Randall "Duke" Cunningham: From War Hero to Ordering Off the Bribery Menu

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Although he had already gotten his aviator nickname years earlier, Randall "Duke" Cunningham sometimes boasted that he might well answer to the name Maverick. The hotshot Navy pilot who served as the protagonist in 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, he boasted, had been based on his own exploits.

Cunningham had indeed had a decorated career as a Navy pilot, becoming the first American fighter ace of the Vietnam War and returning home to work for the elite pilot training program for which the film was named. He was invited to be an advisor during the production, during which he took a few photographs with lead actor Tom Cruise. Top Gun seemingly made a nod to him by referencing Maverick's father as a heroic Vietnam War pilot named Duke Mitchell.

However, those involved in the film would later push back on Cunningham's claims. "We didn't spend two minutes thinking about Duke Cunningham," said scriptwriter Jack Epps. When Cunningham ran for Congress and featured his photos with Cruise in his campaign brochures, Cruise's lawyer demanded that they be withdrawn. Cunningham nevertheless continued to enjoy the reflected glory of Top Gun's box office success, starting a company named Top Gun Enterprises and relying heavily on aviation metaphors when he launched a political career.

Enjoying widespread acclaim and recognition for his aerial feats well after the Vietnam War ended, Cunningham's acquaintances often described him as having a braggadocious demeanor. They would ponder whether his wartime success had led him to believe he was owed a luxurious life, or whether he had simply been tempted to misuse the power he acquired once he was elected to Congress.

No matter the circumstances, Cunningham would leave office in disgrace, his once celebrated legacy tarnished, after he was implicated in what was then the largest bribery scandal to ever hit the legislative branch.

Fighter ace

Randall Harold Cunningham was born on December 8, 1941 in Los Angeles. The son of a truck driver who later opened a Fresno gas station, he spent his early childhood in California before the family moved to Missouri. From the age of 12, Cunningham lived in the tiny community of Shelbina, where his parents ran a five-and-dime store.

Cunningham earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri in 1964, and a master's degree a year later. Aspiring to be a physical education teacher and coach, he assisted with the swimming program at the university before moving to Chicago to take on a coaching job.

The death of his best friend would set Cunningham's life on a new trajectory. In July 1966, Ronald Cullers was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Quang Tri Province during the Vietnam War. Shaken by the loss, Cunningham opted to enlist in the Navy. Graduating at the top of his pilot training class, he was assigned to the USS America for his first combat tour. He returned stateside to attend Top Gun training at Naval Station Miramar in San Diego, then returned to Vietnam in 1971 to serve on the USS Constellation.

Cunningham flew an F-4 Phantom, which was used throughout the war for numerous duties including ground attacks, combating enemy fighters, and surveillance. He initially started to use the nickname "Yank," but later switched it to "Duke" in honor of John Wayne. He bagged his first North Vietnamese MiG on January 19, 1972, while engaging two of the fighters at treetop level, and shot down his second enemy plane on May 8.

Cunningham became a more prominent figure quite suddenly on his 300th combat mission two days later. May 10 marked the commencement of Operation Linebacker, a massive bombing campaign targeting bridges, railroads, oil storage yards, and other strategic targets in North Vietnam in response to its invasion of South Vietnam. While flying to support the bombers, Cunningham's squadron came under attack by 22 MiGs.

During the intense combat that followed, Cunningham would down three North Vietnamese fighters. After destroying one MiG, he went to assist other Phantoms in his squadron and picked off one that was chasing his executive officer. While returning to the Constellation, he was able to shoot down another fighter. Cunningham would claim that this was the dreaded "Colonel Tomb," a North Vietnamese pilot who had reportedly shot down 13 American planes, although aviation historians have since concluded that no such aviator existed and that this was a myth that arose among American pilots.

Before he could make it back to the carrier, Cunningham's plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. He managed to coax the critically damaged Phantom away from enemy territory and over the sea, where he and his radio intercept officer, Bill Driscoll, ejected. They were then rescued by a Navy helicopter. The feat made Cunningham the first fighter ace of the war, and he and Driscoll would remain the only Navy aces of the Vietnam War (although three Air Force airmen would also be recognized as having five or more kills). 

Duke Cunningham and his radio intercept officer Bill Driscoll (Source)

Eager to shore up flagging support for the war, and unwilling to risk losing the conflict's first aces, the Navy sent Cunningham and Driscoll back to the United States for a five-month public relations tour. Cunningham had no trouble sharing the spotlight with Driscoll, and would firmly insist that he and other "back seat" airmen accompanying ace pilots should be awarded the same recognition. Yet some of his fellow pilots also accused Cunningham of becoming more egotistical as a result of his newfound status. In one incident that proved particularly irritating, he posed for a Datsun dealership's advertisement featuring an automobile with a custom "MIG ACE" license plate.

Cunningham became one of the most decorated pilots of the Vietnam War, earning 15 Air Medals, two Silver Stars, and a Purple Heart. However, in what some colleagues later characterized as a possible early warning sign of greed or a sense of entitlement, he was bitterly disappointed that he did not receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. When Ronald McKeown, Cunningham's commanding officer, informed Cunningham and Driscoll that they would be receiving the Navy Cross, he was stunned when Cunningham informed him that they would decline it in order to "hold out" for the Medal of Honor.

McKeown responded by furiously dressing down the aviators. He informed them that the Navy Cross was the highest honor the U.S. Navy could bestow, ordered them to accept it, and warned them that there would be hell to pay if they did otherwise. He was annoyed to discover that Cunningham felt he had been promised the Medal of Honor, apparently after misinterpreting a remark from a Pentagon bureaucrat. 

McKeown also recalled that Cunningham was intent on getting the award because he was "counting on getting that money." In retrospect, McKeown pondered whether Cunningham may have been betraying a greedy side even in his younger days. Had he received the Medal of Honor, the most Cunningham would have received was a modest stipend from the Veterans Administration of $100 a month.

Navy career

Cunningham returned to an educational role within the Navy, becoming an instructor in the Top Gun program. He completed tours with the fighter squadron VF-154, nicknamed the Black Knights, and became the commander of the training squadron VF-126.

Some of Cunningham's superiors remained wary of his leadership abilities and resisted giving him a permanent commission, although he eventually earned one. In one incident, he was accused of breaking into his superior's office to review his fitness report and compare it to his colleagues. The Navy opted not to discipline him, reportedly because they feared that it would lead to bad publicity.

Cunningham was briefly back in the headlines in 1983 when he accompanied 11-year-old pilot Christopher Marshall from California as he attempted to complete a transatlantic flight along Charles Lindbergh's route. Cunningham, promising that he would leave the flying to Marshall unless an emergency occurred, said he hoped the trip would inspire young Americans to pursue careers in aviation. 

In 1985, Cunningham earned a master's degree in business administration from National University in San Diego. He retired from the Navy in 1987, having achieved the rank of commander. In addition to running Top Gun Enterprises, he began working as a public speaker and made frequent appearances on CNN as a commentator on military issues.

Congressional election of 1990

The unexpected vulnerability of a Democratic congressional candidate would usher in yet another turning point in Cunningham's life, this time pointing him toward a political career.

Jim Bates had first been elected to the House of Representatives in 1982, and had been comfortably re-elected three times to serve California's left-leaning 44th District. Yet he was facing stiffer resistance in the 1990 race as he struggled to overcome lasting reputational damage. Several aides had accused Bates of inappropriate conduct, and in 1989 he had become the first congressman to be disciplined for sexual harassment when the House formally reprimanded him. Although he had faced a primary challenge from Byron Georgiou, who ran with the message "The Democrat We Can Respect," Bates was able to retain the Democratic nomination.

At the urging of Representative Duncan L. Hunter, a fellow California Republican, Cunningham decided to challenge Bates for his seat. He faced a minor scandal during the five-way Republican primary when he issued a brochure depicting opponent Joseph Ghougassian, an Egyptian-born Armenian-American who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Qatar, as being "bought and paid for" by Arab oil interests. The brochure's imagery included Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafi, a Saudi Arabian prince, and an oil barrel dripping dollar bills. Facing accusations of racism, Cunningham issued an apology and explained that he had not meant to take a swipe at Ghougassian's ethnicity but rather criticize the contributions he had received from Middle Eastern businessmen and oil companies.

After earning the Republican nomination, Cunningham received endorsements from several high-profile members of the GOP, including Vice President Dan Quayle. He positioned himself as a social conservative who was opposed to abortion and gun control, sought improvements to the educational system, and stressed the curbing of illegal drug trafficking. Cunningham was particularly critical of Bates' support for a reduction in military spending, and frequently denounced Bates' character as well. He gruffly described his opponent as a "sexual pervert who's guilty as sin," as well as a "disgrace, unfit for any public office."

Cunningham during a congressional campaign in the 90s (Source)

Cunningham often leaned into his well-known wartime fame to prop up his character, to the point that his criticism of Bates sometimes equated the embattled congressman with the enemies he had faced over North Vietnam. He described Bates as "just another MiG, and an unethical one" and vowed to "knock him right out of the sky." The Bates campaign, criticizing Cunningham's intense focus on military issues and metaphors, shot back that Cunningham "might be happier in an F-14 than in Congress." 

Cunningham also faced considerable scrutiny over how sincere he was about wanting a job in Congress. He had been living outside the district he was vying to represent, and needed to move to an apartment in Chula Vista in order to meet the residency requirements for the contest. A review of his voting records revealed that he had not participated in any elections between 1966 and 1988.

Nevertheless, Cunningham narrowly prevailed over Bates in the general election. Of the approximately 108,000 votes cast, he earned just 1,659 more than the incumbent. Redistricting in 1992 established his district as a more solidly conservative one, and he would be easily re-elected to seven more terms.

"Gruff but authentic"

Several colleagues would describe Cunningham as a man of volatile emotions. He was prone to angry outbursts, which he would later follow up with tearful remorse. At one point early in his congressional career, he threatened to quit if he did not receive a committee assignment he desired. In 1992, he remarked that Democratic leaders in the House ought to be "lined up and shot." Yet others recalled him as being kind and empathetic, such as one incident where he sent an aide home as soon as he learned that her grandfather had died. One colleague described him as "gruff but authentic."

Cunningham dedicated much of his attention to military issues, with others in the Republican Party considering him a valued expert on national security issues due to his lengthy service in the Navy. In a later interview, however, Cunningham said he was most proud of his support of two laws on non-military issues. He was a sponsor of Megan's Law, which required the registration of child sex offenders, and legislation to outlaw shark finning.

On several occasions, Cunningham was criticized for callous remarks. During one debate on a water pollution bill in 1995, he criticized his political rivals as "the same ones that would put homos in the military." He was immediately denounced by Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who declared, "You have insulted thousands of men and women who have put their lives on the line. I think you owe them an apology." Representative Patricia Schroeder of Colorado offered an irritated parliamentary inquiry: "Do we have to call the gentleman a gentleman if he is not one?"

As he had done in the 1990 primary, Cunningham denied that his remark was intentionally bigoted. In equating gays in the military to the water pollution bill, he said, he was trying to critique a general pattern of liberalism in the federal government to which he was opposed. Representative Barney Frank, a gay congressman from Massachusetts, was skeptical. "The defense of a bigoted remark, that it was one of several remarks, makes even less sense than I had expected," he said.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT political organization, responded by organizing a press conference to publicly repudiate Cunningham. He showed up to listen to the criticism and issued a belated apology when given a chance to speak. He admitted that he hadn't realized "homos" was considered a slur and promised not to use it again. 

Cunningham apologizes at a press conference called to denounce his remarks (Source)

However, Cunningham was again accused of homophobia in 1998 after remarks he made during a speech to prostate cancer patients. Having undergone a prostate exam himself, he quipped that the procedure was "just not natural, unless maybe you're Barney Frank." During the same event, he lost his temper when a 74-year-old man criticized his position opposing military spending cuts; Cunningham responded by cursing him and giving him the middle finger.

Frank responded to the renewed allegations of bigotry by remarking that Cunningham "seems to be more interested in discussing homosexuality than most homosexuals." Cunningham apologized for both the joke and his behavior at the event, which he said had not been appropriate for a member of Congress. "I was out of line," he said. "I just get upset when people start bashing our military"

Cunningham found himself in a quandary in 1997 when his son Todd was caught flying 400 pounds of marijuana across the country. Although he had supported mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenders, he tearfully pleaded with the judge to show his son leniency. He admitted that he had not been present for much of Todd's early life, and wondered if that had factored into his criminal behavior. Todd was sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars.

Starting in 1998, Cunningham began serving on the House Appropriation Committee and its subcommittee on defense, which provides funding for national defense and the armed services. He also served on various other appropriations committees, gaining significant influence over the awarding of federal contracts. This power would ultimately prove to be his undoing.

The bribe menu

At first, it seemed that Cunningham had refrained from the excesses that some of his colleagues had indulged in. One aide would later recall a joke that the congressman was so frugal that he stocked up on three of everything went to Costco. When a report came out in 2005 that congressmen had been receiving millions of dollars in corporate jet flights and hotel stays from special interest groups, lobbyists, and defense contractors, San Diego Union Tribune reporter Marcus Stern found that Cunningham had rarely received such perks - accepting only $25,572.04 from a Saudi businessmen living in the United States for trips between January 2000 and June 2005.

When Stern turned his attention to Cunningham's lifestyle, however, a much different picture emerged. He discovered that Mitchell Wade, head of the defense contracting company MZM Inc., had purchased Cunningham's house in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe in 2003 for $1.7 million - hundreds of thousands of dollars above comparable sales in the neighborhood. Wade had sold it a year later for just $1 million. Reporters also discovered that MZM had received $150 million in defense contracts between 2002 and 2005, vaulting the company from having zero prime contracts into one of the nation's top 100 defense contractors. 

The ensuing investigation uncovered a staggering amount of corruption. Since 2000, Cunningham had collected $2.4 million in cash, goods, and favors from Wade as well as Brent Wilkes, the owner of a data processing company that did business with the Pentagon. In exchange, he had worked to steer defense contracts their way. Various methods had been used to conceal the transactions, including overpaying Cunningham for certain purchases, paying him for items he continued to own, selling goods to him for less than their market value, and funneling cash to him through a complicated set of bank accounts and corporate entities owned by co-conspirators. Cunningham had also kept such transfers off his congressional financial disclosure forms and tax returns.

Cunningham had taken the opportunity to revel in a luxurious lifestyle. Mitchell and Wade had been covering the mortgage payments on the Rancho Santa Fe home as well as his condominium in Arlington. They had coughed up the funds necessary for the purchase and payments of two yachts (the Kelly C and Duke-Stir), a Rolls-Royce, and a1999 GMC Suburban, along with their associated costs including repairs and yacht club fees. They had also helped Cunningham acquire thousands of dollars' worth of Persian rugs, an immense amount of antique furniture, and two laser shot shooting simulators.

The Duke-Stir and Cunningham's Rancho Santa Fe home, both of which factored into bribery allegations

(Source 1 and Source 2)

The defense contractors had plied Cunningham still further by paying for his daughter's graduation, picking up the tab for meals at expensive restaurants, and setting him up with private flights and lavish hotel rooms. At Wilkes' trial, one witness testified that Wilkes had arranged for an escort service to send two prostitutes to meet with him and Cunningham during a trip to Hawaii in August 2003.

One damning piece of evidence found during the investigation, subsequently dubbed a "bribe menu," was printed on Cunningham's congressional stationery. Sketching out the terms of one corrupt deal, it contained two columns: the one on the left indicating the size a government contract that could be secured and the one on the right indicating how much money Cunningham should receive. This particular example promised $16 million in contracts in exchange for the title to a $140,000 boat, with another $1 million in contracts available for each $50,000 bribe thereafter. Cunningham offered a discount starting at $21 million, with the required bribes dropping to $25,000 per $1 million in contracts.

The "bribe menu" (Source)

The conspirators had largely managed to keep the scheme out of the public eye, though they occasionally raised suspicions. One staffer had approached Cunningham to discuss his concerns with the Suburban purchase, pointing out that Wade had sold it for just $10,000 when it had a fair market value of $18,000. Cunningham became infuriated, telling the man, "Stay the fuck out of my personal business."

As the long-running scheme unraveled, Cunningham made a last-ditch effort to cover his tracks. He asked a real estate letter to draft a letter falsely claiming that shifts in the San Diego real estate market were responsible for the drastic drop in the Rancho Santa Fe house's sale price, and forged a similar letter to Wade purporting to be surprised about the lower-than-expected transaction. He sent a $16,500 check to the rug dealer where he'd acquired the Persian carpets, along with a letter asking him to claim that he'd previously sent the check but that it had been returned due to a faulty address. He also tried to persuade the owner of an antique store he frequented to help him claim that he had compensated Wade for the items he'd purchased. 

One of Cunningham's friends suggested that he may have been trying to patch things up with his second wife, Nancy, to whom he had been married since 1974, by "paying her back for all the bad stuff she's ever done in her life." If this was the case, it backfired completely. Nancy declared that she felt deceived by his behavior, and the couple separated in July 2005, shortly after the FBI raided their house.

Cunningham, by contrast, would later claim that Nancy was fully aware of the corruption. "She actually signed papers that she was guilty," he said. "She didn't have to go to prison because I refused to testify against her and tried to protect her."

"Stunning betrayal of the public trust"

Cunningham initially maintained his innocence, although he declared that he would not seek re-election in 2006. However, he found few people willing to side with him. The Republicans were already reeling from other corruption investigations into their top congressional leaders, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, and the evidence against Cunningham seemed incontrovertible. "The idea of a congressman taking money is outrageous," President George W. Bush commented. "And Congressman Cunningham is going to realize that he has broken the law and is going to pay a serious price, which he should"

On November 23, 2005, Cunningham pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and tax evasion. He held a press conference on December 1 to announce his resignation from the House, tearfully apologizing for his actions. "The truth is I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my office...In my life I have known great joy and great sorrow. And now I know great shame. I cannot undo what I have done. But I can atone," he said.

Cunningham breaks down in tears while reading his resignation statement (Source)

In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors issued a blistering rebuke of Cunningham that described his case as a "stunning betrayal of the public trust." Saying that he had exhibited "naked avarice" and "abused the public trust and ignored his solemn oath of office to illegally enrich himself on a scale never before seen in Congress," they recommended that he be given the maximum allowable sentence of 10 years in prison.

On March 3, 2006, Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four months behind bars. The court also ordered him to forfeit the $1.85 million in bribes he'd received, along with the profits of the Rancho Santa Fe home sale and all of the antique furniture he had wrongfully acquired. In addition, he would need to pay $1.8 million in back taxes.

Seven other people would face criminal penalties for their roles in the sprawling bribery scheme to buy Cunningham's influence. Wade agreed to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for a reduced sentence, pleading guilty in 2006 to four counts of bribery and election fraud. He was sentenced on December 15, 2008, to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Wilkes' case would plod on for several years after he was convicted on November 5, 2007, on 13 counts including wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering. He was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison and either pay a $500,000 fine or make a criminal forfeiture of $636,116. Wilkes was freed after an 11-month stint while his case was appealed, with his arguments raising the questions of whether one witness should have been granted immunity and whether he was due a new trial since the imprisoned Cunningham had made statements alleging that Wilkes wasn't involved in the bribery. An appeals court upheld the sentence, and Wilkes returned to prison in May 2014.

Another stiff sentence was dealt to Thomas Kontogiannis, a real estate developer who oversaw the money laundering in the scheme. After pleading guilty in February 2007 to one count of engaging in an unlawful monetary transaction, he was ordered to pay a $10.5 million fine and spend eight years and one month in prison. John T. Michael, a nephew of Kontogiannis's wife who actually carried out the transactions, was given five years of probation and a $100,000 fine.

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, formerly the third top ranking official at the CIA, was convicted in 2009 of defrauding the government by helping to steer contracts to Wilkes, a childhood friend. As he had done for Cunningham, Wilkes rewarded him by paying for expensive vacations and meals. Foggo was sentenced to three years in prison.

Two MZM employees received lighter punishments. Robert Fromm, an Army contract official, admitted that he had been working to influence former subordinates to help the company acquire and keep contracts. Richard Berglund had made illegal campaign contributions under Wade's direction. Both men were given one year of probation and $2,500 fines.

Although she was not criminally charged, Nancy did not escape the scandal entirely unscathed. Prosecutors stated that she had benefited from Cunningham's misconduct even if she had not been directly involved in the transactions, in part because she had been filing joint tax returns that failed to account for the congressman's illicit revenue. The Justice Department filed a civil suit against her, and in an October 2006 settlement she was held liable for $1.7 million in back taxes and penalties, minus the $760,000 from the sale of the Rancho Santa Fe residence.

The San Diego Union Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for its role in uncovering Cunningham's wrongdoing. In Congress, Cunningham's case and other prominent corruption scandals led to the creation of the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2008. Cunningham's actions also contributed to a temporary ban on earmarking as part of the legislative process.

Later life

Cunningham's corruption, and the GOP's overall dismal prospects for the 2006 congressional races, left the outcome of his vacant seat in doubt. Yet when a special election was held on June 6, 2006, a Republican candidate still managed to retain control of the district, albeit in a closer than usual result. Brian P. Bilbray, a former congressman, prevailed over Democratic candidate Francine Busby by four points (compared to Cunningham's 20-point victory over the same rival in 2004). Bilbray would subsequently keep the seat in the November election and be re-elected to two additional terms.

When Stern sent a letter to Cunningham in October 2006 to check up on the jailed ex-congressman, he received a furious reply. Cunningham complained that the reporter had subjected him and his family to "constant cruelty" due to the frequent articles he had written about the matter, and declared, "I am a human not an animal to keep whipping." Although he apologized again for accepting the bribes, he also denounced Wade as "the absolute devil."

Four years later, Cunningham had backed away from the contrition he had displayed at his resignation. In a 2010 interview, he claimed that he had not knowingly accepted bribes and that he hadn't been in the right state of mind to assess his plea agreement, since he was battling cancer at the time. If he could do it again, he said, he would fight the charges at trial. Cunningham further complained that the IRS was being overzealous in their confiscations, seizing funds that he claimed were legit reimbursements rather than bribes.

During his imprisonment, Cunningham once again returned to his educational training and began helping his fellow inmates earn GEDs. His experience with incarceration also caused him to do an about-face on his previous support for tough punishments for criminal offenses. He wrote to his former colleagues expressing his support for prison reform, admitting, "I didn't know jack weenie about what people were going through in here." 

Cunningham at his new home in Arkansas (Source)

Cunningham was released in December 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence in a halfway house near New Orleans. He later moved to Arkansas, with his brother and sister-and-law helping him to get settled. He remained largely out of the public eye, although he stayed active with aviation and veterans' groups such as the Experimental Aircraft Association and the American Fighter Aces Association, which he led from 2020 until his death. Seeking to "pay back and give back to society for some of the things that I took," he started volunteering at the local fire department.

Cunningham did some modest work in politics in his later years, joining the local Tea Party chapter and aiding the campaigns for Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson and presidential candidate Donald Trump. On January 13, 2021, just one week before he left office after his first term, Trump granted Cunningham a conditional pardon.

Cunningham died of an unspecified illness in Little Rock, Arkansas, on August 27, 2025.

Sources 

Biographical Director of the United States Congress, Gathering of Eagles Foundation, Experimental Aircraft Association, "'Top Gun' Sets His Sights on an Unruffled Bates" in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 27 1990, "Homos' Reference in Debate Denounced on House Floor" in the Washington Post on May 11 1995, "Water-Bill Debate Turns to Name Calling and Slurs" in the New York Times on May 12 1995, "GOP Lawmaker Apologizes for Using the Term 'Homos'" in the Spokesman-Review on May 13 1995, "Cunningham Apologizes for Curse, Gesture, Rude Remark" in the Washington Post on Sep. 7 1998, "When Duke Was King" in the San Diego Reader on Dec. 15 2005, "Duke Cunningham, War Hero Turned Corrupt Congressman, Dies at 83" in the San Diego Union Tribune on Aug. 28 2005, "GOP Leaders Condemn Ex-Lawmaker Who Took Bribes" in the Gainesville Sun on Nov. 29 2005, "Bluster Marked Career of Bribe-Taking Cunningham" in the Seattle Times on Dec. 4 2005, "The Meaning of Bilbray's Win in California" on NPR on June 7 2006, "Cunningham's Wife Says She Felt Deceived" in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 19 2006, "Top Gun's Tailspin" in Newsweek on Dec. 11 2005, "Ex-Congressman's Wife Left Broke by Bribery Scandal" in the Press Democrat on Oct. 7 2006, "Ex-Rep. Cunningham Lashes Out in Letter" in the Denver Post on Oct. 7 2006, "Financier Guilty, Aided Lawmaker on Land Deals" on NBC News on June 15 2007, "Prostitutes Take the Stand in Bribery Trial of Contractor Linked to Rep. Cunningham" in the Arizona Daily Star on Oct. 18 2007, "Defense Contractor Gets 30 Months in Bribe Scandal" on ABC News on Dec. 15 2008, "Disgraced Senior CIA Official Heads to Prison Still Claiming He's a Patriot" in ProPublica on Feb. 27 2009, "Cunningham Blames Lawyers for Plea" on NPR on Nov. 22 2010, "Cunningham's Briber Reports to Prison" in the San Diego Union-Tribune on May 16 2014, "Watch Bernie Sanders' Fervid Denunciation of an Anti-Gay Congressman in 1995" in Slate on Feb. 23 2016, "Former Congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham Dies at 83" on NBC News on Aug. 29 2025, "Duke Cunningham, 'Top Gun' Inspiration, Dead at 83" in Newsweek on Aug. 29 2025, "Former San Diego Congressman and Navy Ace Randy 'Duke' Cunningham Dies at 83" on KPBS on Aug. 29 2025, "Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, Naval Aviator and Corrupt Appropriator, Dies at 83" in Roll Call on Aug. 29 2025, "Randall Harold 'Duke' Cunningham" obituary at Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, United States of America v. Randall Duke Cunningham, "The Bloodiest Day" on the History Channel's Dogfights, Check Six: The Duke Cunningham Story by Ninette Del Rosario Sosa, The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught by Marcus Stern et. al., Feasting on the Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, History's Most Corrupt Congressman by Seth Hettena, Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade by Andrew Feinstein, USA v. Randall Harold Cunningham, USA v. Brent Wilkes

Edwin Edwards: How Gambling Brought Down Louisiana's "Cajun King"

 

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Reporters covering the 1985 trial of Governor Edwin Edwards were treated to an unusual photo opportunity one day as Louisiana's chief executive arrived for the proceedings. Instead of pulling up in the governor's official car, Edwards had opted to ride a mule-drawn carriage to the courthouse. He joked to reporters that he "was looking for some mode of transportation that was indicative of the pace of the trial," which would plod on for 14 weeks.

The incident was just one of the many folksy ways Edwards endeared himself to Louisiana's citizens and annoyed those who sought to hold him to account for his widely suspected corruption. He had figured into numerous grand jury investigations, but 1985 trial on improperly awarding state contracts would be the first time he faced actual charges. Edwards responded with decided nonchalance, offering 2-1 gambling odds on his acquittal and suggesting that his health was good enough that he might just be able to endure the maximum potential prison sentence of over 250 years.

Edwards was a deft politician whose ability to present himself as a man of the people made him perhaps the most popular figure in Louisiana since Huey Long. Although his underlying flaws and corruption would begin to catch up to him later in his career, he still managed to stage an unprecedented comeback to the governor's mansion against an unlikely foe. It was only in his later years, with his political career behind him, that prosecutors were finally able to decisively pin charges against him.

From the church to the House

Edwin Washington Edwards was born on August 6, 1927, on a sharecroppers' farm in Avoyelles Parish, near the town of Marksville. His father was half-Cajun and his mother was a descendant of Louisiana's French settlers, a heritage which established Edwards' strong Creole identity at an early age.

Edwards was raised in the local Nazarene Church, which advocated for discipline, austerity, and assisting the poor, along with refraining from vices like drinking, smoking, and extramarital sex. This religious upbringing had a substantial impact on Edwards, as he would become strongly committed to supporting those in need and would frequently quote from the Bible during his political career. He was more skeptical of the church's dogmatic beliefs, and only partly influenced by its position on moral behavior; while he never partook in drinking or smoking, Edwards would later become known as a notorious gambler and womanizer.

Nevertheless, Edwards considered becoming a preacher, and did some preaching in a Protestant church in his youth. While he opted against following this career path, he ultimately decided to become a Catholic at the urging of his first wife, Elaine Schwartzenburg, whom he married in 1949.

Edwards attended Louisiana State University for one year, but left to enlist in the Navy during the closing months of World War II. He was trained as an aviation cadet but never saw combat, as Japan surrendered shortly before he was to be deployed to the Pacific. He was discharged in 1946, returned to LSU, and received his law degree in 1949.

Edwards during his brief time in the Navy (Source)

Learning from his sister that there were few French-speaking attorneys in the city of Crowley, where she had moved with her husband, Edwards opted to move to the community as well and establish a private practice. He began his political career here as well, serving on the city council from 1954 to 1962 and acting as the ad hoc city court judge during the 1950s.

In 1964, Edwards scored a major upset victory when he defeated Bill Cleveland, who had been in the Louisiana state legislature for two decades, to win a seat in the state senate. He would only serve here for one year before winning a special election as a Democrat to the House of Representatives to fill a vacancy left by Representative T. Ashton Thompson, who had died suddenly in a car accident. 

Edwards would remain in the House until 1972, and earn distinction as one of the few Southern congressmen to back the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voicing his approval for five-year extensions of the legislation in 1966 and 1970. This was particularly unusual as 80 percent of the voters in Edwards' district had cast their ballot for segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.

Governor of Louisiana

In 1971, Edwards entered Louisiana's convoluted race for governor. At this point, the race involved a closed Democratic primary, followed by a runoff among the top Democratic contenders. The ensuing general election was little more than a formality, as the Democratic Party had solid control of the state and the Republicans had not held the governor's office since Reconstruction.

Edwards managed to win strong support among the Cajun, Creole, and Black populations in Louisiana. He placed first among 17 contenders in his party's primary, then cruised to an easy victory at the general election. When he was sworn in on May 9, 1972, Edwards became the first Catholic governor in the United States and the first with Cajun ancestry.

Returning the support he had received from the state's minorities, Edwards named several Black residents to key political posts. He was also openly supportive of many Black politicians in Louisiana, which helped to expand his base and establish a more welcoming and inclusive environment in the state.

During his first term, Edwards pledged to help the downtrodden people of his state. One of the most important changes he made to fulfill this promise was pushing for legislation that changed the severance tax on the extraction of crude oil from a flat rate of  26 cents per barrel to 12.5 percent of the market price. When oil prices soared during the energy crisis of the 1970s, the change allowed revenues to pour into the state coffers.

The income allowed Edwards to close budget deficits, reduce state income and sales tax, and completely eliminate a state property tax. In addition, it enabled the governor to direct more investments in public improvements, including education, state parks, tourism, and state hospital and welfare programs. 

Edwards also supported a constitutional convention to update Louisiana's 1921 governing document. The convention took place in 1973, with the new constitution going into effect in 1975. It gave the governor broader leeway to reorganize the executive branch, which Edwards consolidated by boiling 258 independent agencies down into a cabinet-style government. The new constitution also had the effect of changing the election process to an open primary, doing away with the clunky old system by allowing all candidates (regardless of political party) to run for office, with a runoff taking place if no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. 

The impetus for this change was an effort to minimize the expense of a general election campaign, something the Democratic Party in Louisiana considered to be an annoyance and a waste given the party's dominance. Ironically, it would help strengthen Republican influence in the state since it gave the GOP the opportunity to mount a stronger campaign from the outset. It would also set the stage for Edwards' unexpected return to power 16 years later.

Early scandals

Although Edwards easily won re-election in 1975, his second term was clouded by accusations of wrongdoing. Clyde Vidrine, who had served as Edwards' bodyguard and later his executive aide before being fired due to a questionable real estate deal, published a salacious book in 1977 about Edwards' conduct. Just Takin' Orders accused the governor of trading government posts for campaign contributions and described wild trips to Las Vegas, where Edwards ran up gambling debts and, on one occasion, took five women to bed in a row.

Edwards responded to the accusations with his trademark wit and charm. He joked that the campaign contributions were "illegal for them to give, but not for me to receive." He offered a few quips to the charge of infidelity, suggesting that Elaine knew it wasn't true because he was "only good for four-and-a-half times," or that Vidrine had neglected to mention a sixth woman he slept with after his aide left.

Vidrine's accusations were still enough to spark several investigations into the governor. While these inquiries didn't result in criminal charges, one did conclude that Edwards owed $5,000 in back taxes.

Vidrine also tipped off the IRS about cash Edwards received from Tongsun Park in 1971 while he was in the House. A known South Korean intelligence agent, Park had been accused of trying to bribe congressmen to pressure President Richard Nixon to reverse his decision to remove ground troops from Korea. Several congressmen would be reprimanded in the "Koreagate" scandal, and Edwards' fellow Louisiana  congressman Otto Passman was one of two who received criminal charges in the matter.

Edwards denied Vidrine's claim that Park had delivered $20,000 to him, but admitted that Elaine had received money from the agent. He claimed he knew Park as a businessman, but only became aware of the money he had paid his wife when the IRS questioned him on his revenues.

Vidrine continued to nurse a grudge against Edwards, and would later update and reissue his book after Edwards' trial in 1985. In a strange coda, the governor's former aide was gunned down outside a federal courthouse in Shreveport in December 1986, the victim of the enraged ex-husband of a woman he had been dating.

Return to office

Louisiana's constitution limited governors to two terms, so Edwards returned to private practice after leaving office in 1980. In the 1979 election, voters backed David C. Treen, the first Republican to become governor of Louisiana in more than a century.

Treen was dogged by poor economic conditions throughout his term in office. The recession of the early 1980s caused unemployment to soar, with the state's oil and gas industry being hit especially hard. The governor and legislature struggled to balance the state budget amid declining revenues. Louisiana residents waxed nostalgic about the boom times under Edwards; the former governor noticed, and announced his intention to run for a third term.

Edwards launched a lively campaign, delivering fierce attack's on Treen's administration. One campaign brochure, criticizing a reduction in human services to pay for a 33 percent tax cut, shouted, "Edwards Giveth; Treen Taketh Away!" Edwards declared his opponent "so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes" and, during one debate, responded to Treen's accusation that he talked out of both sides of his mouth by saying it was so "people like you with only half a brain can understand me." Confident in his chances of being returned to office, Edwards crowed, "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."

The Treen campaign zeroed in on suspicions of Edwards' corrupt nature. They brought up Park's gift to Elaine, and pointed out how either Edwards or his associates had been the targets of 27 grand jury investigations. Treen also noted how Edwards had been particularly lenient with his pardon power, granting 1,181 requests during the last four-and-a-half years he was in office. 

Voters were content to excuse Edwards' questionable character if it meant there was a chance to bring back the good old days. When the results came in, Edwards had trounced Treen with 62 percent of the vote.

Faced with $4 million in campaign debt, Edwards mounted a lavish victory celebration to break even. He chartered a trip to France in January 1984, charging $10,000 a person. A total of 618 people attended, including 60 from the Louisiana state legislature. During a trip to the palace at Versailles, he commented, "I've wanted all my life to be a king, and now I can be."

Edwards during his celebratory trip to Paris (Source)

There were also lingering signs of corruption within the Edwards administration. Commissioner Charles E. Roemer, the father of his future gubernatorial opponent Buddy Roemer, was implicated in scandals involving overpayments to state computer contracts and mismanagement of the state employees' hospitalization insurance program. Michael O'Keefe, a state senator and one of Edwards' strongest allies, was convicted on various corruption charges.

Then, on February 28, 1985, one of the many grand jury investigations against Edwards finally returned an indictment.

1985 corruption charges

Edwards was charged with 50 counts in total, his alleged crimes including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering. Prosecutors charged that he had received $1.9 million from hospitals and nursing homes while out of office in exchange for the promise that he would grant them the state permits necessary to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid payments if he was returned to office. Charged alongside the governor were his brother Marion, his nephew and real estate broker Charles David Isbel, business partners Ronald Falgout and James Wyllie, businessman Gus Mijalis, and architect Perry Segura.

The state said that the defendants had crafted an elaborate scheme to rake in funding. Isbell would secure the land for new hospitals and nursing homes, Segura would draft their plans, and Marion would send developers in need of permits to Isbell to purchase the land. Prosecutors said that some of the defendants had also established the entity Health Services Department Corporation but concealed Edwards' role in it to outsiders, then promised that Edwards would be able to use his power and influence to give preferential treatment to those who paid the corporation. Once he had returned to office, Edwards had indeed approved five of the corporation's proposed projects despite a moratorium that had been established on granting the necessary permits.

Edwards during his 1985 trial (Source)

Prosecutors charged that Edwards' gambling habits had motivated the crimes, since he had racked up $2 million in debts at Las Vegas casinos. Edwards admitted that he had been a partner in Health Services Development Corporation and that he had made about $2 million in the venture, but claimed that this had been the result of shrewd business practices rather than corruption. Several newspapers and state officials had called for him to resign in response to the indictment, but Edwards said he would only do so if he was found guilty.

During the trial, state witnesses testified to the group's business dealings. Health Services Development Corporation had made about $10 million through dealings with 16 corporations, including five that prosecutors defined as shell corporations defined only by their state permit. Kathryn Lichtenberg, a New Orleans lawyer who had formerly worked for Wyllie, said he had boasted that there would be a "gravy train" once Edwards was returned to office. 

Prosecutors also brought in casino executives, who confirmed Edwards' severe gambling debt and the suspicious way he paid it off. After being returned to office, Edwards had summoned the executives to the governor's mansion and handed over suitcases stuffed with cash to pay down what he owed. The state also showed how Edwards had gambled under multiple names to try to hide his losses, and had never declared the gambling losses on his taxes despite incurring them between 1982 and 1984.

Edwards testified in his own defense, reiterating his claim that he had earned money honestly rather than by exerting influence. The defense team also managed to undermine the prosecution's claim that Edwards' role in the corporation was a conflict of interest due to the possibility that he might return to office, noting how he was fully ensconced in the private sector when the alleged crimes occurred.

Deliberating the matter, the jury wound up deadlocked for six days. Eleven jurors favored acquittal while one considered Edwards to be guilty. The judge eventually declared a mistrial, and acquitted three defendants for lack of evidence.

The matter went to a second trial, where the defense opted not to present arguments due to the belief that the state had not shown sufficient evidence of guilt. Edwards was acquitted on May 11, 1986. Appearing before supporters on the courthouse steps after the decision, he accused the prosecution of being politically motivated and boasted that "this courthouse is a citadel of justice, not a cesspool of Republican politics."

Nevertheless, Edwards' reputation had been badly tarnished. A poll taken two weeks after the indictment showed that just one in three respondents supported the governor, and political analysts opined that Edwards was unlikely to run for a fourth term even if he emerged triumphant from the trial. A cloud of suspicion still hung around the governor; he had been under investigation for potentially illegal ties with oil companies at the time of his indictment, and was later scrutinized for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' purchase of land owned by people who contributed to Edwards' campaign.

Edwards' third term was also proving not to be the miracle cure voters might have expected. Edwards was facing the same challenges that had dogged Treen. With the plunge in oil prices severely constraining the funds that had been available during his first two terms, Edwards was forced to implement new taxes, substantially reduce state departments, and cut several programs to make up a $700 million budget deficit. His popularity took an immediate hit. 

The administration suffered another black eye with the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans. The event had attracted only 7 million guests, 4 million fewer than expected, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Edwards backed a decision to bail out the World's Fair with $65 million in state funds to keep it solvent.

During the first round of the gubernatorial primary in 1987, Edwards faced a stiff challenge from Rep. Buddy Roemer, who accused Edwards of trying to turn Louisiana into a "banana republic." When the results came in, Roemer had earned 33 percent of the vote to Edwards' 28 percent. Certain that he wouldn't emerge as the victor, Edwards decided to drop out of the race.

Challenge from a grand wizard

Roemer was saddled with unpopularity from the start of his term. Under the primary rules, Edwards' withdrawal as the candidate receiving the second most votes made Roemer the winner by default, despite having the support of only one-third of the electorate. 

Roemer's rise had been driven in part by Edwards' falling star and in part by his promotion of several reform measures, including investing more in educational spending, getting tough on polluters, cutting taxes and reducing wasteful spending, confronting crime, and cleaning up corruption in state politics. However, his progress on these promises was decidedly slow as he faced ongoing fiscal crises as well as stiff opposition in the state legislature. His foes also accused him of being arrogant, antisocial, and inaccessible, as he tended to prefer working in private to the boisterous gladhanding favored by Edwards.

As the 1991 election approached, Roemer made the shortsighted decision to switch his allegiance to the Republican Party. He wound up being contested by Rep. Clyde Holloway, who rallied Louisiana's fundamentalist Christian wing to challenge Roemer's pro-choice stance. The state GOP convention ultimately endorsed Holloway despite Roemer's attempt to get the gathering canceled. Roemer had also failed to notice an upswell of support for an unlikely challenger.

David Duke during his 1991 gubernatorial campaign (Source)

David Duke's youth had been defined by his vocal and unabashed support for white supremacy. He had espoused his love of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during his time as a student at Louisiana State University, joined the Ku Klux Klan, and become the grand wizard of a similar organization - Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - which he had established to try to cloak his cause in a more legitimate facade.

Duke ran for office several times during the 1970s and 1980s, though the odds of his victory were so slim that several supporters denounced them as little more than attempts to bilk gullible racists out of their money. Yet he won a surprise victory in 1989 when he was elected as a Republican to the Louisiana state legislature from the New Orleans suburb of Metamie. He served a single term, where his signature achievements were authoring a bill to limit affirmative action in Louisiana and leading opposition to Roemer's proposed reform of the state tax system.

By this time, Duke was trying to cast himself as a reformed and respectable man, a born-again Christian whose radical days were behind him. Nevertheless, many of his political positions were thinly rebranded versions of the racist views he had trumpeted as a Klansman. He fiercely criticized affirmative action and social welfare programs, raising the specter of minorities being placed in jobs they were not qualified for or lazily benefiting from the tax dollars of hard-working citizens. Despite the promise of self-reform, critics pointed out how he continued to sell anti-Semitic literature out of his state legislator's office.

Duke's arguments nevertheless resonated with many white voters in Louisiana. When he mounted a race for the U.S. Senate in 1990 as an unendorsed Republican, he performed surprisingly well against Bennett Johnston, the Democratic incumbent who had first been elected in 1972. Johnston won the race with just 53.9 percent of the vote, while Duke earned a majority of the white vote.

As the 1991 gubernatorial election approached, Roemer was unconcerned by potential challenges from both Edwards and Duke. He had already bested Edwards once despite his strong presence in the state, and figured that Duke's unsavory past would fail to make him a strong contender. Early polls showed that 35 percent of the electorate supported Roemer while 25 percent favored Edwards and only 15 percent planned to vote for Duke. By the eve of the October 19 primary, Edwards and Roemer were neck and neck in the polls (31 percent to 30 percent) while Duke trailed at 20 percent.

The primary results were a major shock. Edwards had been the top candidate with 523,096 votes, but voters had also turned out in force for Duke. He was barely 30,000 votes behind the former governor, earning 491,342 ballots in total. Roemer had fallen about 80,000 short of Edwards, knocking him out of the race.

Showdown with Duke

The runoff now came down to Edwards and Duke, and the Louisiana governor's election soon gained international attention. Many onlookers were disgusted by the implications of the race. Barely two decades after the civil rights movement had endured bloodshed and terrorism to topple segregation and advance equal rights reforms, a former grand wizard of the KKK now had a fighting chance to be the top elected official in a Deep South state.

The Democrats mounted a massive campaign against Duke, zeroing in on his long record of hatred and bigotry. The effort attracted a groundswell of support from business owners fearful that tourists would boycott Louisiana if Duke were to be elected, as well as civil rights groups and local newspapers. National GOP leaders, including President George H.W. Bush, also denounced Duke and disavowed his connection with their party. One anti-Duke advertisement featured a World War II veteran in full military uniform, declaring, "I joined the Army in 1944 to fight the Nazis. And I'm going to fight the Nazis in this election." 

Faced with such an unsavory alternative, Edwards' former opponents publicly backed him. Treen and Roemer encouraged voters to cast their ballots for the former governor. Edwards concentrated on appealing to the voters who had backed Roemer in the first primary vote; like Duke, he promised that he had reformed himself. "I don't want to live the rest of my life with a legacy of bad marks I had eight years ago, six years ago," he said.

For many voters, the choice between a Klansman and an ex-governor who had been tried for corruption was an easy one to make, if not exactly palatable. The attitude was reflected in bumper stickers reading "Vote For the Crook. It's Important" and "Vote for the Lizard, Not the Wizard." Edwards got in on the fun, delivering the bawdy remark that he and Duke were "both wizards under the sheets."

Duke's campaign suffered some additional blows in the last days of the campaign. In a fiery debate between Edwards and Duke on Tim Russert's Meet the Press, Duke was unable to answer questions about Louisiana's top industries or how much of the population lived below the poverty line. On November 5, 11 days before the election, Duke campaign staffer Bob Hawks quit and publicly charged that Duke's conversion to Christianity was a hoax.

When the runoff election was held, Duke still managed to win 671,009 votes, including the majority of the white and GOP vote. Yet the overall result was a landslide victory for Edwards. He had pulled 61 percent of the vote, or 1.06 million ballots, to win an unprecedented fourth term as Louisiana governor. 

Fourth term and riverboat gambling scandal

Following his previous rocky time in office, Edwards enjoyed more success in his fourth term. He managed to balance the state budget and oversee modest increases in state funding for public programs in health, education, and welfare, as well as funding for a new arena in New Orleans and investments in existing sports facilities. Edwards also remarried during this term; following his 1989 divorce from Elaine, with whom he had four children, he tied the knot with Candy Picou, a nurse nearly four decades younger than him.

Seeking to diversify the state's revenues, Edwards also worked to bring casino and riverboat gambling to Louisiana. The state struck a deal with Harrah's to establish a casino in the heart of New Orleans, although this venture nearly collapsed when Harrah's declared bankruptcy in 1995; Edwards' successor, Governor Murphy Foster, subsequently renegotiated the contract and the casino opened in 1999. Riverboat gambling had already proved to be a successful tourist attraction and source of income in neighboring Mississippi, and Louisiana established the Riverboat Gaming Commission to grant licenses for similar ventures. 

This process would prove to be Edwards' undoing, although his reckoning would not come until several years after he left office in 1996. The Riverboat Gaming Commission considered 43 applications for 15 available licenses, and all of them had ultimately gone to Edwards' political backers. When investigators looked into the matter, they soon charged Edwards and several associates with a scheme similar to the one the governor had been accused of years earlier: accepting payments in exchange for preferential treatment.

Similar to the 1985 case, Edwards was accused of partnering with others in a moneymaking scheme that rewarded those who paid the price. Prosecutors also accused his son Stephen, former Edwards aide Andrew Martin, Baton Rouge businessman Bobby Johnson, and cattleman Cecil Brown of partaking in the shakedown. 

At the trial, one key witness was Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr., the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers. DeBartolo said that he had visited Edwards in the governor's mansion one night before the commission's final meeting, and that Edwards had slid him a piece of paper with the figure $400,000 on it. "This has to be taken care of by next week or there's going to be a serious problem with your license," he declared. Edwards had also demanded a 1 percent stake in the profits from DeBartolo's casino.

DeBartolo testified that he had subsequently met Edwards in San Francisco to turn over a suitcase full of money. Asking how Edwards planned to get the suitcase past scrutiny at the airport, Edwards showed him a hidden money belt he intended to use to smuggle the cash back home.

The payoff had ultimately not been worth it for DeBartolo. Once his misdeed was discovered, he was convicted of failing to report a felony, sentenced to two years of probation, and fined $1 million. He had also been ordered to relinquish his casino license and turn over control of the 49ers to his sister.

Other witnesses described similar arrangements through Edwards' associates. Robert Guidry, a Louisiana businessman, described leaving large sums of cash in trash receptables for Edwards or his associates to collect. Guidry said he had struck an agreement in which he would pay Martin $100,000 a month in exchange for the approval of a riverboat gambling license. Like DeBartolo, the conduct had gotten him in trouble with the authorities; in 1998, he had pleaded guilty to an extortion charge for paying a total of $1.5 million to the Edwardses and Martin.

The defense argued that the state's case was too flimsy to stand, saying it was based on secret recordings, misinterpreted conversations, and testimony from people who were trying to give evidence in exchange for reducing the punishment for their own crimes. Edwards remained unflappable, quipping to reporters that he could cover any punishment with time served if the judge considered all the time he had spent before grand juries and trials. 

The jury found all defendants guilty on May 9, 2000. Edwards was convicted of 17 counts of racketeering, extortion, and conspiracy. 

Sentencing in the case did not take place until January 8, 2001. All five defendants were ordered to split a forfeiture of $1.8 million to give up any gains they had realized from the scheme. The judge ordered Stephen to spend seven years behind bars and pay a $60,000 fine. The other defendants were ordered to pay $50,000 fines. Martin was given a prison sentence of five years and eight months, while Brown received a five-and-a-half year term and Johnson received four months.

The stiffest punishment was reserved for Edwards. The ex-governor was given a hefty $250,000 fine and ordered to spend 10 years in prison. He began serving his time in 2002.

Many observers, even those who had previously criticized Edwards, felt this penalty was excessive. Treen became one of Edwards' staunchest advocates, pushing for his early release until he passed away in 2009. Those calling for a presidential pardon for Edwards included former President George H.W. Bush.

Later life

Despite the calls for leniency, Edwards served the bulk of his term. He was released from prison in January 2011.

One surprising result of his imprisonment was a new relationship. Edwards divorced Picou in 2004 and wound up striking up a pen pal relationship with Trina Grimes Scott, a woman 51 years his junior. Six months after he was freed, Edwards and Grimes were married. He joked that he would have gone to prison a happy man if he had known he would find new love as a result, saying, "As you know, they sent me to prison for life. But I came back with a wife." 

Edwards and Trina Grimes Scott on the couple's wedding day (Source)

Edwards remained a fairly popular figure in Louisiana, despite the stain of corruption. In the fall of 2011, he was the grand marshal of the International Rice Festival in Crowley. A year later, he was crowned king of the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade in Baton Rouge. 

Edwards' new marriage to a much younger wife briefly earned the couple a spot in the national limelight, as they were featured on the short-lived A&E series The Governor's Wife in 2013. That same year, Edwards became a father again at the age of 85 as Trina gave birth to a son.

In 2014, Edwards made one last bid for elected office when he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. The bid was widely viewed as quixotic given his age, his scandalous history, and the shift in the state's political climate that had granted the Republican Party more solid control of its political offices. Although Edwards secured the Democratic nomination, he was trounced in the general election when GOP candidate Garrett Graves came away with 62 percent of the vote. 

Edwards died of respiratory failure in Gonzales, Louisiana, on July 12, 2021.

Sources

National Governors Association, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Louisiana Secretary of State's Office, Acadian Museum, "Louisiana Governor Says His Wife Was Given $10,000 by South Korean" in the New York Times on Oct. 26 1976, "Ex-Aide Testifies Edwards Given Cash by Park" in the Washington Post on Jan. 24 1977, "The Healer Returneth" in The New Republic on Oct. 31 1983, "618 Louisianans Go to Paris for 'Biggest Single Fund-Raiser'" in the New York Times on Jan. 30 1984, "Gov. Edwards Today Reviewed..." in the UPI on Mar. 1 1985, "Louisiana Governor Going to Trial" in the Christian Science Monitor on Sep. 16 1985, "Louisiana Governor's Trial Hears Co-Defendant Saw a 'Gravy Train'" in the New York Times on Oct. 4 1985, "Ten Grand Juries Investigate Edwards" in UPI on May 10 1986, "Louisiana's Governor Acquitted in 2d Trial on Fraud Charges" in the New York Times on May 11 1986, "DeBartolo: Edwards Got $400K" on CBS on March 27 2000, "Ex-Edwards Friend Clyde Vidrine Slain" in The Town Talk on Dec. 17 1986, "Louisiana Governor's Mixed Legacy" in The Oklahoman on Mar. 9 1995, "Casino Operator Details Alleged Kickback Scheme in Louisiana Trial" in the Las Vegas Sun on Jan. 31 2000, "Former La. Governor Sentenced to 10 Years" in the Las Vegas Sun on Jan. 9 2001, "J. Bennett Johnston: The Rappahannock Resident Who Defeated White Supremacist David Duke" in the Rappahannock News on Sep. 11 2017, "Edwin Edwards, Flamboyant Louisiana Governor, is Dead at 93" in the New York Times on Jul. 12 2021, "Edwin Edwards Has Died" in Avoyelles Today on Jul. 12 2021, "Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards Has Died" on 4WWL on July 12 2021, "Populist Edwin Edwards, a 'Cajun King,' Loved His Louisiana" in the Associated Press on Jul. 12 2021, "Edwin Edwards Dies; Knew Power and Prison" in Biz New Orleans on Jul. 12 2021, "The Epic Lives of Edwin W. Edwards" in Bayou Brief on Jul. 18 2021, Louisiana: A History edited by Bennet H. Wall and John C. Rodrigue, Louisiana and Its People by Sue Eaton and Manie Culbertson, Louisiana Almanac, 2006-2007 Edition edited by Milburn Calhoun and Jeanne Frois, The Rise of David Duke by Tyler Bridges, Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right by Jeffrey Kaplan, Wizards: David Duke, America's Wildest Election, and the Rise of the Far Right by Brian Fairbanks, Reforming New Orleans: The Contentious Politics of Change in the Big Easy by Peter F. Burns and Matthew O. Thomas, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation by Michael Nelson and John Lyman Mason

Buddy Cianci: Intimidation, Cronyism, and Renewal

(Source)

Few could doubt that the mayor of Providence was deeply invested in the city. Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., nicknamed "Buddy," spearheaded several efforts to revitalize the city and turn it into an attractive metropolis. It wasn't hard for residents to see the mayor in person; he was a frequent guest at Providence Bruins hockey games, and could even be found chatting with spectators at Little League games.

But Cianci was a polarizing figure as well. Throughout his time in office, several people close to the mayor found themselves behind bars. Cianci himself had to cut one term short after brutally assaulting a man. Critics considered him little more than a glad-handing thug.

Judge Ernest C. Torres would reference the competing aspects of Cianci's character while sentencing him on corruption charges in 2002. Torres compared the mayor to Robert Louis Stevenson's famous story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"The first Buddy Cianci is a skilled charismatic political figure, one of the most talented Rhode Island has ever seen, someone with wit who thinks quickly on his feet and can enthrall an audience," the judge said. "Then there's the Buddy Cianci who's portrayed here. That's the Buddy Cianci who was mayor of an administration that was corrupt at all levels."

Early life

Cianci's yearbook photo from the Moses Brown School (Source)

Born on April 30, 1941, Cianci had a comfortable upbringing as a proctologist's son in Cranston, Rhode Island. He attended the Moses Brown School, a preparatory school in Providence, where he joined the football and wrestling teams. He started his college education at St. Louis University, but after a semester he transferred to a school closer to home. He completed his undergraduate studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, earning a degree in political science.

Cianci went on to earn a master's degree from Villanova University and a law degree from Marquette University. He was drafted into the military after law school and was set to deploy to Vietnam when his father passed away. Cianci was allowed to stay stateside, spending most of his three-year Army service at Fort Devens in Massachusetts.

After his discharge, Cianci returned to Rhode Island and opened a private practice. Before long, he was selected to serve as the chief prosecutor of an anti-corruption task force established by the state's attorney general in 1973 to go after organized crime.

Cianci would play a particularly effective part in bringing down Providence mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca. Another mobster, Rudolph Marfeo, had been gunned down in 1969 just one month after Patriarca was convicted of conspiracy in the murder of Marfeo's brother. Prosecutors suspected that Patriarca had been involved in the killing of the other sibling as well.

Raymond Patriarca (Source)

Patriarca had an alibi. He claimed that a Washington, D.C. priest had been visiting his company at the time of Marfeo's death. It seemed almost too good to be true: a man of the cloth who was ready to testify to the innocence of a criminal kingpin.

Cianci found a way to undercut the defense's case. Examining the parish records, he found that the official record showed the priest had not been in Rhode Island on the day of Marfeo's murder, but was actually attending a baptism in Virginia. Patriarca's alibi was shattered. He would be convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The "anti-corruption candidate"

Cianci is sworn into office (Source)

Following his performance on the anti-corruption task force, Cianci parlayed his local fame into a mayoral run. Providence was a staunch Democratic stronghold, but a fortuitous division opened up during the election year of 1974. Lawrence P. McGarry, head of the city's Democratic committee, refused to endorse incumbent mayor Joseph A. Doorley, Jr., who had served in the role for 10 years.

Doorley forged on without the nomination, but the split with McGarry fractured a decades-old political machine in the city. Running as an "anti-corruption candidate" in the general election, Cianci won a stunning upset. As the Republican candidate, he edged out Doorley by 709 votes out of more than 52,000 ballots cast. He was the first Italian-American mayor to be elected mayor of Providence as well as the city's youngest mayor and the first Republican to hold the office in more than 30 years.

Many years later, Cianci admitted in his autobiography that he was inexperienced and completely unprepared for the job. "Maybe I didn't know precisely what I was doing, but I was confident I could save the city," he said.

The razor-thin victory in a strongly Democratic city in New England made Cianci something of a celebrity within the Republican party. He was able to get an audience with President Gerald Ford, and in 1976 he gave a brief speech at the Republican National Convention before introducing former Texas governor John Connally.

Buddy Cianci at the 1976 Republican National Convention (Source)

Cianci would dedicate much of his time in office to reimagining the former industrial city of Providence into a commercial and tourist center. More than $200 million would be invested in new commercial and office buildings during his term. During his first week as mayor, monkeys escaped from the city's decrepit Roger Williams Park Zoo. In 1976, he earmarked millions of dollars to improve the facility.

But while Cianci would earn a reputation as a tireless advocate for Providence, he also contemplated leaving office before he had served a full term as mayor. As the 1976 election approached, he contemplated challenging incumbent Senator John Chafee for the Republican nomination for the seat. He ultimately decided against it.

By the time Cianci was up for re-election in 1978, he was facing a number of challenges. There were accusations that he had been coercing the Providence Police Department to hire unqualified candidates. Earlier in the year, Police Chief Robert E. Ricci had shot himself in his office. Edward J. Collins, a police captain who would later unsuccessfully run for mayor, blamed Cianci for the suicide.

It was an open secret that Cianci rewarded his supporters with city jobs. James Diamond, a mayoral aide, recalled that Cianci asked him to set up a computer database of every Providence resident in 1975. He figured the technology could be useful in assessing their loyalties and determining where to mete out rewards or punishments. Diamond never carried out this request.

The city had also fared poorly during the Blizzard of 1978, which had dumped more than 30 inches of snow on Providence. When the public works department tried to respond to the storm, few of its snowplows were in working condition; those that worked weren't even able to break out of the department's parking lot. A contingent of Seabees from North Kingstown eventually had to open up the streets, long after other communities in New England had managed to dig themselves out. Critics charged that Cianci's patronage system had left the public works department woefully mismanaged during the crisis.

Vehicles abandoned on Providence highway after the Blizzard of 1978 (Source)

Perhaps most damaging of all was a cover story run by New Times magazine in 1978. In the article, a woman accused Cianci of raping her at gunpoint in 1966 while he was a student at Marquette. She said she withdrew her criminal complaint in exchange for a $3,000 payment from Cianci so she wouldn't sue. Sources at the River Falls Police Department in Wisconsin told New Times that Cianci had flunked a lie detector test three times while the woman had passed.

Denouncing the story as an "ugly character assassination," Cianci pressed a $72 million libel lawsuit against the magazine. In legal filings, he admitted that he had slept with the woman, that there was a gun in the house at the time, and that he paid her $3,000 after she dropped her complaint. It was enough for the court to dismiss the matter, but Cianci pressed an appeal. The case was settled out of court for $8,500 and an official letter of apology from New Times, which conceded that both the district attorney and Cianci's lawyer in the matter concluded that no crime had occurred.

Despite these scandals, Cianci won a second term when he defeated Democratic candidate Frank Darigan with 56 percent of the vote. But his administration was soon tarnished by new revelations of corruption. Prosecutors charged 30 city workers and contractors with criminal activity, namely conspiracy and fraud; 22 would be convicted. Cianci denied any knowledge of this misconduct and was never charged.

Cianci celebrates his 1978 win with his wife, Sheila (Source)

Cianci pondered whether to put his name into consideration as a vice presidential candidate for the 1980 election. He met with Ford as well as Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, but ultimately decided to turn his sights to a local race.

In the Rhode Island gubernatorial election for 1980, Cianci challenged Governor Joseph Garrahy, the Democratic incumbent who was completing his first term. The mayor won the Republican nomination, but performed disastrously in the statewide race. Under heavy criticism for his handling of Providence's finances, Cianci mustered barely a quarter of the total vote. Worse, he didn't even win a majority of votes in any of the wards in Providence, let along in any other city or town in Rhode Island.

Other developments seemed to signal Cianci's inevitable defeat for re-election in 1982, if he even decided to enter the race. In March 1981, the mayor made the unpopular proposal to raise property taxes by 20 percent to avoid bankruptcy. Outraged residents called for his resignation, and the city council began considering whether an ordinance should be drafted to allow voters to remove elected officials from office.

Poor fiscal management in the Cianci administration had helped bring the city to the brink of insolvency in the first place. Opponents charged that the mayor had avoided more manageable tax increases in previous years for political reasons, had only hired a financial director after leaving the post vacant for three years, and had hired four times as many summer recreational workers as he had been authorized to do. While Cianci managed to put $100 million in state and federal funds toward revitalizing the city in his first two terms, these funds were facing cutbacks. The city also had to deal with the challenges of inflation and a declining population.

Things only got worse in July 1981, when municipal workers went on a 16-day strike in response to cutbacks in overtime pay and other austerity measures. The protest earned the nickname "The Great Garbage Strike" for its most pungent feature: heaps of uncollected trash ripening in the summer heat. Cianci responded by firing the striking garbagemen and hiring private crews to collect the refuse.

Tensions were high enough that these workers feared that the union men would use tractor-trailers to ram their garbage trucks. Shotgun-wielding police officers accompanied the private workers on their runs, which were conducted at night in an effort to avoid confrontation. The tactic was successful in stemming violence, aside from one angry union garbageman who smashed into one of the city trucks with his own pickup. At the end of the strike, the union won some concessions but trash collection remained privatized.

Cianci speaks with a police officer accompanying private garbage collectors during a strike of municipal workers in 1981 (Source)

A widespread effort to repave streets and sidewalks throughout Providence in the summer and fall played a significant part in Cianci's re-election in 1982. There were accusations that the work was a blatant political gesture, and that the public works department would have done the upgrades sooner if it hadn't become a den of corruption and mismanagement. But voters may well have been reassured by the improvements.

A three-way race also helped tilt the odds in Cianci's favor. Running as an independent, he faced off against Darigan and Republican candidate Frederick Lippitt. He again squeaked through to victory, defeating Darigan by 1,074 votes out of approximately 55,000 cast to win a third term.

Assault on Raymond DeLeo

While he was a gregarious character in public, Cianci could be appallingly vindictive in private. One restaurant owner recalled that the mayor was enraged when a new bouncer at the venue insisted that he pay a $2 cover charge. Cianci retaliated by having the fire department shut down the eatery. The restauranteur said Cianci threatened, "You don't want to get into a pissing match with me, because you're a cup of water and I'm Niagara Falls."

In his autobiography, Cianci himself gleefully recalls a hair-raising if dubious act of thuggery. He suspected that Ronald H. Glantz, his chief of staff, had leaked information to Garrahy to sabotage his gubernatorial campaign. During a helicopter trip to an event where Cianci was scheduled to speak, he claimed to have seized the controls and forced the aircraft into a dive. As the chopper plummeted toward the ground, he angrily demanded that Glantz admit to the betrayal and didn't relent until his chief of staff did so.

Cianci's short-tempered side became clear with a violent incident in the spring of 1983. At this point, the mayor was estranged from his wife Sheila; the couple would later be divorced. Cianci became convinced that she was having an affair with a local contractor, Raymond DeLeo. On the evening of March 20, he asked DeLeo to meet him at his rented carriage house.

Raymond DeLeo (Source)

When DeLeo arrived at the mayor's home, it proved to be the start of a three-hour ordeal. He said the mayor kept him against his will and periodically assaulted him. DeLeo said that Cianci slapped him, struck him with a fireplace log, and burned him with a lighted cigarette after trying to put it out in his eye.

Several other men were present during these acts of violence, including James K. Hassett, a Providence patrolman who served as Cianci's driver; William McGair, Cianci's attorney; and Joseph DiSanto, the city's public works director. McGair eventually became perturbed by the mayor's behavior and called Herbert DiSimone, a former Rhode Island attorney general and friend of Cianci's. But the abuse continued even after DiSimone arrived and tried to talk some sense into Cianci. He reportedly threw an ashtray at DeLeo and threatened to kill the contractor or destroy his business unless he not only signed an affidavit confessing to an affair with Sheila, but also agreed to cut Cianci a check for $500,000. DiSimone eventually persuaded Cianci to let DeLeo go.

DeLeo reported the incident to the police, and his complaint became public on April 25. About a month later, on May 24, Cianci was indicted on two charges of extortion and one each of kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault and battery. One of the extortion charges accused the mayor of threatening Lenore Siegel Sternberg, a Florida resident, to get her to make a statement about the relationship between Sheila and DeLeo. Hassett was charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnapping.

Cianci quickly sought to downplay the severity of the incident. He admitted that he may have made some intimidating gestures, but that he never actually harmed DeLeo. He may have picked up a log and thrown it angrily into the fireplace, he said, but he hadn't used it to strike the contractor. Cianci claimed that DeLeo had always been free to leave his home anytime he wished.

The mayor also griped that the incident was a "domestic matter" that never should have been brought before a grand jury. "Anyone can accuse if they've got something to hide or gain from it," he said. Cianci said he would refuse to resign his office.

Trial preparations began at the end of February 1984, at about the same time that several city employees were indicted on charges related to corruption in the public works department. Three days later, petitions were delivered to City Hall demanding a recall election to try to oust Cianci; they included 19,760 signatures. The woman who had claimed that Cianci raped her at gunpoint agreed to come to Providence to testify as a character witness against the mayor.

On March 5, Cianci agreed to plead no contest to charges of assault with a deadly weapon as well as assault and battery; the remaining charges were dropped. Hassett would also plead no contest to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon and resign from the police department. However, he would later be reinstated after his attorneys argued that there was no basis for the charge if Hassett had not been convicted of kidnapping.

Cianci is sentenced on April 23, 1984 (Source)

Cianci faced up to 11 years in prison, but on April 23 he was sentenced to a fully suspended five-year term with five years of probation. The sentence raised the question of whether he could continue to serve as mayor; the assault with a deadly weapon charge was a felony, and the new city charter barred felons from holding public office. Cianci resolved the issue by resigning two days after he was sentenced. The Rhode Island Supreme Court later gave him a public censure, but allowed him to continue practicing law.

In his autobiography, Cianci expressed regret for the incident but couldn't help joking about the matter as well. "[F]ind me a man who will never admit to having made a mistake and I'll show you a successful politician," he quipped.

Return to office

At about the same time as Cianci's resignation, a federal investigation began looking into malfeasance in the Providence city government. When the five-year probe ended in 1989, it had indicted 30 people. Charges included extortion, accepting kickbacks, theft of city pavement for private jobs, and employees conducting personal business while on the clock.

U.S. Attorney Lincoln C. Almond commented that more people would have been charged but for the expiration of the statute of limitations. Those who were convicted included former city solicitor Ronald H. Glantz, who was sentenced to eight years in prison; former Democratic city chairman Anthony J. Bucci, who received the same sentence; and Richard A. Carroll, former chairman of the Providence Water Supply Board, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years. Cianci was considered for indictment, but ultimately was not charged.

Since his resignation, Cianci had been working as a radio host. Even with the news that he had been under investigation for corruption, there was speculation that he would again seek the mayor's office in 1990. Joseph R. Paolino, Jr., the Democratic chairman of the city council, had become acting mayor after Cianci's resignation and won a special election to keep the seat before being re-elected in 1986. He wasn't running again in 1990, opting instead to enter the gubernatorial race.

Cianci hosting his AM radio show (Source)

Just 17 minutes before the deadline expired on June 27, Cianci filed his papers announcing his intention to run for mayor of Providence. He was once again running as an independent; he would again face Lippitt in the general election, along with Democrat city councilman Andrew Annaldo.

During the campaign, one of Cianci's billboards was creatively vandalized by Rhode Island School of Design student Shepard Fairey. Residents looking up at the billboard saw that Cianci's face had been replaced by a stenciled image of professional wrestler Andre the Giant, with the slogan altered to read, "Andre never stopped caring about Providence." The image became so popular that Fairey turned it into a brand, selling millions of Andre the Giant stickers as well as other merchandise. Today, Fairey is better known as the artist behind the famous "Hope" campaign poster for Barack Obama.

"Andre never stopped caring about Providence" (Source)

When the ballots were counted, Cianci had won his narrowest victory yet. About 47,000 people had gone to the polls; Cianci won by a mere 317 votes. A small group of residents challenged his victory, arguing that the state constitution disqualified felons from holding office until three years after the completion of their sentence and probation. Under these rules, Cianci wouldn't be eligible for office until the spring of 1992.

Thomas Rossi, the newly re-elected mayor's campaign advisor, responded that it was a moot point. The torrid details of Cianci's assault on DeLeo had been given national coverage, he noted, and voters would have to be "hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar" to not know about his past conviction; they had favored him anyway.

Cianci renewed his focus on revitalizing Providence and turning the city into a destination. One of the most ambitious projects involved an effort to draw attention to the Providence River, which had long been hidden beneath roadways and other infrastructure. Once the waterway and its tributaries were exposed, they were girded with pleasant walkways and ornate bridges. In 1994, the city debuted WaterFire, a popular semi-regular event where braziers floated down the river as gondolas plied the waters.

Downtown Providence during the WaterFire festival (Source)

The downtown was further enhanced by the opening of the Providence Place Mall and a new skating rink. A total of $300 million was invested in transportation upgrades. Several biomedical businesses opened in the city. Cianci became a tireless promoter of the city, lobbying the New England Patriots to build a stadium in Providence and frequently appearing on national programs to discuss its business development, arts scene, and historical and cultural attractions. He made a point to show his acceptance of the LGBT community, welcoming them to visit the city or make it their home.

The accelerating pace of Providence's resurrection helped improve Cianci's popularity. Critics continued to point out that the mayor's plans were doing little to help the city's poorest neighborhoods or improve its schools, or that he was taking credit for revitalization plans that were bearing fruit after decades of bipartisan efforts, but these concerns were often overshadowed by praise for the glittering new business district. Cianci further won sympathy by promising to donate the proceeds from his locally distributed pasta sauce, "Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce," to fund a scholarship assisting poor children.

In 1994, Cianci comfortably won re-election in a race against former Democratic state representative Paul Jabour as well as Republican candidate Thomas J. Ricci. In 1998, he was unopposed in the general election.

Operation Plunder Dome

This momentum may easily have carried Cianci to another term in office had he not once again been faced with criminal charges. On April 2, 2001, Cianci was indicted on 30 counts of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy, witness tampering, and mail fraud. The charges were the culmination of a four-year federal investigation, dubbed Operation Plunder Dome, which accused the mayor of essentially running his office like an organized criminal enterprise.

The indictment charged Cianci with involvement in a wide variety of schemes to accept money under the table. Between 1991 and 1999, he and two associates were said to have received $250,000 in campaign funds from tow truck operators. These companies acted as straw donors, giving the money to Cianci's campaign to ensure that they would stay on the police department's preferential tow list. Cianci was also accused of taking bribes to give out municipal jobs, give people breaks on their property taxes, or allow them to obtain vacant city properties.

Similar to the accusations that Providence had been poorly managed under Cianci in the 1970s and 1980s, investigators said there had been widespread corruption elsewhere in the city government. Cocaine and gold had mysteriously disappeared from the police department's evidence room. Manhole covers had also vanished, stolen by city workers to sell for scrap metal.

Cianci talks to the media after his arraignment on April 6, 2001 (Source)

Cianci responded with defiance. Referring to the 97-page indictment, he joked, "I'm not afraid of this. Ninety-seven times zero is zero." When he heard that former tax board chairman Joseph Pannone had said the mayor instructed him how to take a bribe, Cianci joked, "What the hell does he think, that I'm running a seminar? Stealing 101?"

Nevertheless, Operation Plunder Dome began to win convictions against those accused of malfeasance. Not long after the investigation concluded, four city officials and two lawyers were found guilty of corruption.

Cianci went to trial in June 2002, five months before an election he had every intention to enter. By the time the proceedings began, many of the criminal charges had been thrown out for lack of evidence or other reasons.

The trial focused on a number of different incidents, including the extortion related to the tow truck leases and an accusation that Cianci accepted bribes on a $1.2 million lease the School Department took out on a building owned by a convicted felon. One woman testified that she paid the mayor $5,000 to get her son a job on the police force. Another man said he had shelled out $5,000 to get a city job; he started in a temporary role that paid only $9 an hour, but was later rewarded with a full-time senior planner position. Cianci was also accused of accepting $10,000 to grant a property tax break to a resident; taking another $10,000 bribe from a person who wanted to purchase city real estate; extorting a lifetime membership to the University Club, a private club on the city's East Side; and tampering with a witness who had been summoned to discuss the extortion before the grand jury.

David C. Ead, a tax official who had been convicted of bribery as part of Operation Plunder Dome, testified that he arranged a total of $25,000 in bribes for the mayor. Another witness said Cianci had made the threat, "Be careful of the toe you step on today, because it might be connected to an ass that you have to kiss tomorrow." More than 50 witnesses testified for the prosecution, with several saying that they had feared reprisals from Cianci or his director of administration, Frank E. Corrente.

Some of the most damning evidence in Operation Plunder Dome came from Antonio Freitas, a businessman who had paid bribes for tax breaks and other rewards at the FBI's direction. He had also worn a wire to secretly record 180 conversations with city officials between 1998 and 1999. In the tapes, played during the trial, tow truck drivers and other boasted about their connections to City Hall and the schemes they had set up to benefit Cianci.

In one conversation, Pannone described the mayor as being addicted to taking money. "He needs the green. He needs to fix his hair," Pannone said. The comment may have referred to Cianci's distinctive toupee, which he had nicknamed "the squirrel."

Cianci's defense attorneys sought to undermine the credibility of the witnesses who testified against the mayor. They didn't mince words, describing the witnesses as liars and thieves. Ead, one lawyer said, had a gambling addiction and was "a pig, plain and simple." Attorney John Tarantino declared, "David Ead has said just about anything and will do just about anything to protect himself. He's lied and he's cheated and he's deceived for money."

By the end of the trial, the charges related to the tow truck operator kickbacks and the alleged witness tampering were thrown out due to lack of evidence. The charge related to the school lease was also dismissed after the judge determined that it didn't meet the criteria for racketeering.

On June 24, Cianci was acquitted of 11 charges. But the jury found him guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The RICO rules held that the leader and beneficiary of a racketeering conspiracy could be held responsible for the acts of other conspirators even if he or she did not directly take part in their criminal actions. In his memoir, Cianci agreed with state representative Steven Smith's assessment of the conviction: "They found him guilty of nothing but responsible for everything."

The conviction did little to dampen support for Cianci among the mayor's adherents. He was greeted outside the courtroom by applauding supporters, some of whom shouted, "Let him go!" Almond had called on Cianci to resign after his indictment and repeated the advice after the verdict, saying, "I think the time has come to say the capital city cannot stand this type of corruption. Enough is enough." But Cianci was not required to leave office until his sentencing, and continued to put in public appearances; he even kept an appointment to address a graduating high school class on the evening of his conviction.

Cianci leaves his hotel to begin his prison sentence (Source)

Cianci faced up to 20 years in prison, along with a potential fine of $250,000. On September 7, Judge Ernest C. Torres ordered Cianci to serve 64 months behind bars and pay a $100,000 fine. The prison sentence was squarely in the middle of the federal sentencing guidelines of 57 to 71 months for racketeering conspiracy. Torres, disagreeing with the state's contention that the corruption under Cianci had been a significant disruption to city business, rejected the prosecution's request for a 10-year sentence. The mayor was also required to serve two years of probation and perform 150 hours of community service after his release.

Having maintained his innocence throughout the trial, Cianci thanked the judge for what he considered to be fair treatment. "It's an unfortunate situation. I'm sorry, obviously, that it has come to this," he said. "My heart will always be with Providence. I never intended to do anything wrong, Your Honor."

The sentence was stayed until December to give Cianci an opportunity to appeal, but state law required him to leave office immediately. The remainder of his term, through January 2003, was served by city council president John Lombardi. After Lombardi declined to run in the 2002 election, he was succeeded by Democratic state representative David Cicilline.

Several other people were convicted as a result of Operation Plunder Dome, including Corrente, Ead, and tow truck operator Richard Autiello. A businessman named Edward Voccola was also charged with involvement in the scheme, but was acquitted by a judge partway through his trial.

Later years

While in prison, Cianci kept up with local politics by reading week-old issues of the Providence Journal. He was also inducted into the Providence Preservation Society's hall of fame while still incarcerated. He belatedly filed an appeal in May 2003, arguing that the state had not provided any direct evidence that he was involved in corruption in the Providence city government. A federal appeals court upheld the verdict against him in a 2-1 decision in August 2004.

A surprising development came in April 2005, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit threw out the sentences of Cianci, Autiello, and Corrente. The court ruled that a recent Supreme Court decision, United States v. Booker, had invalidated the mandatory sentencing guidelines used to determine the prison terms for the three men. Cianci attorney John MacFadyen vowed to press for a shorter term, while Robert Corrente, the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, said he would oppose any reduction in the former mayor's sentence. Torres, who was ordered to re-sentence Cianci, decided against shortening his prison term.

On May 30, 2007, Cianci was released from prison and sent to a halfway house. Four months later, he again began making frequent appearances as a radio host. He was a frequent critic of Representative Patrick Kennedy, and in January 2010 said he was considering challenging the congressman for his seat in the House of Representatives. He decided against it.

In 2011, Cianci released an autobiography entitled Politics and Pasta. At one point, he wrote, "I used my public power for personal reasons. I admit it. It probably wasn't the right thing to do, but it certainly felt good."

July 2012 marked the end of the three-year waiting period following the end of Cianci's probation. Although Providence residents wondered if he would again run for mayor in the 2014 race, many didn't expect him to do so. Despite his former popularity and track record of urban development, he would be in his early 70s with the less than reputable record of two separate felony convictions.

Cianci during his 2014 mayoral campaign (Source)

Much to the dismay of his prosecutors and critics, Cianci announced that he would indeed run as an independent and seek a seventh term as mayor of Providence. He won the endorsements of several municipal unions, including those representing the teachers, firefighters, and police department.

During his campaign, an Associated Press investigation revealed that Cianci had broken his promise to not accept any donations from city workers. Reporters also found that his pasta sauce hadn't actually generated any profits in the previous four years despite marketing that it supported scholarships. In the general election, Cianci won about 45 percent of approximately 38,000 votes cast. Several Democratic candidates had abandoned their bids to consolidate support against Cianci; the remaining Democratic candidate, Jorge O. Elorza, won the race.

In November 2015, Cianci's official portrait was unveiled in City Hall. During his remarks at the event, Cianci quipped that it was "not the first time I've been framed."

Three months later, Cianci got engaged to Tara Marie Haywood, a 34-year-old actress and model. A few weeks after that, he was suddenly stricken with severe abdominal pain while taping a TV show. He died on January 28, 2016, at the age of 74.

Sources: "Mayor of Providence Seeking Re-Election Without Nomination" in the New York Times on Aug. 25 1974, "R.I. Mayor Cianci Denies Alleged Rape Incident" in The Telegraph on Jul. 10 1978, "City Troubles Catch A Rising Political Star" in The Telegraph on Apr. 18 1981, "Mayor Indicted on Kidnap Charges" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on May 25 1983, "Legal Scrapes Pursue Mayor of Providence" in the Washington Post on Jul. 2 1983, "Kidnaping Charge is Mayor's Next Hurdle" in the Chicago Tribune on Jul. 6 1983, "Mayor of Providence Pleads No Contest to Assault Case" in the New York Times on Mar. 6 1984, "Northeast Journal - Back on the Beat in Providence" in the  New York Times on Jul. 7 1985, "Providence Journal - The Election Was Only Round One" in the New York Times on Nov. 14 1990, "Providence Mayor Indicted on Racketeering Charges" in the New York Times on Apr. 3 2001, "Providence Mayor Convicted On Corruption Charges" in The Hour on Jun. 25 2002, "Providence Mayor Convicted of Corruption" in South Coast Today on Jun. 25 2002, "A Sentence for Corruption Ends an Era in Providence" in the New York Times on Sep. 7 2002, "A Heap of Trouble" in the Providence Journal on Dec. 11 2002, "Raymond DeLeo's Nightmare on Power Street" in the Providence Journal on Dec. 12 2002, "Ex-Providence Mayor Appeals Conviction" in the Plainview Daily Herald on May 27 2003, "Ex-Providence Mayor's Conviction Upheld" in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 11 2004, "Sentences of Cianci, Two Others Thrown Out" in the Boston Globe on Apr. 7 2005, "Cianci Will Serve Full 64-Month Sentence" in the Brown Daily Herald on Jun. 27 2005, "Buddy Cianci Is In The Lead to Become Mayor of Providence. Again" in the Washington Post on Sep. 24 2014, "Good Buddy, Bad Buddy" in the New York Times on Oct. 11 2014, "Vincent A. Cianci Jr., Celebrated and Scored Ex-Mayor of Providence, R.I., Dies at 74" in the New York Times on Jan. 28 2016, "Timeline of the Late Buddy Cianci's Political Career" in the San Diego Union-Tribune on Jan. 28 2016, "Vincent 'Buddy' Cianci, 1941-2016" in the Providence Journal on Jan. 28 2016, "Former Providence Mayor 'Buddy' Cianci Has Died" in South Coast Today on Jan. 28 2016, "Buddy Cianci, Flamboyant and Roguish Mayor Who Rebuilt Providence, Dies at 74" in the Washington Post on Jan. 28 2016, Politics and Pasta by Vincent Cianci Jr. and David Fisher, The Prince of Providence by Mike Stanton, Who We Be: The Colorization of America by Jeff Chang