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

Bruce Bennett: chartering a disaster

Bruce Bennett and family. Source: encyclopediaofarkansas.net

In a government career marked by corruption and harassment of civil rights groups, Bruce Bennett is somehow best remembered for his role in the debate over teaching evolution in schools.

The Arkansas state legislature crafted an anti-evolution law in 1928, making it unlawful for any teacher in the state's schools or colleges to include evolution in their courses. The law also banned textbooks featuring evolution and set a fine of $500 for anyone who violated the statute. Coming just three years after the fight over evolution in the Scopes Monkey Trial, backers of the bill said the legislation amounted to supporting the Bible over atheism and giving taxpayers control over what would be taught in schools. At the general election in November, voters overwhelmingly approved the measure with 108,991 in favor and 63,406 opposed.

The law was never strongly enforced, and attempts to repeal it were made in 1937 and 1959 as support for such fundamentalist measures waned. It wasn't until 1965 that the effort gained significant public attention. Susan Epperson, a high school teacher in Little Rock, became the plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the bill on the basis that evolution instruction was part of "the obligations of a responsible teacher of biology."

Bennett, the attorney general of Arkansas, was eager to take on the suit and even expressed his hope to disprove Darwin's theory during the proceedings. Maintaining the old argument that evolution promoted atheism and deprived the state's schools of choosing what they would teach, he asked, "Will our children be 'free' to choose their religion after their minds have been warped by anti-religious propaganda; or will they be forever captives of the Darwin theory, foisted upon them in their youth?"

Judge Murray O. Reed had no wish to see the state embarrassed by a Scopes-like circus more than four decades after that case. The case was scheduled to last only one day - April 1, 1966 - and the proceedings in the Pulaski County Chancery Court lasted only two-and-a-half hours. On May 27, Reed declared that the law was unconstitutional since it sought to "hinder the quest for knowledge, restrict the freedom to learn, and restrain the freedom to teach."

The ruling was subsequently overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court, then appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The justices upheld Reed's ruling in a 7-2 decision, saying the Arkansas law was unconstitutional since it infringed upon the First Amendment. Justice Abe Fortas said in the majority report that the right of free speech "does not permit the state to require that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma" and that the law essentially gave preference to the creationist view by "seeking to blot out" the conflicting scientific theory.

The case set a precedent for the legality of other anti-evolution laws, establishing that public schools could not be forbidden from teaching Darwin's theory as a way of upholding religious doctrine. Bennett's grandstanding and loss in the lower court also contributed to the loss of his office, which in turn led to revelations that he had used his office for corrupt purposes.

Bennett was born on October 31, 1917, in Helena, Arkansas. Four years later, he moved with his family to the small city of El Dorado and completed school. He studied pre-law at El Dorado Junior College and Third District Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Southern Arkansas) in the nearby community of Magnolia.

Bennett joined the Army in 1940 and remained in the military after the United States entered the Second World War. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1942 and served 14 months in Europe before returning to the U.S. for pilot training. For the remainder of the war, he would be a commander of a B-29 in the South Pacific. Bennett flew 30 missions over Japan, coming home with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Air Medal with three clusters. He resumed his studies and earned a degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 1949.

Three years later, Bennett began his political career. He was elected as a Democrat to be prosecuting attorney of the Thirteenth Judicial District in 1952 and 1954. He was elected as the state's attorney general in 1956 and re-elected in 1958.

The emerging civil rights movement would find that they had no friend in Bennett. Little Rock became the focal point of a standoff between Arkansas state officials and the federal government in September of 1957, when a federal court ordered the school district to integrate in compliance with the Supreme Court's "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School. Stymied by his failed attempts to negotiate the issue with the recalcitrant governor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and ordering the Army's 101st Airborne Division in from Kentucky to provide protection for the students and ensure order during the integration.

Bennett subsequently crafted several bills to harass civil rights activists, especially the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The measures prevented the NAACP from providing legal counsel or funding for lawsuits in the state and prohibited NAACP members from becoming state employees. With Faubus's support, Bennett also had the Arkansas NAACP's nonprofit status revoked in 1958 and banned it for nonpayment of taxes.

Six months later, Bennett went farther by accusing civil rights protesters and NAACP members of being "enemies of America" in league with an international Communist conspiracy. He ordered the organization's membership lists and personnel records to be opened for scrutinizing by state officials, then organized public hearings on the issue before the Arkansas Legislative Council's Special Education Committee. Bennett was so convinced that the civil rights movement was "riddled with Communists" that he appeared as an expert witness on the allegation in Tennessee and ran unsuccessfully as a segregationist for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1960, accusing Faubus of being a secret ally of NAACP state leader Daisy Bates despite Faubus's open resistance to desegregation.

Bennett remained popular enough that he was re-elected as attorney general in 1962 and 1964. He lost the primary to Joe Purcell in 1966, soon after his failed attempt to uphold the anti-evolution law. Ten days after taking office, Purcell set his sights on his predecessor by filing a lawsuit charging that the Arkansas Loan and Thrift had been selling securities illegally.

Bennett had helped found the AL&T in 1964, using the attorney general's office for the purpose. Along with used car dealer Ernest A. Bartlett Jr. and others, he incorporated the institute using a 1937 industrial loan charter from a defunct financial institution. The AL&T solicited investors for industrial development projects, luring people in with promises of high interest rates and deposit guarantees. In truth, the AL&T put investors' money into questionable developments while padding the accounts of the institution's officers. During his time as attorney general, Bennett held several shares in AL&T in his wife's name and collected regular legal fees from them. He also bought an inactive insurance company and sold it to the AL&T for $64,000; this organization was redubbed the Savings Guarantor Corporation and used to guarantee investors' deposits even though it was backed by no equity other than worthless AL&T stock.

The fraud crossed state lines, with Bennett and Bartlett taking a part in setting up a similar scheme in Louisiana. He made a hefty profit off the Louisiana Loan and Thrift, set up with the cooperation of Louisiana Attorney General Jack P.F. Gremillion, by borrowing $160,000 from the institution before canceling the debt by transferring his stock to another man. Between AL&T and its Louisiana twin, Bennett made some $200,000. He also used his official position to protect the AL&T from state regulation, issuing five secret opinions to state officials stating that Arkansas's securities laws didn't apply to the institution since it was operating under an old industrial loan charter rather than as a bank or savings and loan.

Purcell's suit sought to order the AL&T to stop representing itself as either a bank trust company or a savings and loan. Tom Glaze, a trial attorney in Arkansas during this time, recalls that this filing went nowhere because of a blatant conflict of interest in the Pulaski County Chancery Court. Claude Carpenter Jr., the business and law partner of the court's Chancellor Kay Matthews, enjoyed insider dealings with AL&T. The institute's founder, Ernest A. Bartlett Jr., even visited Carpenter soon after the filing and paid him a $23,000 retainer. Carpenter, who would be named a co-conspirator in the case, denied doing anything with the money other than fly to Las Vegas with Bartlett to gamble and chat with him about Arkansas Razorbacks football.

The cozy relationship stalled the matter for several months, with Matthews granting plenty of extensions. The delay finally prompted state officials to go over the court's head. Governor Winthrop Rockefeller had become the first Republican elected to the office since 1872 with his victory in 1966; his securities commissioner, Don Smith, appealed for help from the Securities and Exchange Commission. On March 13, 1968, U.S. District Court Judge John E. Miller ordered AL&T to be shut down and placed into receivership.

More than 2,000 people and two churches had invested over $4 million in AL&T. The investors would only recoup about one-quarter of what they had put into the fraudulent institution when its assets were liquidated. In one amusing exchange, a representative from the Booneville Lutheran Mission asked that the churches be the first to receive any recovered assets so they would be able to replenish their building accounts; the man explained, "This is not the people's money, this is God's money." In denying the request, Miller replied, "God should have looked after it a little better then." The AL&T was denounced as the "Arkansas Loan & Theft."

Bennett insisted that his only connection to the AL&T was that his wife briefly owned some shares in the institution. He was confident enough in his own chances of acquittal that he ran once again for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1968, although he finished a distant fourth. The investigation of the AL&T records soon uncovered his close connection with the institution, including the secret opinions on regulation of the AL&T.

In 1969, Bennett was indicted on 28 counts of securities violations, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Three other officers - Bartlett and brothers Afton and Hoyce Borum - were charged with the same crimes. Several other people, including Carpenter and some members of the Arkansas General Assembly, were named as unindicted co-conspirators.

Bennett was able to escape punishment because of his poor health, namely throat cancer. Bartlett would be convicted of some of the charges against him and receive a sentence of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The Borum brothers would also be convicted, but receive shorter sentences. The charges against Bennett were dismissed on May 20, 1977, due to his ongoing health issues as well as difficulties in finding witnesses to testify against him. "I'd like to thank my friends and attorneys for their continued faith in me," he said after the court's decision.

Bennett died two years later on August 26, 1979.  

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, Civil Rights Digital Library, National Parks Service, "Arkansas Battles to Save Ban on Darwin's Theory" in the Ellensburg Daily Record on Aug. 16 1966, Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy by Sehoya Cotner and Mark Decker and Randy Moore, Fulbright: A Biography by Randall Bennett Woods, The Arkansas Rockefeller by John L. Ward, Waiting for the Cemetery Vote: The Fight to Stop Election Fraud in Arkansas by Tom Glaze

Ricardo J. Bordallo: trouble in paradise

Image from guampedia.com

The tiny island of Guam might seem like an unlikely contributor to political corruption in the United States, and any incident causes less of a stir in the country than federal or state matters. Guam is located 3,700 miles west of Hawaii, or three-quarters of the way to the Philippines, and is across the International Date Line. The 212-square-mile island was captured by the United States in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, lost to Japan in 1941 during World War II, and retaken in 1944 during the same war.

Important as a site of strategic military bases, Guam was previously under control the U.S. Naval Administration before the Guam Organic Act transferred administrative duties to the Department of the Interior. As a territory of the United States, the inhabitants of the island, made up mostly of the indigenous Chamorro population, have a government that can be viewed as either quasi-independent or lacking in certain rights. Guam residents were declared U.S. citizens in the Guam Organic Act, and they can vote in presidential primaries but not the election itself; later, a nonvoting delegate would be able to represent the island in the House of Representatives. Important to the case of Ricardo Jermone Bordallo, Guam's residents began electing their own governors in 1970, ending the practice of the presidential appointments to the office. Also important in Bordallo's history is the fact that the U.S. federal district court system can try cases related to Guam.

Bordallo was born in 1927 in Agana, the island's capital. He was attending high school when Japanese forces invaded in 1941, forcing the school to shut down. Following the war, Bordallo attended San Francisco University, but returned after three years to work for Bordallo Incorporated, the family business. Eventually, Bordallo came to own a successful automobile company and became involved in business pursuits in several fields, including tourism, finance, real estate, housing, and publishing. Less successful was an attempt to start a tourist resort in Chalan Pago/Yona during the 1970s. After two Japanese corporations pulled out of the deal, Bordallo was left owing millions in land investments.

When he was 24, Bordallo ran for a seat in the territorial legislature during the 1952 election. Although the minimum age to serve in the body was 25, he was able to argue that his campaign was still legitimate because he would be of age by the time he took office if he was elected. He was unsuccessful in that year, as well as 1954, but was elected in 1956. He was re-elected in the next seven contests.

Bordallo was a member of the Popular Party, and chaired the party for one year after it was reorganized as the Guam Democratic Party in 1960. In 1968, the Elective Governorship Act allowed Guam citizens to choose their own governors. The governor and lieutenant governor would run on the same ticket for a four-year term, and could serve two consecutive terms; after that, the ticket would have to sit out an election period before it would be allowed to run again. In 1970, the first year the new election took place, Bordallo was nominated to run with Richard Taitano, another legislator. However, the duo lost to the Republican ticket of Carlos Camacho, the appointed Governor, and running mate Kurt Moylan. However, the presence of two Republican contenders in 1974 allowed Bordallo and running mate Rudolph Sablan to assume office.

Bordallo was immediately confronted with economic problems from the oil embargo and a slump in tourism. Adding to the difficulties were super typhoon Pamela, which devastated the island in 1976, and the influx of some 100,000 refugees from the Vietnam War. These last two factors both served to heighten Bordallo's concern with the island's infrastructure; the refugees, using Guam as a staging area if not a permanent new home, represented a dramatic increase in population, which stood at about 85,000 in 1970. Following the typhoon, Bordallo managed to secure $367 million for recovery and infrastructure, which went toward transportation and sewer projects, constructing a hospital, and tourism developments at Tumon Bay. Despite these efforts, Bordallo lost the 1978 election, where he ran with Dr. Pedro Sanchez, an educator and historian.

Four years later, Bordallo was once again back in office after a successful bid with Edward Diego Reyes, an Air Force Colonel. In this term, Bordallo pushed for improved education, including the accreditation of the University of Guam. He also invested $1.2 million to create the Adelup administrative facility, which is now named in his honor. Bordallo was also a strong proponent of commonwealth status for Guam, which would increase the degree of self-government on the island. He helped draft the Guam Commonwealth Act in 1986; the document was presented to Congress in 1988, but ultimately drifted through the next eight years with no result.

In September of 1986, three days before the Democratic primary, Bordallo was dealt a blow when he was indicted on 11 criminal corruption charges, along with his assistant chief of staff. The Governor was charged with selling his influence in exchange for government contracts or approvals. Bordallo suggested that a Republican conspiracy was at work, but also that the investigation "reeks of colonialism and even racism." Expanding on the idea, he said, "When the United States Attorney decides to call together the grand jury to indict the leader of the territory on the eve of an election, it is a direct challenge to our people's right to govern themselves."

The indictment came too late to affect the primary, which Bordallo won. He asked that the trial on the charges be delayed until after the election, but the court refused and set a date for October, 13 days before the contest. The trial did end up getting pushed back, but not for a reason that favored Bordallo: further investigation was needed regarding a $300 million municipal bond issue. When November came, Bordallo lost to Joseph Ada and his running mate, Frank Blas.

Shortly after the defeat, a superseding indictment was handed down against Bordallo charging him with six additional criminal counts related to the bond issue. All told, he was accused of extortion, bribery, wire fraud, witness tampering, attempted extortion, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and conspiracy to commit extortion and bribery. The new charges were a result of a plea agreement by John D. Gilliam, Bordallo's economic adviser, who had provided evidence as part of his guilty plea to wire fraud. The bond, which aimed to support low-cost housing, was essentially backed by fake firms and con men and bilked Guamanians out of $14-20 million in tax dollars. Meanwhile, one of the banking firms in the project had sent $70,000 to support Bordallo's re-election campaign.

The other incidents alleged contributions to Bordallo's campaign in exchange for government favors. The largest involved $60,000, funneled through the owner of an engineering firm who supported Bordallo, for the approval of a scrap metal plant. There was also a $10,000 gift from a businessman, a contribution Bordallo acknowledged (perhaps accidentally) at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. In a third matter, the head of the Guam Telephone Authority, related to Bordallo by marriage, was charged with directing a $9,600 debt payment to a private telephone company to go to Bordallo's re-election fund. Finally, Bordallo was accused of awarding a government contract for a $103,000 project to another engineering firm on the condition that it hired his campaign manager.

In February of 1987, a jury found Bordallo not guilty of the charges related to the faulty bond. However, he was found guilty on 10 of the counts, charging bribery, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and witness tampering. He was sentenced to serve nine years in prison with five years of probation, pay a $35,000 fine, and pay the full $79,600 in corrupt campaign contributions as restitution.

Bordallo appealed the conviction, and won some reprieve. In August of 1988, his convictions on all but two of the counts were overturned after he challenged the jury selection, instructions to the jury, evidentiary hearings, and sufficiency of the evidence. The bribery charges were thrown out in part because the court determined that the statute used in the conviction specifically mentioned state officials and did not apply to Guam's territorial government. However, the court found that there was sufficient evidence to convict Bordallo on the conspiracy to obstruct justice and witness tampering charges, where the Governor had been accused of instructing a witness to lie to the grand jury.

Despite these troubles, Bordallo continued to do political work. He spearheaded a group of delegates attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention, where he said there was sympathy among the group for Jesse Jackson due to Jackson's support of self-determination for the United States territories. Bordallo also continued to push the commonwealth bill and speak against casino gambling in Guam.

Meanwhile, Bordallo continued his attempts to purge the last two charges against him, but without success. He was unable to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court. Though his 1988 appeal had succeeded in reducing his sentence, he was still facing four years in prison and was scheduled to depart for a federal prison in California on January 31, 1990.

Instead, Bordallo chose to emulate R. Budd Dwyer, who had chosen his own future just weeks before Bordallo's conviction in 1987. About three hours before his flight, the former Governor drove to a busy intersection in Agana. He chained himself to a statue of Kepuha (or Quipuha), the first indigenous chief to adopt Christianity. He also placed four placards around him, as well as Guam's flag (though some accounts say he wrapped himself in the banner). Bordallo then shot himself in the head with a .38-caliber revolver, dying soon after of massive brain trauma at a hospital. The placards contained different statements lamenting the loss of Chamorro control of the island and proclaiming Bordallo's own love for Guam. One read, "I regret that I only have one life to give to my island."

Bordallo's widow, Madeline, whom he had married in 1953, ran unsuccessfully for Governor in the same year of her husband's death. She was later elected Lieutenant Governor and currently serves as Guam's delegate to the House of Representatives.

Sources: The Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook, The Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs, The United States Census Bureau, "100,000th Refugee Is Honored" in the St. Petersburg Times on May 14 1975, "Guam Governor Indicted On Bribery Charges" in The Free-Lance Star on Sept. 3 1986, "Guam's Governor Indicted On Bribery Charges" in the Mohave Daily Miner on Sept. 3 1986, "Indicted Democrat Defeated In Bid To Be Guam Governor" in the New York Times on Nov. 7 1986, "Guam Lobbies Convention For Self-Rule Status" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jul. 21 1988, "Ex-Guam Governor Kills Himself On Eve of Jailing For Corruption" in the New York Times on Feb. 1 1990, "Governor Commits Suicide" in the Manila Standard on Feb. 1 1990, "Nation: Guam Governor Wins Re-Election" in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 6 1990, United States of America v. Ricardo Bordallo, Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam by Robert F. Rogers, "Governor Ricardo J. Bordallo" by Nicholas Quinata in Guampedia