Kingfish by Richard D. White Jr

Author:Richard D. White, Jr. [Long, Huey P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-53576-4
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Ansell called a number of Huey's opponents to the stand. Harley Bozeman, boyhood friend and now bitter enemy, gave a scathing description of Huey's brutal methods. Julius and Earl Long ganged up on their brother with more damaging testimony. Julius claimed that Huey extorted between $500 and $1,000 from every road contractor working for the state in order to finance his 1930 Senate race. Earl, still sore at Huey for not supporting his bid for lieutenant governor, sat next to Ansell and frequently leaned over to whisper questions to ask. On February 14, Earl testified that during the 1928 election he saw a representative of the New Orleans public utility company place a $10,000 bribe in Huey's bathrobe pocket. “I saw it,” Earl declared. “It was a hundred brand new hundred dollar bills that looked like they had been run off the same press.” Huey leaped from his seat and raged at his brother, “That is a goddamn lie!”

Earl testified that Sheriff Mereaux of St. Bernard Parish came to the Roosevelt Hotel with a blank election tally sheet the day after “Bathtub Joe” Fernandez upset incumbent Congressman O'Connor in 1930. Mereaux asked Huey how to fill in the sheets because, according to Earl, Mereaux worried that the total vote was larger than the registration. Huey told the sheriff not to worry, as it “will be fixed all right.” Earl told Huey not to get involved with the crooked St. Bernard vote but he ignored his brother. “I had just got him out of one mess when he kidnaped the two men,” Earl said, “and I didn't want him to get into another.” Huey interrupted his brother and turned to the committee. “Say the word, and I'll telephone the Sheriff of St. Bernard Parish to bring those ballot boxes right down,” he told the chairman. “Have 'em here in half an hour and count the ballots right here in front of you gentlemen.”

From the start of the hearings, Huey and Ansell constantly sniped at each other. At one point Huey tilted back insolently in his chair and asked Ansell, “Are you trying to get funny? If so the Dauphine Theater burlesque has an ad for a second-rate comedian.” Ansell, dressed in a dapper gray three-piece suit, remained unfazed. “You should be there to take the job immediately,” he replied curtly. Later Ansell challenged Huey to step outside. “I will walk out with you and whip hell out of you,” Huey snarled. “Would you walk alone or with a lot of armed guards?” Ansell sneered back. Ansell lashed out at Huey's organization as “damnable, corrupt, cheap, the work of a set of blood sucking leeches.” The hearings adjourned on February 17, and that night someone set Huey's New Orleans house afire. Firemen arrived quickly and little damage occurred.

When Huey returned to Washington later that month, he took the floor of the Senate and delivered over a hundred telegrams from Louisianans demanding that the Overton investigations be terminated. He then began a two-hour

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