long—so curiously -alike and yet so dissimilar, indicated a genuine need to weigh -every scrap of obtainable evidence and assess any rational -conclusions to be drawn from them.</p> - -<p>During the early 1930s no two names were better known -in the United States than those of Roosevelt and Long. The -former was the product of a patrician heritage plus the gloss -of Groton and Harvard. The latter had received no formal -education beyond that afforded by the Winnfield high school. -An intermittent career as a book auctioneer, Cottolene salesman, -and door-to-door canvasser in the rural South did nothing -to soften the rough edges of his early environment. No -two modes of address could have differed more radically than -the polished modulation of F.D.R.’s fireside chats and the -bucolic idiom of one of Huey Long’s campaign rodomontades: -“Glory be, we brought ’em up to the lick-log that time”—“He -thinks he’s running for the Senate but watch us clean -his plow for him come November”—“Every time I think of -how I was suckered in on that proposition I feel like I’d ought -to be bored for the hollow horn.”</p> - -<p>It was once stated that before Seymour Weiss, the New -Orleans hotel man who was perhaps his closest friend, took -him in hand, he dressed like a misprint in a tailored-by-mail<span class="pagenum" id="Page6">[6]</span> -catalogue. The description was apt. Early photographs prove -it, if proof be needed. Even when he was oil-rich from his -expanding law practice in Shreveport, he wore a ring in which -a huge diamond gleamed, and a tie-pin in which another, -equally large, was set.</p> - -<p>“Stop talkin’ po’-mouth to me, son,” an elderly legislator at -Baton Rouge once advised him. “You got di’monds all over -you. Bet you even got di’mond buttons on yo’ draw’s.”</p> - -<p>None the less he was superbly endowed with what, for -want of a better term, might be called personal magnetism, -a quality that drew crowds as sheep are drawn to a salt trough. -Nowhere was this manifested more strikingly than in Washington, -where throngs packed the Senate galleries the moment -it was known that he was about to deliver a speech.</p> - -<p>He was a superb actor, too. Telling the same anecdote -seven or eight times a day, day after day in campaign after -campaign, he would none the less deliver it with the same -chuckling verve at the thousandth repetition with which he -had told it initially. Little bubbles of laughter escaped him -as though involuntarily when he built up to the nub of a -jest. The effect of such tricks of stagecraft was heightened by -the unhurried but uninterrupted flow of words, the affectation -of homely idiom, the Southerner’s easy slurring of consonants.</p> - -<p>In Arkansas, at the time of the unparalleled Caraway campaign -of 1932, every gathering set a new attendance record -for the time and place. The address Long delivered from the -band shell at Little Rock drew the largest crowd ever assembled -in the history of the state. And when the motorized -campaign party whipped from one city to the next to meet -the demands of a tightly co-ordinated speaking schedule, -crowds lined even the back roads through which the cars -passed; crowds of those who, unable for one reason or another -to leave their small farmsteads in that depression-harried -autumn, waited patiently by the dusty roadsides for<span class="pagenum" id="Page7">[7]</span> -a fleeting glimpse of the limousine in which Huey Long -whizzed by them.</p> - -<p>He was at his best in the rough and tumble of partisan -politics, both on the hustings and on the Senate floor. When -Harold Ickes said Huey had “halitosis of the intellect,” Long -retorted by dubbing him “the chinch bug of Chicago.” To be -sure, this was after he had broken with the Roosevelt administration, -when, scoffing at the Civilian Conservation Corps, -he offered to “eat every pine seedling they’ll ever grow in -Louisiana.” At the same time, when arguing fiscal policy with -the Senate’s veteran on such matters, Carter Glass, he said -bluntly in the course of debate that “I happen to know more -about branch banking than the gentleman from Virginia -does.”</p> - -<p>In these respects, as in matters of politesse, Roosevelt was -the very antithesis of the gentleman from Louisiana. Yet -neither would brook opposition from within his partisans’ -ranks. The breach between Roosevelt and as selfless a supporter -as James A. Farley was to all intents and purposes -identical with the disagreements that broke the ententes between -Long and every campaign manager and newspaper -publisher who had ever supported his candidacy. Escaping -conviction on impeachment charges, he announced: “I’ll have -to grow me a new crop of legislators in Louisiana.” When -some of Roosevelt’s early New Deal legislation was nullified -by the Supreme Court, the President promptly sponsored a -bill to increase the number of Supreme Court justices, with -himself to name at one swoop six additional members; and he -did his best to force what was widely referred to as his “court -packing” measure through Congress.</p> - -<p>Long campaigned vigorously through the Dakotas, Minnesota, -Nebraska, and other northern Midwest states for Roosevelt -in 1932. Some of these states went Democratic for the -first time in more than a generation. Admittedly this was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page8">[8]</span> -all due to Long’s stump speeches. But no one knew better -than Franklin Roosevelt that much of his success in the Long-toured -regions was due to the gentleman from Winnfield. -He was one of the few political leaders who did not underestimate -the Long potential, who correctly evaluated the Long -influence in overturning the politics of Arkansas to make Hattie -Caraway the first woman ever elected to a full term in the -United States Senate. He had few illusions, if any, on the -score of the national organization of personal followers Long -was building through his Share-Our-Wealth clubs.</p> - -<p>Under the circumstances it was inevitable that these two, -neither of whom would ever admit a potential palace rival -into the inner circle of his aides, should become implacable -opponents. Long was on the point of announcing his candidacy -for president against Roosevelt for the 1936 campaign -when a bullet cut short his career. The challenge he proposed -to fling at the man who subsequently carried all but two of -the Union’s states was neither a forlorn token like that of -Governor Landon, nor a visionary crusade like the campaign -of Henry Wallace and Glen Taylor. No one appraised this -more realistically than Roosevelt himself. He never underestimated -the sort of monolithic organization Long could -create around the hard core of existing Share-Our-Wealth -clubs, the amount of whose mail, as delivered to the Senate -office building, dwarfed that delivered to any other member -of the Congress.</p> - -<p>In pursuance of his objective, Earle Christenberry, with -Raymond Daniell of the New York <i>Times</i>, had completed, -by midsummer of 1935, the manuscript of a short book to be -signed by Huey Long, under the title of <i>My First Days in -the White House</i>. He had written no part of this rather naïve -treatise himself, though he had discussed it in general terms -with those who did draft it. An earlier book “by Huey P. -Long”—<i>Every Man a King</i>—was actually a collaboration in<span class="pagenum" id="Page9">[9]</span> -which the prophet of Share-Our-Wealth had dictated sections -to the late John Klorer, then editor of Long’s weekly <i>American -Progress</i> (née <i>Louisiana Progress</i>), who later became a -successful scenarist in Hollywood. But the helter-skelter discussions -in which Long outlined his ideas for <i>My First Days -in the White House</i> were turned into reasonably coherent -prose by Daniell and Christenberry; much of the manuscript -Long never even saw until it was in final form.</p> - -<p>It was an artless bit of oversimplified future history, written -in the past tense to describe the inauguration of President -Huey Long, his appointment of a cabinet (Herbert Hoover, -Franklin Roosevelt, and Alfred E. Smith were among its -members), and the adoption of national Share-Our-Wealth -legislation under the supervision of a committee headed by -John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew W. Mellon! But it was -gauged for an audience which already believed that it was -possible to redistribute all large fortunes among the nation’s -have-nots. It was never meant to convert economists, financiers, -and magnates. On the contrary, its principal purpose was -to notify all and sundry, especially “all,” that Huey Long -was a candidate for president and was confident of victory.</p> - -<p>During that early autumn of 1935 the United States stood -at a windy corner of world history. In Europe totalitarians -had taken over Italy’s tottering liberal monarchy in 1922, and -in 1933 the “republic” of Germany. In Louisiana a home-grown -fascist with complete dominance over his own state -was challenging the national leadership. Long had already -put into operation at the local level an authoritarian principle -of governmental sovereignty. Legislative and judicial functions -were almost wholly concentrated in the hands of an -executive who was in reality a “ruler.” The architect of that -change was setting himself to expand it to national dimensions.</p> - -<p>The seriousness of this situation was recognized by observers<span class="pagenum" id="Page10">[10]</span> -of the national scene. Raymond Gram Swing listed five -public figures in a volume entitled <i>Forerunners of American -Fascism</i> and named Huey Long as the one of potentially -greatest national danger. The others were Fr. Coughlin, William -Randolph Hearst, Sr., Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi, -and Dr. Townsend. George Horace Lorimer, long-time editor -of the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i>, ordered a three-part serial profile -of the senator from Louisiana. Most of this was published -posthumously, as was all of what was to have been -Long’s <i>Mein Kampf</i>: <i>My First Days in the White House</i>.</p> - -<p><i>Kingfish</i> was thus tapped for a vaulting effort to become -America’s <i>Duce</i> or <i>Führer</i> when violence put an abrupt end -to the design and to the life of its protagonist. Official records -in the coroner’s office at Baton Rouge give no details -beyond those embodied on a printed form, whose blank spaces -were filled in to note the name, age, bodily measurements, -color, and sex of the decedent, together with a curt notation -ascribing death to a “gunshot wound (homicidal).”</p> - -<p>Nearly thirty years have passed since those notations were -entered on an official form to be filed in the archives of East -Baton Rouge parish. Death has by now claimed many of the -witnesses whose testimony might have been of value in determining -what actually took place in the marble-walled corridor -where the Kingfish, hurrying along with characteristically -flapping stride, received his mortal wound. But many other -presential witnesses yet survive.</p> - -<p>No inquest worthy of the name has ever been conducted -to decide and record officially what the circumstances of Huey -Long’s assassination were. The family refused to authorize a -necropsy. The death of Dr. Vidrine in 1955 was a portent of -the rapid and inevitable approach of the day when the last -eyewitness would have passed on. No one would then be -able to relate at first hand any detail of the violent moment -which averted a conflict pitting the two best-known public<span class="pagenum" id="Page11">[11]</span> -figures in the United States against one another for virtual -sovereignty over this nation.</p> - -<p>That violent moment would thus pass into history as a -confused welter of mutually contradictory versions, of rumors, -half truths, and whole untruths. Amid these the Huey Long -murder case would remain an unsolved and probably insoluble -mystery. It was for this reason that I undertook several years -ago to gather and collate whatever eyewitness testimony -might still be available. I had known Senator Long and his -family for many years. Of the newsmen who heard Huey Long -make his first state-wide political address at Hot Well on July -4, 1919, I am the only one still actively reporting the course -of events and the doings of public figures. I had accompanied -him not only on any number of his state campaigns, but -also on the remarkable Caraway campaign of 1932.</p> - -<p>I knew nearly all of his intimates, and was on first-name -terms with most of them then in the easy camaraderie of -journalism. Without exception every surviving witness I approached -has given me his version of what took place in the -capitol corridor at the time of the shooting. With but one -exception every witness who was present in the operating -room and in the sickroom where Huey later died, has told me -all that he saw, heard, or did on that occasion.</p> - -<p>These several accounts do not agree at every point. Indeed, -here and there they are rather widely at variance. For that -very reason they merit belief. Such differences validate the -integrity of testimony so given. Had these accounts tallied -in every minute particular after the passage of more than a -quarter of a century, or even after the passage of twenty-five -minutes, they would have been suspect, and properly so. It -is axiomatic that eyewitness accounts of the same event invariably -differ, even when given at once. The classic illustration -of this is the prize fight at whose conclusion one -judge awards the victory to Boxer A, the referee calls the<span class="pagenum" id="Page12">[12]</span> -combat a draw, and the other judge selects Boxer B as the -winner.</p> - -<p>The fact that there is no variance whatever between accounts -given by several witnesses, especially when their testimony -concerns an occurrence involving violence, is as certain -an indication of collusive fraud as is the fact that two signatures, -ostensibly penned by the same individual, show not the -slightest difference in form, shading, or pen pressure at any -point. Unless one or both such signatures are forgeries, absolute -identity is a practical impossibility.</p> - -<p>The question of whether or not the Kingfish could have -wrested political control of the United States from Franklin -Roosevelt became academic when a bullet found its mark in -his body. But a glance at the highlights of his career offers -some of the clues to what happened to him on September 8, -1935.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page13">[13]</span></p> - -<h2>2 —— <span class="smcap">Profile of a Kingfish</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>The iniquity of oblivion -blindly scattereth her poppy, -and deals with the memory of -men without distinction to -merit of perpetuity.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——SIR THOMAS BROWNE</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">One day some of the VIP’s of the Long political hierarchy -were gathered in the office of Governor Oscar Allen when a -matter of legislative procedure was under discussion. It is -worth noting for the record that the Governor’s chair was -occupied by Senator Huey Long. Governor Allen sat at one -side of his desk. The names of the others do not matter. -Among them were highway commissioners, a state purchasing -agent, floor leaders from House and Senate, the head of an -upstate levee board, and the like.</p> - -<p>Huey was issuing orders and lost his temper over the apparent -inattention of some conferees, who were conducting -a low-voiced conversation in a corner of the room.</p> - -<p>“Shut up, damn it!” he shouted suddenly. “Shut up and -listen to me. This is the Kingfish of the Lodge talking!”</p> - -<p>From that day on he was “Kingfish.” Even Franklin Roosevelt, -telephoning him from New York during the hectic -maneuvering which preceded that summer’s Democratic national -convention, greeted him with the words: “Hello, Kingfish!”</p> - -<p>The self-proclaimed Kingfish was named Huey Pierce Long<span class="pagenum" id="Page14">[14]</span> -at his birth on August 30, 1893, the third of four sons born -to Huey Pierce Long, Sr., and Caledonia Tyson Long. The -family farm was near Winnfield, and by the standards of that -place and time the Longs were well off; not wealthy, to be -sure, but never in want. Winnfield, seat of Winn parish, is -a small wholly rural community not far from the center of the -state.</p> - -<p>“Just <i>near</i> the center of the state?” Westbrook Pegler once -asked Senator Long incredulously after watching him put -his legislative trained seals through their paces. “Just <i>near</i> -the center of the state? I’m surprised you haven’t had the -legislature declare it to <i>be</i> the center of the state.”</p> - -<p>Scholastically, Huey did not distinguish himself, and he -took no part in athletics, lacking the physical pugnacity that -is the heritage of most young males. His brother Earl, two -years younger than Huey, frequently asserted that “I had to -do all Huey’s fighting for him.” But as long as he remained -in high school (he left after a disagreement with the principal -and before graduation) he was the best debater that institution -ever numbered among its pupils.</p> - -<p>His first essay into the realm of self-support came at age -fourteen, when he loaded a rented buggy with books and -drove about the countryside selling these at public auction. In -doing so he laid the foundation for what became the largest -personal acquaintance any one individual ever had among -the farm folk of Louisiana.</p> - -<p>“I’d never stay at a hotel, even later on, when I was out -selling Cottolene or baking powder or lamp chimneys or -whatever,” he would boast. “I always drove out beyond town -to a farmhouse where they’d take me in and put up my horse, -and I would pay them something and put in the evening -talking to them, and later I would make it my business to -drop those folks a post card so they’d be sure to remember me.”</p> - -<p>At summer’s end he entered Oklahoma University at Norman,<span class="pagenum" id="Page15">[15]</span> -hoping to work his way through law school as weekend -drummer for the Kaye Dawson wholesale grocery. That did -not work out. After a heated disagreement with the head of -the business he returned to Louisiana and became a door-to-door -salesman for Cottolene. In glorifying this product he -held cake-baking contests here, there, and yonder.</p> - -<p>“My job was to convince those women they could fry -chickens, steaks, or fish in something else besides hog lard, -and bake a cake using something else besides cow butter,” he -explained. “I would quote the Bible to them where it said -not to use any part of the flesh of swine, and if I couldn’t -convince them out of the Bible, I would go into the kitchen -and bake a cake for them myself.”</p> - -<p>First prize for one of his cake-baking contests in Shreveport -was awarded to pretty Rose McConnell. Not long thereafter, -she and Huey were married. With all his savings and a substantial -loan from his older brother Julius, he managed to -finance nearly a year of special study at Tulane University’s -law school in New Orleans. He and Rose shared a room in a -private home not far from the university, where among other -furnishings, a rented typewriter was installed.</p> - -<p>Young Mr. Long would bring home a law book, drive -through it in furious haste while his phenomenally retentive -memory seized every really salient detail, “and then I would -abstract the hell out of it, dictating to my wife, who would -type it out for me.” With barely enough money for housing, -carfare, short rations, and such essentials as paper and pencils, -it is none the less probable that these were the least troubled, -most nearly contented and carefree days the couple would -ever know. Before year’s end he was admitted to the bar, and -returned to Winnfield with Rose to begin practice.</p> - -<p>He soon realized that despite local successes, the ambitious -goals he had set for himself could be attained only in -a much larger field. So he moved to Shreveport, which was<span class="pagenum" id="Page16">[16]</span> -just at the threshold of a tremendous boom following the -discovery of oil in the nearby Pine Island areas. By accepting -royalty shares and acreage allotments for legal services in examining -titles and the like, Huey was on the threshold of -becoming very wealthy, when he and the other Pine Islanders -discovered that they could not send their black gold to market -unless they sold it at ruinously low prices to owners of the -only available pipeline. Long’s implacable hostility toward the -Standard Oil Company had its inception then and there.</p> - -<p>As first step in a campaign to have pipelines declared common -carriers, he became a candidate for the Railroad (now -Public Service) Commission and was elected. The brothers -Long presented a solid front on this occasion, Julius and Earl -working like beavers to help Huey win. George (“Shan”) had -moved to Oklahoma by that time to practice dentistry. Only -once thereafter were they politically united, and that was -when Huey ran for governor in 1928.</p> - -<p>Commissioner Long made his first state-wide stump speech -the following year at a rally and picnic which six candidates -for governor had been called to address. He had not -been invited to speak, but asked permission to say a few -words—and stole the show!</p> - -<p>One must picture him: a young man whose bizarre garb -was accented by the fact that since he was wearing a bow tie, -the gleaming stickpin with its big diamond sparkled from the -otherwise bare band of his shirt front. The unruly forelock -of rusty brown hair, a fleshy, cleft chin, and a general air of -earnest fury all radiated anger. His blistering denunciation of -the then governor as a pliant tool of the Standard Oil Company, -and his attack on the state fire marshal, an anti-Long -politico from Winnfield, as “the official barfly of the state of -Louisiana” captured all the next day’s headlines.</p> - -<p>Thenceforth the pattern of his future was set. He continued -his attacks on trusts and large corporations, certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page17">[17]</span> -that this would enlarge his image as defender and champion -of the downtrodden “pore folks.” His assaults became so intemperate -that in 1921, Governor John M. Parker filed an -affidavit against him with the Baton Rouge district attorney, -and thus brought about his arrest and trial on charges of -criminal libel.</p> - -<p>His attorneys were his brother Julius, Judge James G. -Palmer of Shreveport, and Judge Robert R. Reid of Amite. -He was found guilty, but his reputation as a pitiless opponent -was already so great that only a token sentence was imposed: -one hour’s detention, which he served in the Judge’s chambers, -and a one-dollar fine. He was so delighted by the outcome -that he gave his youngest son, born that day, the names of -his attorneys: Palmer Reid Long. Also, some years later, he -saw to it that the judge who had imposed the token penalties -was elected to the state supreme court.</p> - -<p>Continuing his onslaughts against millionaires and monopolies, -he ran for governor in 1924 on a platform of taxing -the owners of great fortunes to aid the underprivileged in -their struggle for a reasonable share of the better life: education -for their children, medical care for all who could not -afford to pay, and some sort of economic security for all who -toiled, be it in factory, market place, mine, or farm.</p> - -<p>He now inveighed against Wall Street as a whole, not -merely against isolated corporations as before. The Mellon -fortune and the House of Morgan came in for their oratorical -lumps; but it is a matter of record that later, when Earl and -Huey had fallen out, the former testified under oath before a -Senate investigating committee that he had seen his brother -accept $10,000 from an official of the Electric Bond and Share -Company “in bills so new they looked like they’d just come -off the press.”</p> - -<p>However, from every stump Huey proclaimed that “ninety -per cent of this nation’s wealth is in the hands of ten per<span class="pagenum" id="Page18">[18]</span> -cent of its people.... The Bible tells us that unless we redistribute -the wealth of a country amongst all of the people -every so often, that country’s going to smash; but we got too -many folks running things in Louisiana and in Washington -that think they’re smarter than the Bible.”</p> - -<p>None the less he ran third in a three-man first primary. In -view of the fact that he had no organized backing it must -be conceded that it was a close third, an amazing achievement -the credit for which must be given to his wide acquaintance -among the farm population and the matchless fire of his -eloquence. A number of factors contributed to his defeat. -One of them undeniably was his refusal, or inability, to recognize -that he “could not hold his liquor.” After a convivial -evening at a lake-front resort in New Orleans, he drove back -to town with his campaign manager at a wildly illicit speed -and was promptly halted by a motorcycle officer. His campaign -manager hastily explained to the patrolman that the -car was his, and that his chauffeur, one Harold Swan, had -merely acted under orders. But the fact that Huey Long and -Harold Swan in this instance were one and the same came -out later, along with accounts of how Huey had gone tipsily -from table to table at the Moulin Rouge inviting all and -sundry to be his personal guests at his inaugural ball.</p> - -<p>Ordinarily, this might have won him votes in tolerant -south Louisiana, where prohibition was regarded as the figment -of sick imaginations, like the <i>loup garou</i>. But in south -Louisiana he had few backers in that campaign to begin with, -being a north Louisiana hillman; and in north Louisiana, -where drinking had to be done in secret even before the Volstead -Act became nominally the law of the land, such reports -were sheer poison.</p> - -<p>Finally, the weather on election day turned foul. The -wretched dirt roads of the hinterlands where Huey’s voting -strength was concentrated became impassable, so that many<span class="pagenum" id="Page19">[19]</span> -of his supporters could not reach their polling places. But -four years later, when he once more ran for governor in yet -another three-man race, he barely missed a majority in the -first primary. No run-off was held, however, because one of -his opponents announced he would throw his support to -Long, pulling with him many followers, including a young -St. Landry parish physician, Dr. F. Octave Pavy, who had -run for lieutenant governor. Under the circumstances a second -primary would have been merely an empty gesture of -defiance.</p> - -<p>As governor, he rode roughshod over all opposition to his -proposal to furnish free textbooks to every school child, not -merely in the public schools, but in the Catholic parochial -schools and the posh private academies as well; for a highway-improvement -program which he proposed to finance out of -increased gasoline taxes. Nor was he one to hide his light -under a bushel in pretended modesty. On the contrary, after -each success he rang the changes on Jack Horner’s classic -“What a good [in the sense of great] boy am I.” Moreover, -it made little difference to his devotees whether his promises -of still greater benefits for the future, or boasts about the -wonders he had already achieved, were based on fact or -fiction.</p> - -<p>By way of illustration: Dr. Arthur Vidrine, a back-country -physician, was catapulted into the superintendency of the -state’s huge Charity Hospital at New Orleans, and later was -additionally made dean of the new state university College -of Medicine Long decided to found. Vidrine had won the -new governor’s warm regard by captaining the Long cause -in Ville Platte, where he was a general practitioner.</p> - -<p>In some quarters there is a disposition to regard Arthur -Vidrine as no more than a hack who relied on political manipulation -to secure professional advancement. While it is -obvious that his original support of, and later complete subservience<span class="pagenum" id="Page20">[20]</span> -to, Huey Long brought him extraordinary preferment, -it must not be overlooked that in 1920, when he was graduated -from Tulane University’s college of medicine, he was -a sufficiently brilliant student to be chosen in open, nonpolitical -competition for the award of a Rhodes scholarship, -and that for two years he took advantage of this grant to -pursue his studies abroad.</p> - -<p>After his return he served for a time as junior intern at -New Orleans’ huge Charity Hospital ... and within four -years he was made superintendent of that famous institution -and dean of his state university’s new medical school, both -appointments being conferred on him by newly elected Governor -Huey Long, who lost no opportunity to picture his -protégé as something of a miracle man in the realm of -healing.</p> - -<p>To an early joint session of the legislature, His Excellency -announced that under his administration Dr. Vidrine had -reduced cancer mortality at Charity Hospital by one third. -This was obvious nonsense. Had it not been, the medical -world would long since have beaten a path to the ornamental -iron gates of the century-old hospital in quest of further enlightenment.</p> - -<p>One of the newspapers finally solved the mystery of this -miracle of healing. It stemmed solely from a change in the -system of tabulating mortality statistics. Calculated on the -old basis, the death rate was precisely what it had been before, -a little better in some years, a little worse in others. All -this was set forth publicly in clear, simple wording. But except -for a few of the palace guard, who cynically shrugged the -explanation aside, not one of the Long followers accorded -it the slightest heed. They and their peerless standard bearer -continued to glory in the “fact” that he had reduced Charity’s -cancer death rate by a third.</p> - -<p>This accomplishment was by no means the only one of<span class="pagenum" id="Page21">[21]</span> -which young Governor Long boasted. Less tactfully, and -certainly less judiciously, he made vainglorious public statements -to the effect that “I hold all fifty-two cards at Baton -Rouge, and shuffle and deal them as I please”; also that he had -bought this legislator or that, “like you’d buy a sack of potatoes -to be delivered at your gate.”</p> - -<p>Within a year the House of Representatives impeached -him on nine counts. Huey had learned that such a movement -was to be launched at a special session in late March of 1929, -and sent word to his legislative legions to adjourn <i>sine die</i> -before an impeachment resolution could be introduced. But -an electric malfunction in the voting machine made it appear -that the House voted almost unanimously to adjourn, when -in fact opinion was sharply divided. A riot ensued, which -was finally quelled when Representative Mason Spencer of -Tallulah, a brawny giant, bellowed the words: “In the name -of sanity and common sense!” Momentarily this stilled the -tumult and Spencer, not an official of the House, but merely -one of its members, called the roll himself, by voice, on which -tally only seven of the hundred members voted to adjourn.</p> - -<p>The committee of impeachment managers in the House -was headed by Spencer and by his close friend, another huge -man, George Perrault of Opelousas. However, the impeachment -charges were aborted in the Senate, when Long induced -fifteen members of that thirty-nine-man body to sign a round -robin to the effect that on technical grounds they would refuse -to convict regardless of evidence. Since this was one vote more -than enough to block the two-thirds majority needed for conviction, -the impeachment charges were dropped.</p> - -<p>Spencer and Perrault remained inseparable friends, occupying -adjacent seats in the House to the day of Perrault’s death -during the winter of 1934. On the night of September 8, 1935, -Huey stopped to chat momentarily with Spencer, who took<span class="pagenum" id="Page22">[22]</span> -occasion to protest against the appointment of Edward Loeb, -who had replaced his friend Perrault</p> - -<p>“All these years I’ve got used to having a man the size -of George Perrault sitting next to me,” he complained. “Did -you have to make Oscar appoint a pint-size member like -Eddie Loeb to sit in his place here?”</p> - -<p>“You remind me,” retorted Long, “of the old nigger woman -that was in a bind of some sort, and her boss helped her out, -giving her clothes or money or vittles or whatever. So she -said to him: ‘Mist’ Pete, you got a white face, fo’ true, but -you’s so good you’s bound to have a black heart.’ That’s you, -Mason. Your face is white, but you’ve sure enough got a -black heart.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">A year after the abortive impeachment Long announced -he would run for the Senate forthwith, though his gubernatorial -tenure would not be terminated for another two -years. In this way, he said, he would submit his case to the -people. If they elected him, they would thereby express approval -of his program. If not, they would elect his opponent, -the long-time incumbent senator. Long was elected overwhelmingly, -and then went from one political success to another, -electing another Winnfieldian, his boyhood chum -Oscar Allen, to succeed him as governor, and smashingly defeating -a ticket on which his brother Earl was running for -lieutenant governor with his brother Julius’ active support. -It was later that year that Earl testified against Huey before -a Senate committee.</p> - -<p>In that same year Huey Long entered Arkansas politics. -Mrs. Hattie Caraway, widow of Senator Thad Caraway, had -been appointed to serve the few remaining months of her -husband’s term, then announced as a candidate for re-election. -Huey had two reasons for espousing her candidacy. -First, she had voted with him for a resolution favoring the<span class="pagenum" id="Page23">[23]</span> -limitation of individual incomes by law to a maximum of a -million dollars a year. Secondly, the senior senator from Arkansas, -Majority Leader Joe T. Robinson, who had turned -thumbs down on this resolution, had endorsed one of the -candidates opposing Mrs. Caraway’s election. Thirdly, he felt -it was time to put the country on notice that Kingfishing -could be carried successfully beyond the borders of its home -state.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Caraway was accorded no chance to win. Every organized -political group in the state had endorsed one or -another of her six opponents, among whom were included a -national commander of the American Legion, two former -governors, a Supreme Court justice, and other bigwigs. The -opening address of the nine-day campaign Huey Long waged -with Mrs. Caraway was delivered at Magnolia, just north of -the Louisiana border. At its close, a dazed local political -Pooh-Bah wired a major campaign headquarters in Little -Rock: “A tornado just passed through here. Very few trees -left standing, and even those are badly scarred up.”</p> - -<p>It was here that Long first formulated what later became -the Share-Our-Wealth clubs’ credo.</p> - -<p>“In this country,” he proclaimed, “we raise so much food -there’d be plenty for all if we never slaughtered another hog -or harvested another bushel of grain for the next two years, -and yet people are going hungry. We’ve got enough material -for clothes if in the next two years we never tanned another -hide or raised another lock of cotton, and yet people are going -barefoot and naked. Enough houses in this land are standing -empty to put a roof over every head at night, and yet people -are wandering the highways for lack of shelter.”</p> - -<p>The remedy he proposed was simple: share our wealth instead -of leaving almost all of it in the hands of a greedy few.</p> - -<p>“All in this living world you’ve got to do,” he insisted, -“is to limit individual incomes to one million dollars a year,<span class="pagenum" id="Page24">[24]</span> -and fix it so nobody when he dies can leave to any one child -more than five million dollars. And let me tell you something: -holding one of those birds down to a measly million dollars -a year’s no sort of hardship on him. At that rate of income, -if he stopped to bathe and shave, he’d be just about five hundred -dollars the richer by the time he got his clothes back on.</p> - -<p>“What we got to do is break up those enormous fortunes -like the billion-dollar Mellon estate. By allowing them -a million dollars a year for spending-money you’ll agree we -wouldn’t be hurting ’em any to speak of. We’d have the balance -to distribute amongst all the people, and that would -fix things so everybody’d be able to live like he could right -now if he made five thousand a year. Yes sir, like he was having -five thousand a year and a team of mules to work with, -once we share the wealth!”</p> - -<p>Today it is almost impossible to visualize the effect of so -alluring a prospect on a countryside forced at that time to -rely on the Red Cross for seed corn and sweet-potato slips -to assure a winter’s food supply. The rural Negroes in particular, -their “furnish” sadly shrunken as a result of the depression, -accepted it almost as gospel that Huey Long was -promising them five thousand dollars a year and a team of -mules.</p> - -<p>The impact of Long’s oratory was so clearly obvious that -a special committee waited on him at Texarkana, where he -planned to close the campaign on Saturday night, to ask that -he remain in Arkansas over the weekend to address meetings -in the tier of counties along the Mississippi River on Monday, -the day before the election. He agreed to do this, canceled -plans to drive to Shreveport from Texarkana, and drove back -to Little Rock instead. Since this left the accompanying newsmen -with no grist for the early Monday editions, and since -he had been quoting the Bible right and left in his speeches, -not to mention the fact that in the glove compartment of<span class="pagenum" id="Page25">[25]</span> -his Cadillac a well-thumbed Bible reposed beside a loaded -revolver and an atomizer of throat spray, he was asked where -he expected to attend church the next morning.</p> - -<p>“Me go to church?” he inquired incredulously. “Why I -haven’t been to a church in so many years I don’t know -when.”</p> - -<p>“But you’re always quoting the Bible and so....”</p> - -<p>“Bible’s the greatest book ever written,” he interrupted, -“but I sure don’t need anybody I can buy for six bits and a -chew of tobacco to explain it to me. When I need preachers -I buy ’em cheap.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Caraway’s first primary victory was a landslide. Well -pleased, Huey returned to Louisiana to defeat two-term incumbent -Senator Edwin S. Broussard and elect one of his -chief attorneys in the impeachment case, John H. Overton, -in his stead. It was this election which a Senate committee -later investigated to sift allegations of fraud. The investigation -was recessed midway to give Senator Long an opportunity -to halt a threatened bank run by the simple expedient -of having Oscar Allen proclaim Saturday, February 4, a holiday -celebrating the fact that sixteen years before, on February -3 and 4, 1917, Woodrow Wilson had severed diplomatic -relations with Germany!</p> - -<p class="center highline3 blankbefore1">PROCLAMATION</p> - -<p class="center highline15">STATE OF LOUISIANA<br /> -EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT<br /> -BATON ROUGE</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Whereas, on the nights of February 3 and 4, 1917, -Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, severed -diplomatic relations with the Imperial German government; -and</p> - -<p>Whereas, more than 16 years has intervened before the<span class="pagenum" id="Page26">[26]</span> -great American people have turned their eyes back to the -lofty ideals of human uplift and new freedom as propounded -by Woodrow Wilson; and</p> - -<p>Whereas, it is now fitting that due recognition be given -by the great State of Louisiana in line with the far-reaching -principles enunciated by the illustrious southerner who -sought to break the fetters of mankind throughout the -world;</p> - -<p>Now, therefore, I, Oscar Kelly Allen, governor of the -State of Louisiana, do hereby ordain that Saturday, the -fourth day of February, 1933, the 16th anniversary of the -severance of diplomatic relations between the United -States and the Imperial German government be, and the -same is hereby declared, a holiday throughout the State -of Louisiana and I do hereby order that all public business, -including schools, colleges, banks and other public enterprises -be suspended on said day and that the proper ceremonies -to commemorate that event be held.</p> - -<p>In witness whereof I have caused to be affixed the great -seal of the State of Louisiana on this, the third day of -February, in the year of Our Lord, A. D. 1933.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/illo026.png" alt="Signatures" /> -</div> - -<p>This meant that all public offices, schools—and banks—were -legally forbidden to open their doors on that Saturday; -by Sunday the Federal Reserve authorities had put $20,000,000<span class="pagenum" id="Page27">[27]</span> -at the disposal of the menaced bank and the run which -might have spread panic throughout the country died a-borning. -However, bank closures on a national scale were thus -postponed for only a month. March 4, while Franklin Roosevelt -was taking his first oath as president, state after state -was ordering its banks to close, as financial consternation -(vectored from Detroit, however, and not from New Orleans) -stampeded across the land.</p> - -<p>One of the newly inaugurated President’s first acts—“The -only thing we have to fear is fear itself!”—was to order all -the nation’s banks to close until individually authorized by -executive permit to reopen. But the onus of having initiated -the disaster had been averted from Louisiana by Huey’s bizarre -bank holiday, and this underscored the fact that for -some time past, the number and ratio of bank failures in -Louisiana had been far, far below the national average. It -also strengthened the growing conviction that Louisiana’s -Long was something more than another Southern demagogue -like Mississippi’s Bilbo or Texas’ Pa Ferguson.</p> - -<p>Franklin Roosevelt was probably never under any illusions -on that score. He gauged quite correctly the omen of Share-Our-Wealth’s -growing strength. It had been blueprinted for -all to see when Mrs. Caraway’s candidacy swept the boards -in Arkansas, and again when this movement, plus the oratorical -spell cast by the Louisianian in stumping the Midwestern -prairie states, carried them for Roosevelt later that -same autumn. According to Long’s subsequent diatribes, he -had campaigned thus for “Roosevelt the Little” on the express -understanding that the president-to-be would back the -program for limiting individual incomes and bequests by -statute.</p> - -<p>There is ample ground for the belief that Long was secretly -gratified when he realized that the New Dealers would have -none of this proposal. The issue which had served him so<span class="pagenum" id="Page28">[28]</span> -well in the past could thus be turned against Roosevelt four -years later, when Long planned to enter the lists as a rival -candidate for the world’s loftiest office. Publicly, to be sure, -he professed himself outraged by “this double cross,” bolted -the administration ranks once more, repeated an earlier, defiant -fulmination to the effect that if the New Dealers wished -to withhold control over Louisiana’s federal appointments -from him, they could take this patronage and “go slap dab -to hell with it.”</p> - -<p>Roosevelt and his <i>fidus Achates</i>, Harry Hopkins, took him -at his word, and gave the anti-Long faction, headed by Mayor -Walmsley of New Orleans, a controlling voice in the distribution -of federal patronage. The breach between the two -standard bearers—one heading the New Deal and a federal -bureaucracy tremendously swollen by a swarm of new alphabetical -agencies, the other all but worshiped as archangel of -Share-Our-Wealth—widened from month to month.</p> - -<p>Roosevelt left the anti-Long philippics to members of his -cabinet and other department heads: Hugh Johnson, NRA -administrator, for example, or Interior Secretary Harold -Ickes. The climax to these interchanges came in the late -summer of 1935, when in an address delivered on the Senate -floor, Long charged that “Franklin Delano Roosevelt the -first, the last, and the littlest” was linked to a plot against -his—Huey Long’s—life.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page29">[29]</span></p> - -<h2>3 —— <span class="smcap">August 8, 1935: Washington</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>I haven’t the slightest doubt -but that Roosevelt would pardon -anyone who killed Long.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee">——UNIDENTIFIED -VOICE FROM -A DICTOGRAPH RECORD QUOTED -BY HUEY LONG IN AN ADDRESS -BEFORE THE UNITED STATES -SENATE</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Long’s charge that he had been selected for assassination by -a cabal in whose plot President Roosevelt was involved at -least by implication made headlines from coast to coast and -filled page on page of the <i>Congressional Record</i>. But it fell -quite flat, being taken in a Pickwickian rather than in any -literal sense. Even the unthinking elders of the Share-Our-Wealth -clubs, their numbers now sadly shrunken by reason -of the march of time, still cling to a rather pathetic belief in -this extravagant bombast only by reason of an uncanny and -unrelated coincidence: within less than thirty days after making -the charge Long actually was assassinated.</p> - -<p>His climactic thrust at the White House was not taken -too seriously at the time, however, because, for one thing, -Long had cried “plot against me” too often. By the fall of -1935 the story was old hat, even though it had never before -been blazoned in so august a tribunal as the Senate, and had -never before involved, even by indirection, a chief executive. -On two previous occasions he had placed Baton Rouge under<span class="pagenum" id="Page30">[30]</span> -martial law, calling out the militia, to defend him against -plots on his life. Only seven months before making the Senate -speech in question he had “exposed” the plot of a group of -Baton Rouge citizens, a number of high officials among them, -to waylay his automobile on a given night while he was being -driven to New Orleans, and kill him at a lonely bend of the -River Road where the car would of necessity have to slow -down.</p> - -<p>In proof of this he put on the witness stand an informer -who had infiltrated into the ranks of the supposedly plotting -group, and who testified as to the details of a conspiracy.</p> - -<p>Early in his senatorial career he had made himself so offensive -in the washroom of a club at Sands Point, Long Island, -that the irate victim of a demand to “make way for -the Kingfish” slugged him. Since the blow split the skin over -an eyebrow, the incident could not be concealed. Long -promptly charged that hired bravos of the House of Morgan -had assaulted him in the club washroom, intent on taking -his life.</p> - -<p>Finally, when what he told the Senate on that August day -in 1935 was boiled down in its own juices it made pretty -thin gruel, as anyone who cares to wade through the fine -print of the <i>Congressional Record</i> for that date can see for -himself. The truth is that on the eve of Congress’ adjournment, -Long was trying to build up against Roosevelt something -he could tub-thump before the voters in the next -year’s presidential campaign.</p> - -<p>On the principle that “the best defense is an attack,” he -was keeping the New Deal hierarchy in Washington so busily -occupied on another front that he could take advantage of -their preoccupation to infiltrate Louisiana’s federal patronage -with his followers.</p> - -<p>Presumably control over these appointments to all sorts -of oddball positions under the PWA, WPA, and other auspices<span class="pagenum" id="Page31">[31]</span> -was now in the hands of the anti-Long contingent, -headed by among others a good half of the state’s members -in the lower house of Congress. But these were parochial -politicians, fumblingly inept at organizing such matters on -a state-wide scale. To cite but a single example, one project -sponsored under the anti-Long dispensation was a review of -the newspaper files in the New Orleans City Hall archives. -By direction of Mayor Walmsley, so many appointees were -packed into this particular task that they had to work in one-hour-a-day -shifts in order to find physical room in the small -garret-like space set aside for it.</p> - -<p>Theoretically, they were to index these files, and to repair -torn pages with gummed tape as they came across them. -Actually, they would for the most part merely turn the leaves -of the clumsy bound volumes until they came to the Sunday -comics or other such features, and read these at leisure. Then -they repaired to Lafayette Square when their hour of demanded -presence was up, and joked about the way they would -put out of joint the noses of the anti-Long leadership on -election day; for of course most of them were dedicated Share-Our-Wealthers -eagerly looking forward to $5000-a-year incomes -when Huey Long got around to redistributing the -nation’s wealth.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile their Kingfish was giving the anti-Long leaders -a real Roland—an entire battalion of Rolands, in fact—for -their patronage Oliver. The spoils-system theory of a patronage -plum is that its bestowal is good for three votes; in other -words, that the recipient and at least two members of his -family or circle of friends will vote for the party favored by -the job’s bestower. A United States senator would normally -be consulted about appointments to all federal patronage -posts not covered by civil service in his state: Collector of the -Port, Surveyor of the Port, Collector of Internal Revenue, -district attorneys, federal judges, and the like. During the<span class="pagenum" id="Page32">[32]</span> -early New Deal era this roster was tremendously amplified -by the staffs of numerous new alphabetical agencies and their -labor force.</p> - -<p>Huey Long may not have expected to be taken quite so -literally when he told the Roosevelt hierarchs they could take -their patronage “slap-dab to hell” as far as he was concerned. -But when he saw that he was indeed given no voice in any -Louisiana federal appointment, he initiated an entire series -of special sessions of the state legislature which subserviently -enacted a succession of so-called “dictatorship laws.” Under -these statutes he took the control of every parochial and -municipal position in every city, village, and parish out of -the hands of the local authorities, and vested the appointive -power in himself.</p> - -<p>He did this by creating new state boards, composed of -officials of his own selection, without whose certification no -local public employee could receive or hold any post on the -public payroll. A board of teacher certification was thus set -up and without its—which is to say, Huey Long’s—approval, -no teacher, janitor, school-bus driver, or principal could be -employed by any local parish or city school board. No municipal -police officer or deputy sheriff throughout the state, no -deputy clerk or stenographer in any courthouse, no city or -parish sanitary inspector, and so on down the entire line of -public payroll places, could continue in his or her position -unless specifically okayed by Senator Long. In those pre-civil-service -days the appointive state, parish, and city employees -in Louisiana outnumbered the federal patronage places -within the state by hundreds to one, even during the New -Deal’s era of production controls and “recovery.”</p> - -<p>Hence, for each federal patronage job he had nominally -lost to his opponents he gained hundreds—literally—of local -appointments which were thenceforth at his disposal. When -this was pointed out in the anti-Long press and he was asked<span class="pagenum" id="Page33">[33]</span> -for comment, he chuckled and said: “I’m always ready to -give anybody a biscuit for a barrel of flour.”</p> - -<p>In sum, he had brought practically all local public employees, -including those who staffed Mayor Walmsley’s city administration -in New Orleans, under the Long banner by the -summer of 1935. Only a scant handful of “dictatorship laws” -yet remained to be enacted, and these were already being -drafted to his specifications. The moment Congress adjourned, -when he would be released from Washington and -could return to Louisiana, they would be rushed to enactment.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile he readied his parting shot against the White -House. The incident on which he based the grotesque charge -that President Roosevelt abetted, or at the very least knew -of and acquiesced in, an assassination plot was a supposedly -<i>sub rosa</i> political caucus held at the Hotel De Soto in New -Orleans on Sunday, July 21, 1935. The gathering had been -convened presumably without letting any outsider (i.e., “nonplotter”) -know it was to be held. Its ostensible objective was -the selection of an anti-Long gubernatorial candidate whom -all anti-Long factions would agree to support against any -nominee the Senator might hand-pick for endorsement.</p> - -<p>However, with what still appears to be a positive genius -for fumbling, the anti-Long leadership guarded with such -butter-fingered zeal the secret of whether, where, or when -they were to meet that even before they assembled, Long -aides had ample time to install the microphone of a dictograph -in the room where the anti-Long General Staff was -to confer. The device functioned very fuzzily. Its recording -(which it was hoped to duplicate and replay from sound -trucks throughout the ensuing campaign) was only spottily -intelligible. But a couple of court reporters had also been -equipped with earphones at a listening post, and their stenographic -transcript, though incomplete, afforded some excerpts<span class="pagenum" id="Page34">[34]</span> -which Senator Long inflated into what he presented as a full-scale -murder plot.</p> - -<p>His fulmination was delivered before a crowded gallery, as -usual. This popularity annoyed many of his senior colleagues, -none more so than Vice-President Garner, whom John L. -Lewis was soon to stigmatize as “that labor-baiting, poker-playing, -whiskey-drinking evil old man.” More than once, as -the galleries emptied with a rush the moment Long finished, -Mr. Garner would call to the departing auditors, saying: -“Yes, you can go now! The show’s over!”</p> - -<p>In this instance, as on many previous occasions, there was -no advance hint of the fireworks to come. The fuse was a -debate over the Frazier-Lemke bill, and Senator Long contented -himself at the outset with charging that the administration -was conducting “government by blackmail.” In -making this statement he was referring to NIRA, which had -succeeded NRA, the latter having been declared unconstitutional -some three months earlier. This had nothing to do -with the Frazier-Lemke bill, but it gave Mr. Long an opportunity -to charge that no contracts for PWA work were -being financed unless the contractor agreed to abide by all -the provisions of the NRA code which the Supreme Court -had invalidated.</p> - -<p>That led to the statement that “we in Louisiana have never -stood for [such] blackmail from anybody,” which in turn -led to a section of his arraignment the <i>Congressional Record</i> -headed:</p> - -<p class="center highline1 blankbefore75">“THE PLAN OF ROBBERY, MURDER,<br /> -BLACKMAIL, OR THEFT”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">He then loosed his farewell salvo.</p> - -<p>“I have a record of an anti-Long conference held by the -anti-Long Representatives from Louisiana in Congress,” he -said in part. “The faithful Roosevelt Congressmen had gone<span class="pagenum" id="Page35">[35]</span> -down there to put the Long crowd out.... Here is what -happened among the Congressmen representing Roosevelt -the first, the last and the littlest.”</p> - -<p>Holding aloft what he said was a transcript of the dictograph -record, he listed the names of those present, naming -a collector of internal revenue, an FERA manager for the -state, and giving as the first direct quote of one of the conferees -a statement made by one Oscar Whilden, a burly horse-and-mule -dealer who had headed an anti-Long direct-action -group calling itself the Square Deal Association. Whilden -was quoted as saying at the very opening of the meeting that -“I am out to murder, kill, bulldoze, steal or anything else to -win this election!”</p> - -<p>An unidentified voice mentioned that the anti-Long faction -would be aided by more “income tax indictments, and -there will be some more convictions. They tell me O. K. Allen -will be the next to be indicted.”</p> - -<p>“That,” explained Mr. Long for the benefit of his hearers -and the press gallery, “is the governor of Louisiana. Send -them down these culprits and thieves and thugs who openly -advocate murdering people, and who have been participants -in the murder of some people and in their undertaking to -murder others—send them down these thugs and thieves and -culprits and rascals who have been placed upon Government -payrolls, drawing from five to six thousand dollars a year, -to carry on and wage war in the name of the sacred flag, the -Stars and Stripes. That is the kind of government to which -the administration has attached itself in the state of Louisiana!”</p> - -<p>Four of Louisiana’s congressmen were named as having -taken part in the caucus which Senator Long dubbed a “murder -conference.” They were J. Y. Sanders, Jr., Cleveland Dear, -Numa Montet, and John Sandlin. But it was another of the -conferees whom Senator Long quoted next, reading from<span class="pagenum" id="Page36">[36]</span> -the transcript, as suggesting that “we have Dear to make a trip -around the state and then announce that the people want -him to run for Governor, and no one will know about this -arrangement here ... as you all know we must all keep all -of this a secret and not even tell our own families of what is -done.” Whereupon, according to the record, another voice -proposed that “we should make fellows like Farley and Roosevelt -and the suffering corporations ... cough up enough to -get rid of that fellow.”</p> - -<p>Commented Senator Long: “Yes, we should make the -Standard Oil Company and the ‘suffering corporations’ cough -up enough ... says Mr. Sandlin ... [but] I am going -to teach my friends in the Senate how to lick this kind of corruption. -I am going to show them how to lick it to a shirttail -finish.... I am going to give you a lesson in January -to show you that the crookedness and rottenness and corruption -of this Government, however ably [<i>sic!</i>] financed -and however many big corporations join in it, will not get to -first base.”</p> - -<p>More of the same sort of dialogue was read from the transcript. -Congressman Sandlin assured the meeting that President -Roosevelt will “endorse our candidate.” Another of the -conferees, one O’Rourke, was described by Long as having -refused to testify when another witness at an inquiry into -one of Huey Long’s earlier murder-plot charges “swore that -he had hired O’Rourke to commit murder in Baton Rouge. -I was the man he was to kill so there was not much said -about it except that he refused to testify on the ground that -he would incriminate himself, whereupon Roosevelt employed -him. He was qualified and he was appointed.”</p> - -<p>The statement most frequently quoted in the weeks and -months that followed was that of an unidentified voice -which the transcript reported as saying: “I would draw in a -lottery to go out and kill Long. It would take only one man,<span class="pagenum" id="Page37">[37]</span> -one gun and one bullet.” And some time thereafter, according -to the transcript, another unidentified voice declared that -“I haven’t the slightest doubt but that Roosevelt would pardon -any one who killed Long.” Thereupon someone asked: -“But how could it be done?” and the reply was: “The best -way would be to just hang around Washington and kill him -right in the Senate.”</p> - -<p>The conference was adjourned after notifying Congressman -Dear that the people would clamor to have him run -for governor of Louisiana. (The significance of this is that -in one of Dear’s final campaign speeches he made the statement -that gave rise to a widely disseminated and still persistent -version of the shooting that followed, by almost -exactly one month, the delivery of Long’s attack on the New -Deal.)</p> - -<p>Long concluded his address to the Senate with the assertion -that he had exposed this presumably hush-hush meeting -“to the United States Senate and, I hope, to the country -... and I wish to announce further they have sent additional -inspectors and various other bureaucrats down in the -State....</p> - -<p>“The State of Louisiana has no fear whatever of any kind -of tactics thus agreed upon and thus imposed. The State of -Louisiana will remain a state. When you hear from the election -returns in the coming January ... Louisiana will not -have a government imposed on it that represents murder, -blackmail, oppression or destitution.”</p> - -<p>The Senate then resumed the business of the day. But -most of the correspondents in the press gallery had left and -the talk was all of Huey Long’s excoriation of the New Deal, -of his promise that “if it is in a Presidential primary, they -will hear from the people of the United States,” and of his -declaration that rumors of the New Deal leaders plotting -to have him murdered were now “fully verified.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page38">[38]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>: Most of the purely local references, repetitions, -adversions to extraneous matters, and the like have been -omitted from the foregoing condensation of Senator Long’s -last speech before the Senate. Those who may wish -to read the full text of his address will find it in the <i>Congressional -Record</i> for August 9, 1935, pages 12780 through -12791. The section headed “The Plan of Robbery, Murder, -Blackmail, or Theft” begins on page 12786, second column.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page39">[39]</span></p> - -<h2>4 —— <span class="smcap">August 30 to September 2</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Behold, my desire is that -mine adversary had written a -book. Surely I would take it -upon my shoulder and bind it -as a crown to me.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——JOB</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Congress did not adjourn its 1935 session until seventeen -days after Senator Long had delivered his blast about “the -plan of robbery, murder, blackmail, or theft” at the Roosevelt -administration in general and at its head in particular. This -was, as he clearly stated in his reference to presidential primaries, -the opening move in launching his 1936 candidacy -for president; the next step would be publication and distribution -of <i>My First Days in the White House</i>.</p> - -<p>He devoted himself to revision of this manuscript during -the fortnight in which Congress remained in session, and -marveled at the difficulties he encountered. Like many another -magnetic orator, he was no writer, and in spite of the -ghosts who had helped bring it into being, <i>My First Days -in the White House</i> eloquently testifies to that fact. None -the less, had he lived, the book would have won him adherents -by the million. In all its naïve oversimplification, it was -still a triumph of classical composition beside the helter-skelter -phraseology of his senatorial and stump-speaking oratory. -But the latter, like his many other public utterances, -his early political circulars, and even the jumbled prose of<span class="pagenum" id="Page40">[40]</span> -his first book: <i>Every Man a King</i>, had been accepted almost -as gospel by Longolators who jeered at literate anti-Long -editorials as propaganda dictated and paid for by the Money -Barons.</p> - -<p>Congress did adjourn in due course, and now it is time -to follow Long almost hour by hour through the final ten -days of his life, assembling an unbiased chronicle in order to -dispel myths and reveal truths about his assassination. His -first concern was the publication of his book. His only other -fixed commitment before having Governor Allen call the legislature -into special session for the enactment of a final dossier -of dictatorship laws, was delivery of a Labor Day address -at Oklahoma City on September 2. He had accepted this -invitation gladly, since it would afford him an opportunity -to couple evangelistic grandiloquence about wealth-sharing -with kind words about blind Senator Thomas Gore, who -faced stiff opposition in his campaign for re-election.</p> - -<p>Earle Christenberry was left in charge of the Washington -office, where he was to pack for transportation all documents -and records which might be needed to elect a Long-endorsed -governor and other state officials in Louisiana. Meanwhile, -Mr. Long with the manuscript of his book and three of his -bodyguards went to New York for a few days of relaxation.</p> - -<p>It was also part of his long-range design to seek the Democratic -Party’s nomination for president at the 1936 convention. -To be sure, he was under no misconception as to the -sort of fate this bid would encounter. For one thing, Roosevelt’s -personal popularity had reached new heights as his -first term drew to a close. His nomination for a second term -was all but inevitable. Long had attacked not only the administration -as such. He was carrying on corrosive personal -feuds with Postmaster General Farley, Interior Secretary -Ickes, NRA Administrator Hugh Johnson, Senate Majority -Leader Joe Robinson, and a host of other party bigwigs.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page41">[41]</span></p> - -<p>Naturally, Louisiana’s Kingfish realized fully that these -leaders, controlling the party machinery in the convention of -1936, would see to it not merely that F.D.R. received a virtually -unanimous nomination for a second term, but that even -were Roosevelt eliminated from contention, Huey Long’s effort -to become the party’s standard bearer would be rejected.</p> - -<p>Unquestionably, that is exactly what the Kingfish wanted. -He already had a virtually crackproof national organization -in his swiftly expanding Share-Our-Wealth clubs. The growth -of this movement was now so rapid that his staff found -difficulty in keeping pace with it. So valuable had its name -become that both “Share <i>Our</i> Wealth” and “Share <i>the</i> Wealth” -were copyrighted in Earle Christenberry’s name.</p> - -<p>Long’s purpose was to rally from both the Republican and -Democratic camps the many who were still embittered by -their struggles to escape the Great Depression. Times had -undeniably bettered. The economy would reach a peak figure -in 1937. But even the WPA “shovel leaners” were convinced -that the government owed them much more than was being -doled out on payday, and were entranced by the vision of a -future in which Huey Long would soak the rich to provide -for each toiler, however lowly his station, an income of $5000 -a year and a span of mules.</p> - -<p>In the prairie corn and wheat belts, in the Dakotas and in -Oklahoma, in all the places where Long had preached wealth-sharing -while campaigning for Roosevelt, desperate landowners -on the verge of eviction from mortgaged or tax-delinquent -acres their forebears had carved out of the wilderness, -were still rallying their friends and neighbors to help keep -potential bidders from foreclosure auctions. These too would -recall Long’s clamorous efforts to bring the Frazier-Lemke -bill to a vote, and the conservatives’ success in holding it -back from the floor. One and all, they would read <i>My -First Days in the White House</i>, and they would learn in its<span class="pagenum" id="Page42">[42]</span> -pages how readily a wealth-sharing miracle could come to -pass if only Huey Long were president....</p> - -<p>None the less, publishers were chary of bringing out the -book under their imprint. To Long this was no matter for -concern. Over a period of at least three years a war chest for -the presidential campaign he planned to wage in 1936 had -been growing steadily. It included not merely money—a levy -on the salaries of all public employees under his domination -in Louisiana, and major campaign contributions from corporations -that felt themselves obligated to show tangible appreciation -for past favors or sought to insure themselves -against future reprisal—it included also a solid stockpile of -affidavits about the boondoggles of divers federal agencies. -Hard-pressed men, driven to almost any lengths by the crying -need of their families for such bare necessities as food and -shelter, were being forced to promise they would “praise -Roosevelt and cuss Long” before being granted a WPA laborer’s -pittance.</p> - -<p>At the outset of Long’s senatorial career this entire trove -of cash and documentary dynamite was kept in some strongboxes -of the Mayflower Hotel, where the Senator first established -his capitol residence. But for various reasons, at least -one of which was the hotel’s refusal to bar his political opponents -from registering there while in Washington, his relations -with the Mayflower deteriorated rapidly to the point -where he moved to the Broadmoor, at 3601 Connecticut -Avenue. The view from one of the windows of his apartment -overlooking Rock Creek Park charmed him. At the same time -the campaign cash and documents were transferred to the -safety-deposit vaults of the Riggs National Bank, where the -Senator kept a Washington checking account, or rather, -where Earle Christenberry kept it for him.</p> - -<p>Hence the question of paying for the publication of <i>My -First Days in the White House</i> presented no problem. For<span class="pagenum" id="Page43">[43]</span> -that matter, neither did the seeming permanence of a few -scattered centers of anti-Long resistance in Louisiana. Since -the dictatorship laws enacted during the previous twelvemonth -made it virtually impossible to defeat Long proposals -in the legislature, or Long candidates at the polls, the -fixity of a few isolated opposition enclaves was desirable -because, to quote Mr. Long, “it gives me somebody to cuss -out, and I can’t make a speech that’s worth a damn unless -I’m raising hell about what my enemies are doing.”</p> - -<p>Only one stubborn stronghold of this sort really irked him -by its refusal to capitulate. This was the parish of St. Landry, -whose seat was Opelousas. Always independent of alien dictation, -this fourth-largest county in Louisiana had remained uncompromisingly -anti-Long under the leadership of a couple of -patriarchal autocrats: Judge Benjamin Pavy, tall, heavy-set, -and wide-shouldered, with a roundish countenance against -whose rather sallow complexion a white mustache stood out -in sharp contrast; and District Attorney Lee Garland, short -and plump, his features pink beneath a flowing crest of white -hair.</p> - -<p>Garland, much the elder, had held office continuously for -forty-four years, Judge Pavy for twenty-eight. The latter had -been elected to the district bench in 1908, after an exceptionally -bitter local contest in which the leader of the anti-Pavy -forces, Sheriff Marion Swords, went so far as to charge that -one of Ben Pavy’s distant relatives-in-law was an individual -the purity of whose Caucasian ancestry was open to challenge. -Since Judge Pavy was elected not only then, but continuously -thereafter for the next twenty-eight years in election -after election, it is obvious the report was given no credence -at the time. With the passage of years, the incident was forgotten.</p> - -<p>The situation in the parish of St. Landry would not have -disturbed Huey Long too greatly, had there not been the<span class="pagenum" id="Page44">[44]</span> -possibility that in some future state Supreme Court election -the heavy vote of that parish might upset the high tribunal’s -political four-to-three Long-faction majority. On this ground -alone it might be important for the Kingfish to alter the -political climate of the St. Landry judicial district before the -larger demands of an approaching presidential campaign monopolized -his time and energy.</p> - -<p>A matter of prestige was likewise involved. It was Long’s -purpose to take the stump personally in the St. Landry area, -in order to bring about the defeat of its heavily entrenched -Pavy-Garland faction and score a personal triumph. On the -other hand, if through some mischance his persuasive oratory -and the well-drilled efficiency of his cohorts failed to carry -the day, the result would be hailed not merely in Louisiana, -but throughout the nation, as a personal defeat for the Kingfish. -Hence, nothing must be left to chance. Matters must be -so arranged that failure was to all intents and purposes impossible.</p> - -<p>This involved no very serious difficulties. Earlier that summer, -when he first outlined to his lieutenants plans for liquidating -the Pavy-Garland entente as a politically potent -factor, he gave orders to prepare for a special session of the legislature, -this one to be called as soon as Congress adjourned. -Once convened, the lawmakers were to gerrymander St. -Landry from the thirteenth into the fifteenth judicial district. -This would leave Evangeline (Dr. Vidrine’s home bailiwick), -small but overwhelmingly pro-Long, as the only parish in the -thirteenth district, thus assuring the election of a friendly -judge there.</p> - -<p>At the same time, it would annex St. Landry to another -district which already included three large pro-Long parishes. -Admittedly, the enlarged district would be given two judges -instead of one, but under the new arrangement neither could -possibly be elected without Long’s endorsement.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page45">[45]</span></p> - -<p>Senator Long took it for granted that his wishes—commands, -rather—would be complied with at once. But some -close friends earnestly urged him to forgo the gerrymander, -at least temporarily. Political feeling was running too high -as matters stood to risk possible violence, perhaps even a -popular uprising, through such high-handed and summary -procedures. Reluctantly, he agreed to hold this particular project -in abeyance, but only for the moment.</p> - -<p>At the close of August, however, with Congress in adjournment, -and in view of the need to neutralize the federal government’s -policy of patronage distribution solely for the benefit -of his political foes back home, he decided that the time -for action was at hand. Once more he sent word to Baton -Rouge that preparations for a special legislative session, the -fourth of that calendar year, be started without further delay. -It should be convened on the night of Saturday, September -7.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile certain bills, embodying the statutory changes -he wanted, should be drafted forthwith by Executive Counsel -George Wallace, so that he—Huey—could check their wording -in advance, and make any amendments he deemed necessary. -This must be done with secrecy—not the sort of puerile -intrigue with which his opponents had assembled their hotel -conference, but under a tight cloak of concealment, so as to -catch the opposition unawares. The gerrymander that would -retire Judge Pavy to private life was to be the first measure -introduced and passed, becoming House Bill Number One -and later Act Number One. The date of the state’s congressional -primaries was also to be moved up from September -1936 to January. These should be held at the same time as -the primaries for governor and other elective state officers. -And there was another measure, one still in the planning -stage, the details of which he would give later; something to<span class="pagenum" id="Page46">[46]</span> -take the sting out of Roosevelt’s punitive dispensation of -federal patronage in Louisiana.</p> - -<p>Having disposed of these matters, Long left Washington -for New York with three of his most trusted bodyguards—Murphy -Roden, Paul Voitier, and Theophile Landry. All he -had in mind at the moment was a day or two of relaxation. -August 30 was his birthday. He would be forty-two years old. -This in itself called for some sort of celebration. Besides, in -view of the busy weeks ahead—the Labor Day speech in Oklahoma -on September 2, the special session of the legislature, -the need to rush <i>My First Days in the White House</i> into -print, the fall and winter campaign for state offices, the presidential -campaign to follow—this might well be, for no one -knew how long, his last opportunity for casual diversion.</p> - -<p>“We flew to New York from Washington,” Captain Landry -recalls, “and went straight to the New Yorker Hotel, where -they always put the Senator in a suite on the thirty-second -floor. We got there on August 29. I remember that because -the next day, a Friday, was his birthday, and Ralph Hitz, -the owner of the hotel, sent up a big birthday cake. Lila Lee, -a New Orleans girl who was vocalist for Nick Lucas’ band -that was playing the New Yorker’s supper room, came up to -the suite with the cake to sing Happy-birthday-dear-Huey. -After the cake had been cut and we all had a taste of it, he -gave the rest to Miss Lee.</p> - -<p>“About that time Lou Irwin came up to take us out to -dinner. I think the Senator had talked to him on the phone -about finding someone to publish his book, and that Lou had -said this was out of his line, since he was a theatrical agent, -but he would inquire around and see what could be done. -Earle Christenberry wasn’t with us. He had remained in -Washington to gather up all the things the Senator might -need in Louisiana, papers and so on, and he was going to<span class="pagenum" id="Page47">[47]</span> -take his time driving home with them while we went on to -Oklahoma City.</p> - -<p>“Anyway, Lou Irwin said he had just booked a show into -some place uptown. I have forgotten the name of it; all I remember -is it was quite a ways uptown, and Lou told us they -had just imported from France some chef that made the best -onion soup in the world.</p> - -<p>“So we went there to eat, and we had hardly sat down when -who should come over to our table but Phil Baker, the radio -star. He said: ‘Senator, I want you to meet the two most -beautiful girls in New York, my wife Peggy and her niece.’ I -don’t remember the niece’s name, but she was a young girl -that looked to be about eighteen, and she was very pretty. -Baker was all excited, talking about having just signed a contract -that very day with the Gulf Refining people to take over -their radio show, the one Will Rogers, who got killed in a -plane crash with Wiley Post up in Alaska a couple of weeks -before that, used to do.”</p> - -<p>The name of the niece was Cleanthe Carr. Her father, Gene -Carr, was one of the best-known cartoonists and comic-strip -originators in the country. His work was widely syndicated.</p> - -<p>“The Senator got up to dance with Mrs. Baker,” the Landry -account continues, “and she must have told him, while they -were dancing, about this niece being an artist, because when -they came back to the table he picked up a napkin and gave -it to this girl, saying: ‘Young lady, I understand you’re quite -a cartoonist. Let’s see you sketch me here on this napkin!’ -Well, she made a perfect sketch of him, with his arms out and -his hair flying, as though he were making a hell-fire speech. -He thought the sketch was fine, but Phil Baker said we ought -to see some of her serious work, and we all should come up -to his apartment, where he had quite a few of the paintings -she had done.</p> - -<p>“So we left. I don’t think Lou Irwin came with us. But<span class="pagenum" id="Page48">[48]</span> -anyway, after we had been quite a long while at the Baker -apartment, Senator Long said the niece would have to do the -pictures for his book that he had written about how he was -already elected president and what he did in the White House -to redistribute the wealth after he was inaugurated. By the -time we got back to the hotel it was three o’clock in the morning.</p> - -<p>“The Senator went over to the newsstand to look at the -headlines in the morning papers, and a gentleman who had -been in the lobby when we came in got up and came over -to me and asked if my name was Captain Landry. I told him -yes, that was right, and he said he wanted to talk to Mr. Long. -I said: ‘Man, don’t you see what time it is? You haven’t got -a chance to see him now. You better come back tomorrow.’</p> - -<p>“So he said it was very important for him to talk to the -Senator right away, that he had been sent up from Washington -by Earle Christenberry, and that was how he knew what -my name was. He also said he represented the Harrisburg -<i>Telegraph</i> Publishing Company in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, -and they were anxious to publish the Senator’s book about -his first days in the White House. Naturally, that made a -difference, because that was one of the things Senator Long -had come to New York for, so I went across the lobby to the -newsstand and told him what the story was.</p> - -<p>“At first he said he wasn’t about to talk to anybody that -time of night, but when I told him how Earle had sent the -man up special because the Harrisburg <i>Telegraph</i> people -wanted to publish the book, and how the man said he had -just missed us when we went out to supper, and had been -waiting in the lobby ever since, the Senator said: ‘Well, all -right, then. Tell him to come up to 3200 in about ten minutes, -but make him understand he’ll have to talk damn fast when -he gets there.’ So I did, and the man—I have forgotten his -name; that’s if I ever knew it—didn’t have to talk so fast after<span class="pagenum" id="Page49">[49]</span> -all, because the meeting didn’t break up till after five o’clock, -when we all just about barely had time to get packed and -catch the first train for Harrisburg.</p> - -<p>“This was Saturday morning, August 31, and we went from -the station at Harrisburg right to the office of the newspaper -and I know they must have reached an agreement about printing -the book, because when we left by train for St. Louis that -evening, two stenographers and a sort of editor from the Harrisburg -<i>Telegraph</i> came along, and they were working most of -the night and all the next morning, cutting down the manuscript -for this book. It was too long the way it was written. -Anyhow, as I remember, they cut out two hundred pages, and -finished just about the time we got ready to cross the bridge -and pull into St. Louis, where we only had about five minutes -to change to the train for Oklahoma City.</p> - -<p>“This was a Sunday morning, and while I don’t know how -the word had got around St. Louis that Huey Long was passing -through, I tell you that old station there was packed and -jammed like nobody ever saw before, with people that were -not working, it being Sunday, so they just wanted to catch -one glimpse of the man while he was passing through.”</p> - -<p>Senator Long, Theophile Landry, and Paul Voitier, another -bodyguard, reached Oklahoma City late that afternoon. Only -one public official, Mayor Frank Martin, was at the station -to greet the distinguished visitor.</p> - -<p>“Officials in Fadeout as Huey Lands” headlined the Oklahoma -City <i>Times</i>. Most conspicuous among the absentees -was State Labor Commissioner W. A. Murphy who, when invited -by the local Trades and Labor Council some days earlier -to appear jointly with Long as one of the Labor Day speakers, -replied:</p> - -<p>“I won’t be near or in a parade or program with that fellow.... -A man trying to destroy the only President who ever<span class="pagenum" id="Page50">[50]</span> -tried to help union labor doesn’t deserve the support of labor, -let alone being its guest.”</p> - -<p>Long was suffering from an attack of hay fever and from -near-exhaustion when he reached the Black Hotel. He had -had almost no sleep since the previous Friday morning. But -he was in better spirits the next day when he greeted among -others Kaye Dawson, the produce merchant for whom he had -been a part-time salesman in Norman during his brief interlude -of trying to work his way through the law school of the -University of Oklahoma. It is worth noting, however, that -when Dawson invited him to visit his home, Long stipulated -that both Landry and Voitier be included in the invitation.</p> - -<p>He rode in the Labor Day parade that morning, too, and -returned to his hotel suite to hold an impromptu press conference -about his Share-Our-Wealth program. But when one -of the reporters asked him whether he had ever pressed the -charge, made only two or three weeks earlier, that several Louisiana -congressmen were plotting his death, he snapped:</p> - -<p>“I’m tired of talking. If you can’t stay here without asking -questions, get the hell out. Can’t you see I’m tired?”</p> - -<p>That afternoon the Labor Day crowd at the Fair Grounds -cheered his speech lustily, even his attacks on Roosevelt and -Hoover, whom he compared to the peddler of two patent -medicines, High Popalorum and Low Popahiram, both being -made from the bark of the same tree.</p> - -<p>“But for one the peddler peeled the bark off from the top -down,” he explained, “and for the other he peeled it off from -the bottom up. And that’s the way it is at Washington. Roosevelt -and his crowd are skinning us from the ear down, and -Hoover and the Republicans are doing the job from the ankle -up. But they’ve both been skinning us and there ain’t either -side left now.”</p> - -<p>“Huey May Toss Hat,” headlined the <i>Oklahoman</i> next day, -and quoted Huey’s promise that “if Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page51">[51]</span> -Hoover are the nominees next year, or anyone that looks like -Roosevelt or Hoover, we will have us another candidate.”</p> - -<p>He left almost immediately after the rally, even though the -only available eastbound train would carry him no farther -along the road to Louisiana than Dallas. From that point he -and his two bodyguards motored to Shreveport, where they -were met by another of the bodyguards, George McQuiston, -who had been dispatched from Baton Rouge in a state-police -car to await the Senator’s coming.</p> - -<p>They passed the night at the Washington-Youree Hotel, -where the Kingfish conferred with his local political satraps. -The following morning he and his entourage left for Baton -Rouge, arriving in time to begin a day-and-night series of -meetings with Governor Allen, George Wallace, Secretary of -State Eugene Conway, and others. There Landry and the -Senator parted company.</p> - -<p>“He said for me to go to New Orleans and rest there, and -go on a vacation if I wanted to,” Landry added. “He said -something about all of us going on a vacation soon, just as -soon as things in Baton Rouge got settled. If only I had stayed -with him I might have been where I could save his life! But -the one thing that never came into my mind was that anybody -would try anything in Baton Rouge. Not in Baton -Rouge, where he was always surrounded by some of us ... -not in Baton Rouge where you’d think he’d surely be -safe....”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page52">[52-<br />53]<a id="Page53"></a></span></p> - -<h2>5 —— <span class="smcap">September 3 to September 7</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p>“<i>There is nothing more difficult -to undertake, more uncertain -to succeed, and more -dangerous to manage, than to -prescribe new laws.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——MACHIAVELLI</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Tuesday far into the night, throughout Wednesday, and again -Thursday until well past noon, Long labored with attorneys, -officials, secretaries, and typists, going over and over the measures -to be introduced when the forthcoming special legislative -session was convened. The streamlined rush with which -such bills were speeded to final enactment in less than five -days did not allow for delays to correct them once they had -been dropped into the hopper.</p> - -<p>The system that made this possible was not original with -the Kingfish. It had been devised by two astute parliamentarians, -Oramel Simpson and George Wallace, to meet the -exigencies of a flood crisis in 1927.</p> - -<p>By convening the legislature late at night, with all bills -whipped into final shape before the lawmakers assembled, -having one member introduce all the bills, suspending the -rules to have them all referred at once, and all to the same -committee, regardless of content, what would otherwise be -delayed by being parceled out on two separate legislative days -could be accomplished in a matter of minutes.</p> - -<p>Then, immediately after midnight, or even the next morning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page54">[54]</span> -the committee could meet, gallop through the dossier, -give all administration-sponsored measures a favorable report, -and turn thumbs down on all anti-administration proposals -(the record was forty-four bills thus “considered” in an hour -and seven minutes), report them back to the House, and order -them engrossed and put on the calendar for final action -the next morning. That would be another legislative day.</p> - -<p>On the morrow the House would then pass the bills as -fast as the clerk could mumble a few words of the title -and the members could press the electric-voting-machine buttons. -Immediately thereafter the bills would be rushed across -the corridor to the Senate, where the same routine would be -followed.</p> - -<p>Thus the third legislative day in the House would also be -the first legislative day in the Senate, so that a few minutes -after the fourth midnight, the governor could sign the bills -into law, each measure having been read “in full” on three -separate days in each house.</p> - -<p>This was a brilliant device for meeting an emergency; the -iniquity of it lay in the fact that, when employed as routine, -it shut off all real study of the proposals, and barred opponents -or representatives of the public from being heard on them before -committees.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">By Thursday noon, September 5, everything was in readiness -for the introduction at a moment’s notice of thirty-one -administration- (i.e., “Long”) sponsored must bills—all this -without one official word to indicate that a special session -was so much as contemplated. None the less, among the press -correspondents in the capitol gallery it was taken for granted -that such an assembly would be convened at the weekend; but -when they pressed Senator Long to confirm or deny the surmise, -he professed complete ignorance.</p> - -<p>“As far’s I know,” he said blandly, “Oscar hasn’t made up<span class="pagenum" id="Page55">[55]</span> -his mind about if he’ll call one any time soon. Leastaways he -never said a word to me about it.”</p> - -<p>“When are you going to make up his mind so he can tell -you?” quipped one of the reporters.</p> - -<p>“He’d near about kill you if he heard you say that,” chuckled -the Kingfish good-naturedly, “and his wife would finish -the job.”</p> - -<p>He spent some time then chatting informally with rural -well-wishers, while waiting for Murphy Roden, who had -driven the Cadillac with License Plate Number 1 from Washington -to New Orleans and was to call for its owner that -afternoon in Baton Rouge. The Senator was due to make -one of his fiery radio broadcasts over a state-wide hookup that -night at eight in the Roosevelt Hotel. After a late lunch at -the Heidelberg Hotel coffee shop he read the first installment -of a biographical sketch of his career which had just appeared -on the newsstands that day in the <i>Saturday Evening Post</i>. -Then at length, with a group of friends and a cadre of -bodyguards to see him off, he left for New Orleans. The bystanders -urged him in parting to “pour it on ’em, Kingfish -... give ’em hell, Huey, you’re just the boy that can -do it!” The party reached the Roosevelt barely five minutes -before he was scheduled to begin broadcasting.</p> - -<p>He spoke that night for a little more than three hours, interrupting -the early portion of his program from time to time -to say, as was his custom on such occasions:</p> - -<p>“This is Senator Huey P. Long talking, and since the lying -newspapers won’t tell you these things, I’ll get the boys to -play a little music for the next five minutes or so, and while -they’re doing that you go call some friends and neighbors -on the telephone and let them know I’m on the air, and if -they really want the truth they can turn on their radios and -tune in.”</p> - -<p>One of the major proposals he made public that night was<span class="pagenum" id="Page56">[56]</span> -a project for enabling unusually gifted high-school students -to continue their education through college at virtually no -cost to themselves or their parents. Education for the underprivileged—e.g., -the free-schoolbook law—had been one of -the most potent elements in the grand strategy of his drive -for popular support when he first entered public life. It highlighted -the last public address of his career as well.</p> - -<p>“One thousand boys and girls,” he pledged, “will be given a -practically free college education at L.S.U. next year. We’ll select -the ones that make the best grades and send them through -college, a thousand of them for a starter. I already asked -Dr. Smith [Louisiana State University president] whether -he could do it beginning this fall, if we came up with -a hundred thousand dollars extra for the University appropriation, -and he said, well, he might be able to do it, anyway -he would try. So I asked him could he do it if we gave -him an extra two hundred thousand dollars, and he said -yes indeed he sure could. So I told him we would give him -<i>three</i> hundred thousand dollars just to make sure he had -enough.”</p> - -<p>Of course he attacked the Roosevelt administration at the -national level and for its intrusion via patronage into the -local arena of Louisiana politics; and equally of course he -“poured it on” Mayor Walmsley, Congressman Sandlin, “the -whole old plunderbund that you’ve done got rid of once and -that Roosevelt is trying to saddle back onto you.”</p> - -<p>At intervals the musicians would play “Every Man a King,” -and Senator Long, who claimed authorship of the lyrics but -could not carry a tune, would recite one chorus to the band’s -accompaniment; and once he recited a chorus of “Sweetheart -of L.S.U.,” for which he had also written the lyrics to music -composed by Castro Carrazo, the state university’s bandmaster.</p> - -<p>At the end of his three-hour stint he was driven to his<span class="pagenum" id="Page57">[57]</span> -home in posh Audubon Boulevard and spent the night there -with his family. But he was up and away early enough the -next morning—Friday—to eat breakfast in the Roosevelt Hotel -coffee shop, talking with an uninterrupted succession of -callers while he was at the table, and again in his twelfth-floor -suite, access to which could be gained only if one were -passed by a succession of bodyguards. Technically, these were -officers of the State Bureau of Investigation and Identification, -which had come into being during Long’s term as governor.</p> - -<p>The bill creating it was introduced by an anti-Long member -as a nonpolitical measure, at a time when Louisiana had -no state constabulary. The jurisdiction of each sheriff and -his deputies was restricted to his county. What the backers of -the new measure sought was the creation of a force which, -working in conjunction with the F.B.I., would have state-wide -jurisdiction.</p> - -<p>Instead of opposing this, on the ground that it was inspired -by political opponents, Long espoused it enthusiastically, -and then turned it into a personal elite guard whose -powers were broader than those of any mere local peace officer. -Certain particularly trustworthy members of the group -were assigned to duty as his bodyguards.</p> - -<p>They screened all who sought to approach him in his -twelfth-floor retreat at the Roosevelt where he remained -throughout Friday, busily instructing influential leaders on -how best to speed the work of the special session which would -be convened on the following night. Earlier he had summoned -Earle Christenberry from his home to the hotel, hoping to -straighten out his income-tax situation. Two ninety-day postponements -on making a return had already been extended to -him by the Bureau. However, there would be no further extensions, -he was told. A return would have to be made by -September 15. None the less, an unending stream of visitors<span class="pagenum" id="Page58">[58]</span> -made it impossible for these two to seclude themselves to -prepare the belated return.</p> - -<p>Much of the day’s discussion concerned itself with the potential -candidates for the Long slate in the approaching January -election. Most of the minor officials—state auditor, register -of the land office, commissioner of agriculture, and the like—would -be endorsed for re-election as a matter of course. All -had been Long stalwarts for years. But under the constitution -a governor was prohibited from succeeding himself, and since -Justice Fournet’s elevation to the state Supreme Court, the -lieutenant-governorship had been filled by an acting president -pro tem of the Senate.</p> - -<p>A number of top-echelon figures in the Long organization -each advanced claims to selection as gubernatorial candidate. -Each regarded himself as the logical choice.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, as late as Friday afternoon, the Kingfish continued -to insist to reporters who inquired about the rumored -special session that “Oscar” had not yet told him when or -whether a summons to such a legislative assembly would be -issued ... and even while he was telling the newsmen this, -highway motorcycle officers were delivering to every rural -doorway in the state a circular which had been rushed into -print at Baton Rouge two days earlier.</p> - -<p>The text on one side of this fly-sheet followed the standard -pattern of a Long attack on all who might oppose the -program to be furthered by the special session, those who -“want to put [us] back into the hands of thugs, thieves and -scoundrels, who loaded the state down with debt and gave -the people nothing, who kept the people in the mud and deprived -their children of education....”</p> - -<p>The other side of the sheet bore an equally vehement excoriation -of President Roosevelt and his regime, which was -using the weight of federal patronage and federal tax money -to defeat “our” movement ... “the man who promised to<span class="pagenum" id="Page59">[59]</span> -redistribute the wealth, but we know now he is not going to -keep his word....”</p> - -<p>He remained in his suite until dinnertime, when he joined -Seymour Weiss in the Fountain Lounge, and made an engagement -to play golf with him at the Audubon Park Club’s -course in the morning. To Earle Christenberry’s admonition -about the inescapable need to file his income tax before the -fifteenth he said:</p> - -<p>“Come up to Baton Rouge Sunday morning, and we’ll work -in the apartment in the State House where we won’t be interrupted. -Bring the papers with you.”</p> - -<p>He slept well that night—Friday—and rose refreshed to -drive out to Audubon Park with Seymour Weiss in the latter’s -spandy-new Cadillac, which had been delivered only the afternoon -before, and would be ruined the next night by the reckless -speed with which, not yet broken in, it was driven to -Baton Rouge after news of the shooting reached New Orleans.</p> - -<p>The morning was pleasant, and Senator Long enjoyed the -game to the fullest. An indifferent golfer at best, he played -primarily for the thrill of sending an occasional long drive -screaming down the fairway. Whenever he achieved this, and -more particularly if in doing so he outdistanced his friend -Seymour’s drive, he shouted with a delight which not even -an ensuing flubbed approach could quench.</p> - -<p>The game also gave him an opportunity to discuss current -developments and problems with one of the few friends he -trusted completely. That Saturday he and Weiss seated themselves -on a tee bench, and let foursome after foursome go -through while they talked in the only relative privacy available -to them. What about the federal patronage impasse?</p> - -<p>“I told him,” Mr. Weiss recalls, “that some of the leaders -were worrying. After all, if the Walmsley-Sandlin people were -the only ones who could give out those federal jobs.... And -he interrupted me at that point and asked me had I ever heard<span class="pagenum" id="Page60">[60]</span> -of the tenth article of the Bill of Rights? Well, of course I -had, and told him so. He said yes, everybody had heard of it, -but did I realize what was in it?</p> - -<p>“Then he went on to explain that while it was only about -three lines long, it provided that anything not specifically permitted -to the federal government or forbidden to the states -by the Constitution was straight-out reserved to the individual -states or to the people.</p> - -<p>“I said something like all right, so what then, and he said, -as nearly as I can remember his words:</p> - -<p>“‘So then there’s a bill going into that special session tonight—Oscar -must have done issued the call by this time—providing -a thousand-dollar fine and one hell of a heavy jail -term for any federal employee who interferes with Louisiana’s -rights under Article Ten. So anybody that uses federal -funds to interfere with our program is going to be arrested -and tried under the law we’re about to pass. That’ll give them -something to think about up yonder.’</p> - -<p>“I didn’t believe any such law as that could be made to -hold water and said so, and even he admitted that it was open -to interpretation, though he still thought it was perfectly -sound. But he also said it wouldn’t make any difference because -long before the question could reach the Supreme -Court at Washington and be settled, that federal-patronage -deal would be so badly scrambled up it wouldn’t affect the -outcome of our election in January one bit. He also said he -had been telling all our people to take every slick dime of -Washington money that was offered to them, and then go to -the polls and vote for our candidates, because his program -would do more for them than they ever would get out of those -lousy WPA jobs.</p> - -<p>“The main thing he tried to impress on me that morning -was that I could forget all my worries about the presidential -campaign. ‘Everything’s in wonderful shape,’ he said to me.<span class="pagenum" id="Page61">[61]</span> -‘It’s never been in better shape. All the money we’re going to -need we already have in hand, I mean we’ve got it right now, -not just pledges but cash; and on top of that we’ve got a load -of affidavits and other documents about some of the things -that have been going on, a stack of papers heavy enough to -break down a bullock.’</p> - -<p>“As I remember, I asked if this was the material in the -vaults of the Riggs National Bank, and that was when he -really surprised me. He said no, everything had been taken -out of the Riggs vaults just a few days before he left Washington, -and put in another place for safekeeping. But he -didn’t say where he had put it, and I didn’t ask. After all, he -was the one to decide where he wanted it, and why, and if -the time ever came when it was important for me to know -where it was, he would tell me. And besides, he was so confident -about everything being in the best possible shape, so -sure things couldn’t be better, that I felt no anxiety about it.</p> - -<p>“‘We’re going to handle the campaign exactly the same -way as we did in the West for that double-crossing Roosevelt -in 1932,’ he told me. ‘Between us, we’ll pick out the main -towns in each state, and you’ll go there five or six days in advance -and try to line up someone who will serve as chairman -of the meeting when I get there.’ That is how we did it in -1932, and it wasn’t always easy, because hunting for Democrats -in the Dakotas in those days, or in Minnesota, was exactly -like the old one about the needle in a haystack. In some -of those towns there just wasn’t a Democrat. But I would -stick to it and find someone, no matter who. If the only Democrat -I could produce was a truck driver, all right. Huey would -have a truck driver for chairman of the meeting he would address -on behalf of Franklin Roosevelt for president.</p> - -<p>“‘It’ll be a lot easier this time,’ Huey went on while we -were talking during that Saturday golf game, ‘because you -know and I know I make my best speeches when I’m taking<span class="pagenum" id="Page62">[62]</span> -the hide off of somebody. I never could make a decent Fourth -of July oration in my whole damn life. But give me something -to raise hell about and somebody to blame for doing it, -like I had when I was campaigning for Mrs. Caraway in Arkansas, -and nobody can stop me!</p> - -<p>“‘Not only that, but you’ll get on the radio and give out -interviews to the newspapers before I hit town, with all that -same old business about this interesting and controversial -personality that’s about to come to town, the man they had -been reading and hearing so much about, and they would -have this chance to come out and find out the truth for themselves. -Also what date he’ll be there and so on, and how he -would talk about a topic of importance to the whole country, -and most of all to them, with Joe Whoozis to preside -over the meeting, and that’ll draw a big crowd every time, no -matter if they’re Democrats or what. And no matter if they’re -Democrats or what I’ll have every last, living one of them -talking and thinking and voting my way before I get through.’</p> - -<p>“You see, all Huey ever wanted was to get a crowd in front -of him. You could leave the rest to him. He had done just -that in Arkansas three years before, and everything was better -organized by 1935. Not only would I be there with arrangements -and interviews, but the boys would have come to town -and distributed literature and cartoon circulars to every house -in the place and printed copies of some of Huey’s speeches -about share-the-wealth and so on.</p> - -<p>“‘We’ll do it just like Arkansas, only on a hell of a lot bigger -scale,’ he said. ‘We’ll have all the copies we need of <i>My -First Days in the White House</i> along with the Share-Our-Wealth -book, which we didn’t have in ’32, and when I come -to town with the sound trucks and deliver the speech of my -life, you just watch them flock over to our side.... Yes, sure, -there’s enough money to pay for all those books and pamphlets -and everything else we’ll need.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page63">[63]</span></p> - -<p>“How much money was in that box? I haven’t any idea, -and I don’t think anyone else ever knew. It came from all -sorts of sources. State and city employees contributed two -per cent of their pay for campaign purposes. Those were the -so-called deducts. Then there were campaign contributions -from people who disliked Roosevelt and believed Huey could -whip him, and didn’t care whether he called himself Republican -or Democrat or Vegetarian, just so long as he licked Roosevelt -or made it possible for somebody else to lick him. Also, -there were contributions from people who were under obligations -to Huey, like the banks he kept solvent in Louisiana. I -don’t believe even he had any idea how much the total came -to. A million, maybe; maybe several millions. All I know for -certain sure is that he said for me not to worry about financing -the campaign, that we had every round dollar we ever -would need of campaign expenses already put away for safekeeping -after he took it out of the Riggs bank vaults—and to -this day nobody has ever been able to find out what became -of it!</p> - -<p>“During the course of our game that morning, walking -down the fairways, we talked a lot about the governorship -too. As I remember it, Huey mentioned a number of names, -and some he said just didn’t have what it’d take to run a -state, and about some he said he didn’t want to buck the -north Louisiana prejudice against voting for a Catholic for -governor, because there was no use making a campaign any -harder than you absolutely had to, even if you could win it -anyway.</p> - -<p>“The one thing he said we’d have to be careful about was -that if he picked one of the half dozen or so that regarded -themselves each one as the rightful Long candidate, he would -make some of the others so sore there would be a chance of a -split in the party, and that was one thing he wanted to -avoid.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page64">[64]</span></p> - -<p>“Well, with all our time out for talking, it was about two -o’clock in the afternoon when we finished our round. He had -certainly seemed to enjoy it, both the exercise and the chance -to talk without having every Tom, Dick, and Harry coming -over to interrupt and say he just wanted to shake hands. Also -it must have been a relief to be able to talk without worrying -about people listening in or repeating what he was supposed -to have said.</p> - -<p>“We went back to the hotel for lunch. He said there was -no need of me coming up to Baton Rouge either that night -or the next day, as the first time the bills would come up for -passage would be in the House on Monday morning; it would -be just routine up to that time. So I said Bob Maestri [State -Conservation Commissioner and later for ten years mayor of -New Orleans] and I would be in Baton Rouge on Monday -morning, and then we parted. Murphy Roden had been waiting -to drive Huey to the capitol, and they left, right after -lunch. Everything indicated the going would be so smooth -and easy. Who could have dreamed that the next time I saw -him, only a day later, he would be waiting for Dr. Maes to -come up from New Orleans and try to save his life?”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Baton Rouge’s hotel lobbies and the State House corridors -alike were crowded by the time Murphy Roden and the Senator -reached the skyscraper capitol, where they went at once -to his apartment on the twenty-fourth floor. He had the state -maintain a suite for him there because he felt that at that -height the freedom from pollen and dust enabled him to sleep -better.</p> - -<p>Most of the House members were already on hand, but -many of the senators did not trouble to put in an appearance -until the following day. Since all bills were to be introduced -in the House, the Senate had nothing more momentous on -its agenda than to meet, answer roll call, listen to the chaplain’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page65">[65]</span> -invocation, and appoint two committees. One of these -would solemnly inform the governor, and the other the -House, that the Senate of Louisiana was lawfully convened -and ready for business. Having conveyed this somewhat less -than startling intelligence, the token quorum by which a constitutional -mandate had been fulfilled could, and in fact did, -adjourn until Monday afternoon, at which time all bills duly -passed by the lower house would be laid before them.</p> - -<p>These would be headed by House Bill Number One, the -anti-Pavy gerrymander, and a somewhat similar measure -which was designed to keep Congressman J. Y. Sanders, Jr., -from returning to his home in Baton Rouge to run for a -judgeship. His father, a former governor and congressman, -stood at the very head of Huey Long’s <i>bête noire</i> list. Another -measure high on Long’s “must” roster made provision -for the fact that his current senatorial term would expire unless -renewed in the fall of 1936 by re-election.</p> - -<p>But in one-party Louisiana, the Democratic primary was -the only actual election, even though technically it selected -merely a party nominee. Its date was fixed for September -by the state election law as this statute currently stood. -Obviously, a campaign for a senatorial primary to be held in -the fall of 1936 would play hob with Long’s plans to run -against Roosevelt for the presidency that same season. Consequently, -one of Huey’s thirty-one must bills amended the -state election law by setting the primary’s date ahead from -September to January. Thus Mr. Long could win the Democratic -nomination (equivalent to election in Louisiana) for -senator at the year’s outset; with that as paid-up political insurance -he would be free to devote the balance of 1936 to his -presidential campaign.</p> - -<p>Another of the must bills is significant in this connection -in spite of the fact that it was rooted in a strictly personal -grudge, because it so strikingly exemplifies the savagery with<span class="pagenum" id="Page66">[66]</span> -which at an earlier stage of his career Long made Negro affiliation -the prime target of political attack.</p> - -<p>Dudley J. LeBlanc, a Southwest Louisiana Acadian, had -run for governor several times, had been a legislator off and -on, and would one day become a millionaire as author and -high priest of a nostrum called Hadacol. He and Long had -been allies as members of the Public Service Commission in -the old days, but had fallen out and had been at swords’ points -ever since.</p> - -<p>Defeated by the Kingfish when he sought to retain his office, -LeBlanc organized a burial-insurance society of a type -immensely popular among the Negroes. Since he catered -primarily to this segment of the population, he put in a Negro -nominal president of the “coffin club,” as Long invariably -called it. In the columns of his weekly newspaper, <i>The American -Progress</i>, Long thereafter lost no opportunity to reproduce -what purported to be one of the brochures issued by -LeBlanc’s company, showing pictures of LeBlanc and the -Negro officers of the company together. Ultimately, Long had -a law passed banning from Louisiana that type of insurance -society.</p> - -<p>LeBlanc thereafter moved the company’s home office across -the state line into Texas, and continued in business. Although -no longer pillorying opponents by reason of Negro affiliation, -Long included in his must bills a prohibition against publishing, -printing, or broadcasting in Louisiana any advertising -matter by insurance companies not authorized to do business -in the state.</p> - -<p>Occupied with these and a thousand and one other such -minutiae of legislative procedure, Long remained on the main -floor of the capitol that Saturday night until the House adjourned, -trailing a nimbus of bodyguards as he dashed back -and forth between Governor Allen’s office and the House -chamber. Some of his leading supporters tried vainly to keep<span class="pagenum" id="Page67">[67]</span> -up with him: Dr. Vidrine, “Cousin Jessie” Nugent, Dr. -Clarence Lorio, Louisiana State University president James -Monroe Smith. These had little to occupy them, for all the -must bills were introduced by their “official” author, Chairman -Burke of the Ways and Means Committee; and under a -suspension of the rules, each was immediately referred to Mr. -Burke’s committee as quickly as he could say “Ways and -Means” and Speaker Ellender could utter a contrapuntal -“Any objections? Hearing none, so ordered!”</p> - -<p>Thrill seekers behind the railings and in the gallery had anticipated -at least some show of oratorical fireworks. Disappointed -when they found the proceedings about as exciting as -listening to a couple of clerks take inventory in the kitchenware -stockroom of a department store, they drifted away and -left the capitol for their homes, while Long and the faithful -Murphy Roden retired to the Senator’s twenty-fourth-floor -retreat.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page68">[68-<br />69]<a id="Page69"></a></span></p> - -<h2>6 —— <span class="smcap">September 8: Morning</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Unto us a child is born, unto -us a son is given, and the government -shall be on his shoulder -and his name shall be -called Wonderful.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——ISAIAH</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Young Dr. Carl Weiss, his wife, and his baby son occupied -a modest home on Lakeland Drive, not far from the capitol, -and therefore likewise conveniently near Our Lady of the -Lake Sanitarium, where he did most of his surgical work. -The capitol had been built on what was formerly the state -university campus. From its north façade the windows of -the governor’s office looked out across a small, artificial body -of water, still known as University Lake, to the big hospital -on the opposite bank.</p> - -<p>Thus Dr. Weiss, Jr., and Huey Long were within but a -few blocks of one another when they rose early Sunday morning. -Yvonne Pavy Weiss rose early too. Together she and -her husband woke, fed and dressed their three-months-old -son, Carl Austin Weiss III, and went with him to the home -of Dr. Weiss, Sr., where two doting grandparents fondly took -over the baby’s care, while the young couple went to Mass. -As the elder Dr. Weiss put it in a subsequent statement:</p> - -<p>“I was with [my son] practically all day. He and his wife -came with their baby to our house early in the morning. -They left the baby with me and my wife while they went to<span class="pagenum" id="Page70">[70]</span> -St. Joseph’s Church for Mass. After that, his wife returned -to our house, while my son went to Scheinuk’s [a Baton -Rouge florist] to inquire about a patient who had consulted -him the day before.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Scheinuk gave my son a bouquet of flowers, saying -he had not sent any flowers when the baby was born, and my -son came home saying: ‘Look what Mr. Scheinuk sent the -baby.’ My son and his wife then went to their home, and -returned to take dinner at my house at 1 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>”</p> - -<p>Dr. Weiss, Jr., was twenty-nine years old. He had been -graduated at fifteen from Baton Rouge High School and had -begun his premedical work at Louisiana State University, -transferring to Tulane, where he received his academic degree -as Bachelor of Science in 1925, and his degree as Doctor of -Medicine in 1927.</p> - -<p>“He served as an intern at Tulane,” his father once related, -“and then at the American Hospital in Paris. He studied -under the masters at Vienna, and after completing his -work in Paris, served at Bellevue Hospital in New York. The -last six months of his stay at Bellevue he was chief of clinic. -He then came to Baton Rouge to practice here.”</p> - -<p>He had sailed from Hoboken on the <i>George Washington</i> -on September 19, 1928, and returned to New York on May -19, 1930, aboard the <i>American Farmer</i>. On his customs -declaration, filed when re-entering the United States, he listed -$247 worth of purchases made during his twenty months -abroad, including twenty dollars’ worth of surgical instruments, -a forty-five dollar camera, five dollars’ worth of fencing -equipment, old swords for which he had paid six dollars, and a -pistol for which he had paid eight dollars, a small Belgian -automatic, made on the Browning patents.</p> - -<p>In college and in his postgraduate work he devoted himself -to his studies with a single-mindedness that excluded athletics, -though he seems to have taken up fencing while abroad, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page71">[71]</span> -sport of many European surgeons. One may therefore take -it for granted that while at Tulane he neither shared pilgrimages -to the wide-open gaming establishments just across -the parish line from New Orleans in adjoining areas, nor -patronized the peep-hole Joe-sent-me establishments where -needled beer, home-brew, raisin wine, and cut whisky were -retailed in the sanctified era of national prohibition.</p> - -<p>At one time a story was current that he had met Yvonne -Pavy while both were students in Paris. This was not the case. -She did not leave for France until a year after he had returned -to the United States. An honor graduate of Tulane -University’s Newcomb College for Women, she had been -immensely popular in the social and sorority life of her student -years. In 1931 she was selected as one of a group of -girls who were sent to Paris to represent Acadian Louisiana. -At the same time she was awarded on a competitive basis -a French-government scholarship to the Sorbonne, and extended -her Parisian sojourn to pursue language studies there.</p> - -<p>Returning to Opelousas, she was appointed to a teaching -position in the grade school at St. Martinville, where Emmeline -Labiche, who according to Louisiana tradition was the -prototype of Longfellow’s Evangeline, had died nearly two -centuries before. The following year she went to Baton Rouge -to study for her master’s degree at the state university, where -she taught a French class at the same time.</p> - -<p>Short-lived as it then was, her professional teaching career -did follow a Pavy family tradition. Her sister Marie taught in -one of the Opelousas grade schools, and one of her father’s -brothers, Paul Pavy, was principal of the high school there -until Huey Long, as inflexible in his attitude toward the -Pavy family as Judge Pavy was in his attitude toward him, -dismissed them out of hand by invoking one of the “dictatorship -statutes”—the one requiring the certification of every -public-school employee by a Long-controlled state board.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page72">[72]</span></p> - -<p>When Carl Weiss, Jr., returned to Baton Rouge, he joined -his father in the practice of medicine. However, he was so -determined not to capitalize on the wide esteem and affection -in which the elder Dr. Carl Weiss was held that for a time -he called himself “Dr. C. Austin Weiss.” It was not long, however, -before he built up a substantial practice on his own -account.</p> - -<p>During the course of her postgraduate year at Louisiana -State University, Yvonne Pavy had occasion to visit the office -of the senior Dr. Weiss for treatment of some minor ailment. -When the physician learned of her year at the Sorbonne he -told her of his son’s studies at the American Hospital in -Paris. So they met, Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr., and the daughter -of Judge Ben Pavy of Opelousas. They fell deeply in -love and were married in December 1933. In midsummer -of 1935 their son, the third Carl Austin Weiss, was born, and -the sense of fulfillment this kindled in the happy young -parents was no greater than the affection lavished on him by -his grandparents.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">That same Sunday morning Huey Long ordered breakfast -sent up from the capitol cafeteria to his twenty-fourth-floor -suite. He telephoned Earle Christenberry in New Orleans, -reminding him of their engagement concerning the income-tax -return that must be filed before another seven days passed. -Earle had already packed all the necessary papers, the receipted -bills, the canceled checks drawn by the Senator -against his two accounts, one in the Riggs National Bank at -Washington and one in the National Bank of Commerce at -New Orleans. Earle customarily made out all the checks -for Huey to sign, and deposited the Kingfish’s senatorial salary -to Long’s account.</p> - -<p>“Huey and I had signature cards on file at the Riggs bank -in Washington and the National Bank of Commerce in New<span class="pagenum" id="Page73">[73]</span> -Orleans,” Christenberry explained. “The only checks he wrote -were the ones he issued in New York, and the first I would -know of it was when the cancelled check came with the -monthly statement, or a call from the bank that the account -was overdrawn.”</p> - -<p>Many persons were under the impression that Long also -had a large financial interest in a Win-or-Lose Oil Company -but, says Christenberry, “to my knowledge as secretary-treasurer -of the company, he had no interest in this corporation, -and I so testified in federal court. Months after Huey’s death -one of the stockholders testified that one certificate issued in -his name in reality represented Huey’s holdings, but if he received -dividends they were paid to him in cash by the holder -of that stock certificate, by whom the canceled checks were -endorsed and cashed.”</p> - -<p>Earle reached Baton Rouge some time before noon, and -prepared to go over all the papers with his friend and employer. -But within a short time, the work being little more -than well begun, Long threw up his hands in a characteristic -gesture, as though brushing a distasteful matter out of existence.</p> - -<p>“He said to me,” reported Mr. Christenberry, “‘You know -what this is all about, don’t you?’ and I said I did. ‘Well, all -right then,’ he told me, ‘you take all this stuff back to New -Orleans with you and fill out the forms, and then bring the -whole thing back Monday or Tuesday, and I’ll sign the -damn papers and we’ll be rid of them. Look, I’m not even -going to stay here till the end of this session. I’ll leave Tuesday, -maybe even tomorrow, right after the House passes the -bills, and come down to New Orleans and sign them there. -And you know what we’ll do then? We’ll go on a vacation -together, just you and me, no bodyguards or anything. We’ll -get in your car and go wherever we want to go without making -one single, slivery plan in advance.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page74">[74]</span></p> - -<p>“After that, he and I went down to the cafeteria and had -lunch. Naturally, there was the same steady procession as -always of people coming to the table to say hello, but not so -many as there would have been any other time except Sunday -noon. Most of the legislators and out-of-town politicians -would not be in till later that evening because the Senate -was to be in recess till Monday and the House wasn’t going -to meet till eight, and it was going to be just a short session -to order the bills put on the calendar for the next morning.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">John Fournet was one of the out-of-town notables whose -arrival that evening was expected. He had been a member of -the Long peerage for years, but had refrained from political -activity of that sort ever since his elevation to the state -Supreme Court a year or so earlier.</p> - -<p>None the less, he had been Speaker of the House for four -years, he had been elected to the lieutenant-governorship on -the Long-supported Allen ticket in 1932, and was one of -those whose name was frequently mentioned as Long’s likely -choice for endorsement to become Oscar Allen’s successor.</p> - -<p>Senator Long had requested him to come to the capitol -for a conference, and he had left New Orleans early that morning -for the home of his parents in Jackson, planning to invite -his father to accompany him to Baton Rouge. It would be a -proud thing for the elder Fournet to see the deference paid -his son as a state Supreme Court justice, as an intimate of -the Kingfish, and perhaps as a candidate for governor of -Louisiana.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page75">[75]</span></p> - -<h2>7 —— <span class="smcap">September 8: Afternoon</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“This day may be the last to -any of us at a moment.”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——HORATIO NELSON</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">The thirty-one must bills which were certain to be enacted -into law within no more than three more days were the subject -of Sunday’s mealtime talk throughout Louisiana that -noon. Huey Long was expressing complete confidence as to -what these would do to “put a crimp into Roosevelt’s notion -he can run Louisiana.” Everyone who paused at his table in -the capitol cafeteria was given the same heartening assurance.</p> - -<p>In private homes everywhere authentic information as to -what the new laws would provide was available for the first -time on this day. In New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Monroe, -Alexandria, Shreveport, and Lake Charles the morning papers -had carried full accounts of the introduction of these measures, -giving the subject matter of each bill in summary form.</p> - -<p>Thus the members of the Weiss family at last had before -them full information about the measure which would displace -the father of young Mrs. Weiss from the judicial position -he had held continuously since before she was born. -But the table talk at the senior Dr. Weiss’s home was anything -but dispirited.</p> - -<p>“My son ate heartily and joked at the dinner,” he said when -referring to the occasion; and this was borne out in a statement -by Yvonne’s uncle, Dr. F. Octave Pavy, who was in<span class="pagenum" id="Page76">[76]</span> -Baton Rouge for the session as one of St. Landry parish’s -three House members.</p> - -<p>In any case, while the gerrymander was not ignored in the -Weiss family conversation, it was not looked upon as a disaster; -and after dinner all five—three men named Carl Austin -Weiss and the wives of the two older ones—motored to the -Amite River where Dr. Weiss, Sr., had a summer camp.</p> - -<p>Frequently on such occasions, but by no means always, -Carl and Yvonne took with them the small-caliber Belgian -automatic pistol he had brought back from abroad and customarily -kept in his car when he went out on night calls. -He and his wife would engage in target practice, shooting at -cans either while these were stationary or as they floated down -the placid current of the river.</p> - -<p>But on this particular Sunday they did not bring the gun. -Carl and Yvonne went swimming and had a gay time of it, -while the elders, seated on the warm sand of the high bank, -dandled their wonderful three-month-old grandson.</p> - -<p>“While they were swimming,” Dr. Weiss, Sr., recalled later, -“I remarked to my wife: ‘That boy is just skin and bones,’ -and she said: ‘Yes, we have got to make him take a rest, he -has been working too hard lately.’”</p> - -<p>Seeing them there, that pleasant afternoon, any observer -would have concluded that this was a family group whose -members gave no indication of being troubled by forebodings -of an impending disaster.</p> - -<p>Obviously the wonderful baby must have had a feeding -and an occasional change sometime during the afternoon, -and no doubt he slept in his mother’s arms once the party -tidied up the camp ground, got into the car, and headed -homeward a little after sundown.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">In his high apartment Huey Long, who had not left the -capitol since Murphy Roden drove him to Baton Rouge<span class="pagenum" id="Page77">[77]</span> -from New Orleans on the previous afternoon, gathered his top -legislative and political leaders for a consultation about the -candidate his faction should endorse for governor. His brother -Earl was not among those present, nor was he under consideration -for any elective office. The breach between them -stemmed from the time Earl ran for lieutenant governor on -an anti-Huey ticket three years before.</p> - -<p>Justice Fournet, who stood high in the Kingfish’s favor, was -not present at the conference either. He did not reach the -capitol until well after dark. Another absentee was Judge -Richard W. Leche of the Circuit Court of Appeal, but——</p> - -<p>“Huey had telephoned me to come up for the session,” he -said in recalling what he could of the day’s events. “However, -I had been thrown from a horse just a fortnight or so -before, while vacationing with Mrs. Leche in Arizona. The -fall fractured my left upper arm just below the shoulder. Huey -had joked with me about it, saying it was a pity I hadn’t -broken my neck instead, and I replied that this illustrated -once more his readiness to make any sacrifice for the good of -the state.</p> - -<p>“When he asked me if I would come to Baton Rouge for -the session, I assumed this was because I had been Governor -Allen’s secretary and knew all the legislators. But since it was -hardly proper for a judge of the appellate bench to be a lobbyist -even on behalf of the administration to which he owes -his position, I told him that with my left arm in an airplane -splint it was almost impossible for me to get around, and that -I would have to stay in New Orleans right along to have -dressings changed, and the like. He didn’t seem pleased, but -nothing more was said about it at the time.</p> - -<p>“However, when he called me at my home in Metairie -Sunday afternoon he had something else in mind. The first -thing he asked me was: ‘Dick, what the hell are you, outside -of being an Indian?’ For a moment this had me stumped. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page78">[78]</span> -couldn’t imagine what he meant. Then I remembered that -two or three years earlier, a group of us were chatting about -one thing and another, and the question of religion came up. -That was one thing Huey never bothered about. I mean what -any man’s religious beliefs were. Anyway, someone in the -crowd asked me what my religion was. I answered that as -I saw it, religion was something that dealt with the hereafter, -and the only people who had a hereafter I thought I -could enjoy were the Indians. They believed in a happy -hunting ground, and as for me, give me a gun and a dog and -some shells and you could keep your harps and your wings. -Anyway, I said I guessed that by religion I would be classed -as an Indian. So when Huey asked me over the phone what -I was, aside from being an Indian, I said:</p> - -<p>“‘You mean you’re asking me what my religion is?’</p> - -<p>“‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ he answered. ‘You’re going -to be my candidate for governor, and some of the boys here -said I couldn’t run you because you’re a Catholic and it’s too -tough to swing north Louisiana’s vote to a Catholic for -governor.’</p> - -<p>“‘Well, I was born a Catholic,’ I told him.</p> - -<p>“‘You didn’t run out on them, did you?’ he demanded.</p> - -<p>“‘No,’ I told him, ‘but I changed to the Presbyterian -church a long time back. Now listen, Huey. I’ve got no idea -of running for governor. I’ve got exactly the kind of position -I like, and down here they make a practice of re-electing -judges who have not been guilty of flagrant misconduct, so my -future’s secure.’</p> - -<p>“He said something about how I had better leave all that -to him, and he would see me in New Orleans as soon as the -session was over and we would talk further about it. That -ended the conversation. I never spoke to him again.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Another of the intimates Huey Long summoned to Baton<span class="pagenum" id="Page79">[79]</span> -Rouge that afternoon was Public Service Commissioner (now -Juvenile Court Judge) James P. O’Connor. The reason for -this was never disclosed, for when O’Connor arrived “we just -chatted about a lot of inconsequentialities. One of the things -he was all worked up over was writing some more songs -with Castro Carrazo for the L.S.U. football team.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">The afternoon wore on. Apparently Judge Leche was the -only one in whom the Senator confided about the gubernatorial -selection.</p> - -<p>“Senator Long did not leave the capitol all day,” Murphy -Roden says in telling about the events in which he played -so large a role. “As long as he was in his apartment there was -no break in the stream of people who came to call on him. -The House was to meet that night and approve the committee’s -favorable report on the bills so they could be passed -and sent to the Senate the next day.</p> - -<p>“After he dressed, the Senator was in and out of the apartment, -spending some of the time in Governor Allen’s office. -I brought his supper up to him from the cafeteria, and -several persons were there talking to him while he ate, but -no one ate with him. He went down to the governor’s office -about seven o’clock, even though the House wasn’t scheduled -to meet until eight.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page80">[80-<br />81]<a id="Page81"></a></span></p> - -<h2>8 —— <span class="smcap">September 8: Nightfall</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>The results of political -changes are hardly ever those -which their friends hope or -their foes fear.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee">——THOMAS HUXLEY</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Huey Long came down to the main floor of the capitol an -hour before the House was to go into session to arrange for -an early morning caucus of his followers the next day. Primarily -he wanted to make certain that there would then be -no absentees among votes on which he knew he could rely.</p> - -<p>At regular sessions of the legislature, when House and -Senate were normally convened during the forenoon, such -early conferences were daily affairs. But since in this instance -the ordinary routine did not apply, he was bent on -making assurance doubly sure.</p> - -<p>Behind closed doors he always took charge of caucuses -in person, outlining step by step what was to be done on -that particular day: who should make which motions, at -what point debate should be cut off by moving the previous -question, how the presiding officer was to rule on certain -points of order, should these be raised by the opposition, and -so on.</p> - -<p>Since the next morning’s session of the House would be -the only genuinely important one of the current assembly, -the one at which all thirty-one must bills were to be passed -and sent on to the Senate, he was taking no chances on unexpected<span class="pagenum" id="Page82">[82]</span> -difficulties due to absenteeism. Not only must every -one of his partisans be in his seat when the Speaker called -the House to order, but all the House whips and other aides -must attend the morning’s caucus without fail, to rehearse -in the most minute detail every procedural step to be taken -on the House floor, and every counter to each procedural -obstacle any anti-Long member might seek to raise.</p> - -<p>That Sunday evening, seated at Governor Allen’s desk, Long -was sending for his legislative leaders, one by one, and giving -them the names of the men they each had to bring to the -caucus by eight the next morning.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Meanwhile, as nearly as can be determined, the five members -of the Weiss family returned from their Amite River -outing shortly after nightfall. The young physician and his -wife left his parents’ home with the baby for their own Lakeland -Avenue residence. A composite of various subsequent -accounts pictures the scene there as one of tranquil domesticity.</p> - -<p>Yvonne prepared the baby for bed while Carl went out to -the yard and remained there for a time, petting the dog. -Coming back indoors about 8:15, he made a telephone call -to his anesthetist, Dr. J. Webb McGehee. Yvonne assumed -that this call was to a patient, but Dr. McGehee later confirmed -the fact that Dr. Weiss called “and asked me if I -knew that the operation for the following day had been -changed from Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium to the General -Hospital. I told him I knew that.”</p> - -<p>Miss Theoda Carriere, one of the registered nurses later -called to attend Senator Long, lived not far from the home of -Dr. Weiss. After a twelve-hour day stint at the Sanitarium, -in attendance on a traffic-accident victim, she was taking her -ease on the front gallery of her home. She saw Dr. Weiss leave -his house at this time, and depart in the direction of Baton<span class="pagenum" id="Page83">[83]</span> -Rouge General Hospital. There he checked the condition of -the patient on whom he was to operate the next day.</p> - -<p>In view of the time factor involved, he must have gone -from the hospital directly to the State House, leaving his -car in the capitol’s parking area, where it was found later. At -least five eyewitnesses place him in the north corridor of the -Capitol’s main floor a little before 9:30, waiting in a shallow -niche opposite the double door to Governor Allen’s anteroom.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Charles E. Frampton is now manager of the State Museum -at the Cabildo in New Orleans, the building in whose <i>sala -capitular</i> the transfer of Louisiana from France to the United -States was consummated. But in 1935 he was one of the -veterans of the press gallery at Baton Rouge. He describes -what he saw as follows:</p> - -<p>“Some time after eight o’clock on this particular Sunday -night I was seated with Governor Allen at his desk when -George Coad, then editor of the <i>Morning Tribune</i> in New -Orleans, called me by phone from the office and said a hurricane -had wrecked a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in -southern Florida, and that a number of ex-soldiers had been -drowned. He asked me if Senator Long was there, and I said -I believed he was in the House chamber. Then he asked me to -tell him about the storm, and the CCC disaster, and get any -comment he might want to make. I told Coad to hold the -line; I thought I could get Huey on the phone.</p> - -<p>“I picked up another phone on the governor’s desk and -called the House sergeant-at-arms. Joe Messina answered and -said yes, the Senator was right there. I asked if I might talk -to him, and he told me to wait a minute. After an interval -Huey got on the phone. I relayed what Coad had told me, -and asked if he cared to comment on it. He said, ‘Hell, yes! -Mr. Roosevelt must be pretty happy tonight, because every -ex-soldier he gets killed off is one less vote against him.’ We<span class="pagenum" id="Page84">[84]</span> -chatted for a minute or so longer, and I asked whether he intended -to do anything about this when he got back to Washington, -and he replied by asking where I was. When I told -him I was in Oscar Allen’s office, he said: ‘Wait there. I’m -coming there myself in just a few minutes.’</p> - -<p>“I hung up, picked up the other phone, and relayed the -conversation to Coad, telling him that since Huey was on -the way over I might have an add for him, and to hang on the -line. He said he would, and again I laid down the phone without -breaking the connection.</p> - -<p>“Oscar and I talked for a couple of minutes, and then I -thought to myself I had better not wait for Huey to come -to me; after all, he was a United States senator and I was a -reporter looking for a story, so maybe I’d better go see him. -Telling Coad to hang on, I then went out of the governor’s -private office into the big reception room adjoining it, and -opened one of the double doors leading into the corridor that -extends from the House chamber to the Senate. As I opened -the door this whole thing blew up right in my face.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Justice Fournet takes up the narrative at this point. Here -is his statement:</p> - -<p>“In the late afternoon my father and I drove from Jackson -to Baton Rouge, and I went to the twenty-fourth floor of -the capitol in search of Huey. He was not in his apartment, -so I returned to the main floor, and looked into the House -chamber, where I was informed the Senator was. Sure -enough, he was there on the House floor, followed or attended -by Joe Messina and talking to Mason Spencer.</p> - -<p>“Just as I caught sight of Huey he rushed to the Speaker’s -rostrum and began to talk with Ellender. When he left there -it looked to me as though the House was about to adjourn. -Huey rushed by Joe Messina and me. We tried to follow as -best we could and got into the north corridor, into which the -House and Senate cloakrooms, the Speaker’s and lieutenant -governor’s office, as well as the governor’s office and those of -his secretary and executive counsel all open.</p> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084a.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">1</span> February, 1935: On the Speaker’s rostrum in the House chamber at Baton -Rouge, Huey Long is shown with Hermann Deutsch. Left, Speaker (now U. S. -Senator) Allen J. Ellender; right foreground (back to camera) Executive Counsel -George M. Wallace. -<span class="righttext">(<span class="smcap">Leon Trice</span>)</span></p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084b.jpg" alt="" class="bordered" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">2</span> Official transcript (not the -original) of customs declaration filed by Dr. Weiss -on returning to this country from medical studies abroad. The seventh item on -it is the Belgian automatic found beside his lifeless hand after Huey Long was -shot.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084c.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">3</span> Dr. Weiss’s pistol, which normally holds seven cartridges, contained only -five unfired ones (and an empty, jammed in the ejector) when it was picked -up after the shooting.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084d.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">4 & 5</span> The watch which was shot from Murphy Roden’s wrist while he was -grappling with Dr. Weiss. The dial shows the time of the struggle, the dent -in the back was obviously made by a small bullet.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container60" id="Fig6"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084e.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">6</span> No “small blue punctures” were left by the bullets of bodyguards who -mowed down Dr. Weiss in the niche where he had waited for Senator Long. -The photograph was made after authorities, seeking to establish his identity, -had turned over the body which fell face down.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container60--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084f.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">7</span> The funeral cortege, moving from the capitol to a newly prepared crypt -which is now the site of a monument. Right foreground, the L.S.U. student -band playing “Every Man a King” in a minor key as the Kingfish’s dirge.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084g.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">8</span> Huey Long’s casket, as it was borne down the capitol’s 48 granite steps -followed by members of his family. The two leading pallbearers are (left) -Seymour Weiss and Governor Oscar Allen.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084h.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption"><span class="padr1">9</span> Laborers work around the clock to prepare a vault in time for Huey Long’s -funeral, as crowds wait on the capitol steps to file past the bier where his body -lies in state.</p> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<div class="container80" id="Fig10"> - -<div class="figcenter"> - -<img src="images/illo084i.jpg" alt="" /> - -<p class="caption blankafter75"><span class="padr1">10 & 11</span> Huey -Long was enshrined as a saint by some of his followers as shown -by these personals from want-ad pages of the <i>Times-Picayune</i>. The one at left -appeared on March 26, 1936, the other on January 11, 1937.</p> - -<div class="illotext"> - -<p class="noindent">Left hand advertisement:<br /> -THANKS to the late Senator Huey P. Long -for favor granted. Mrs. H. Gomme.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Right hand advertisement:<br /> -THANKS S<sup>t</sup>. Raymond, S<sup>t</sup>. Anthony, Sen. -Huey P. Long favor granted. ROSE ANDERTON.</p> - -</div><!--illotext--> - -</div><!--figcenter--> - -</div><!--container80--> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page85">[85]</span></p> - -<p>“There was not a soul in that corridor when we got there -except Louis LeSage and Roy Heidelberg, who were seated on -the ledge of the window at the east end of the corridor. I -asked them where Huey had gone and they said he was in -the governor’s office, so Joe and I walked to the door of that -office at a leisurely pace, and as we approached the door I -could hear a voice which I recognized as that of Senator Long -ask:</p> - -<p>“‘Has everybody been notified about the meeting tomorrow -morning?’ and a voice which I identified as that of Joe -Bates of the Police Bureau of Identification answered: ‘Yes, -Senator.’</p> - -<p>“At this point I noticed three or four people lined up -against the marble recess in the corridor wall opposite the -door to the governor’s anteroom. I don’t remember the exact -number but I definitely recall there were more than one. -Just then Huey walked out of the office door of the governor’s -secretary and....”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">The third eyewitness to what took place was Elliott Coleman, -on special assignment as one of the Senator’s bodyguards -and later for many years sheriff of Tensas parish. He -says of the night in question:</p> - -<p>“I was an officer of what was then known as the Bureau of -Criminal Identification, which was headed by General Louis -F. Guerre. He had directed me to come from my home in -Waterproof for duty at the state capitol during the special -session of the legislature. There was nothing specific of an -alarming nature, but there was a general feeling of uneasiness -in view of the murder-plot probe against the Senator earlier -that year, after the Square Deal Association disorders.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page86">[86]</span></p> - -<p>“Nothing particularly noteworthy happened on Saturday, -but on Sunday night, when the special session was meeting, -I went into the House chamber and was standing back of -the railing with State Senator Jimmie Noe, and he was trying -to get me to help him in his effort to get Huey’s endorsement -as a candidate for governor in the campaign that was about -to begin.</p> - -<p>“Huey was in the House, circulating about the floor, talking -to this member and to that, with Murphy Roden and -George McQuiston remaining outside the railing but as near -to him as they could. Huey was talking to Mason Spencer -and they were probably joking with each other, or telling a -funny story, because they laughed, and then Huey went up on -the rostrum and sat with Speaker Allen Ellender for a time. -All this while I was outside the railing with Jimmie Noe, and -he was talking about getting Huey to back him for governor.</p> - -<p>“While Jimmie was talking to me, Huey jumped up all of -a sudden, from where he was seated on Ellender’s rostrum, -and hurried down the side to the corridor. I figured the -House was about to adjourn, so I left Jimmie and turned to -hurry into the corridor myself. There were not many persons -there and I saw Huey, followed by Murphy Roden, go into -Allen’s office, and it seemed to me like he wasn’t in there -hardly at all, that it was almost as if he had turned right -around and come back out. He was met as he came out by -Justice Fournet, and they were walking toward the elevator -and toward where I was standing, with Murphy Roden following.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Judge James O’Connor’s testimony logically follows that of -Sheriff Coleman. He says:</p> - -<p>“I was in the House chamber when Huey came sort of -storming in and sat down beside Allen Ellender on the rostrum. -I was standing in the space between the railing and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page87">[87]</span> -wall, chatting with friends, when Huey beckoned to me as -though saying: ‘Come on over, I want to talk to you.’</p> - -<p>“When I got there he said something that struck me as -unusual, because he had not been smoking in months, maybe -not in as much as a year. He said: ‘I want you to get me half -a dozen Corona Belvedere cigars.’ I asked him where to get -those, and he said: ‘Downstairs in the cafeteria. They have a -box of them there.’</p> - -<p>“When I came downstairs something else struck me as very -peculiar. There wasn’t a soul in that basement on this Sunday -night. I walked into the cafeteria. They had just air-conditioned -it, and the new glass doors were very heavy. There -was no one in that restaurant either, except three or four of -the girls behind the counter. I got the cigars and then sat down -to drink a cup of coffee, and was about to finish it, when I -heard a noise like cannon crackers going off. It was coming -faintly through those heavy glass doors....”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Murphy Roden, who recently retired as Superintendent of -State Police with the rank of colonel, is last of the surviving -eyewitnesses to take up the tale. A graduate of the F.B.I. -school and therefore a specially trained observer, his memory -is sharp and vivid in recalling what took place during the -violent interlude in which he played so large a role. He says:</p> - -<p>“Whenever the Senator returned to the governor’s office I -would wait in the anteroom, and as he went out I would -leave just ahead of him, and Elliott Coleman would walk -just behind him. He made several trips into the House chamber -and back while the House was briefly in session that night.</p> - -<p>“On the last such trip the Senator spent a little time on -the floor, talking jocularly to several of the members, and -then sat for a time with Speaker Ellender on the rostrum. -At such times I would follow his movements as best I could -from outside the railing, and when he hurried out I would<span class="pagenum" id="Page88">[88]</span> -try to anticipate his movements so as to be just ahead of -him when he left the hall. The House seemed to be about -ready to adjourn then, and he rose and hurried from the rostrum -toward the governor’s office. I was ahead of him and -when he turned in I went into the anteroom and waited for -him there. He went into the inner office where Governor -Allen was. Joe Bates, a special agent of the Bureau of Criminal -Identification and Investigation, and A. P. White, the Governor’s -secretary, were in there too, along with some other -persons whose identity I do not recall except for Chick Frampton -of the <i>Item</i>, who was standing over Allen’s desk and using -the telephone in there.</p> - -<p>“Senator Long was in that office only a moment or two. -It seemed to me as though he had walked right in, turned -around, and gone right out, going through the anteroom and -heading back toward the hallway. I realized he was going back -out, and managed to get into the hall just ahead of him, so -as to be in front of him when he got out there. But he was -walking fast and caught up to me and was just about beside -me at my left. We are speaking now in terms of my being -just one step ahead of him as he came out.</p> - -<p>“Judge Fournet was standing at the partly opened door -that led from the hallway directly into the governor’s inner -office, a private entry and exit to that office. Behind us was -Elliott Coleman. Chick Frampton had also hurried out of the -governor’s outer office and anteroom right behind us. The -Senator was going back in the direction of the House chamber -from which he had just come, and from which people were -just beginning to move out. But at the private door to Governor -Allen’s inner office he stopped, and we were standing -still as Judge Fournet came up and started to talk to him. -I have no idea what they were talking about, because I was -not watching them or paying attention, but looking around -us as always to see what other persons nearby were doing.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page89">[89]</span></p> - -<p>“One of them was a young man in a white linen suit....”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">It is 9:30. One floor below, in the otherwise deserted basement -cafeteria, Judge O’Connor is still sipping the last of his -coffee when, muffled by distance and the heavy glass doors -of the restaurant, he hears a noise like exploding cannon -crackers.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page90">[90-<br />91]<a id="Page91"></a></span></p> - -<h2>9 —— <span class="smcap">September 8: 9:30 p.m.</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Do we ever hear the most -recent fact related in exactly -the same way by the several -people who were at the same -time eye-witnesses to it? No.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——LORD CHESTERFIELD</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">The stage is set for a violent climax. Huey Long has turned -through the anteroom of the governor’s office, where Chick -Frampton, bending over the desk with his back to the door, -is preparing once more to lay down the telephone without -breaking the long-distance connection to New Orleans. He -has told his editor, Coad, to hang on while he—Frampton—goes -in search of the Senator, and does not see Huey just behind -him. Intent on his conversation with Coad, he has -heard neither the Senator’s question as to whether everyone -has been notified about the morning’s early caucus, nor Joe -Bates’s affirmative reply.</p> - -<p>By the time he puts down the telephone and turns, Huey -Long has already dashed out into the hallway where John -Fournet steps forward to greet him. The Senator stops momentarily -to talk to A. P. White in the partly opened private -doorway to the inner office. He has noticed, while looking -over the House from the Speaker’s rostrum, that some of his -legislative supporters are absent, and asks White where the -hell this one, that one, and the other one are, adding: “Find -them. If necessary, sober them up, and have them at that<span class="pagenum" id="Page92">[92]</span> -meeting because we just might need their votes tomorrow!” -Then he turns, facing the direction of the House chamber.</p> - -<p>For that one fractional moment every actor is motionless: -Huey Long, with John Fournet at his left elbow and Murphy -Roden just behind his right shoulder; Chick Frampton in the -very act of stepping into the corridor from the double doors -of the governor’s anteroom; Elliott Coleman down the hall -in the direction of the House, near the door of the small -private elevator reserved for the governor’s use; and among -three or four individuals standing in the marble-paneled niche -recessed into the wall opposite the double doors where Frampton -is standing, a slim figure in a white suit.</p> - -<p>The fractional moment passes. Let us turn once more to -Murphy Roden’s graphic account of what transpired:</p> - -<p>“... a young man in a white linen suit, who held a straw -hat in his hand loosely before him, and below the waist, so -that both of his hands seemed to be concealed behind it. He -walked toward us from the direction of the House chamber -and I did not see the gun until his right hand came out from -beneath his hat and he extended the gun chest high and at -arm’s length. In that same instant I realized that this was -no jest, no toy gun, and leaped. I seized the hand and the gun -in my right hand and bore down, and as I did so the gun went -off. The cartridge ejected and the recoil of the ejector slide -bruised the web of my right hand between thumb and forefinger, -though I was not conscious of the hurt and did not see -the injury, a very minor one, until later.</p> - -<p>“I tried to wrest the gun away, but saw I could not do it in -time, so shifted my grip on it from my right hand to my left -and threw my right arm around his neck. As I did this, my -hard leather heels slipped on the marble floor and my feet -shot out from under me, so that we both went down, the -young man and I, with him on top. That is the last pair of -hard leather heels I have ever worn. While we were falling,<span class="pagenum" id="Page93">[93]</span> -my wrist watch was shot off, but again I was not conscious of -it. I did not even miss my watch until I was being treated -at the hospital, later that same night.</p> - -<p>“It has always been my belief that it was Dr. Weiss who -fired a second shot as we were falling and that it was this one -which shot off my watch. There are several reasons for this -conclusion on my part. Firstly, his gun was of small caliber, -7.6 millimeter, which is about the equivalent of our .32-caliber -automatic, a Belgian Browning which he had brought back -with him from abroad. When it was examined later, it had -only five cartridges in it. Normally it holds seven. I have always -had a deep conviction that Dr. Weiss fired twice, and -that I saw the first shell ejected. When his gun was recovered -from the floor, a shell was found caught in the ejecting mechanism -which I am convinced was the second shell. The dent -on my watch, which was later recovered and which I still -have, was made by a small-caliber bullet.</p> - -<p>“As we were falling—Dr. Weiss and I—I released his gun -hand, and reached for my pistol, a Colt .38 special on a .45 -frame, loaded with hollow-point ammunition, which I carried -in a shoulder holster. By the time we hit the deck I had -it out and fired one shot into his throat, under his chin, upward -into his head and saw the flesh open up. I struggled to -get out from beneath him, and as I partially freed myself, all -hell broke loose. The others may have waited till I got partially -clear before they fired, for I think I got to my knees by -the time they started, and that probably saved my life. But I -was being deafened and my eyes were burning with particles -of powder from those shots.</p> - -<p>“Moreover, for all I knew this might have been an attack -in force, which was why I was struggling so desperately to get -to my feet. But by the time I really was on my feet, I could -not see any more because of the muzzle blasts from other -guns. While I did not learn this until later, shots had passed<span class="pagenum" id="Page94">[94]</span> -so close to me that the powder burns penetrated my coat, -shirt, and undershirt, and burned my skin beneath, all along -my back. I felt my way blindly down the hall in the direction -of the Senate chamber, with my left hand on the corridor -wall and my gun still in my right hand, till I turned a corner -and reached a niche where there was a marble settee. This -was right near the stairway where Huey had gone down, as -I learned later. I was practically blinded for the time. The -settee had a padded seat, and I waited there till Ty Campbell, -a state highway patrolman, saw me and took me to the hospital.</p> - -<p>“It was there that I missed my watch and saw the furrow -plowed across the back of my wrist where the scar of it is still -visible; also the pinch or scratch in the web between my right -thumb and index finger. I did not know for two days what -had become of my watch, but it was returned to me later by -King Strenzke, chief of the Baton Rouge city police. Someone -had picked it up off the floor at the scene of all the shooting, -and had turned it over to the police while authorities were -still trying to establish the identity of Dr. Weiss.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Justice Fournet’s statement differs from Roden’s at several -points, as it does from the accounts of Coleman and Frampton, -each of which differs in one detail or another from all -the others. Just as it was given, with none of the discrepancies -modified, altered, or omitted, the Fournet account of what -took place continues in the narrative which follows:</p> - -<p>“... Just then, Huey came out of the door to the office of -the Governor’s secretary.” (Actually, he had come out of the -main double doors of the anteroom, and was merely pausing -at the other point to impress on White the importance -of getting in touch with certain absentee members.) “We -walked toward each other, but instead of the usual air of -greeting I saw a startled, terrified expression, a sort of look of<span class="pagenum" id="Page95">[95]</span> -shock, and simultaneously I saw this fellow who had been -standing in the recess oppose Huey with a little black gun. -This was right within a foot of me, so I threw my hands at -him to grab him, just as he shot, and Murphy Roden—I don’t -know where he came from but I presume he had followed the -Senator out into the hall from the inner office—anyway, at the -same instant when I threw my hands and the shot was fired, -Murphy Roden lunged and seized the gun and the man’s -hand in his left hand. This must have been at almost the very -instant the shot was fired, for Murphy’s hand kept the shell -of the little automatic from ejecting, which is why the man -whose body was later identified as that of Dr. Weiss could -not fire another shot.</p> - -<p>“It is hard to describe in sequence all the things that were -happening in practically one and the same instant. As Murphy -grappled with Weiss, the gesture I had made to push the man -away was completed, and my hands pushed the two struggling -men partly to the floor. Weiss had both hands around -his gun, trying to fire again, and this time at Roden; and -Roden, while holding his desperate clutch about the gun -which was waving wildly this way and that, was trying to get -his own gun from his shoulder holster, and I was still standing -there with my hands outstretched from pushing them, when -Elliott Coleman from quite a ways down the hall fired the -second shot I heard that night, as well as two others.</p> - -<p>“In that same instant of general confusion that boiled up -I heard Huey give just one shout, a sort of hoot, and then he -ran like a wild deer. I bent over to help Roden disarm Weiss, -and twisted a muscle in my back so that for a moment I -could not move in any direction. It was then I saw that one of -Elliott Coleman’s bullets had shot away Murphy Roden’s -wrist watch, but the next two hit Weiss. At the first one his -whole body jerked convulsively—like this. At the second it -jerked again in a great twitch as he sank into himself and<span class="pagenum" id="Page96">[96]</span> -slumped forward, face down, his head in the angle of the -wall and his legs extended diagonally out into the corridor.</p> - -<p>“It was not until after Weiss was dead that other bodyguards -came up and emptied their pistols into the fallen -body. Meanwhile I caught a glimpse of other armed men, -state police and bodyguards, charging from the [House chamber] -end of the hall toward where the body was lying, and I -caught one flash of my father wrestling around with some of -them because he thought I was in trouble and he wanted to -stop the shooting. I saw the crowd down there and I went into -the other cross hall [the one in the direction of the Senate -chamber] where there were stairs to the basement, and asked -the girl at the telegraph desk which way Huey had gone, and -she pointed down the stairs....”</p> - -<p>There is general agreement here that of the first two shots, -by whomever fired, the first one penetrated Long’s body, -the second ripped Roden’s watch from his wrist, and that the -next two killed Dr. Weiss. The only discrepancy between the -accounts of Murphy Roden and Justice Fournet is as to who -fired these shots. According to Roden, the first two were fired -by Weiss, the third by himself and the fourth by someone -else, presumably Coleman. According to Justice Fournet, the -first one was fired by Weiss, who never fired again; while the -second shot, the one which according to both versions shot -away Roden’s wrist watch, was fired by Coleman, who thereafter -also fired the two shots that took Dr. Weiss’s life.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">How does Sheriff Coleman’s account of what took place -compare with these two? There is one marked point of difference. -It involves a blow with the fist which no one else -describes. Here, then, is that portion of Coleman’s narrative -of what took place:</p> - -<p>“... At this point a slight young fellow in a white linen -suit stepped forward and stretched out his hand with a gun<span class="pagenum" id="Page97">[97]</span> -in it and pressed it against Huey’s right side and fired. Everything -happened very fast then, because the House had just -adjourned, seemingly; anyway, people were coming out. I -reached the young man about the same time Roden did, and -hit him with my fist, knocking him down. He was trying to -shoot and Murphy was grappling with him, so that he fell on -top of Murphy when I hit him. I fired one shot. By that time -Huey was gone, and I learned later he had gone down the -stairs and had been taken to the hospital.</p> - -<p>“The young man in the white linen suit, whom none of us -knew at the time, was dead, and the gun was lying on the -floor several inches from his hand. It was then that I saw why -he had not fired again. A cartridge was jammed in the ejector. -After that a lot of things happened, and there was a lot of -shooting.</p> - -<p>“They called me into the governor’s office. Some fool had -run in there, and Allen said to me: ‘Coleman, I understand -you hit that party. Huey isn’t much hurt, he’s just shot -through the arm.’ I said: ‘The hell he is! The man couldn’t -have missed him. He shot him in the belly, right here.’ Allen -said: ‘But they say you hit him and deflected the bullet.’ -And I said: ‘I never hit him till after he shot.’ All of this stuff -about a bullet from one of the bodyguards is a lot of ——! -Those boys all had .44s and .45s and if one of those bullets -had gone through him it would have made a great big hole. -Anybody knows that. Besides, when all the bodyguard shooting -was going on, Huey was gone from that place and on his -way downstairs.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">This last is also borne out by Frampton, whose account of -the actual shooting includes the following observations:</p> - -<p>“While the conversation” (i.e., between Long and A. P. -White about making sure that all Long supporters would be -present at the early caucus and the morning House session)<span class="pagenum" id="Page98">[98]</span> -“was going on, this slight man I did not know but who had -been leaning against a column in the angle of the marble -wall, sort of sauntered over to him, and there was the sound -of a shot, a small sound, a sort of pop. Huey grabbed his side -and gave a sort of grunt, and I think he may have said ‘I’m -shot!’ while running toward the stairs. He disappeared by the -time Murphy Roden materialized out of somewhere—I never -did see where he came from—and seized the man’s hand. -There were two shots and he crumpled forward, and fell with -his head on his arm against the pillar where he had been -standing, and his legs projected out into the hall. Huey had -already disappeared around the corner and, as I learned later, -down the stairway. The small automatic had slid out of Dr. -Weiss’s hand and lay about four inches from it on the floor by -the time the other bodyguards came up, among them Messina -and McQuiston, and emptied their guns into the prostrate -figure.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Meanwhile Jimmie O’Connor, with Huey’s Corona Belvedere -cigars in the breast pocket of his coat, jumped up as he -heard a sound, muffled by the heavy glass doors of the newly -air-conditioned cafeteria, “like cannon crackers going off.”</p> - -<p>“I started to walk out,” he recalls, “and as I opened the -door I saw Huey reeling like this, with his arms extended, -coming down those steps that were near the governor’s office. -He was all by himself, and I ran over to him and asked: -‘What’s the matter, Kingfish?’ He spit in my face with blood -as he gasped: ‘I’m shot!’ They put in the paper next day he -said: ‘Jimmie, my boy, I’m shot! Help me!’ but he never said -a damn word like that. All he said was ‘I’m shot,’ and he spit -blood over me so that I thought he had been shot in the -mouth.</p> - -<p>“With that I grabbed him and I heard more shooting going -on. They were still shooting at the fallen body of Dr. Weiss,<span class="pagenum" id="Page99">[99]</span> -as I found out later. But it shows how quickly it all happened. -As fast as that. He had no blood on his clothes at all at that -time, other than what he had spit out of his mouth.</p> - -<p>“So I half carried and half dragged him outside to the driveway. -They had a fellow out there with an old sort of a beat-up -Ford automobile, and I said: ‘Take me and this man over to -the hospital.’ It was an open-model car, not a sedan. Going -over to the hospital Huey said not a word, just slumped and -slid in my arms. When we got over there, I opened the car -door and halfway got him out and got him on my shoulder, -and whoever was in the car just blew. They were gone. Right -by the entrance on the side they had a rolling table. I put him -on that and rang the bell. One of the sisters came down and -cried: ‘Oh, oh! What is this?’ and I said: ‘The Senator.’</p> - -<p>“She said: ‘Wheel him into the elevator.’ I did that. She -operated the elevator and when we got out—I don’t remember -what floor it was—she and I wheeled him into the operating -room, where an intern hurried over to us. Huey was wearing a -cream-colored double-breasted suit, silky-looking, and I said -to the intern: ‘He’s been shot in the mouth.’ The intern -pulled down the Senator’s mouth, swabbed it out, and said: -‘He’s not shot there, that’s just a little cut where he hit himself -against something.’ I suppose he stumbled up against the -wall while reeling around the turns going down the stairs.</p> - -<p>“Then the intern was beginning to open the Senator’s coat -when Dr. Vidrine popped in, and he and the intern opened -the coat. There was very little blood on the shirt, and when -they opened that and pulled up the undershirt we saw a very -small hole right under the right nipple.... While his shirt -and coat were being cut off, he asked the Sister to pray for -him. ‘Sister, pray for me,’ he said, and she told him: ‘Pray -<i>with</i> me.’”</p> - -<p>By this time frantic telephone calls to physicians in Baton -Rouge and New Orleans, to Seymour Weiss and Earle Christenberry,<span class="pagenum" id="Page100">[100]</span> -to the Long family, to Adjutant General Fleming, -and to a host of politicians had jammed the switchboards. -Both the big buildings facing one another across the width of -the old University Lake—the Sanitarium and the State House—were -swarming hives of confused activity. In the hospital -various officials and others in the top echelon of the Long -organization were crowding the hallways around the wounded -Senator’s room, and later even the operating room itself, -while the constant arrival of more and yet more cars clotted -into an all but hopeless traffic snarl in the Sanitarium’s small -parking lot.</p> - -<p>Others made their way to the capitol building as word of -the shooting spread, but here General Louis F. Guerre, commandant -of the Bureau of Identification, and Colonel E. P. -Roy, chief of the highway police, acted promptly to restore -some semblance of order. Part of the confusion stemmed from -the fact that up to that very moment no one had been able -to identify the body which later proved to be that of Dr. -Weiss; almost everyone who asked to see if he might perhaps -recognize the slight figure in the bloodstained white suit was -admitted to the corridor where the corpse remained until -Coroner Thomas Bird arrived. As described by Frampton——</p> - -<p>“A number of people came around after the shooting -stopped. Among them were Helen Gilkison, the <i>Item</i> and -<i>Tribune</i> Baton Rouge correspondent and Colonel Roy. I remember -that the Colonel took hold of the fallen man’s head -and lifted it so that the features were visible. He asked first -me and then Helen if we knew him. We did not. I had never -seen him before, as far as I knew then or know now.</p> - -<p>“Then I suddenly remembered that George Coad in New -Orleans, who was still on the phone line I had left open, must -have heard the shooting and was likely going mad. So I went -in and picked up the phone and told him Huey was shot, and -the man who fired at him had been killed by the bodyguards,<span class="pagenum" id="Page101">[101]</span> -but that the body had not yet been identified, so he had better -go with just that much for an extra.</p> - -<p>“I then ran back out into the hall and found that Dr. Tom -Bird, the coroner, was there. Colonel Roy and the state police -were starting to clear the corridor of everyone: spectators, -newspaper people, legislators, and all. But Dr. Bird deputized -Helen as an assistant coroner, and she was permitted to stay. -I then followed Huey’s course down the stairs by the route I -was told he had taken, and learned for the first time he really -had been shot, because on the marble steps I saw a few drops -of blood.</p> - -<p>“I ran out the back door and was told he had been taken to -the hospital by Jimmie O’Connor, so I ran around the end of -the lake all the way from the capitol to Our Lady of the Lake -Hospital, climbed the front steps, went up to the top floor, -where Huey was lying on one of those surgical tables in the -corridor outside of a room at the east end of the hallway.</p> - -<p>“Right away I thought of Urban Maes and Jim Rives, and -asked Colonel Roy, who had come there in the meantime, -to get the airport lighted, as I would try to get Maes and -Rives to fly up with Harry Williams. I put in calls for both -of them and left messages about what had happened, and for -them to get hold of Harry Williams and fly to Baton Rouge, -where the airport had been lighted.... Actually, this had -not yet been done, as I learned later. Colonel Roy could not -raise any airport attendant, so he drove out there, kicked in -a window, and turned on the lights himself.”</p> - -<p>By that time Dr. Maes and his associate, Dr. Rives, were -already en route to Baton Rouge by automobile. They had -been called at once by Seymour Weiss, who then jumped into -his new Cadillac with Bob Maestri—the latter lived at the -Roosevelt—and together they ruined the engine of the car by -driving at top speed to Baton Rouge.</p> - -<p>At that time no one yet had given out any reasonably<span class="pagenum" id="Page102">[102]</span> -authoritative word as to whether Long was the victim of a -major or minor injury; whether the prognosis was hopeful or a -matter of doubt; whether his condition could be described as -undetermined, satisfactory, or critical.</p> - -<p>But so widespread was public interest in the Kingfish, who -had challenged Roosevelt, and who only a month before had -said the New Deal was at least cognizant of a plot to murder -him, that newspapers in many distant cities lost no time in -dispatching special correspondents and photographers to -Baton Rouge to cover the day’s top news story. The fight to -save the Kingfish’s life was just beginning.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page103">[103]</span></p> - -<h2>10 —— <span class="smcap">September 8-9: Midnight</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>He that cuts off twenty years -of life cuts off so many years -of fearing death.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——SHAKESPEARE</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">Among the first of the Long hierarchs to reach the hospital to -which Jimmie O’Connor had rushed the fallen Kingfish were -Dr. Vidrine, Justice Fournet, and Acting Lieutenant Governor -Noe. As a matter of fact, O’Connor had not yet left the -capitol’s porte-cochere when Fournet and Noe reached it.</p> - -<p>“I heard Huey and Jimmie O’Connor talking before I saw -them in the darkness there,” Justice Fournet relates. “Jimmie -asked: ‘Where did he hit you?’ and Huey said: ‘Hell, man, -take me to the hospital.’ I reached them just as they got into -the car of a man—his name was Starns, I think—and I tried to -get into the car with them, but it was just a two-door affair, -and I could not get in. By that time Jimmie Noe had come -down, so he and I managed to get to the hospital in another -of the cars around there. They had Huey sort of strapped to a -wheeled table, an operating table, I suppose, by the time we -got there and found out what floor he was on.</p> - -<p>“Dr. Vidrine was there, and starting to take off some of -the Senator’s clothes; but I took out my pocket knife and -said: ‘Here, cut it off.’ He slashed through the clothes and laid -them back. I saw a very small bluish puncture on the right -side of Huey’s abdomen, and it was not bloody. And I saw -Dr. Vidrine lift up the right side of Huey’s back, but he did<span class="pagenum" id="Page104">[104]</span> -not lift it very far. Dr. Vidrine put us in a room with a nurse, -then, and gave instructions to let no one else come in.</p> - -<p>“Meanwhile other doctors were taking his blood pressure -and pulse rate. Huey asked one of them what it was, and he -told him. Naturally, I don’t remember the figures, but I do -remember Huey saying: ‘That’s bad, isn’t it?’ and Vidrine -or one of the others”—[it was Dr. Cecil Lorio]—“answered -him, saying: ‘Well, not <i>too</i> bad, yet.’ Vidrine asked him what -doctors he wanted called, and he said Sanderson from Shreveport, -and Maes and Rives from New Orleans. While they -were waiting for their arrival, Joe Bates came in. He was allowed -to come there so he could tell Huey who had shot him. -He said it was a young doctor named Weiss.</p> - -<p>“‘What for?’ Huey asked. ‘I don’t even know him.’</p> - -<p>“‘He’s a fanatic about you,’ Bates replied. ‘But he is -friendly with a lot of others in the administration.’”</p> - -<p>Pending the arrival of surgeons from New Orleans, some -semblance of order was being restored about the hospital. -Highway motorcycle officers unsnarled the traffic jam in the -Sanitarium’s small parking lot, set up guarded barriers, and -thereafter admitted to the grounds no one who did not have -a special permit.</p> - -<p>It was during this interlude, too, that Ty Campbell finally -brought Murphy Roden from the capitol to the hospital for -treatment.</p> - -<p>“One of the interns washed my eyes out first,” Roden remembers. -“They were smarting and there must have been -some powder residue in them. There were powder burns on -the skin of my back, burns that had gone through my coat, -my shirt, and my undershirt. These were cleaned and swabbed -with antiseptic. But it was not until several weeks later, after -a place on my back kept festering, that I went to my family -doctor in Baton Rouge, and he finally removed a small fragment<span class="pagenum" id="Page105">[105]</span> -of the copper jacketing of a bullet, from where it had -lodged just under the skin.</p> - -<p>“After the interns finished with me, Ty went to the Istrouma -Hotel and brought me back some clothes, and I changed -in the hospital. After that we went back to the capitol -with General Guerre, who took me to the office of the governor’s -executive counsel where General Ray Fleming, head -of the National Guard, had set up his headquarters, and we -talked nearly an hour or so, with me telling all I could recall. -From there I went to my quarters and to bed.”</p> - -<p>When he returned to the capitol with Roden, General -Guerre had the State House hallways cleared.</p> - -<p>“Once I satisfied myself that the Senator had been taken to -the hospital and was in the hands of physicians,” he explains, -“I gave orders to my men to clear the capitol’s lower floor as -quickly as possible, and allow no one else to come in without -special authorization from me. I put officers in charge to see -that the body of the assassin was not touched until the coroner -got there. Even Dr. Bird did not know who the man was -till they removed his wallet and saw his identification there.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Unaware of what had taken place in Baton Rouge, Earle -Christenberry reached his New Orleans home shortly after -9:30, having driven in from the capitol without special haste. -His neighbors, seeing the car turn into the Christenberry -driveway, flung open a window and told him someone in -Baton Rouge was trying to get in touch with him. His phone -had not answered, whereupon the caller secured from the telephone -company the number of the adjoining house, asking -that when Earle arrived he be requested to call back immediately.</p> - -<p>Then, adding a bit of news they had heard a short time -earlier over the radio, they told him Huey Long had been shot.</p> - -<p>Christenberry did not pause to call Baton Rouge. Without<span class="pagenum" id="Page106">[106]</span> -leaving his car, he backed out of the driveway and headed for -the capitol. He made but one stop en route. That was at -Lousteau’s combination sandwich counter and automobile -agency, where the Airline Highway cut across the government’s -newly completed Bonnet Carre Spillway over a bridge -a mile and an eighth long, spanning the dry channel through -which the Mississippi River’s flood waters could be diverted -into Lake Pontchartrain. Final inspection of the structure had -not yet been made; hence it was not open to general traffic. -Wooden highway barriers blocked entry to it.</p> - -<p>However, Christenberry directed the highway patrolman on -duty there to open the barriers for him, since this would save -at least six miles on the road to Baton Rouge. After ascertaining -that Mrs. Long and the three children had not yet -passed this point, he instructed the motorcycle man to remain -on watch for their car, and open the barrier to let it pass -over the bridge too.</p> - -<p>Approximately seventy minutes after leaving his home, he -parked at Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Earlier that afternoon, in New Orleans, General Ray Fleming, -Adjutant General of Louisiana, had taken part at Jackson -Barracks in a polo game between teams representing the 108th -Cavalry and the famed Washington Artillery. During one of -the late chuckers a hard-hit ball had banged against the General’s -left foot, inflicting an injury not in itself serious, but so -painful that before retiring for the night he borrowed a pair -of crutches from the post infirmary and secured a left shoe he -could cut to accommodate the swelling which had followed -the mishap.</p> - -<p>“Hardly had I retired,” he relates, “than I received a phone -call from Governor Allen, who in a very excited voice said to -me: ‘Huey has been shot!’ Realizing that I must have certain -information to deal with such a situation, I demanded that<span class="pagenum" id="Page107">[107]</span> -the Governor stay on the telephone at least long enough to -answer one question before I took action.</p> - -<p>“The question was: ‘Is this an action involving many persons -or is it the act of just one individual?’ This I had to know -in order to determine what troops, if any, were needed to -handle the situation.</p> - -<p>“Governor Allen immediately informed me that it was the -spontaneous action of just one individual. With this information -in hand, I started almost at once for Baton Rouge. In a -remarkably short time I reached the capitol, where I immediately -set up headquarters in the office of the executive -counsel. From then until about 2 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> I talked to a great -many persons regarding events leading up to, during, and -after the assassination.</p> - -<p>“One of the reasons for this inquiry was that I had to make -a decision as to whether or not we were faced with the necessity -of dealing with an armed insurrection on the part of a -considerable number of individuals.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Early that Sunday night Judge Leche, still inclined to make -light of his conversation with Senator Long some hours before, -was leaving Baptist Hospital, where his physician, Dr. -Wilkes Knolle, had just changed the dressing of the airplane -splint in which his left arm was immobilized.</p> - -<p>“Our chauffeur was driving Tonnie [Mrs. Leche] and me -home from the hospital,” his account of the day’s events continues, -“and as we drew up in front of my house in Metairie I -could hear the phone ring. I tossed my keys to the chauffeur -and said: ‘Hurry up and answer it, and tell whoever it is I’ll -be there as soon as I can work my way out of the car.’ He did -so, and I got out awkwardly, my left arm being held rigidly -horizontal at shoulder height with the elbow bent, and when -I got to the phone it was Abe Shushan telling me Huey had -just been shot. I called out to the chauffeur not to leave, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page108">[108]</span> -were going to Baton Rouge right away, and I told Tonnie I -would send the car back for her and she could come up the -next day, if that seemed indicated.</p> - -<p>“I went directly to the governor’s office, and Oscar Allen -was there, very nervous and visibly shaken. He was talking on -the telephone and picked up a sheet of paper while holding -the other hand over the mouthpiece, and said: ‘This is what -I am going to release to the press.’ At the time I thought he -said he had already released it. In brief, the statement said -for everyone to remain calm, this had been merely the irresponsible -act of one individual, and that it did not mean -more than just one individual’s crazed action.</p> - -<p>“I tore the paper up and handed the pieces back to him, -saying: ‘Huey has been charging in Louisiana and in Washington -that there was a plot on foot to kill him, and that he -surrounded himself with bodyguards for that reason. He conducted -a formal investigation into a murder plot with witnesses -who said they had won their way into the confidence -of the plotters, and named them, and carried on an investigation -in New Orleans for days.... How in the world can -you take it on yourself to proclaim officially that this was -all twaddle, and that only one individual was responsible for -what happened?’</p> - -<p>“He said very excitedly: ‘You’re right, you’re right, you’re -right!’ I left, and was driven over to the hospital, but by that -time the operation was either over or in progress, so I did not -see Huey. I stayed in the hotel, and Tonnie joined me there -the next day.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">The operation was begun at 11:22 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, but Drs. Maes and -Rives were not present. What happened is told by Dr. Rives -in the following account:</p> - -<p>“Dr. Maes had been called, I have forgotten by whom, and -he was asked to fly to Baton Rouge as Huey Long had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page109">[109]</span> -shot; a chartered plane would be waiting for him at the New -Orleans airport, and a highway car at the one in Baton Rouge. -He asked me to go with him to assist him if he had surgery to -do, and I told him there was no sense in flying to Baton -Rouge, because I could drive him there in the time it would -take to drive out to the New Orleans airport, and then, after -the flight, from the Baton Rouge airfield to the hospital. -This proved to be not right.</p> - -<p>“We were in my car and I was driving. The road then ran -beside the old O-K Interurban Line tracks, and just outside of -Metairie an S-curve crossed the tracks, a black-top road with -graveled shoulders. Just before we entered this S-curve another -car, coming from the opposite direction, swept through -it and put its bright lights right into my eyes. I was going -about forty-five or fifty. I was not racing, in other words, but -I got my right wheel into the loose gravel of the shoulder, -and ended up skidding completely around and facing back in -the direction of New Orleans on the old gravel road beyond -the S-curve.</p> - -<p>“My differential housing was caught on the high center of -this old gravel road, with only one rear wheel on the ground. -We did no damage to the car, but with only one wheel on -the ground, a car is helpless. We finally flagged someone driving -back toward New Orleans and asked him to send a -wrecker to pull us back on the road. Actually they sent only -a truck, but it took us off the high center and then we went -on. I should say we lost not more than half an hour, but -I think we would not have reached Baton Rouge until after -the operation even if we had not met with this accident.</p> - -<p>“We did not have permission to use the completed but -not yet opened Airline Highway beyond Kenner, so I took the -old River Road. As we finally drove into Baton Rouge, there -wasn’t a soul in sight, aside from a policeman or two. No one -was abroad on the streets; lights in the houses, yes, but no<span class="pagenum" id="Page110">[110]</span> -people or cars on the streets. To outward appearances, it was -the most deserted community I ever saw, and going to Our -Lady of the Lake Sanitarium we had to drive right through the -center of town.</p> - -<p>“At the hospital we were met by highway police, identified -ourselves, which was required, and then we were conducted to -the entrance where someone else took us up to the ward -where Huey had been placed....”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Word of the shooting of Huey Long had spread through -the capitol’s corridors and offices with almost explosive speed. -The minute she heard the report, Lucille May Grace (Mrs. -Fred Dent in private life), Register of the State Land Office, -tried to telephone Dr. Clarence Lorio, who, though not Senator -Long’s physician, was one of his closest friends in the -Baton Rouge area. Mrs. Dent (since deceased) was devoted -to Huey Long, for he had supported her father for re-election -to the office of Land Register, a post which he held for more -than thirty years. Upon her father’s death Long appointed -her to serve in Mr. Grace’s stead for the unexpired balance of -his term, since she had been his principal assistant almost -from the very day she was graduated from Louisiana State -University.</p> - -<p>Since she had retained, and even added to, her father’s -tremendous personal following among the voters, Huey decided -at the end of her term of office in 1932 to put her name -on the Allen slate, which would carry his imprimatur as the -“Complete-the-Work” ticket. Hoping to induce Long to rescind -this decision, one or another of the rival aspirants spread -a completely baseless rumor to the effect that Mrs. Dent’s -ancestry was tainted with a touch of Negro blood.</p> - -<p>Huey Long’s almost obsessive response to this sort of aspersion -was a matter of common knowledge; it is only because -what ensued may have some bearing on the motive behind<span class="pagenum" id="Page111">[111]</span> -the assassination that this particular incident is worth giving -in some detail.</p> - -<p>Though he had already consented to put the name of Lucille -May Grace on the slate that would carry his endorsement, -he lost no time in retracting this agreement, and made -it crystal clear forthwith that unless she could show to his -complete satisfaction that the rumor which had gained considerable -circulation was without even the semblance of a -foundation, he would place another’s name on the ticket for -the position she, and before her her father, had held.</p> - -<p>Miss Grace, the niece of an Iberville parish priest, enlisted -the latter’s aid and that of the late John X. Wegmann, a -universally respected New Orleans insurance man and perhaps -the foremost Catholic layman in Louisiana at the time. -Thus birth and baptismal records going back for generations -along the Grace family tree were produced, and they conclusively -demonstrated the utter falsity of the canard. Satisfied, -Long restored her name at once to his personally approved -“Complete-the-Work” ticket of candidates, headed -by the name of Oscar K. Allen for governor.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Miss Grace (she did not become Mrs. Dent until a year -later) had attended Louisiana State University with both -Clarence and Cecil Lorio, and knew how close the former’s -friendship with Senator Long was. She began at once to call -him, but he was not at his farm in nearby Pointe Coupee -parish, and the telephone at his Baton Rouge residence was -apparently out of order. So she called his brother, Dr. Cecil -Lorio.</p> - -<p>“Suppose you let me tell the whole story, exactly as I recall -it,” the latter began, when asked about his recollections of -what took place in the operating room of Our Lady of the -Lake Sanitarium when Huey Long was admitted there as a -patient that September night. Dr. Cecil Lorio and Dr. Walter<span class="pagenum" id="Page112">[112]</span> -Cook were, at the time of this inquiry, the only surviving -physicians who were present throughout all the ensuing surgical -procedure.</p> - -<p>“When she failed to reach my brother Clarence,” Dr. Lorio -continued, “Lucille May Grace called me at my home, and I -left at once for Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. Huey’s -clothing had been removed by the time I got there, and he -was in bed in his room at the east end of the third-floor corridor. -He was fully conscious and we talked quietly from -time to time during the next hour. He was particularly distressed -by the thought that he might now be unable to carry -out his plan to screen students for L.S.U., so as to make it -possible for all exceptionally bright high-school graduates, -however needy their families, to receive the advantages of -college education.</p> - -<p>“I took his blood pressure and pulse every fifteen minutes; -he had evidently learned something about the significance -of this, for when he asked me what the readings were, and I -told him his pulse rate was getting faster and his blood pressure -was dropping a bit, he said: ‘That’s not good, is it?’ and I -answered him by saying: ‘No, but it isn’t too bad yet, either.’ -‘It means there’s an internal hemorrhage?’ he then asked. I -said he was probably hemorrhaging some, but that the relation -between blood pressure and pulse rate was one that could -also be attributed to shock. He was very curious about who -had shot him, saying it was someone he had never seen before.</p> - -<p>“He had visibly a small blue puncture on the right side of -his abdomen, and another on the right side of his back where -the bullet emerged. Both were very small. But it was obvious -some emergency surgery would have to be performed sooner -or later. I was told that Dr. Sanderson had been summoned -from Shreveport, and that Drs. Urban Maes and James Rives -were already en route from New Orleans. Dr. Maes had been -appointed to the chair of surgery at L.S.U.’s new medical<span class="pagenum" id="Page113">[113]</span> -college, of which Dr. Vidrine, also present in Baton Rouge at -the time, was dean, along with his position as superintendent -of Charity Hospital. He was in general charge of the patient’s -case. At some point in the proceedings word was brought to -us that a motoring accident had forced Dr. Rives’s car off the -road, and that they would be delayed some time by the difficulty -of securing service at that time of night to have their -car dragged back to the highway. When informed of this, Dr. -Vidrine decided not to wait any longer.”</p> - -<p>Huey’s very close friends, Seymour Weiss and Conservation -Commissioner Robert Maestri, had reached Baton Rouge -some time prior to this. It is Mr. Weiss’s clear recollection -that the decision to wait no longer before performing an -emergency operation was reached “by all of us” before word -was received of the mischance encountered by Drs. Maes and -Rives.</p> - -<p>“As I recall the circumstances,” Seymour Weiss says, -“Huey’s condition was getting worse by the minute. Dr. -Vidrine insisted that any further delay was progressively lessening -the Senator’s chances. The other physicians present -agreed that the outlook was not hopeful. Vidrine was the -physician in charge and the rest of us were laymen. The time -came when we either had to agree to let the operation be -performed at once, or take upon ourselves the risk of endangering -the man’s life. Mrs. Long and the children had not yet -reached Baton Rouge, but in view of the medical opinions, -the rest of us—all being individuals who were close to Huey—were -just about unanimous in agreeing that the doctors -should proceed.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Amid the almost inconceivable confusion in and out of the -hospital, one person seems to have kept her head, and that -was Miss Mary Ann Woods, now Mrs. Arthur Champagne, -the supervisor of nurses. Assigning floor nurses and trainees<span class="pagenum" id="Page114">[114]</span> -to duties so as to make the best possible disposition of available -personnel, she set out to provide four special attendants -for the critically injured Senator, two to serve at night and -two by day.</p> - -<p>The first one she called from the register was Theoda Carriere, -who responded at once, even though she had just come -off a twelve-hour tour of duty. The other three were Loretta -Meade, Helen Selassie, and Mrs. Hamilton Baudin. Miss -Carriere was one of the first to reach the hospital, as she lived -nearby; and since by that time Senator Long had been taken -from his third-floor sickroom to the operating theater on the -floor above, she scrubbed up at once and reported for duty -there.</p> - -<p>According to her recollection, Dr. Cook was working on -the patient, who was anesthetized by the time she arrived. -Being short of stature, she had difficulty in seeing the operating -table, and therefore placed a stool so that, by standing -on it, she could look over the shoulders of those surrounding -the patient.</p> - -<p>Dr. Cook said to her: “This is a gunshot wound; get me -some antitetanus serum.” Miss Carriere left the room for the -pharmacy section downstairs where such supplies were stored, -and when she returned with the desired serum, and gave it to -Dr. Cook, Dr. Vidrine was just entering the operating room.</p> - -<p>“Dr. Cook looked up,” she relates, “and said: ‘Well, my -relief has arrived,’ and left the operating room. Dr. Ben Chamberlain -assisted Dr. Vidrine during the balance of the operation.”</p> - -<p>In this respect Miss Carriere’s recollections are in direct -conflict with those of every physician who was present, and -with the operation report attached to the hospital chart, as -well as with the statement of Dr. Cook himself, when he -testified later that he assisted at the operation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page115">[115]</span></p> - -<p>As operating procedure was begun in the Sanitarium, neighbors -of Dr. Clarence Lorio, seeing his car parked in front of -his home, and realizing that under normal circumstances he -of all men would have been at the hospital with his gravely -wounded friend, managed to rouse him.</p> - -<p>“I had been working for thirteen hours straight,” he explained -subsequently, “and I was bone tired. When I got -home I not only went to bed, but took the telephone off the -hook so as not to be disturbed. I had come to the point where -I simply had to rest. Naturally, when some of my neighbors -woke me and told me what had happened, I lost no time in -dressing and rushing off to the Sanitarium, but the operation -was already under way when I got there.</p> - -<p>“Let me say this about Arthur Vidrine: that man faced one -of the toughest decisions that night anybody ever confronted. -If he sat idly by, waiting for someone else to take over the -case, while Huey bled to death, his associates and Huey’s -friends would never forgive him, and he would never forgive -himself, either. On the other hand, if he performed an emergency -operation, and it was discovered later that the critically -wounded patient would have had a better chance for recovery -if some other procedure had been followed, he would still be -blamed for a great man’s death. No one could confront a -more harrowing choice.”</p> - -<p>On the other hand, it can be taken for granted that Arthur -Vidrine must at least momentarily have entertained the -thought of the rewards and renown that would be his portion -if by timely, courageous, and skillful surgery he, rather than -others, saved the life of the Kingfish of Louisiana. Be that as -it may, the decision to operate at once was made; when it was -submitted to Senator Long, he concurred in it; in fact, according -to a monograph by Dr. Frank L. Loria of New Orleans, -Huey himself said: “Come on, let’s go be operated -upon.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page116">[116]</span></p> - -<p>Dr. Cecil Lorio described the incident more prosaically in -the following terms:</p> - -<p>“Someone told him that it had been decided to operate and -that Dr. Vidrine would perform the operation if Huey had -no objection. He indicated that he was willing for this to be -done. Dr. Vidrine selected Dr. William Cook to assist him, -and Dr. Henry McKeown as the anesthetist. It was this latter -choice that brought me back into the operating room and -kept me there, for I am a pediatrician, not a surgeon.</p> - -<p>“Baton Rouge—in fact, all Louisiana—was bitterly divided -into Long and anti-Long factions at this time. One of the -most violently partisan anti-Long individuals in all Baton -Rouge was Henry McKeown. He really hated Huey, though -he had many friends among the people who were close to the -Senator.</p> - -<p>“Only two or three nights earlier, he and I were both sitting -in at a poker game in the Elks’ Club, when someone said -something or other about Long—probably something in connection -with the special session of the legislature that might -be called any day. Dr. McKeown said in jest, the way any -person might in the course of a sociable card game: ‘If ever -he has to have an operation, they better not let me give the -anesthetic, for I’ll guarantee he’d never get off that table.’ -Let me say again, and with emphasis, that this was not a -threat, but a jest, something to underscore the man’s uncompromising -anti-Long partisanship.</p> - -<p>“Naturally, when within a matter of days he actually was -summoned to serve as anesthetist for an operation to be performed -on Huey Long, he demurred. He pointed out that -Huey was a bad operative risk in any case, and for all anyone -knew to the contrary, might already be dying from a wound -which was in itself mortal. ‘If the man dies during the operation,’ -Dr. McKeown pointed out, ‘many of those who have -heard me pop off about him might actually think I killed<span class="pagenum" id="Page117">[117]</span> -him.’ No one who knew Henry McKeown, of course, would -think any such thing. Finally he agreed to serve, provided I -watched and checked every move he made.</p> - -<p>“I told him I would do so, but while I looked now and then -across the operating table to its head, where he was standing, -and saw what he was doing, I really paid no attention to it, -nor did he stop to see whether or not I was checking on him.</p> - -<p>“Later, while the operation was in progress, Dr. Clarence -Lorio, my brother, came in and stood beside Dr. McKeown to -the end of the operation. On the side of the table at Huey’s -left stood Dr. Vidrine. Opposite him was his assistant, Dr. -Cook. Beside Dr. Vidrine at his left, I stood, handing him -instruments and materials as he called for them. As I said, I -am not a surgeon, but a pediatrician.</p> - -<p>“The operating room was a strange sight. All sorts of people, -mostly politicians, I assume, had crowded into the small -room. It was not an amphitheater, and they ranged themselves -all along the walls, not even being suited up. As Mother -Henrietta, the head of the hospital, said later, after she had -vainly tried to keep all who were not physicians or properly -gowned out of the operating chamber, it was anything but -normal surgical procedure.”</p> - -<p>It is indeed a pity the original chart, such as it was, could -not have been preserved. But as in the case of most hospitals, -the time came when the absolute limit of storage capacity -was exhausted, and the charts on file were microfilmed. In -making these microfilms it was customary in many hospitals -not to include the nurses’ bedside notes in the filmed record. -Hence these do not appear in the film of the chart of Huey -Long at Lady of the Lake.</p> - -<p>But even what does remain is fragmentary, and in many -cases unsigned. As Dr. Rives observed many years later: “The -situation that night, even after I arrived, which was after the -operation was completed and Huey was back in his room,<span class="pagenum" id="Page118">[118]</span> -could only be described as chaotic. Several physicians seemed -to be on hand, and in the case of a critically injured patient, -when no one of the attending doctors is actually in command -and giving the orders to the crew of which he is the captain -... well, all I can say is that even during the four hours or -so when I was there between about 1 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> and the time I -started back for New Orleans which I reached at daybreak, -the situation was nothing short of chaotic.”</p> - -<p>A transcript of the microfilm was made by Dr. Chester A. -Williams, the present coroner of East Baton Rouge parish. -According to this document, the admitting note, set down on -a plain sheet of paper, is not even signed; obviously the last -two lines were added by someone else after the operation was -concluded. It is preceded on the record by a standard summary -form which reads:</p> - -<div class="hospitalform"> - -<p>Hospital No. 24179. Sen. Huey P. Long, 42 yr.w.m.</p> - -<p>Admitted Sept. 8, 1935, to Dr. Vidrine.</p> - -<p>Diagnosis: Shot wound abdomen, perforation of colon, -Room 325.</p> - -<p>Died Sept. 10, 1935.</p> - -</div><!--hospitalform--> - -<p>The unsigned “admitting note” on its plain sheet of paper, -which follows the foregoing summary, reads:</p> - -<p>“Pt. admitted to O.R. at 9:30 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> Dr. Vidrine present. -Exam made by Dr. Vidrine shows wound under ribs rt. side, -clothes and body with blood. Pulse volume weak and faint. -Fully conscious, very nervous. Given caffeine and sodium -benzoate 2 cc by hypo. Dr. Cook present. Put to bed in 314 -at 9:45 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> Foot of bed elevated. M.S. gr. <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>6</sub> by hypo for -pain. Asked for ice continuously. Dr. Cecil Lorio present. -External heat, Pt. in cold sweat. After consultation, patient -to O.R. at 11:20, pulse weak and fast, still asks for ice.”</p> - -<p>Then follow the words, obviously added after the operation:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page119">[119]</span></p> - -<p>“Dr. Vidrine, C. A. Lorio, Cecil and Dr. Cook present, -and put to bed in 325 at 12:40 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> Foot of bed elevated.”</p> - -<p>The Operating Room record of the chart reads:</p> - -<div class="hospitalform"> - -<p>Surgeon: Dr. Vidrine.</p> - -<p>Anesthetist: Dr. McKeown.</p> - -<p>Assistants: Dr. Cook, Dr. C. A. Lorio, Dr. C. Lorio.</p> - -<p>Anesthesia: N<sub>2</sub>O started at 10:51 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> -ended 12:14 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> -Pulse during anesthesia 104-114</p> - -<p>Operation begun 11:22 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span>, ended 12:25 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span></p> - -<p>What was done: Perforation—2—Transfer [<i>sic!</i>] colon.</p> - -<p class="padl5">[Signature not decipherable]</p> - -</div><!--hospitalform--> - -<p>In the monograph previously referred to, Dr. Loria of New -Orleans compiled a more detailed technical description of the -surgical procedure. This was published in 1948 by the <i>International -Abstracts of Surgery</i> (Volume 87) as a treatise dealing -with 31,751 cases of abdominal gunshot wounds admitted -to Charity Hospital during the first forty-two years of the -present century. Dr. Loria appended to it a series of reports -on notable personages in American history who had succumbed -to such wounds, including President Garfield, President -McKinley, and Senator Long. Referring to the Senator’s -case, he wrote in part:</p> - -<p>“The bullet which struck Senator Long entered just below -the border of the right ribs anteriorly, somewhat lateral to -the mid-clavicular line. The missile perforated the victim’s -body, making its exit just below the ribs on the right side -posteriorly and to the inner side of the midscapular line, -not far from the midline of the back.</p> - -<p>“... At the hospital, arrangements were made for an emergency -laparotomy with Vidrine in charge.... Under ether -anesthesia the abdomen was opened by an upper right rectus -muscle splitting incision. Very little blood was found in the -peritoneal cavity. The liver, gall bladder and stomach were<span class="pagenum" id="Page120">[120]</span> -free of injury. A small hematoma, about the size of a silver -dollar, was found in the mesentery of the small intestine. The -only intra-peritoneal damage found was a ‘small’ perforation -of the hepatic flexure, which accounted for a slight amount -of soiling of the peritoneum. Both the wounds of entry and -of exit in the colon were sutured and further spillage stopped. -The abdomen was closed in layers as usual.”</p> - -<p>About one o’clock that morning Drs. Maes and Rives arrived, -and somewhat later Dr. Russell Stone, another noted -New Orleans surgeon. None of these saw any part of the -operative procedure, all surgery having been completed before -their arrival. But a sharp difference of opinion between -Dr. Vidrine and Dr. Stone was followed by the latter’s prompt -return to New Orleans without so much as looking at the -patient. Dr. Stone told some of his New Orleans associates -and close friends that Vidrine had given him the details of -the abdominal operation and had also said that the kidney -was injured and was hemorrhaging.</p> - -<p>“Did you see the kidney?” he asked Vidrine, and added -that the latter replied: “No, but I felt it.” An acrimonious -interchange followed and at its climax Vidrine said something -to the general effect of “Well, go on in and examine -him for yourself.” Stone replied: “Not I. This isn’t my case -and he isn’t my patient. Good night.” Thereupon he returned -at once to New Orleans.</p> - -<p>Dr. Rives’s account of his experiences clearly illustrates on -what he based his opinion that the procedure was “chaotic.”</p> - -<p>“Dr. Maes and I were taken into a room next to the one -Huey was in,” he related, “and there I stopped. Dr. Maes was -taken on into the patient’s room, while I got off into a corner, -making myself inconspicuous. At this time there was still no -suggestion that anyone but Dr. Weiss had shot or even could -have shot Huey Long. Meanwhile, people were going in and -out of the sickroom, apparently at will. I did not know many<span class="pagenum" id="Page121">[121]</span> -of them, and certainly most of them were not physicians. -Finally someone, and I think it was Abe Shushan, asked me -had I been in the room where Huey was, and I said no, I was -only there to assist Dr. Maes in the event there was any surgery -he had to perform. He said: ‘In something like this we -want the benefit of every doctor’s advice,’ and led me in there.</p> - -<p>“I did not see the wound of entrance, and I was told by -one of the nuns or one of the nurses that the wound of entrance -was beneath the clean dressing on his belly; and from -the location of this dressing it was clear to me that there was -a good chance the bullet might have hit a kidney.</p> - -<p>“I asked the nurses if there were any blood in his urine. -That was the only contribution I could make. Whoever it -was, she said she did not know. I said that if they did not -know, he ought to be catheterized at once. Later that night, -some time before I left for New Orleans, I was told he had -been catheterized and that there was blood in his urine. That -was an absolute indication of injury to the kidney. It was not -necessarily a critical injury, or a hemorrhage that would not -stop. But it did mean that there was an injury, and that if -hemorrhage continued, that was the place to look for it.”</p> - -<p>Dr. Maes said there would be no further surgery, and hence -while he would stay through the day, Monday, there would -be no need for Dr. Rives to do so. The latter thereupon drove -back to New Orleans.</p> - -<p>According to Dr. Loria’s monograph, the “postoperative -course of the case continued steadily on the downgrade. Evidence -of shock and hemorrhage appeared to become steadily -worse ... the urine was found to contain much blood. At -this time [Dr. Russell] Stone’s opinion was that another -operation to arrest the kidney hemorrhage would certainly -prove fatal....”</p> - -<p>Whether it was Dr. Rives or Dr. Stone who first suggested -catheterization is immaterial. The fact remains that until one<span class="pagenum" id="Page122">[122]</span> -or the other of these physicians, neither of whom was directly -connected with the case, proposed this procedure, nothing of -the sort seems to have been done; according to the progress -notes on the microfilm chart, it was not done until 6:45 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span>, -almost nine hours after the shooting, and six hours after the -emergency operation had precluded the possibility of further -surgery. Even after it was discovered that the kidney hemorrhage -was massive and continuing, medical opinion was -unanimous on the point that additional surgery would unquestionably -prove fatal.</p> - -<p>Control of such hemorrhage involved removal of the injured -kidney, in order to tie off the vessels supplying it with -blood. This in turn would mean the cutting of ribs to make -room for the requisite mechanics of kidney removal. Such an -operation on a patient already in shock from a bullet wound -and from the major abdominal surgery which followed, -would, it was agreed by all, inevitably bring about the patient’s -death. All that remained was to hope for a miracle—and -none manifested itself. In the words of Dr. Cecil Lorio:</p> - -<p>“The patient never really recovered consciousness. He was -in shock, and under sedation, until he died. As the day [Monday] -wore on, and Huey’s blood pressure continued to fall, a -transfusion was ordered. It may have been earlier that the -transfusion was given. The hospital records would show.”</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, the hospital record shows only one transfusion, -given at 8:15 Monday night, nearly twenty-four hours -after the shooting. However, it must be borne in mind that in -those days, long before blood and plasma banks had been -established as standard hospital facilities, transfusions were -by no means the routine procedure they are today. In the -case of Huey Long, a chart note signed by Dr. Roy Theriot -records the fact that five hundred cubic centimeters of citrated -blood were given, that before transfusion approximately three -hundred cubic centimeters of normal saline solution were<span class="pagenum" id="Page123">[123]</span> -given intravenously at a time when the pulse was very thready, -and that the transfusion was followed by a continuous intravenous -drip of glucose in normal saline. Even after this the -patient’s blood pressure was only 114 over 84, while the pulse -rate was still a frightening “170-plus.”</p> - -<p>Almost as soon as Senator Long had been brought to the -hospital, volunteer blood donors were typed, and their blood -cross-matched with that of the patient. According to the -laboratory report incorporated in the hospital chart, J. A. -Vitiano, Eddie Knoblock, Colonel Rougon, J. R. Pollett, -M. E. Bird, George Castigliola, and Paul Voitier were marked -“incompatible”; C. J. Campbell, John Kirsch, “no name,” Joe -Bates, Senator Noe, Bill Melton, and a Mr. Walker were -found to be compatible. In addition, “no name,” Bates, Noe, -and Melton were also marked with an “O.K.”</p> - -<p>Senator Noe was the first and apparently only donor, and -it is my recollection that we met in the Heidelberg Hotel -elevator Monday night when he told me he had “just given -blood to Huey.” Mrs. Noe was with him at the time, said -she was sure Senator Long would recover, and expressed the -hope that future installments of the <i>Saturday Evening Post’s</i> -biographical portrait would “do him proud.”</p> - -<p>A little after two o’clock that afternoon Dr. Maes had -prescribed a rectal instillation of laudanum, aspirin, brandy, -and normal saline solution. Once this was given, the chart -notes: “Resp. less labored, less cyanosis, P 148 Temp. 103<sup>4</sup>⁄<sub>5</sub> -axilla. Quieter.” During the handling that was incident to the -instillation, Senator Long awoke and asked Dr. Maes whether -he would be able to take the stump in the approaching campaigns. -“It’s a little early to tell, yet,” the physician replied. -As before, the patient lapsed into drugged slumber the moment -the handling that had roused him came to an end.</p> - -<p>As concerns the one transfusion recorded on the hospital -chart, Dr. Cecil Lorio reports:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page124">[124]</span></p> - -<p>“I recall clearly the fact that the young physician who was -to give the transfusion was so nervous, and his hands were -shaking so, that he was having difficulty placing the needle -in the vein that was to receive the blood; and my brother -Clarence said to me, knowing that I frequently gave transfusions -to children: ‘Dr. Cecil, haven’t you your equipment -here so that you might assist in transfusing the Senator?’ I -said I had, and of course to me, accustomed to performing -this with the small veins of children, it was child’s play to -place the needle in the large vein of a man. A number of -volunteers—everybody wanted to volunteer—had already been -typed, and one of those whose blood matched was State -Senator James A. Noe. He was the first donor.</p> - -<p>“But as the day wore on it became evident that the patient -was losing blood about as fast as we were transfusing it into -him, and while there were no external evidences of bleeding, -the conclusion was that he must be hemorrhaging from the -apex of the right kidney. So Dr. T. Jorda Kahle of New Orleans -[head of the urology department of Louisiana State -University’s College of Medicine] was sent for. He got to -Baton Rouge Monday night and thrust a needle just under -the skin of the kidney region and drew out a syringeful of -blood. That made it evident the Senator’s case was hopeless, -barring a miracle. The only way to stop such a hemorrhage -would have been to remove the kidney, and that would certainly -have killed him.</p> - -<p>“At the end, the dying man threshed wildly about the -oxygen tent that had been put over him. A little after four -in the morning his breathing stopped.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Mrs. Long and the three children—Rose, Russell, and -Palmer—did not reach Baton Rouge until after the operation -was over, in spite of the fact that the Airline’s new bridge -across the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened to the passage<span class="pagenum" id="Page125">[125]</span> -of their car, thanks to Earle Christenberry’s directions to the -highway guards at Lousteau’s. Since the Senator was never -really conscious after he left the operating room, the members -of his family had little or no communion with the man who -to them was not merely a public figure, but husband and -father.</p> - -<p>They were given rooms directly across the hall from the -one in which physicians strove unremittingly to save Huey -Long’s life. He had not been a very devoted family man. He -was away from home too much in the pursuit of objectives -it seemed impossible for him to share with the Rose McConnell -he had met when he was a brash young door-to-door -salesman of Cottolene.</p> - -<p>Those days were now so long in the past, the happy days -of shared trial when every penny had to be stretched to the -uttermost. Success had come so quickly—the big ornate home -in Shreveport, the new Executive Mansion at Baton Rouge of -which Rose had been the first chatelaine, the elaborate residence -on Audubon Boulevard, the days of triumph and rejoicing -that followed the effort to impeach him....</p> - -<p>All of it was now slipping away forever, while Huey Long’s -blood seeped slowly but relentlessly out of his body, with no -possibility short of a miracle of halting its ebb as some physician, -now forever anonymous, made on his hospital chart a -final entry to the effect that even “the oxygen tent discontinued -as pt. grew very restless under it—delusions of photographers, -etc.”</p> - -<p>Once hope for the patient had been abandoned, it was Seymour -Weiss who was the nuncio bringing to the members of -Huey’s family, in the room across the hall, tidings of great -grief. Himself emotionally shaken to the depths of his being, -he told Mrs. Long and the three children as gently as possible -that the end was very near. They followed him across the -hall to the bed where the dying man, barely conscious, was<span class="pagenum" id="Page126">[126]</span> -drawing in and expelling shallow, noisy breaths. He made no -effort to speak; but as each of the four laid a hand on the bed -beside him, he managed weakly to pat it in a final, caressing -gesture of farewell.</p> - -<p>They returned to their room to await the end. Seymour -Weiss accompanied them, giving voice to whatever comforting -phrases he could muster, and then returned to the sickroom. -One vital point remained to be cleared up.</p> - -<p>“Huey, Huey, can you hear me?” he asked.</p> - -<p>There was a faint stir of response.</p> - -<p>“Huey, you are seriously hurt. Everything that can be done -to help you is being done, but no one can ever say how such -things will turn out. Now is the time to tell me where you -put the papers and things that you took out of the bank vault. -Where did you put them? Tell me where they are, Huey. -Please don’t wait any longer.”</p> - -<p>Thus the final thoughts he carried with him out of his life -concerned a political campaign, his campaign for the presidency -of the United States. Hardly audible was the faint -breath that whispered:</p> - -<p>“Later—I’ll—tell—you—later....”</p> - -<p>They were his last words. The secret of what became of -the affidavits, the other documents, and the campaign funds -that were to provision his presidential race was one he took -with him to an elaborate tomb newly constructed in the very -center of the landscaped park around the capitol he had built -for Louisiana.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page127">[127]</span></p> - -<h2>11 —— <span class="smcap">The Aftermath</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>And this was all the harvest -that I reap’d—I came like -water and like wind I go.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——THE RUBÁIYÁT</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">A few hours after Huey Long had breathed his last, Dr. Weiss -was buried with requiem services at St. Joseph’s Church, -where he and Yvonne had gone to Mass only three days before. -John M. Parker and J. Y. Sanders, Sr., two former governors -prominent among leaders of the political and personal -opposition to the Kingfish regime, attended the funeral, and -were bitterly assailed by Long partisans for doing so. Dr. McKeown, -the anesthetist during the emergency operation performed -by Dr. Vidrine, was one of the pallbearers.</p> - -<p>Yvonne’s uncle, Dr. Pavy, a member of the House of Representatives, -had been delegated by the Weiss family to act as -their spokesman in meeting with reporters who had swarmed -into Baton Rouge from near and far. It should be noted that -at this time no one had as yet voiced the slightest doubt -about Dr. Weiss having fired the shot that ended Long’s reign. -Only the question of motive was the subject for argument -and dispute.</p> - -<p>“There was absolutely nothing premeditated about what -Carl did,” Dr. Pavy told newsmen gathered at the little cottage -he shared with Judge Philip Gilbert when in Baton -Rouge. “On Sunday, while his parents sat on the beach of -their camp with their baby grandchild, Carl and Yvonne<span class="pagenum" id="Page128">[128]</span> -sported about the water. When he returned home, he bade -his wife an affectionate good-by, as he left about 7 <span class="smcapall">P.M.</span> for a -professional call. He even phoned the Lady of the Lake Sanitarium -to make an appointment for an operation Monday -morning.</p> - -<p>“He was an earnest lad, and lived for humanity, but he was -sorely distressed about the suppressive form of government he -felt existed in Louisiana. He never talked much about it, and -he certainly never confided to his family or anyone else any -plan to kill Long. Our only explanation for his action is that -this suppressive type of rule preyed on his mind until it unhinged, -and he suddenly felt himself a martyr, giving his life -to the people of Louisiana. He must have felt that way, else -how could he have left the wife and baby that he loved above -everything?”</p> - -<p>To a question as to whether the gerrymander that would -oust his wife’s father from the honorable office he had held -for so many years could have prompted the decision to shoot -Long, Dr. Pavy replied:</p> - -<p>“In the first place, none of us would kill anyone over such a -matter as the loss of a public office. It is my understanding -that while the bill aimed at my brother’s judgeship was discussed -at the Weiss’s dinner table Sunday, it was treated -lightly rather than otherwise.”</p> - -<p>The legislature of which Dr. Pavy was a member had remained -in session. “We’re going to pass every one of ol’ -Huey’s bills the same as if he was still here with us,” was the -majority watchword. In addition to these, the members also -adopted a concurrent resolution authorizing the fallen leader’s -interment in the capitol grounds, and the construction -there of a proper tomb to receive the great bronze casket, this -to be topped by a monument later. They also adopted a concurrent -resolution “recognizing and commending and according -due recognition” to the valued services and help of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page129">[129]</span> -Senator’s bodyguards, mentioning by name specifically George -McQuiston, assistant superintendent of the state police, -Warden Louis Jones of the state penitentiary, and officers -Murphy Roden, Theophile Landry, Paul Voitier, and Joe -Messina.</p> - -<p>During one of the interludes when the House was in session, -I took occasion to go to Dr. Pavy’s desk and ask whether -he had reached any conclusion as to Dr. Weiss’s motive -other than the one he had mentioned on the previous Monday. -I had heard vague reports that it was felt in some quarters -Huey Long was planning to revive an old racial campaign -canard against Judge Pavy. This was the allegation made in -1908 by the then Sheriff Swords to the effect that one of the -Judge’s relatives-in-law had an ancestor of other than purely -Caucasian blood.</p> - -<p>The old slur had long since been forgotten by most persons, -since it dated back to 1907-8. In that era, though the quadroon -ball had long since lapsed from the quasi recognition -once accorded it, Northern magazines still published muckraking -articles about miscegenation in the South. On the -other hand, memories of relatively recent carpetbag evils -were so vivid that the “taint of the tarbrush” was fatal to -any political aspirant. Thus the fact that in spite of Sheriff -Swords’s allegations in a milieu of that sort, Judge Pavy was -not only elected, but re-elected for five or six consecutive -terms, testifies eloquently to the universal disbelief this imputation -encountered.</p> - -<p>Naturally, I did not spell all this out to Dr. Pavy. I merely -made a casual reference to the general spread of all sorts of -rumors about Dr. Weiss’s motives, and asked whether he had -any information on this score other than what he had told us -on the morning after the shooting.</p> - -<p>“I tell you again,” he replied with profound conviction, -“that this was an act of pure patriotism on Carl’s part. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page130">[130]</span> -was ready to lay down his life to save his state, and perhaps -this entire nation, from the sort of dictatorship which he -felt Long had imposed on Louisiana.”</p> - -<p>None the less, in many minds—my own, for one—the feeling -that there might be some substance to the racial motive -would not down. Many Louisianians, for example, well knew -that in his weekly, <i>American Progress</i>, Long never referred to -the scion of a certain socially prominent family as anything -but “Kinky” Soandso.</p> - -<p>Even more recent in public memory was his insistent conjunction -of Dudley LeBlanc with Negro officers in his “Coffin -Club,” the outlawed burial-insurance society. Moreover, -the knowledge that a derogatory allegation was untrue never -deterred Huey Long from trumpeting it forth at least by innuendo -on every stump during a political campaign. For example, -an office seeker opposing the candidacy of a man Long -had endorsed was in the business of installing coin-activated -devices for jukeboxes and an early type of vending machine, -but Long never referred to him in his tirades as anything but -Slot Machine Soandso.</p> - -<p>Amid a fog of conflicting rumors and surmises, the first -note of doubt that Carl Weiss, Jr., had even tried to kill Senator -Long was sounded by the young physician’s father, in a -statement he made at an inquest into the circumstances of -his son’s death. Such as it was, this probe was conducted by -District Attorney John Fred Odom, one of the leaders of the -Square Deal Movement. It developed little more than one -possible explanation of the contusion, abrasion, or cut visible -on Long’s lower lip when he reached the hospital.</p> - -<p>“Was Senator Long bleeding from the mouth?” District -Attorney Odom asked Dr. William A. Cook, after the latter -stated that he had assisted Dr. Vidrine in the emergency -operation on the mortally wounded patient.</p> - -<p>“Dr. Henry McKeown, who was administering the anesthetic,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page131">[131]</span> -responded Dr. Cook, “called my attention to an abrasion -on Senator Long’s lower lip. It was an abrasion or -brush burn. When it was wiped with an antiseptic, it oozed a -little.”</p> - -<p>“Did it appear to be a fresh abrasion?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>Attorney General Porterie, a pro-Long leader, asked Dr. -Cook:</p> - -<p>“A man having been shot as Senator Long was, and making -his way down four winding flights of stairs, could perhaps -have struck against an angle of marble or iron?”</p> - -<p>“Any contusion or trauma could have caused such a -bruise,” was Dr. Cook’s reply.</p> - -<p>Only one new development of any potential significance -was brought out by the inquiry. Sheriff Coleman testified that -he struck twice with his fist before firing on Weiss and that -“the first time I missed him and struck someone else, but the -second time I hit him and knocked him down when Roden -was grappling with him.” Conceivably, the “someone else” of -the first blow could have been Huey Long, although none of -the other eyewitnesses mention such a blow. As for the remainder -of the investigation, only one brief moment of emotional -tension marked its course. That was when the Rev. -Gerald L. K. Smith, a paid organizer of the Share-Our-Wealth -movement, took the stand. He had been dropping hints here -and there indicating his entire readiness to take over the Huey -Long movement as its new leader. The moment he reached -the witness stand he burst out dramatically to the effect that -“my leader whom I worshiped has been killed. He was my -hero. I respect this court, but I do not respect the district -attorney, who was one of the co-plotters of this assassination, -and I shall refuse to answer any questions put by him.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Odom said he had no questions to ask, adding: “I care -nothing about him or his statements, but merely wish to state<span class="pagenum" id="Page132">[132]</span> -that whoever says I plotted to kill Huey Long is a willful, -malicious, and deliberate liar.”</p> - -<p>Neither on this occasion, eight days after the event, nor -for a long time thereafter did anyone deny, or offer to deny, -that Carl Weiss had entered the capitol armed with a pistol -and had fired it at Senator Long. Even the bitter-enders -among Long’s political foes came up with nothing more in -the way of exoneration for the young physician than the suggestion -that there had been two bullets, and that the second -one, a wild shot or a ricochet from the gun of one of the bodyguards -during the furious fusillade which followed the initial -shot, had inflicted the wound that proved mortal.</p> - -<p>True, Carl Weiss’s father, testifying at the inquest, had -expressed the opinion that his son was “too superbly happy -with his wife and child, and too much in love with them to -want to end his life after such a murder.” But this was generally -accepted as a natural expression of paternal love and -grief, and therefore not to be taken as refuting the uncontradicted -testimony of eyewitnesses and physicians.</p> - -<p>The inquest conducted by Coroner Tom Bird into the -death of Huey Long occupied only a few minutes. The family -had refused to authorize a necropsy, the results of which -might well have confirmed or silenced proponents of the two-bullet -theory. These still emphasize the fact that no small-caliber -bullet was ever found among the projectiles picked -up from the floor of the corridor where the shooting occurred. -They argue that if a small-caliber bullet were found to be -still in Huey’s body, the wound of exit must necessarily have -been made by yet another missile.</p> - -<p>Huey’s corpse was viewed by a coroner’s jury at the Rabenhorst -Funeral Home, where it was being prepared to be laid -out in state in the capitol’s memorial hall for two days before -the funeral. Thomas M. Davis, now a laboratory supervisor -for an oil refinery, was one member of that five-man panel.<span class="pagenum" id="Page133">[133]</span> -Speaking in the living room of his modest home in the Goodwood -subdivision, he recalls that——</p> - -<p>“I was an L.S.U. freshman at the time. My daddy had -come to Baton Rouge from Alabama to work as a brickmason -at the Standard Oil plant. Dr. Tom Bird, the coroner, was a -friend of ours, and knew I wasn’t too well fixed, so for as long -as I was in college, he would appoint me to these coroner’s -juries because he knew the two-dollar fee I got helped me to -stay in school.</p> - -<p>“The day of the inquest—it was a Tuesday and raining like -everything—we met at Rabenhorst’s and were taken out in -back where Long’s body lay under a sheet. The sheet was -lifted and then Dr. Tom, he raised up the right side of the -body to show us the wound in the back. It was so small I -doubt we’d have even seen it had it not been pointed out to -us. But they wouldn’t let us get too close to the body, no -more than from here to the other side of the room [indicating -a distance of approximately twelve feet]. They never did let us -feel around to see could we get out another bullet. They did -show us the little old Spanish [<i>sic!</i>] automatic that belonged -to Dr. Weiss, and then Dr. Tom filled out the report and we -all signed it, and went home through the rain that was still -pouring. That afternoon Dr. Weiss was buried.”</p> - -<p>Long was buried two days later. Throughout the day and -night, Tuesday and Wednesday, his body lay in state as thousands -upon thousands filed slowly past the casket in an apparently -endless procession to look their last upon him. From -near and far came floral offerings: elaborate professional set -pieces of broken columns, gates ajar, open schoolbooks, and -the like, with ornately gold-lettered, broad ribbons of white -or lavender silk; but there were likewise many simple wreaths -of garden blossoms, plucked by the hands of those who revered -ol’ Huey as the avatar who had been put on earth to -brighten and better the lot of the common man. Large as it<span class="pagenum" id="Page134">[134]</span> -was, Memorial Hall could not begin to hold the flowers. -When they were set up outdoors in the landscaped capitol -park, they occupied literally acres of the grounds.</p> - -<p>Beginning with daybreak on Thursday, mourners began to -stream into Baton Rouge from all sections of the state; by -special train from the cities, by chartered bus, by glossy limousine -and mud-spattered farm pickup. Looking westward -from the observation gallery atop the capitol’s thirty-one-story -central section, it is possible to see for nearly seven -miles along one of the state’s principal highways. No bridge -had yet been built to span the Mississippi at this point. Consequently, -as far as the eye could see from this lofty lookout -platform, a solid line of vehicles was stalled. They moved -forward only a bit at a time, as the Port Allen ferries, doing -double duty, picked up deckload after deckload for transfer -to the east bank.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Long had asked Seymour Weiss to make all funeral -arrangements, and because Huey, though nominally a Baptist, -was not a church member and thought little of ministers -as a class, the problem of selecting an ordained churchman -to conduct the services was a sticky one. Religious prejudice -was no part of Long’s make-up. He had known Dick Leche -as a close friend for years. Yet on the last day, when casting -about for a gubernatorial candidate, he did not even know -whether this close friend was or was not a Catholic.</p> - -<p>Looking back on what happened, and still chagrined by the -memory of his decision to select Gerald Smith as funeral -chaplain, Seymour Weiss relates that “I didn’t know what to -do. If I picked a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, or a -rabbi, I’d offend those that weren’t represented; even if I -picked all three for a sort of joint service, those who felt -that Huey was neither a Catholic nor a Jew might resent -their inclusion, and in addition, the funeral service would be -dragged out too long with three obituary sermons to deliver.<span class="pagenum" id="Page135">[135]</span> -Then I happened to recall that Gerald Smith had severed his -connection with a Shreveport church of which he had been -the pastor before being employed by the Share-Our-Wealth -movement as an exhorter.</p> - -<p>“So I went to him and said: ‘You’re a kind of free-lance -preacher without portfolio, and that’s why I’m going to give -you the biggest honor you’ve ever had. You’re going to conduct -Huey’s funeral service’ ... and that was the worst mistake -I ever made in all my life.”</p> - -<p>Not that anything untoward occurred to mar the service. -Under direction of highway-department engineers, special -crews had labored around the clock to have the vault ready. -From the great bronze doors of the capitol the cortege was -led by Castro Carrazo and his Louisiana State University -student band. With drums muffled and the tempo of their -march reduced to slow-step they played “Every Man a King,” -so artfully transposed to a minor key that what was and still -is essentially a doggerel became an impressive and moving -dirge. The service that followed was simple and dignified.</p> - -<p>In Baltimore, Henry L. Mencken, ever ready to sacrifice -fact for the turn of a sparkling phrase, predicted that ere -long Louisianians would dynamite Huey’s ornate casket out -of its crypt and erect an equestrian statue of Dr. Weiss over -the site. The truth is that a monument to the fallen apostle -of Share-Our-Wealth has been built above the vault, and that -elders still make worshipful pilgrimages to the spot.</p> - -<p>Indeed, there have been those who literally canonized the -memory of the man who once proclaimed himself Kingfish. -Among the personal advertisements in the daily newspapers -of South Louisiana one finds cards of thanks to this or to that -favorite saint. “Thanks to St. Rita and St. Jude for financial -aid.” “Thanks to St. Anthony for successful journey.” “Thanks -to St. Joseph for recovery of father and husband.” And -among them have appeared such cards as <a href="#Fig10">this</a>: “Thanks to<span class="pagenum" id="Page136">[136]</span> -St. Raymond, St. Anthony, Sen. Huey P. Long for favor -granted.” The last one cited appeared in the New Orleans -<i>Times-Picayune</i> of June 11, 1937.</p> - -<p>Even those who make up a younger generation to whom -Huey Long’s name already has become as impersonal as that -of, let us say, Millard Fillmore, still visit the statue, much as -they would pause to look at any other historical monument -in their travels.</p> - -<p>Within twenty-four hours of the most elaborate funeral -ever held in Louisiana, attended by approximately 150,000 -participants in the solemn rites of lamentation, Huey’s -Praetorian Guard were up in arms against one another. Ready -to yield instant obedience to their Kingfish, they were one -and all determined never to render such homage to anyone of -their own subordinate rank.</p> - -<p>The climax came about three o’clock one morning, when -Gerald Smith not only proclaimed himself the new head of -the Share-Our-Wealth movement, but announced the ticket -which he and his followers had endorsed and would back in -the forthcoming January primary. None of the names Huey -had been considering appeared thereon. It was headed by the -names of State Senator Noe for governor and Public Service -Commissioner Wade O. Martin, Sr., for United States senator.</p> - -<p>Reverend Smith issued his pronouncement from the Roosevelt -Hotel, but was incautious enough to tell such people -as Ray Daniell of the New York <i>Times</i>, Allen Raymond of -the New York <i>Herald Tribune</i>, and myself that the Huey -Long organization would move forward with even greater -strides as soon as it had rid itself of the Jews in it.</p> - -<p>The reaction was so immediate it must have shocked even -him. The first obstacle he encountered was the announcement -by Earle Christenberry that no one not specifically -authorized to do so by himself as copyright owner, could use<span class="pagenum" id="Page137">[137]</span> -either Share-Our-Wealth or Share-the-Wealth as party designations, -and that he proposed to turn over the only membership -rolls of that organization to Mrs. Long.</p> - -<p>The next came when the other Long bigwigs, realizing -the ominous implications of Smith’s bid for the scepter, submerged -all their intramural antagonisms in order to prevail -on Judge Leche, as the candidate the late Kingfish himself had -tapped, to head an “official” Long organization ticket. By -way of making this ticket’s status all the more authentic, it -also carried the names of Earl Long as candidate for lieutenant -governor, Oscar Allen as nominee to serve out Huey’s -unexpired term in the Senate, and Allen Ellender as candidate -for the ensuing full six-year term, for which Huey himself -would have run as curtain raiser to his bid for the presidency.</p> - -<p>In addition, Russell Long, then only seventeen years old, -was enlisted as one of the speakers who would campaign on -behalf of the official ticket. This was to be his initial bid for -political recognition; he was put on the first team, campaigning -right alongside his uncle and Judge Leche. Gerald Smith, -on the other hand, was relegated to obviously subordinate -rank. Realizing the hopelessness of a maverick’s lone foray -against such odds, to say nothing of his inability to secure -funds from the Share-Our-Wealth organization, he returned -to the fold, and was assigned to address rural meetings in -small country churches and the like.</p> - -<p>By and large the platform of the authorized Long ticket -was simple: from the stump and in circulars, over the radio -and in newspaper advertising, the anti-Long slate was branded -the “Assassination Ticket.”</p> - -<p>Its backers were additionally handicapped by having Congressman -Cleveland Dear, an Alexandria attorney and a very -inept campaigner, as their candidate. His insistence that he -headed a “Home Rule Ticket” which proposed to return to -individual communities those rights of self-government which<span class="pagenum" id="Page138">[138]</span> -dictatorship had usurped, fell upon deaf ears. Even had Dear -and his fellows been skilled and adroit campaigners, their -prowess would have availed little against the hysterical determination -of the great mass of voters to express by their ballots -how deeply they disapproved of assassination—especially of -the assassination of their idolized ol’ Huey.</p> - -<p>There was actually a pathetic overtone to Cleveland Dear’s -declaration that the hotel conference “was attended by about -300 of as fine men as can be found, who registered openly at -the hotel desk, conducted their conversations openly in rooms -and in hallways and not behind locked doors. There was hardly -a meeting at that time where the possibility of bloodshed -was not mentioned, but I heard no discussion of it at that -hotel conference.</p> - -<p>“Yet the governor is going around this state preaching -hatred, and charging that the murder plot was hatched there. -If he believes that, he should have me arrested. I challenge -him to have me arrested!”</p> - -<p>This sort of defensive jeremiad fell very flat when in -country-school assembly halls, in churches, in fraternal-lodge -rooms and other small rural meeting places, administration -speakers became emotional over basins of red dye, lifting the -fluid in cupped hands and letting it trickle back in the lamplight -while declaiming: “Here it is, like the blood Huey Long -shed for you, the blood that stained the floor as it poured -from his body. Are you going to vote for those who planned -this deed and carried it into execution?”</p> - -<p>It soon became obvious to even the most optimistic leaders -of the self-styled Home Rule faction that something must -be done to stem the “assassination” tide. The climax was -reached when Mayor Walmsley was booed to the echo by the -throng that had come to see the first bridge ever built across -the Mississippi at New Orleans formally dedicated and opened -to traffic. The official name of the structure, and so marked<span class="pagenum" id="Page139">[139]</span> -on War Department maps: the Huey P. Long Bridge. The -chorus of boos drowned out every word that Mayor Walmsley -uttered at the dedication, and was maintained until he resumed -his seat.</p> - -<p>Whether or not this incident precipitated the final effort -of the Home Rulers to escape the assassination onus in that -cheerless campaign no one can say at this late date. But a -charge by Dear in his next address before a large meeting gave -birth to the bodyguard-bullet story, or at least brought about -its acceptance as factual in many circles to this day.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it true that one of Huey Long’s bodyguards is in -a mental institution this very minute?” he cried dramatically. -“Is he not muttering to himself over and over again: ‘I’ve -killed my best friend! I’ve killed my best friend! I’ve killed -my best friend!’?”</p> - -<p>This was not true. Dear did not name the bodyguard supposedly -thus afflicted, and the newspapers thought so little -of his outburst, or were so reluctant to risk a libel suit, that -they did not even include the quotation in their accounts of -the rally. But for some reason which now escapes the memory -of those who recall the incident, it was taken for granted that -the candidate had referred to Joe Messina.</p> - -<p>Marching steadily toward a landslide victory by a larger -majority than had ever been cast for any other Louisiana -candidate for governor—even for the Kingfish himself—Judge -Leche was asked whether he knew anything about the basis, -if any, of the Dear statement; specifically, whether Joe Messina -was then or had been confined recently to a mental institution.</p> - -<p>“I’d say yes to that,” he replied. “At least, he is one of the -doorkeepers at the executive mansion, and whenever I think -of how crazy I am to give up a quiet, peaceful, dignified place -on the appeals bench for a chance to live in that mansion -four long years, I’d definitely class it as a madhouse.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page140">[140]</span></p> - -<p>None the less, the charge—a countercharge, really—that the -bullet which ended Huey Long’s life came from the gun of -one of his bodyguards was repeated so often thereafter, and -with so many elaborations, that it was permanently embedded -in the twentieth-century folklore of Louisiana.</p> - -<p>The Long machine, for the moment an invincible political -juggernaut, rolled on to total victory; but without Huey’s -genius for organization, for expelling undesirables and recruiting -replacements, and above all for having his absolute authority -accepted by those serving under him, it ground to a -halt and collapsed within three years.</p> - -<p>Beyond doubt another factor in the swiftness with which -a monolithic organization of incipiently national scope crumbled -into nothingness was the realization that its treasury -had disappeared. Naturally, every effort was made to trace -this hoard of dollars and documents. In November of 1936, -while the Long estate was still under probate, the safety-deposit -box which the Riggs National Bank at Washington -still held in the late Senator’s name was opened in the presence -of Mrs. Long, the deputy Register of Wills, Earle Christenberry, -a bank official, and a representative of the Internal -Revenue Service. It was found empty, stripped of the trove -which Long told Seymour Weiss he had removed to another -and secret place of concealment.</p> - -<p>With no clue to the new depository to which the contents -of this vault had been transferred, the search for it was as prolonged -as it was bootless. Every key on the ring turned over to -Mrs. Long by the Lady of the Lake Sanitarium after her husband’s -demise was examined. Only one of them proved to -have any possible relation to safety-deposit boxes. On August -11, 1936, Earle Christenberry made a tracing or rubbing of -this key, and sent it to the Yale and Towne Company at -Stamford, Connecticut.</p> - -<p>Four days later W. W. Herrgen of that firm replied: “The<span class="pagenum" id="Page141">[141]</span> -key which you sent to me ... is for one of our No. 3401-C -safety deposit locks, and a search of our files shows that this -key could be for use in a lock at the Whitney National Bank -of New Orleans.”</p> - -<p>The Whitney, largest and most independent bank in New -Orleans at the time, was for that very reason the last one -Huey Long would have been likely to select. In any case, its -officials reported that the key in question was not for any of -the boxes in their vault. Of the money, aggregating what may -well have been several million dollars—enough to finance an -entire presidential campaign on the lavish scale to which Huey -Long was accustomed—no trace has ever been found.</p> - -<p>Even the sale of <i>My First Days in the White House</i> was -pitifully small compared to what it would have been had its -author lived to issue it as a campaign document.</p> - -<p>Up to this day no one has been able to hazard a guess as -to what was done with this accumulation of currency. Long -had always levied a political tribute of two per cent on the -salaries of all state employees. No effort was made to conceal -this. Indeed, the Kingfish boasted that his support came from -the people in small, regular individual contributions, and not -in huge individual gifts from the swollen corporations, the -money barons, and something called “the interests.”</p> - -<p>From 1919 to 1946 Elmer L. Irey was chief of the Treasury -Department’s Intelligence and Enforcement Division. -Among other and perhaps lesser achievements, he had directed -the investigation that finally landed Al Capone behind -bars for income-tax evasion. In a 1948 book by Irey, “as told -to William J. Slocum,” one chapter deals with the Roosevelt -administration’s efforts to secure a thorough investigation of -the income-tax returns filed (or not filed) by Huey Long, his -top aides, and even some of their subordinates.</p> - -<p>“We decided that the technique that had put Al Capone -and his gang in jail would be reasonably applicable to Huey<span class="pagenum" id="Page142">[142]</span> -Long and his gang,” the Irey book avers in telling of the -investigation that Treasury Secretary Morgenthau ordered -within three days after he took office.</p> - -<p>Evidence was gathered against the smaller fry first, and with -former Governor Dan Moody of Texas as counsel for the -Treasury Department, one of these lesser lights was convicted -and sentenced to Atlanta in April 1935.</p> - -<p>By autumn more evidence had been gathered against Long -himself. According to Irey’s memoir, it “convinced Moody. -‘I will go before the grand jury when it meets next month -and ask for an indictment against Long,’ Moody told us.... -That conversation was held on September 7.”</p> - -<p>This was the very day on which, in the course of a round -of golf, Huey Long confided to Seymour Weiss not only that -enough cash and other campaign material was in hand to -finance his presidential race, but that all this accumulation -had been removed from the safety-deposit box he—Long—had -rented under his own name in the Riggs National Bank -in Washington.</p> - -<p>It must not be forgotten that Long too had a highly proficient -intelligence service, and that therefore he was beyond -question well aware that the T-men were busily seeking evidence -to be used against him. He knew who their operatives -in Louisiana were, where their headquarters office in the -Masonic Temple Building was, and in general, exactly how -the Irey unit functioned. He had no illusions about their -knowledge of his Riggs Bank safety-deposit box. He knew how -they had traced such depositories in other cases, and also -that, in the past, variations of “this money does not belong to -me, it is merely the political campaign (etc., etc.) fund of our -association” had proved to be no valid defense.</p> - -<p>Whether or not that is why he stripped the Riggs Bank -box of its contents no one can say. But it is certain that if -Long had lived, and Dan Moody had impounded the contents<span class="pagenum" id="Page143">[143]</span> -of this box for evidence of unreported income, he would -have made a water haul.... The T-men brought to trial -only one other of the indictments pending against Long bigwigs; -they considered it their strongest case, but the jurors -found the defendant “not guilty.” It was not until the government -filed charges of using the mails to defraud that convictions -were obtained some three or four years later.</p> - -<p>What it all came down to is this: the apparently impregnable -political structure created by Huey Long, and the hard-and-fast -line of cleavage that separated Long from anti-Long -while the Kingfish was present to maintain his dictatorial -hold on all phases of his organization, began to disintegrate -at 4:06 <span class="smcapall">A.M.</span> of September 10, 1935. As is almost invariably the -case, the dictatorship died with the dictator. After the Leche -landslide majority of 1936 the governor-designate epitomized -the result rather ruefully by observing:</p> - -<p>“They didn’t vote for or against a live governor; only for or -against a dead senator.”</p> - -<p>Today the Long faction, what there is of it, is just another -loosely knit political coalition. The number of those who still -recall the self-anointed Kingfish of the Lodge becomes smaller -with each passing day.... In the spring of 1962 Johnny -Carson, then a television quizmaster, asked a couple of contestants -on his “Who Do You Trust?” program this question:</p> - -<p>“What statesman who was elected governor in 1928, was -assassinated at Baton Rouge in 1935?”</p> - -<p>The two contestants, who had otherwise proved themselves -reasonably well informed, simply looked blank. Neither of -them could give the answer.</p> - -<p>Before many more years have gone by, Huey Pierce Long -will be just another vague figure out of a history text, and -there will no longer be any disputes about the architect of -his assassination, the manner in which it was carried out, or -the motives that prompted it. But in the meantime——</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page144">[144-<br />145]<a id="Page145"></a></span></p> - -<h2>12 —— <span class="smcap">Summation</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>One cool judgment is worth -a thousand hasty counsels.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——WOODROW WILSON</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">The various versions of “what really happened” during the -assassination of Huey Long can be grouped into four general -classes under some such headings as the following:</p> - -<div class="generalclasses"> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Dr. Weiss, unarmed, entered the capitol and merely struck -at Long, being gunned down at once by the bodyguards, -one of whose wild shots inflicted a mortal wound on the -man they were seeking to defend.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Dr. Weiss was armed, did fire one shot which missed its -target. In the ensuing fusillade which riddled the young -physician’s body, a wild shot inflicted on Long a wound -which proved fatal.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">The small-caliber bullet from Weiss’s weapon did not pass -completely through its victim’s body, and was never found, -being buried with him. The fatal bullet, a ricochet or stray -shot from the gun of a bodyguard, was the missile that -emerged from Long’s body in the back, creasing the kidney -in its passage and initiating what later proved to be a fatal -hemorrhage.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Dr. Weiss’s small-caliber weapon fired the only shot which -struck Huey Long, passing through the right side of the -abdomen, and injuring the right kidney just before emerging<span class="pagenum" id="Page146">[146]</span> -at the back. It is possible that surgery to remove this kidney, -rather than the frontal laparotomy which was performed, -might have halted the fatal hemorrhage and thus have -saved Long’s life.</p> - -</div><!--generalclasses--> - -<p>Taking these up individually and in sequence, it becomes -a relatively simple matter to dispose of the first assumption. -This rests on the undeniable fact that Senator Long’s lower -lip bore an abrasion on its outer surface, and a small cut inside -of his mouth; also on the statement of one nurse who is -quoted as saying she heard the patient say in the hospital: -“He hit me.”</p> - -<p>But there is abundant evidence to support the belief that -if this bruise was the result of a blow, it was not struck by -Dr. Weiss. There is, for one thing, the testimony of Sheriff -Coleman, that he struck at Senator Long’s assailant twice, -that the first blow missed the assassin and struck someone -else, and that the second felled Weiss, who by that time was -grappling with Murphy Roden.</p> - -<p>There is likewise the statement of the first physician to -examine the gravely wounded man at the hospital, when -Judge O’Connor voiced the belief that Long had been shot -in the mouth because of the bloody spittle that stained his -clothing. After an examination the young doctor declared -“that is just where he hit himself against something.”</p> - -<p>There is the unanimous testimony of Justice Fournet, -Sheriff Coleman, and Murphy Roden that the assailant later -identified as Dr. Weiss did have “a small black pistol” and -did fire it, as well as the testimony of Frampton, Justice Fournet, -and Coleman that this pistol was lying a few inches -from Dr. Weiss’s lifeless hand immediately after the shooting.</p> - -<p>But above all, the belief that the young physician was unarmed -and merely struck Long with his fist is proved fallacious -by one circumstance: the identity of the bullet-riddled body<span class="pagenum" id="Page147">[147]</span> -on the floor of the corridor where the shooting took place -was not established until long after the weapon was found, -in fact, not until the coroner arrived and examined the contents -of the dead man’s wallet.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that if Dr. Weiss came unarmed to -the capitol, some other person must have brought his gun -there from the car where his father testified he carried it. The -argument is advanced that this was done by a bodyguard, a -highway patrolman, or an officer of the state bureau of identification, -to direct suspicion away from the “fact” that a -wild shot from one of the bodyguards was the only missile -that inflicted a mortal wound on Long.</p> - -<p>But this presupposes that those who could not identify a -riddled body on the marble floor of a capitol corridor were -none the less able to pick out the slain man’s automobile -from among the hundreds, possibly thousands, of cars parked -on the capitol grounds and along every nearby street, search -it for a weapon, and place that weapon surreptitiously where -it was picked up by the authorities moments after the shooting. -This so far transcends even the most remote possibility, -that any version based on the assumption that Weiss, unarmed, -merely struck at Long with his fist, can be discarded -out of hand.</p> - -<p>The second category includes all versions of the proposition -that Carl Weiss did fire one shot, but missed. There is even -one account which holds that, at the time, Long was wearing -a bullet-proof vest which Weiss’s small-caliber bullet could not -penetrate.</p> - -<p>Everyone who knew Huey Long well, who traveled with -him on his campaign tours, stopped at the same hotels with -him, and so on, can testify to the fact that he was never -known to wear a bullet-proof vest. He surrounded himself with -armed guards wherever he went; a cadre of militiamen in -full uniform, with steel helmets and side arms, accompanied<span class="pagenum" id="Page148">[148]</span> -him to the washroom in what is now the building of the -National Bank of Commerce while he was conducting one -of his murder-plot probes there. But he wore no armor.</p> - -<p>Of my own knowledge I can testify that I have seen him -in his suites at the Roosevelt and at the Heidelberg when, -after breakfast, he bathed and dressed for the street, that I -have traveled with him during his campaigns through Louisiana -and through Arkansas, that I have been with him in his -home on Audubon Boulevard, and that never, from the day -I first met him in 1919 to the day of his death in 1935, have -I known him to wear anything that remotely resembled a -bullet-proof vest.</p> - -<p>But to make assurance doubly sure, I checked this point -with Earle Christenberry and with Seymour Weiss, his two -closest friends.</p> - -<p>“I can’t imagine how that story got about,” Christenberry -said, “but I know exactly on what it must be based. About -six months before Huey died I got the bright idea that it -would be a smart thing for him, when he went out stumping -the country in the approaching presidential campaign, to wear -a bullet-proof vest. So without saying a word to him about it, -I wrote to Elliott Wisbrod in Chicago, a manufacturer of -such equipment, and asked that a vest of this type be sent to -me for the Senator’s approval.</p> - -<p>“The thing was delivered in due course, and I put it on -and went to his room and showed it to him, and suggested -that on occasion it might be wise to wear it as a protection -against some unpredictable attack. He told me to send the -damn thing back, adding ‘it would be ridiculous for me to -wear it. I don’t need no goddam bullet-proof vest.’ So I sent -it back and that was the end of it.</p> - -<p>“I have never spoken about this incident from that day to -this. I didn’t think another soul knew about it. But evidently -the story must have leaked out somewhere; from the manufacturers,<span class="pagenum" id="Page149">[149]</span> -I suppose. At any rate, I was the one that wore -the bullet-proof vest, one day for a few minutes. He never did -in all his life.”</p> - -<p>Seymour Weiss, the sartorial mentor who weaned Long -away from the flashy clothes in which he first came to public -notice, put it more succinctly.</p> - -<p>“Huey wouldn’t have known what a bullet-proof vest -looked like,” he said.</p> - -<p>Other aspects of the available evidence cover not merely -the category of stories about Weiss’s bullet missing its target, -being deflected by a bullet-proof vest, etc., but the next category -as well. This embraces what is far and away the most -widely believed and oft repeated version of what took place. -It holds that a bullet from the gun of a bodyguard inflicted -the mortal wound of whose effects Huey Long died, even -though Dr. Weiss’s small-caliber missile likewise struck him.</p> - -<p>Three points are the ones most frequently stressed by those -who cling to this theory.</p> - -<p>The first is that “no small-caliber bullet was ever found.” -This has been interpreted to mean that the Weiss bullet was -still in Long’s body and, no autopsy being authorized, was -buried with him. There is general agreement on one point. -The fatal injury was sustained near the wound of exit, in the -region of the right kidney. It was there that a continuing -hemorrhage was the immediate cause of death.</p> - -<p>The argument runs that Weiss’s bullet of small caliber -never having been found, and therefore remaining in the body -of the victim, the wound of exit must have been made by -some other bullet. No other bullet was fired by anyone except -the bodyguards, who discharged a wild barrage of pistol -fire which left the body of Dr. Weiss riddled with wounds, -and pocked the marble walls of the corridor with bullet scars -which for years official guides pointed out to visitors touring -the capitol. The injury near the point of exit was the only<span class="pagenum" id="Page150">[150]</span> -demonstrably fatal one; ergo, a bodyguard’s bullet killed Long.</p> - -<p>The view that the Kingfish perished from the effects of a -bullet-wound inflicted by one of his own guards also had a -certain superficial plausibility that appealed strongly to dedicated -leaders of anti-Long factionalism and their followers. -It carried with it an overtone of Matthew’s “All-they-that-take-the-sword-shall-perish-with-the-sword” -retributive justice. -Finally it was labored in season and out by the Home Rule -campaign speakers who sought to rid themselves of the Assassination -Ticket stigma by proving that Long had died at the -hands of one of his own men.</p> - -<p>It would be difficult to overestimate the fashion in which -all this tended to perpetuate what began as a campaign legend. -For example, Elmer Irey, whose career as postal inspector and -finally chief of the Treasury Department’s Intelligence Division -spanned more than a generation, assuredly must be -accounted a professional in the realm of gathering, sifting, -and assaying evidence. Yet in his book he reports that——</p> - -<p>“Weiss had a .22 calibre pistol in his hand when Long’s -bodyguards mowed him down. Long died as the result of a -single bullet wound made by a .45 calibre slug. Nobody has -explained that yet.”</p> - -<p>To cite still another instance, I happened to meet both -Isaac Don Levine (author of, among other works, <i>The Mind -of an Assassin</i>) and Dr. Alton Ochsner at a medical gathering -some years ago, not long after Dr. Vidrine’s death. The -talk turned on the events of the night when Huey Long died.</p> - -<p>“Why, I always thought it was a bodyguard, not Dr. Weiss, -who killed Long!” exclaimed Levine. When I spoke of some -of the contradictions to which this view was open, Dr. Ochsner -expressed amazed disbelief that any presumably informed -person could entertain the slightest doubt that Long’s death -was due to a bodyguard’s bullet or bullets.</p> - -<p>And yet the weight of all real evidence is wholly against<span class="pagenum" id="Page151">[151]</span> -this hypothesis; so much so, in fact, that it is difficult to -select a point of approach to it. For a beginning, then, one -must take into account the “small, blue punctures” a bullet -left on Huey Long’s body as the mark of its passage. Only -one <a href="#Fig6">photograph</a> of Dr. Weiss’s body was ever taken. The -official photographer of the State Bureau of Identification -made this picture, which has never before been published. -It shows the great gaping wounds left on his torso by the -.44- and .45-caliber bullets of those who fired into his already -lifeless body. Most of the large-caliber cartridges also carried -hollow-point bullets, which have a mushrooming effect. (Cf. -Murphy Roden’s “I saw the flesh open up,” when he fired into -Weiss’s throat as they were locked in a fierce struggle on the -corridor floor.)</p> - -<p>Granted that a wildly ricocheting bullet from one of these -guns could have entered into the same wound made by Dr. -Weiss’s small-caliber bullet, unlikely as this may seem, it could -by no stretch of the long arm of coincidence have made its -exit as a small bluish puncture. Even if it alone caused the -wound of exit, leaving a small bullet still in the body of its -victim, the point at which it plowed its way out of Long’s -back would have been a gaping orifice and not, as Thomas -Davis graphically described it, “so small I doubt we’d have -seen it had it not been pointed out to us.”</p> - -<p>Another fact not to be overlooked is that the moment Dr. -Rives saw the clean dressing that had been placed over the -wound and the operational incision in the anterior wall of -Long’s abdomen, he came to the conclusion that any bullet -entering at that point in the manner described, most probably -emerged in the area of the kidney, and was likely to have -damaged that organ. It was for this reason that he asked -whether any blood had been found in the patient’s urine, -learning to his astonishment that the critically wounded man<span class="pagenum" id="Page152">[152]</span> -had not even been catheterized to determine the existence -and extent of kidney damage.</p> - -<p>The visible abdominal trauma disclosed by the Vidrine -operation was small; so small that only a small-caliber bullet -could have caused it. Two holes had been left in the large -bowel at the bend where it turns horizontally across the abdomen -from right to left. These holes were so small that there -was “very little soilage.” Reports that when the abdomen -was opened by Vidrine it was “a mass of blood and fecal -matter” were simply fabrications into which a minute fragment -of fact was expanded, like some of Huey Long’s murder-plot -charges.</p> - -<p>Finally, the available evidence is conclusive in one respect: -By the time the bodyguard fusillade began, Huey Long had -fled the corridor where the shooting took place. Coleman, -Frampton, and Fournet are unanimous on that point. Roden, -blinded by the searing muzzle blasts of his comrades’ guns, -could no longer see what was going on, but testifies that the -other guards waited until he had struggled to his knees from -beneath the lifeless body of Carl Weiss, before they started -their volley. O’Connor describes how the firing was still audible -after Huey had reeled down four short flights of steps and -was being led out of a ground-floor door into the porte-cochere.</p> - -<p>In sum, every item of credible evidence—surgical, circumstantial, -and the testimony of eyewitnesses—indicates that -Huey Long could not have been struck by a bullet from the -gun of one of his bodyguards. That leaves but one other -conceivable hypothesis, namely: Huey Long died of the effects -of a bullet wound inflicted by Carl Weiss and no one -else.</p> - -<p>Disregarding the physical circumstances, an intangible consideration -virtually compels the acceptance of this view. We -have in the testimony of all the eyewitnesses a substantial<span class="pagenum" id="Page153">[153]</span> -agreement on what took place. Roden, Fournet, and Coleman -saw the gun in Weiss’s hand and saw him fire it. Frampton, -Coleman, and Fournet saw and describe Long’s flight before -the crashing salvo by the other bodyguards began.</p> - -<p>Their stories differ in detail. Frampton says Huey gave -“a sort of a grunt” when he was shot; Justice Fournet describes -it as “a hoot.” He also says the first shot was fired by -Weiss, the next three by Coleman; Roden says the first two -shots were fired by Weiss, the third by himself, and the -fourth by someone else (obviously Coleman). Coleman says -Huey was attended by Roden, McQuiston, and himself on -his final visit to the House chamber, Fournet says he was -accompanied by Messina, and Frampton reports that Messina -answered the telephone in the office of the sergeant at -arms, which opens off the Speaker’s rostrum and is entirely -separate from the House chamber.</p> - -<p>These discrepancies are natural; only the absence of such -variations would lay the testimony of witnesses to a violent -incident open to the suspicion, nay the certainty, of collusion. -Take for example the three mutually contradictory versions -of what happened when the two principals, Roden and Weiss, -locked in literally a life-and-death grapple, fell struggling to -the floor. Roden says his hard heels slipped on the marble -paving; Justice Fournet says he threw out his hands in a -gesture that overbalanced the two; Coleman says a blow of -his fist felled Weiss, who, clasped in Roden’s grip, pulled the -latter down beneath him.</p> - -<p>But on the main point—namely, that the two fell to the -floor, and that Weiss was not killed until after they were -down—all are in complete agreement. If it is assumed that -this is a concocted story, made up to divert suspicion from -one or more of the bodyguards as having fired so wildly that -one of their bullets brought about their leader’s death, the -following must likewise be accepted as true:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page154">[154]</span></p> - -<p>Somewhere and sometime before the first of these four -witnesses told what he saw, all of them would have had to -agree on the specific untruths they would tell.</p> - -<p>But at no time was there any opportunity during those -initial frantic moments for the four to have met, either to -concoct and agree on a false story or for any other purpose. -Indeed, Frampton was already telephoning his first story of -what had occurred, while the others are all accounted for -elsewhere: Coleman describing to Governor Allen what he -had seen, Justice Fournet in the hospital, Roden out of action -and temporarily blinded until taken to the hospital himself -by Ty Campbell.</p> - -<p>Furthermore, after treatment, and not having spoken to -any others in the meantime, Roden gave his statement that -night to General Guerre, and later to General Fleming. These -accounts agreed in almost every detail with one another and -with the one he gave me, twenty-four years later, in the presence -of Generals Fleming and Guerre, who verified that this -statement differed in no essential respect from what he had -told them at the scene when questioned by them on the -night of September 8, 1935.</p> - -<p>Except for one detail, it also agrees with the testimony he -gave on September 16 of that same year, at the Odom inquest. -It was his belief at first that Dr. Weiss fired but once. -However, mulling the violent images of that night over in -his mind, he later came to the conclusion that the doctor -fired twice; this, incidentally, is the only conclusion that -would square with the two minor injuries he sustained on -his right hand and left wrist.</p> - -<p>In any case, the possibility of conspiratorial collusion -among these four in time to have agreed on a falsified account -of what took place before their eyes, would appear to -be ruled out in its entirety. The inevitable corollary of such -a proposition is that the otherwise uncontradicted testimony<span class="pagenum" id="Page155">[155]</span> -of these four witnesses is a factual account of what took -place.</p> - -<p>None the less, one cannot dismiss out of hand the possibility, -however remote, that evidence can be framed, as it -has been in documented cases—Sacco-Vanzetti, Tom Moony, -Leo M. Frank; and that circumstantial evidence, even where -no single link in the chain appears weak, leads now and then -to false conclusions. But it can be said that in this instance -the overwhelming weight of available evidence indicates that -Weiss’s bullet was the cause of Huey Long’s death, and that -no bullet from the guns of one or another of his bodyguards -was a contributing factor in putting an end to his career.</p> - -<p>The available evidence likewise appears to indicate beyond -a reasonable doubt that the emergency operation was a contributing -cause of death in the following respect:</p> - -<p>Had a decision to perform a frontal laparotomy been deferred, -and had in its stead a removal of the damaged right -kidney made possible the tying off of the blood vessels supplying -this organ to halt the hemorrhage that was draining -off the victim’s life blood, Huey Long might none the less -have died of peritonitis, from “soilage” into the abdominal -cavity by the two small punctures of the large bowel.</p> - -<p>But once the decision to operate from the front was carried -into effect, the only door to possible—by no means “certain,” -but possible—recovery was irrevocably closed. Even Dr. -Vidrine realized that a second operation to halt the kidney -hemorrhage was something his patient could not survive.</p> - -<p>By way of conclusion it is logical to say that on the basis -of available testimony and with due regard for the imminence -of human error, the following facts appear to be established -by the overwhelming preponderance of evidence:</p> - -<p>Dr. Weiss was armed when he went into the capitol building -on the night of September 8, 1935, carrying with him the -small-caliber Belgian automatic he had brought back from<span class="pagenum" id="Page156">[156]</span> -France and which he customarily took with him in his car -on night calls.</p> - -<p>According to the integrated testimony of four eyewitnesses -who had no opportunity for collusion prior to giving their -accounts of what they saw, he held the gun in one hand, -concealing it with the straw hat he held in the other, so that -it was virtually impossible for him to have struck a blow with -his fist.</p> - -<p>Every trustworthy piece of testimony appears to make it -clear that only four shots were fired while Huey Long was -on the scene: two by Weiss, one each by Roden and Coleman; -that by the time the general bodyguard fusillade began, the -Senator was already on his way down a flight of stairs opposite -the Western Union office, which is around a corner from -the site of the shooting; and that the fusillade was still in -progress while Long was being led out of the building by -Judge O’Connor.</p> - -<p>Medical testimony is unanimous on the point that only -one bullet, and that one of small caliber, traversed Long’s -abdomen, leaving small blue punctures at the points of entry -and exit; that the primarily fatal injury was caused when, -just prior to its exit, the bullet damaged the victim’s right -kidney at a point where only removal of the maimed organ -could have halted the ensuing and ultimately fatal hemorrhage.</p> - -<p>Granted then, if only for the sake of argument, that there -no longer is either mystery or even reasonable doubt concerning -<i>who</i> killed Huey Long, one big, crucial question remains -unanswered. It is this:</p> - -<p>“<i>Why?</i>”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page157">[157]</span></p> - -<h2>13 —— <span class="smcap">The Motive</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Life is the art of drawing sufficient -conclusions from insufficient -premises.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——SAMUEL BUTLER</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">The difficulty encountered when seeking to rationalize the -assassination of Huey Long is implicit in two circumstances. -The first is the total absence of fact or testimony about the -motive for it, so that conclusions are necessarily based on -surmise.</p> - -<p>The second is the apparently irreconcilable disparity between -the known nature of Carl Weiss, the man, and the -obvious nature of his act. Why would someone whose closest -personal and professional associates unhesitatingly declare -him to have been incapable of any dark deed of violence -commit a murder by shooting down an unsuspecting victim -as if from ambush? What could conceivably account for the -metamorphosis of a mild, retiring young man, happily married -and fulfilled in the birth of a dearly beloved son, into an -indomitably resolute killer, ready to sacrifice his own life, rich -with promise, in order to take the life of another?</p> - -<p>In this instance the problem is not merely one of drawing -sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. Conclusions -must be drawn from <i>two</i> mutually contradictory sets of insufficient -premises.</p> - -<p>Barry O’Meara, the Irish ship’s surgeon aboard the vessel -that brought Napoleon to St. Helena, volunteered to remain<span class="pagenum" id="Page158">[158]</span> -there with him, but was one of the first to be deported when -Sir Hudson Lowe subsequently took over the governorship of -the island. He was one of the fallen emperor’s few confidants -during the desolate days of that terminal exile. In his memoirs -of their association he quoted Napoleon as saying:</p> - -<p>“A man is known by his conduct to his wife, to his family, -and to those under him.”</p> - -<p>The members of Carl Weiss’s family are still not convinced, -or at least are still unwilling to admit, that he took Long’s -life. The nurses who were his principal subordinates, and -many of whom still survive, looked on him not merely as a -physician, but as a teacher. To this day they agree he could -not have done what all available evidence conclusively proves -that he did.</p> - -<p>Miss Theoda Carriere, the first registered nurse called to -attend Senator Long after the shooting, now lives in a piny -woods retreat near Amite. “Dr. Weiss just wasn’t the kind of -person who would do a thing like that,” she insists. “He -taught us chemistry when we were in training, and every girl -in our class looked on him as one of the gentlest and kindest -of men. None of us believe he was the one who shot Long.”</p> - -<p>Admittedly, Dr. Chester A. Williams, Jr., the present coroner -of East Baton Rouge parish, cannot be regarded as a -Long partisan. It was he who pronounced Earl Long insane in -1959 while the latter was still governor, and committed him -to a mental institution. Yet he set down the following restrained -obiter dictum after transcribing and studying the -microfilmed hospital chart of Huey Long’s final hours:</p> - -<p>“Most of the doctors who lived in Baton Rouge and are -still living do not feel that Dr. Weiss shot Long.”</p> - -<p>In a strictly technical sense, only Carl Weiss himself, his -lips irrevocably sealed within seconds after he did what “his -family and those under him,” not to mention his professional<span class="pagenum" id="Page159">[159]</span> -associates, still regard him as incapable of doing, could have -given a conclusive solution to this paradox.</p> - -<p>Since that is out of the question, the best that can now be -done is to list the various possible motives which either have -been or could be considered as impelling Dr. Weiss to sacrifice -his own life in order to put an end to that of Huey Long. -From the roster thus compiled, the obviously impossible and -then the logically infirm assumptions can be eliminated one -by one, to see whether any hypothesis which might fit such -of the facts as are ascertainable will withstand searching -scrutiny.</p> - -<p>Four motives have been or can be imputed to Dr. Weiss in -connection with the shooting of Long. They are:</p> - -<div class="motives"> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">The young physician was the executioner chosen by a -group of plotters in a cabal of which he was a member, to -carry out the death sentence there secretly decreed against -an otherwise invincible political oppressor.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">The assassination was an act of reprisal for the gerrymander -which would bring to an abrupt end the twenty-eight-year -judicial career of Yvonne Weiss’s father through a fraudulent -mockery of legislative procedure deliberately rigged to -deny the parish of St. Landry the free exercise of home rule.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">An abstract idealism inspired a quixotic young patriot to -sacrifice himself on the altar of the common weal by destroying -a dictatorship through the death of the autocrat -who stood at its head.</p> - -<p class="noindent blankbefore75">Haunted by anxiety born of a suspicion that, in campaigning -against Judge Pavy, Long would raise the specter of an -all-but-forgotten and long since refuted racial slur against -the Pavy family, Dr. Weiss paid with his life for the assurance -that libelous words resurrecting the false stigma -would never be uttered.</p> - -</div><!--motives--> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page160">[160]</span></p> - -<p>The first of these four propositions can be given short shrift. -The Senate speech in which Long sought to implicate the -Roosevelt administration, and in effect President Roosevelt -himself, in a “plan of robbery, murder, blackmail, or theft” -was the latest of several revelations charging others with -plotting his murder. It happened also to be the last one because -within a month after making this charge in the Senate, -he was assassinated.</p> - -<p>But significant factors must not be overlooked. The first -is that after none of these spectacular accusations of murder -plots was anyone ever formally charged before any court with -conspiracy to commit murder.</p> - -<p>The second is the undeniable fact that the so-called murder -conference in the De Soto Hotel was neither more nor less -than a political caucus of the type customarily held behind -closed doors in order to facilitate full freedom of discussion -about personalities, political prospects, and the like.</p> - -<p>The third is that when all the verbiage about patronage -plums and job distribution and endorsement of candidacies is -sifted for substance, a pitiably small modicum of grain is -recovered from a mountain of chaff. Here are the only specific -references to the infliction of bodily harm by those hotel -conferees actually quoted by Long in his Senate speech:</p> - -<p>Oscar Whilden is reported as saying: “I am out to murder, -bulldoze, steal, or anything else to win this election.” An -unidentified voice said: “I would draw in a lottery to go out -and kill Long. It would only take one man, one gun, one -bullet.” Another unidentified voice said: “I haven’t the slightest -doubt but that Roosevelt would pardon anyone who killed -Long.” And still another unidentified voice said: “The best -way would be to just hang around Washington and kill him -in the Senate.”</p> - -<p>These four remarks were sandwiched in among two days -of political discussion about an approaching state campaign,<span class="pagenum" id="Page161">[161]</span> -the selection of candidates, the use of federal patronage, and -matters of that sort! By way of illustration, a remark in a -recent magazine article about another Louisiana representative, -Congressman Otto Passman, would offer a much firmer -foundation for a conspiracy charge along the lines followed -by Long.</p> - -<p>Passman has dedicated himself, in season and out, to opposing -and reducing foreign-aid appropriations, and President -Kennedy is quoted as asking at the signing ceremony of one -of these bills: “What am I going to do about Passman?”</p> - -<p>“Mr. President,” a bystander is reported as replying, “you’re -surrounded by a lot of well-armed Secret Service Men. -Why don’t you have one of them shoot him—by accident, of -course? In fact, Mr. President, if you promise me immunity, -I’ll do it myself.”</p> - -<p>No one who read that statement took it in its literal sense; -no one regarded it as a serious proposal to authorize, commit, -and condone the murder of a legislator. Yet that is precisely -the construction Huey Long put on four similar remarks -made at intervals during a two-day caucus in a New Orleans -hotel.</p> - -<p>All this would tend to cast doubts upon the complicity of -Carl Weiss in a murder conspiracy, even had he been the sort -of person to whom a deed involving assassination would normally -have been possible. However, what removes the assumption -that he was the chosen executioner of a political -camarilla from serious consideration is this:</p> - -<p>Carl Weiss was virtually unknown outside of his immediate -professional, social, and familial circle. Not one of the leading -supposed “plotters” of the hotel conference spoke of him -during that meeting, none of the leaders who were asked -about him later could recall having heard of him, although his -wife’s father and uncle were known to virtually all of them.</p> - -<p>In sum, the hotel meeting of which Long sought to make<span class="pagenum" id="Page162">[162]</span> -great capital was not a murder conference, and no one -dreamed of bringing to book on charges of criminal conspiracy -any of those who took part in it; and even had it been -such a conspiracy, the name of Carl Weiss was not even remotely -connected with it.</p> - -<p>The second proposition would have it that Carl Weiss assassinated -Long in reprisal for what the latter was doing to -Yvonne’s father by having him gerrymandered out of office, -and virtually out of public life. There are those who go so far -as to say that Yvonne goaded her young husband into exacting -satisfaction from the despot who was persecuting her -family, who had brought about the dismissal of her uncle -Paul from a school superintendency, and of her sister Marie -from a position as teacher, and who was now implacably going -to any lengths to close her father’s long and honorable -career as judge.</p> - -<p>The whole idea of such a reprisal motive runs directly -counter to every fact known about the way the Weiss families -passed that last Sunday: the young couple leaving the baby -with their elders while they attended Mass, the family dinner -at which the gerrymander was indeed the topic of conversation, -but in a light, rather jocular vein; the young couple -“sporting in the water” at the elders’ camp in the afternoon, -while the latter fondled their precious grandson, the domestic -routine that preceded Carl’s departure for a professional -call....</p> - -<p>As nearly as anything human can be certain, it is sure that -neither Dr. Weiss nor any of the Pavy clan would ever have -dreamed of taking upon their consciences the killing of a fellow -being, even in the heat of passion, over such a matter as -the loss of a public office, a development they had discussed -almost jocularly only a few hours before.</p> - -<p>Only two theoretical assumptions thus remain as to the -motive of Dr. Weiss in committing a violent act contrary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page163">[163]</span> -all that was known of his nature. One is the idea advanced -by Yvonne’s uncle, Dr. Pavy, that this was “an act of pure -patriotism.” In 1935, when Dr. Pavy served as spokesman for -the Weiss family, he felt that his niece’s husband was deeply -troubled by “the suppressive type of government” that had -been imposed on Louisiana; that he brooded over this until -“his mind unhinged,” and he determined to put an end to -the dictatorship even at the cost of his life.</p> - -<p>Supporting this view are certain plausible factors. Carl -Weiss was indeed an idealist of the type who might voluntarily -have sacrificed his life in the furtherance of any noble cause, -such as the liberation of his community from the thralldom -imposed upon it by a ruthless authoritarian. Negating this -view, however, is the fact that he took no active part in politics, -though at that time Baton Rouge, his home, was the -focal point of fiercely contested Long and anti-Long rivalry.</p> - -<p>It is simply not conceivable, in the general sense of that -word, that anyone so deeply and earnestly concerned with -“pure patriotism” should not have been known to a single -member of the press gallery at the capitol, to a single member -of the State Bureau of Identification, to so well known a -leader of the anti-Long movement in Baton Rouge as Dr. -Tom Bird—a fellow physician—and above all, to Huey Long -himself, a man whose memory for names and faces was truly -phenomenal.</p> - -<p>While Carl Weiss could well have been a crusader for any -idealistic cause, it is difficult to accept unreservedly the proposition -that one who had so very much to live for, whose happiness -was so nearly complete, the best and most rewarding -years of whose life still lay in the future, would give up all -this and burden his conscience with two mortal sins—murder -and what was tantamount to self-destruction—for an abstract -concept of the general good.</p> - -<p>It would seem almost self-evident that no man would voluntarily<span class="pagenum" id="Page164">[164]</span> -make such a sacrifice except in seeking to protect -from harm those whom he held dear.</p> - -<p>And there must have been some such motive in the haunting -suspicion that, while campaigning against Judge Pavy, -Huey Long would revive that long-buried, long-refuted tarbrush -bugaboo which had been brought up unsuccessfully as -involving one of Judge Pavy’s relatives-in-law thirty years before.</p> - -<p>In view of Long’s past obsession with racial issues of this -sort, Carl Weiss had good grounds for apprehension on that -score. In past campaigns and polemics Long had never hesitated -to use such innuendos, as when he referred to a prominent -Orleanian as “Kinky” Soandso in issue after issue of his -weekly newspaper, <i>The American Progress</i>. Nor had he hesitated -to make direct attacks on this front, as in his campaigns -against Dudley LeBlanc in the matter of the latter’s Negro -fellow officers of his burial-insurance society.</p> - -<p>In his fancy the young physician could readily imagine -Long’s insistence that “this isn’t what I’m saying; I’m not -even a-saying it’s so. All I’m telling you is this is what Sheriff -Swords said time after time....”</p> - -<p>If Long, true to form, had made up his mind to drag this -rejected canard back into the open, there was one sure way -in which Dr. Weiss could keep him from his purpose and -prevent a single syllable of that baseless and forgotten slander -from being uttered. True, he could accomplish this only at -the cost of his life. Surrounded as the Kingfish was by heavily -armed guards, anyone who attacked him, even though he cut -him down with the first shot, was sure to die himself, in the -next instant, under a rain of bullets. Carl Weiss “just wasn’t -the sort of person that would ever do a thing like that,” for -any ordinary motive. But to shield the wife he adored and -the infant son he idolized from a slander, groundless though -it be, that would impute to them by innuendo a remote trace<span class="pagenum" id="Page165">[165]</span> -of Negro blood, he could—and in the opinion of many he -did—lay down his life.</p> - -<p>In that case, the real tragedy inherent in his act was not -the sacrifice of his own future, so rich with promise, nor even -the extinction of Huey Long, one of the most notable, challenging, -and controversial figures in the public life of his era. -Unschooled in the labyrinthine windings and turnings of politics -in general and more particularly the ins and outs of -Louisiana’s politics during that hectic era, Dr. Weiss had no -intimation of the fact that nothing could have been farther -from Huey Long’s plans than raising any racial issue at this -time.</p> - -<p>He did not know that Long was preparing to challenge -Franklin Roosevelt’s bid for re-election by running against -him for the presidency; that he was no longer campaigning -merely in the Deep South where Negroes, disfranchised ever -since the final rout of carpetbaggery in the 1870s, were kept -from the polls first by force, then by the Grandfather Clause, -and after that by the Understanding Clause, but above all by -the one-party device of settling campaigns not at a general -election but in a Democratic (i.e., white) primary.</p> - -<p>Running for office as the nominee of what in all likelihood -would have been a new coalition party—the Share-Our-Wealthers?—Louisiana’s -Kingfish would need all the minority-group -votes he could attract to his standard. Primarily this -meant the heavy Negro vote of Harlem in New York, Chicago’s -black-and-tan belt, and other such concentrations in Boston, -Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, and so on.</p> - -<p>Looking forward, planning far ahead, he had already begun -to rid himself of the “racist” label customarily applied to every -far-Southern politician. As an initial step he abolished the -poll tax in Louisiana, issuing poll certificates free to all applicants, -regardless of color, provided they could meet the age -and residential requirements.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page166">[166]</span></p> - -<p>True, this was quite meaningless insofar as enfranchising -the Louisiana Negroes went. The law provided that no one -would be permitted to register or to vote unless he could show -poll-tax receipts (or later, free poll certificates) for each of -the two years directly preceding any given election. Its intent -was primarily to keep floaters from being brought into the -state from Mississippi or other adjacent areas, on election -day. But this was by no means the only prerequisite for voting. -One must also be registered, each parish registrar being -the sole arbiter as to whether the applicant had correctly interpreted -a section of the state or federal constitutions.</p> - -<p>In theory the Democratic Party was a private organization, -like the Fifth Ward Athletic Guild, and could thus choose its -members at pleasure, excluding whom it wished not to admit. -Coupled with this was an unwritten agreement to settle political -differences not between parties, but between factions -of the Democratic Party, with all hands pledged to support -the Democratic nominee in the ensuing general election, even -if that nominee “happens to be a yellow dog!”</p> - -<p>Abolition of the poll tax did nothing to alter this situation, -which obtained until the Supreme Court invalidated it, many -years after Long’s death. None the less, Negroes queued up by -the thousands and treasured the essentially worthless but to -them invaluable slips of paper officially issued to them.</p> - -<p>The next step was Huey’s Share-Our-Wealth promise that -this movement would recognize no racial bars of any sort, -that the division of shared wealth would include black as well -as white on equal terms. “Five thousand a year and a span -of mules,” the poor and underprivileged of both races told -one another ecstatically. “With what I’m making now and -the five thousand Huey Long’s going to give us, we’ll be in -high cotton for true!”</p> - -<p>The final step would have been some sort of a second Emancipation -Proclamation, issued as a campaign document to<span class="pagenum" id="Page167">[167]</span> -a mammoth 1936 Share-Our-Wealth convention to be held -in Detroit, or possibly St. Louis. The unmistakable augury of -this was Huey Long’s published apology during the summer -of 1935 for having used the word <i>nigger</i> in the course of a -national network broadcast. A “race” tabloid, referring to -the word he had used as “the epithet n——r,” sent a reporter -to him in his suite at the New Yorker Hotel, and published -the ensuing interview under a two-column headline on its -front page. In his statement Long made it plain his use of -“the epithet n——r” was a slip of the tongue, and was not -meant to be derogatory in a racial sense; also that he would -exercise due care not to use the epithet again in either public -or private speech.</p> - -<p>It is all but impossible to convey to non-Southerners how -radical a departure from the <i>mores</i> of Winn parish in central -Louisiana was this sort of retraction. Efforts were made to -use the interview as an anti-Long campaign document. Facsimiles -of the front page of the Negro tabloid were printed -by some of the rural weeklies, but it didn’t work. The Negro -Share-Our-Wealthers throughout the land rejoiced. The -whites in the organization shrugged it aside as fabricated anti-Long -propaganda inspired by “the interests” or passed it off -with: “As long as I get my five thousand a year, what difference -does it make who else gets it too?”</p> - -<p>It should not be overlooked that in the case of Judge Pavy, -Long needed no resort to ancient libels to accomplish his -longtime opponent’s defeat. The gerrymander would make it -impossible for Ben Pavy to be re-elected. Long would take -the stump against him, of course, in order to claim the foreordained -victory as another personal triumph; but once St. -Landry parish was put into the same judicial district with -Acadia, Lafayette, and Vermillion parishes, even the slightest -possibility of a Pavy election was precluded. Huey Long would -no more have gone to needless lengths to win an already<span class="pagenum" id="Page168">[168]</span> -certain victory at the risk of alienating any large section of -the prospective Negro presidential vote than he would have -belabored a dying horse at an S.P.C.A. picnic in an effort to -make the animal run.</p> - -<p>Taking all the foregoing into account, it would seem clearly -impossible to accept either the hypothesis that Carl Weiss, -Jr., was the chosen instrument of a political murder cabal to -whose membership he was almost wholly unknown, or the -proposition that his was a nature sufficiently ruthless to take -the life of a fellow being in reprisal for the loss of a long-held -political office by his wife’s father.</p> - -<p>As concerns the idea that Dr. Weiss was motivated by the -“pure patriotism” ascribed to him by his wife’s uncle, Dr. -Pavy, there can be little doubt that this was possible. But it -is also not to be doubted that there is a basis beyond parental -affection for the elder Dr. Weiss’s statement at the inquest -into his son’s death that “my son was too superbly happy with -his wife and child, too much in love with them to want to -end his life after such a murder.”</p> - -<p>On the other hand, no such contradiction is an integral -part of the hypothesis that he made this sacrifice to shield -his wife and his son from exposure to groundless odium. This -would appear to be the only assumption in full accord with -all the known circumstances, even though Dr. Weiss’s belief -that Huey Long would exhume a long-buried slander reflecting -on his loved ones was tragically erroneous.</p> - -<p>On the basis of the situation as he saw and understood it, -the only way to safeguard them was to silence Long before -he could utter the libel. If the only price at which this assurance -could be purchased was the forfeit of his own life, the -compulsive paternal urge to protect his beloved baby son -might well be strong enough to overcome every inhibition -that was normally part of his character and background. He -took no one into his confidence, realizing that anyone to<span class="pagenum" id="Page169">[169]</span> -whom he confided would inevitably thwart his plan. Thus we -may picture him leaving to his family the happy memory of -an afternoon of carefree affection, and departing alone to -weigh in solitude one factor of the situation against another, -as he understood them.</p> - -<p>Should he thereupon have decided that “this man will -never slander my son as he has slandered others in the past if -I can silence him,” we can only surmise that it was with this -thought in mind that he entered the marble-walled corridor -where he died to make certain that some words Huey Long -never intended to utter would remain unsaid.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page170">[170-<br />171]<a id="Page171"></a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Epilogue</span></h2> - -<div class="startquote"> - -<p class="quote">“<i>Finality is not the language -of politics.</i>”</p> - -<p class="quotee right">——DISRAELI</p> - -</div><!--startquote--> - -<p class="chapstart">To the Huey Long murder case the preceding chapters offer a -solution which fits every determinate fact of what took place -in Baton Rouge on September 8, 1935, everything pertinent -that led up to the climactic moment of violence, and what -followed. Yet it goes without saying that many will reject this -rationalization of available evidence. The arguments will go -on and on.</p> - -<p>We are prone to cherish certain myths. As though in wish-fulfillment -we still tell our children Parson Weems’s absurd -fable of the boy Washington, the cherry tree, and “I did it -with my little hatchet.” Similarly, the myth of the bodyguard’s -bullet, product of a compulsive necessity for political -escape from the onus of assassination, will retain adherents -and win fresh believers, despite the obvious fact that wherever -else the truth may lie, the bodyguard-bullet hypothesis is -false.</p> - -<p>Paradox remains a continuing footnote to Huey Long’s -career. Surrounded by fanatically loyal bodyguards, he was -none the less done to death by a shy, retiring young stranger -in whom neither he nor his myrmidons recognized any trace -of menace. His injuries were critical and might in any case -have proved fatal; but it was a decision on the part of the -same Arthur Vidrine whom Huey Long had elevated to high<span class="pagenum" id="Page172">[172]</span> -command which sealed the Kingfish’s doom. True, the alternative -Dr. Vidrine chose was one many another physician, -confronted by the same circumstances, might have selected -inasmuch as mere delay in taking action could have proved -fatal.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, it is not to be disputed that Dr. Vidrine’s -decision to operate by a frontal incision made it impossible -for him or any one else thereafter to save Huey Long’s -life. In consequence, he fell under the ban of the Long faction’s -permanent and extreme displeasure. As soon as he took -office in 1936, Governor Leche appointed Dr. George Bel -to the superintendency of Charity Hospital, thus automatically -displacing Vidrine from that position. Within the year, -Dr. James Monroe Smith, president of the State University, -speaking for its Board of Supervisors, notified him that Dr. -Rigney D’Aunoy had been made acting dean of the medical -school but that he—Dr. Vidrine—might retain a place on the -faculty as professor of gynecology.</p> - -<p>Rather than accept such a demotion he resigned in August -of 1937. Returning to Ville Platte, he founded a private hospital -there, and maintained it until his retirement in ill health -from active practice in 1950. Five years later he died.</p> - -<p>Death also thwarted Long’s design to place the Pavy gerrymander -at the head of what became his last demonstration -of dictatorship as the legislature’s Act Number One. It became -Act Number Three, since the first two were concurrent -resolutions, one expressing the grief of House and Senate -over the leader’s untimely end, the other creating a committee -to select a burial place on the capitol grounds for what remained -of his physical presence among them.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">As for the gerrymander, it never really took effect, though -it automatically became law twenty days after the legislature -adjourned. To be sure, it did provide for an additional<span class="pagenum" id="Page173">[173]</span> -judge in a newly enlarged judicial district, he to be chosen -some fourteen months later at the time of the Congressional -election of November 1936.</p> - -<p>But a new legislature, meeting in May 1936, adopted another -statute, superseding this law and reshuffling Louisiana’s -judicial districts once more to add a new one—the twenty-seventh—consisting -of St. Landry parish alone. This act, a -constitutional amendment, would not become operative until -ratified by popular vote at the November elections. That -obviously made it impossible to elect a judge at the same -time, so the new bill provided that within thirty days after -its ratification, the governor should <i>appoint</i> a judge for the -new district, his term not to end until that of the judges -<i>elected</i> in 1936 should have run its course. In other words, -the appointee would serve for six years.</p> - -<p>Needless to say, the appointee was not Benjamin Pavy.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Another facet of the Long paradox is presented by the -saint-or-sinner image which his contemporaries and their successors -yet seek to preserve. Until the Kingfish’s name has -lost all popular significance, debates will be waged over the -issue of whether the man was an uninhibited genius, or merely -a conscienceless opportunist endowed with exceptional mental -agility. On this point the testimony of one of the three -brothers Huey so heartily disliked might well shed some light.</p> - -<p>Some days after the fallen leader’s funeral, and while the -legislature was still in session, a number of the Long satraps -were gathered in Governor Allen’s office, lamenting the confusion -into which a virtually leaderless assembly (in the sense -of having too many leaders) had fallen.</p> - -<p>The leitmotiv of the parley held that things weren’t like -that in the good old days when the Kingfish was around to -issue orders and see to it that they were carried out. The conversation -finally veered to what a remarkable thing it was for<span class="pagenum" id="Page174">[174]</span> -a little bit of an old town like Winnfield to have produced -a superman like ol’ Huey, especially when you realized it had -never given to the world anyone else of comparable stature.</p> - -<p>Earl Long, himself one of the thus disprized other products -of Winnfield, listened in morose silence for a time to these -observations. Finally he got up, moved to the door, paused, -and said:</p> - -<p>“You folks are right, of course. Huey was the only smart -one from Winnfield. No manner of doubt about it.” He -scratched his chin meditatively and then added: “But I’m -still here!”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">On the other hand, those who casually dismiss Long as a -conscienceless political gangster overlook the number of respects -in which he was far, far ahead of his time. It is only -since the mid-century’s turn, for example, that clamor has -become general to provide special advanced training for -school children with well-above-normal mentality. Long proposed -a program of this sort for Louisiana State University -in his last broadcast, delivered two nights before he was shot. -One of his last rational statements, expressed only moments -before he lapsed into the drugged stupor from which he never -really returned to consciousness, was a lament that he would -be unable to carry out this project.</p> - -<p>He enormously increased Louisiana’s public debt with what -proved to be a remarkably sound system of funding dedicated -revenues into bonds, in order to give the state a highway network -geared to the impending expansion of motorized traffic. -In the 1960s the federal government followed the same line by -laying out and constructing a vast system of interstate super-highways.</p> - -<p>Almost without formal education himself—he never finished -high school—he was like one possessed in his determination -to put schooling within the reach of all by providing<span class="pagenum" id="Page175">[175]</span> -free textbooks, free transportation, free lunches, and the like. -The medical school he founded at Louisiana State University, -as though merely to spite Tulane for not conferring upon -him at least one honorary degree, has won a recognized place -as a great center of research and instruction; it fills what admittedly -became a genuine need ... and while today’s income -and inheritance levies do not set arbitrary limits like -those proposed by Long in the early 1930s, the underlying -principle of decentralization of wealth by heavy upper-bracket -taxes is basically what he advocated.</p> - -<p>None of this mitigates the heritage of corruption in public -life that he bequeathed to Louisiana, or his ruthlessness, vindictiveness, -and other reprehensible qualities. But he was very -far from being merely another gangster.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">The fact that the sons of both men whose lives ended so -abruptly in September 1935 followed brilliantly in their fathers’ -footsteps may well be part of this same pattern of -paradox.</p> - -<p>Russell Long, only sixteen at the time of his father’s death, -enlisted in the Navy as a seaman during World War II, serving -with distinction in the invasions of Africa, Sicily, and Italy -(at Anzio), and advancing through promotion until he was -a lieutenant at the time of his demobilization in 1945. In -the election of January 1948 he supported the successful gubernatorial -race of his uncle, Earl K. Long. In September of -that same year, when Senator John H. Overton died with -two years of his term yet to run, Governor Long supported -his nephew for election to the vacancy.</p> - -<p>He barely won by the slimmest sort of majority. The city -of New Orleans cast a majority of twenty-five thousand votes -against him. But he received much more ponderable support -when he ran for the full Senate term two years later, and a<span class="pagenum" id="Page176">[176]</span> -more impressive vote still when he was re-elected in 1956. -Finally, he was swept back into office in 1962 by a veritable -landslide, receiving some 84 per cent of the votes cast.</p> - -<p>In part this was a response to his generally independent -stand on both local and national issues. In 1952, for example, -he supported one of his father’s uncompromising opponents, -T. Hale Boggs, for governor against the candidate backed by -his uncle Earl, then nearing the end of his first term as governor. -But four years later he vigorously supported Earl against -Mayor deLesseps Morrison of New Orleans when the latter -made the first of two unsuccessful races for the governorship.</p> - -<p>Beyond doubt, at least part of Russell’s steadily growing -strength was also due to the unmistakable fashion in which -he proved himself an exceptionally able member of the Senate, -being one of the first ranking figures in United States -officialdom to recognize in Castro’s rise to power a sinister -portent, and to advocate immediate revision by this country -of the sugar quota to counter the <i>Fidelista</i> drive toward Communist -affiliation.</p> - -<p>Following his sweeping victory in the late summer of 1962, -he issued a modest victory statement in which he said in part:</p> - -<p>“The most striking feature of my [re-election] was the majority -recorded for me in New Orleans. In some of the wards -where I had been defeated by a margin of seven to one fourteen -years ago I was given a majority of as much as six to one. -This could never have happened without a lot of people casting -their first vote for a man who bears my family name.... -I shall always appreciate those tolerant and generous persons -who have seen fit to endorse me as the first member of my -family to enjoy their support.”</p> - -<p>Dr. Carl Austin Weiss III, who was but three months old -at the time of his father’s death, was taken to New York by -his mother when she left Louisiana to make her home in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page177">[177]</span> -East. He was graduated from Columbia in 1958, and set out -to make general surgery his field of medical practice. He was -a full-time resident at St. Vincent’s hospital for two years, but -in July 1961 decided to specialize in orthopedic surgery, and -entered the same hospital—Bellevue—where his father had -been chief of clinic thirty years before.</p> - -<p>He was married in 1961, and early in 1962 was called to -active military service, being assigned as an air-force surgeon -with the rank of captain to duty at Barksdale Field. This base -is in Bossier parish, Louisiana, directly across the Red River -from Shreveport, the city where Huey Long was married and -where Russell Long was born. Thus the son of Carl Weiss -was practicing medicine in Louisiana at the time the son of -Huey Long won an overwhelming victory there in a campaign -for the Senate seat formerly held by his father.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Long’s presidential aspirations left his friend and secretary, -Earle Christenberry an embarrassing $28,000 debt to pay.</p> - -<p>“It is my firm belief now, and was my belief then,” Christenberry -asserts, “that Huey would not have been a candidate -for president himself prior to 1940. He told me in 1935 that -he intended to stump the country, sounding out sentiment -before deciding whom he would support <i>against</i> Roosevelt.</p> - -<p>“To that end he had me purchase from Graybar one sound -truck which was the last word in mobile loud-speaker installations. -It came in a day or two before his death, and I sweated -it out for many a month, raising some $28,000 to pay for it. -Graybar looked to me for payment because I had placed the -order. My recollection is that the money was not forthcoming -until late in the Leche campaign, for I would not let them use -the truck until it was paid for.”</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">In retrospect, two predictions about Huey Long hold a -certain interest. One, by Elmer Irey, is merely academic, since<span class="pagenum" id="Page178">[178]</span> -it deals with what <i>would</i> have happened. In closing his chapter -on “The Gentleman from Louisiana” Mr. Irey notes that -to him the “important thing about the Huey Long gang’s -downfall” is the following:</p> - -<p>“I hope this story will destroy for all time one of the blackest -libels ever made against the American system of democracy. -This libel states that had not Dr. Weiss (or somebody) -assassinated Huey Long, our country might well have been -taken over by the Kingfish as dictator. The inference is clear. -Our country was no match for Huey’s genius and ruthlessness.</p> - -<p>“I would suggest that the bullet that killed Huey ... -merely saved Huey from going to jail.... Huey had broken -the law and was to be indicted for it when he was killed.”</p> - -<p>When evaluating this forecast, the first thought that comes -to mind is a matter of record: within a month of Long’s -death one of his top-echelon supporters was brought to trial -on a tax-evasion indictment. Mr. Irey’s organization had selected -this particular indictment because it was regarded as -the government’s strongest case against any Long administration -official. At the trial’s close the jury verdict was “not -guilty”!</p> - -<p>In the light of past experience the conjecture that Long -would in time have gained the presidency is not one casually -to be shrugged aside. Had he ever attained “My First Days -in the White House,” subjection of the large cities (not the -rural areas) would have been his primary objective. Just as -New Orleans was the last foothold of the carpetbaggers in -the 1870s, Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, -and others might have learned what it is like to live -under the rule of force from without.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">The other prediction referred to above was made by Mason -Spencer in the course of a bitter address on the floor of<span class="pagenum" id="Page179">[179]</span> -the House of Representatives in April 1935. Spencer withdrew -from public office at the close of this legislative term, -as did also Dr. Octave Pavy. Both died of heart attacks within -weeks of one another in the summer of 1962. But whereas -Spencer forsook politics almost altogether, Dr. Pavy retained -a very active quasi-Warwickian interest in parochial campaigns.</p> - -<p>He retired from forty years of the practice of medicine at -an advanced age, and moved from his home at Leonville on -Bayou Teche to Opelousas. But his popularity along the -bayou-side, where by that time he had delivered more than -fifty-eight hundred babies, was so widespread that patients -demanded he continue to treat them, so that he had to establish -a small office. From this GHQ he successfully brought -about the defeat of an opposition sheriff, winning a scandalously -large sum of money in bets on the outcome of the -election. He converted most of his winnings into currency, -packed them into an ordinary water-bucket, and carrying this, -he marched triumphantly around and around the Opelousas -courthouse square, shouting his exultation to the four winds.</p> - -<p>He had been among the first to cheer Mason Spencer’s -closing remarks in April 1935 at a special session during which -the Kingfish brought about the enactment of a bill which to -all intents and purposes gave him the sole right to appoint -every commissioner and other polling-booth official in every -voting precinct for every election throughout Louisiana.</p> - -<p>“I am not one of those who cries ‘Hail, Caesar!’” Spencer -said in slow and measured tones, “nor have I cried ‘Jail Caesar!’ -But this ugly bill disfranchises the white people of Louisiana.... -I can see blood on the marble floor of this capitol, -for if you ride this thing through, it will travel with the white -horse of death. In the pitiful story of Esau the Bible teaches -us it is possible for a man to sell his own birthright. But the<span class="pagenum" id="Page180">[180]</span> -gravestones on a thousand battlefields teach you that you -cannot sell the birthright of another white man!”</p> - -<p>Within five months there was blood on the marble floor of -the capitol.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="tnbot" id="TN"> - -<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>The source document uses the word capitol both for capitol and for capital; this usage has been retained. -Inconsistent spelling and grammar have not been standardised.</p> - -<p class="blankbefore75">Changes made</p> - -<p>Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.</p> - -<p>The text <span class="illotext">in a dotted box</span> underneath Figs. 10 and 11 has been -transcribed from the illustration, not from the actual text.</p> - -<p>Page 70: George Washington (vessel’s name) has been changed to <i>George Washington</i> (cf. <i>American -Farmer</i>).</p> - -</div><!--tnbot--> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Huey Long Murder Case, by Hermann B. Deutsch - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUEY LONG MURDER CASE *** - -***** This file should be named 62864-h.htm or 62864-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/8/6/62864/ - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Harry Lamé and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -book was produced from images made available by the -HathiTrust Digital Library.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at -http://gutenberg.org/license). - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at -http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at -809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email -business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact -information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official -page at http://pglaf.org - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit http://pglaf.org - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index fcb0af6..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo026.png b/old/62864-h/images/illo026.png Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index bdb1999..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo026.png +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084a.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084a.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dc1f9bf..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084a.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084b.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084b.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 225809a..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084b.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084c.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084c.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 599e3b7..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084c.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084d.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084d.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0cb4a43..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084d.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084e.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084e.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 05082eb..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084e.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084f.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084f.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index aaab45a..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084f.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084g.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084g.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a25809d..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084g.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084h.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084h.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 68018d0..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084h.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/62864-h/images/illo084i.jpg b/old/62864-h/images/illo084i.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d970e89..0000000 --- a/old/62864-h/images/illo084i.jpg +++ /dev/null |
