Frank Boykin: conspiracy made for love

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When Frank William Boykin first ran afoul of the law, he sought help from someone who had foiled a scheme to collect money from a railroad for dead cows. Livestock was one of the many interests Boykin had speculated in to make his fortune, and he was known to run cattle across the Mobile and Ohio Railroad even when trains were approaching. Whenever a locomotive ran down the animals, he would file a damage claim. The railroad always shelled out the money until their new attorney, Harry Hardy Smith, decided it was worth it to contest the claims in court; moreover, Smith had been winning these cases.

So when Boykin became one of 117 people indicted in December of 1923 in what would become known as Alabama's "Whiskey Trials," he called Smith and asked him to be his lawyer.

The defendants in these trials were charged in widespread corruption to violate the Prohibition laws. Businessmen, sheriffs, police chiefs, and legislators were among those caught up in the probe. Since U.S. Attorney Aubrey Boyles had accused many of the defendants of trying to bribe him, a special prosecutor had to be brought in. Hugo Black, a Birmingham lawyer who later became a U.S. senator and Supreme Court justice, was selected for the job.

Boykin was first brought to trial in April of 1924. Black argued that Boykin had portrayed himself as someone with influence in President Warren G. Harding's administration, and that bootleggers paid him $5 a shipment for protection. There had been some correspondence between Boykin and Jesse Smith, a friend of Attorney General Harry Daugherty; Boykin had also written to Mel Daugherty, the Attorney General's brother. To gullible rum runners, the alleged influence was enough to justify the expense. However, Black was soon forced to drop the charges after the correspondence was ruled inadmissible.

Black was able to go after Boykin again in February of 1925 after securing new witnesses who could testify to other misbehavior. This time, two whiskey dealers said Boykin had helped import bootleg liquor into the United States. Another witness said Boykin had helped smuggle liquor from Mobile to Chicago inside pine tar barrels. Despite the testimony, a jury acquitted the defendant of violating the Prohibition and tariff laws.

Just one day later, Black brought Boykin up on charges of bribing a federal agent. Boyles was called to the stand and said that Andrew Mellon, an industrialist who had been appointed Secretary of the Treasury, had loaned $2 million to the Republican Party. The money was to be repaid through the protection fees put up by bootleggers, with Jesse Smith assigned to collect these funds from district attorneys and other law enforcement officials. Boyles said Boykin had offered him $100,000 a year for tips on upcoming federal raids against bootleggers, along with a car to make him appear more dignified. Instead, Boyles had informed the federal authorities about the corruption.

Testifying in his own defense, Boykin denied any wrongdoing other than occasionally purchasing liquor from the rum runners. He also said Boyles had been the one who tried to involve him in a protection racket. The jury was not convinced, finding him guilty after 22 hours of deliberation. Though he was sentenced to two years in prison, the conviction was overturned less than a year later by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This court declared the indictment "fatally defective" because it did not give enough information for Boykin to form a proper defense.

Boykin was born in Bladon Springs, Alabama, on February 21, 1885. Five years later, his family of sharecroppers moved to Fairford to change professions. Boykin began working as a clerk in his father's store, which served the railroad and nearby industrial towns; he later became the manager of this establishment. Boykin also dropped out of school at the age of eight to work as a water boy on the railroad, later claiming that he worked his way up to a train dispatcher and conductor.

In 1905, at the age of 20, Boykin became the co-owner of a company that manufactured railroad cross ties and turpentine. Ten years later, he moved to Mobile. His business interests expanded to farming, livestock, timber, real estate, and naval stores in southern Alabama. The revenue from these concerns made Boykin a millionaire. During the First World War, he served as an official in Alabama shipbuilding companies; he later asserted that his companies had been responsible for 52 percent of all vessels produced on the Gulf Coast during the conflict.

Some of Boykin's business deals were less than honest. In one scheme, he and a partner named John Everett hired Choctaw Indians to work shares of the land they had traditionally settled and owned. When these workers ran up debts at commissaries owned by the duo or were unable to pay their property taxes, Boykin and Everett acquired their ownership of the land in exchange for covering the expenses. When Everett died in 1927, Boykin managed to acquire the interest in his estate for only $8,800. The deal was approved by Boykin's brother, who happened to be a probate judge.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, even as Boykin served in elected government, he continued to build up his personal fortune. In 1930, he purchased most of Dauphin Island and organized the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo; in 1953, he sold the rights to this event to the Mobile Chamber of Commerce for almost $1 million. He established businesses such as the Tensaw Land and Timber Company overseeing some 100,000 acres of forest, a company to mine a salt dome found on his property, and a chemical production concern.

In 1934, Boykin ran for the House of Representatives to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John McDuffie, who had accepted a position on the U.S. District Court. The election had plenty of political maneuvering. McDuffie had been hostile to the New Deal, so President Franklin D. Roosevelt's appointment left room for a supporter to come in. Boykin was chosen by a group of Mobile businessmen and politicians who knew he would advocate for economic interests in the region. Critics pointed out how the candidate had been so apathetic about the electoral process that he hadn't cast a vote since 1920, forcing him to pay 14 back years of poll taxes just to vote for himself.

During the Democratic primary, Boykin faced two other opponents. No one earned a majority in the election, but the nomination went to Boykin when the candidate with the second highest vote count decided to drop out. There were suspicions that Boykin had paid him, off, but they were never investigated. He easily won the general election, since the Republicans did not field a candidate. When Representative Sam Hobbs died in 1952, Boykin became the longest serving member of the Alabama delegation.

Boykin was re-elected to the House 13 times, only seeking another office in 1946 when he unsuccessfully ran for a vacancy in the Senate caused by the death of John Bankhead II. He focused on promoting his district's attractions, securing federal monies for economic development projects, and inviting industries to set up shop in Alabama. Among the efforts he supported were the Bankhead Tunnel under the Mobile River, an expansion of the port of Mobile, and the establishment of an Air Force base which later became the Mobile airport. He opposed pro-labor legislation and took an isolationist stance in foreign affairs.

Many of Boykin's constituents recalled that he personally stood up for the people in his district. When a colorblind lawyer was rebuffed in his attempt to join the Navy during World War II, he traveled to the nation's capital to visit Boykin about the issue; the congressman took the lawyer to meet a Navy admiral the next day to persuade him to let the man join up.

As the civil rights activists became more vocal across the South, Boykin joined those opposing their efforts. He signed the Southern Manifesto, a declaration supported by 101 Southern congressmen to protest the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. However, Boykin never formally joined the conservative Dixiecrat movement and advocated for black constituents as well as white ones. A black community in Alabama was even named for him after he secured federal funding for it to supplement his own personal contributions.

Above all, Boykin was known for his folksy optimism. He suggested that a lighted cross could be placed at the rostrum of the Speaker of the House so that congressmen could remember the teachings of Jesus Christ and bicker less often. He occasionally hosted "harmony suppers" to promote cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. Boykin seemed to live by the motto "Everything is made for love," a phrase he frequently spoke or sang.

Despite his amiable nature, Boykin drew some criticism for his lackluster commitment to the duties of the office. He often missed votes, enough that he had the poorest attendance of the entire state delegation in the 1947-1948 congressional session. He sometimes pushed measures from which he stood to personally benefit, such as funding for a bridge to Dauphin Island. While other representatives or senators crafted bills designed to improve rural schools or secure better funding for public schools, Boykin never created legislation that would have a nationwide benefit. In almost 30 years of service in Congress, his only chairmanship was on the Committee on Patents between 1943 and 1947; this committee was deemed inconsequential enough that it was scrapped in a reorganization of the House in 1947.

Suspicions that Boykin's behavior may have passed into the realm of criminal malfeasance likely helped derail his chances at re-election in 1962. Three years earlier, a Miami-based savings and loan official named J. Kenneth Edlin had been indicted on mail fraud charges. Edlin pleaded no contest to the crime in December of 1961. He had previously been convicted of mail and securities fraud in 1944 and served four years in prison; this time, he spent five months behind bars. Soon after Edlin's new conviction, Boykin and another Democratic representative, Thomas F. Johnson of Maryland, were facing accusations that they had tried to get the Justice Department to delay Edlin's trial in exchange for special favors from him.

In an interview in January of 1962, Boykin said he had not acted unethically. He said he had suggested to President John F. Kennedy that Alan Shepard Jr., an astronaut who had become the first American to fly into space in May of 1961, should be granted a house in a Maryland development where both he and Edlin had an interest. Boykin said he had asked both Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Governor J. Millard Tawes of Maryland to delay Edlin's trial, but claimed he had only done so in hopes of concluding a business deal with Edlin.

The accusations came at a point when Boykin was particularly vulnerable at the ballot box. As a result of the 1960 census, Alabama had lost one of its seats in the House of Representatives. Since the state legislature couldn't agree how to redraw the new boundaries for the districts, a "9-8 plan" emerged. Under this plan, primaries were to be held in all districts for the 1962 election and a second race would be held for the nine winning candidates to compete for the eight available seats.

Though Boykin won his primary, he finished last among the nine other winners. His long career in Congress had come to an end. Though observers noted that the suspicions about his dealings with Edlin may have affected the race, they also pointed out that Boykin was the only incumbent who had faced a serious challenge for his primary.

In October of 1962, Boykin and Johnson were indicted on conspiracy and conflict of interest charges. Edlin and his attorney, William L. Robinson, were also indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government. The charges were handed down just two days before "Frank Boykin Day," a celebration scheduled by Mobile businessmen to honor Boykin's contributions to the local economy. In a sign of how little the accusations affected his popularity, the event took place as scheduled.

The basic allegation was that Edlin had made illegal payments to Boykin and Johnson in exchange for their efforts to get the Justice Department to dismiss Edlin's mail fraud charges. The money had been paid through four concerns controlled by Edlin: the First Colony Savings and Loan, First Continental Savings and Loan, Charles County Land Company, and Leisure City Land Company.

Boykin and Johnson both said the payments had been compensation for above board work. Boykin had received a $250,000 cashier's check, which his lawyers contended was a down payment for a mortgage on land owned by Boykin in Maryland and Virginia. Boykin had purchased 8,000 acres in Maryland and 5,000 acres in Virginia during the 1950s, selling the Maryland land to a development firm in 1958 for $6 million. When this firm began to struggle to make payments on the land, Johnson introduced Edlin to Boykin. Edlin offered to pay $9 million, with the $250,000 deposit made on two land tracts.

Johnson told investigators that Edlin had promised him $25,000 for services related to the land purchase, such as legal services for Edlin's savings and loan companies and title searches for his land companies. He said he had only received $14,000 for this work, though the indictment charged that he had actually been paid $17,550. Prosecutors said that the funds were not only meant to be compensation for Johnson's efforts to intercede with the Justice Department, but also to make a speech on the floor of the House defending savings and loan firms. Edlin had run off 50,000 copies of the speech.

The trial began on April 1, 1963. Boykin, Edlin, Johnson, and Robinson were all tried together and the proceedings would drag on for 11 weeks. The prosecution charged that Boykin and Johnson had personally visited the Justice Department on 11 separate occasions, with another 52 entreaties made by phone or mail. In one letter to Robert F. Kennedy, Boykin included 100 pounds of pecans for the Attorney General's children.

Louis D. Goldman, a Miami lawyer under indictment in a separate case who had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, testified about incriminating statements he heard Boykin make. On one occasion, he said that Boykin told Edlin, "You get through this deal and don't worry about your personal problem. I'll take care of it." Goldman also claimed that Boykin had boasted about his personal connections with the Kennedys, declaring, "If Bobby is not going to do anything, I'll get Joe to talk to him."

RFK himself took the stand in what was thought to be the first courtroom appearance by an Attorney General since Levi Lincoln appeared in the arguments for the famous Marbury v. Madison Supreme Court case. RFK recalled that during a meeting with Boykin and Johnson in March of 1961, Johnson said the failure of the planned development would harm the Maryland economy and asked that the charges against Edlin be dropped.

Johnson himself conducted the cross-examination of the Attorney General. RFK admitted that congressmen often visited him to make requests on various matters. He drew a laugh from the court when he pointed out that few members of Congress had been in to see him since the indictments. Though he admitted that there had been nothing overtly improper about the requests by Boykin and Johnson, RFK maintained that they had been trying to pressure him to drop the case. "Congressman, can you tell my why you were so anxious to come and discuss it if you did not want us to dismiss it?" he asked.

Boykin took the stand in his own defense, claiming he had only gone to see the Attorney General to review the circumstances of Edlin's indictment. He also suggested that he wanted to help prosecutors get information on labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, who would be convicted of charges related to organized crime in 1964 and famously disappear in 1975. On several occasions, the 78-year-old Boykin complained that he was having trouble hearing the questions directed at him. One prosecutor later recalled that the deafness seemed to be selective, as Boykin raced from across the courtroom to congratulate him after he announced that his wife had just given birth.

Prosecutors grilled Boykin on the circumstances of his land deal with Edlin, particularly the differences between his grand jury testimony and trial testimony. In one letter, Edlin said he would be willing to give 15 percent of sales proceeds to Boykin; the congressman stood to make a huge profit on the deal. Boykin's lawyers maintained that it was a simple business transaction, with no special treatment expected in return for a sale. The prosecution countered a defense assertion that the land had been appraised at $11.3 million with testimony from another appraiser, who said the land was only worth $4 million. The insinuation was that Edlin was offering Boykin a generous deal in exchange for his help in making the criminal charges disappear.

After only three-and-a-half hours of deliberation, the jury found all four men guilty. They were sentenced in October of 1963, with Boykin receiving a suspended six-month sentence, six months of probation, and a $40,000 fine. Edlin was ordered to spend a year in prison and pay a $16,000 fine, while Robinson was given six months of imprisonment.

Johnson had been indicted just three weeks before the 1962 election, and the charges no doubt contributed to his loss to Republican candidate Rogers C.B. Morton. In his correspondence, an angered Boykin accused U.S. Attorney Joseph Tydings of trying to sabotage Johnson's campaign and said his own conviction was a result of vindictive black members of the grand jury and trial jury (though 10 of the jurors in the trial were white). Johnson appealed his sentence of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine and had it reversed on the argument that the speech he gave in the House could not be used as grounds for his indictment. However, he was convicted on retrial in 1968 and ultimately served three-and-a-half months of his sentence.

Following the trial, Boykin returned to his business activities. He remained a popular figure, and 37 members of Congress (mostly from the South) soon petitioned President Lyndon B. Johnson asking him to pardon Boykin. Johnson granted the request on December 17, 1965, issuing a full pardon for the former congressmen.

Curiously, RFK also supported a pardon for Boykin. In fact, this action was one of three favors he requested from the White House following his resignation as Attorney General in 1964. It may have been because Boykin had been a strong supporter of JFK's 1960 presidential bid, or because the former congressman was good friends with RFK's father.

Boykin died on congestive heart failure in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 1969.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Encyclopedia of Alabama, "Sheriff, Chief and Lawmakers Among Arrests" in the Miami News-Metropolis on Dec. 23 1923, "Says Mellon Was Paid By Rum Men" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Apr. 29 1926, "Police Chief Hoover Commands Respect of American People" in the St. Petersburg Times on May 28 1949, "A Salute to Justice Black" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jun. 6 1952, "Publicity Surprises Rep. Frank Boykin" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jan. 16 1962, "Rep. Boykin is Defeated For Re-Election" in the Free Lance-Star on May 31 1962, "Reps. Johnson, Boykin Indicted by U.S. Jury" in the Palm Beach Post on Oct. 17 1962, "Heard Boykin Promise Help, Miamian Says" in the Tuscaloosa News on Apr. 16 1963, "Robert Kennedy Testifies Against Former Congressmen" in the Toledo Blade on Apr. 18 1963, "Edlin Named as Figure in Payments" in the Times Daily on May 24 1963, "Boykin Denies Miami Fraud Case Payoff" in the Sarasota Journal on Jun. 5 1963, "Boykin-Johnson Case Gets Closer to Jury" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jun. 6 1963, "Two Former Congressmen Found Guilty" in the Toledo Blade on Jun. 14 1963, "Arguments Set for Monday in Boykin Trial" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jun. 8 1963, "Ex-Congressmen Sentenced" in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 8 1963, "Bills Proposed to Repay Former Rep. Frank Boykin" in the St. Petersburg Times on May 19 1967, "Ex-Lawmaker Found Guilty" in the Toledo Blade on Jan. 27 1968, "Frank Boykin Dead at Age 84" in the Tuscaloosa News on Mar. 12 1969, "Legislator Can't Be Prosecuted For Actions" in The Dispatch on Oct. 10 1970, "Thomas Johnson, 78; Lost Post in Congress" in the New York Times on Feb. 3 1988, "Frank Boykin: The Politician" in the Huntsville Times on Dec. 17 2001, "Teflon Tycoon" in the Huntsville Times on Dec. 19 2001

Charles Christopher Sheats: wearing the Union label

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When several southern states broke off from the United States after President Abraham Lincoln's election, the support for forming a new nation in the South was far from uniform. Charles Christopher Sheats, one of the most prominent "scalawags" of the Civil War, would never lend his support to secession. His stance made him an enemy of the Confederacy, but ensured him a political future when the Union triumphed in the conflict.

Sheats was born in Walker County, Alabama, on April 10, 1839. He was raised on a farm and attended the public schools, thought he spent time at Somerville Academy in Morgan County. At the age of 18, he became a local schoolteacher.

The secession crisis erupted just a few years into Sheats' teaching career. Winston County was a poor region, with most residents working subsistence agriculture. Few people were wealthy enough to own slaves, and the idea of breaking away from the United States proved unpalatable. When the state held a secession convention in 1860, Sheats easily defeated pro-secession planter Andrew Kaieser in a 515 to 128 vote.

The first vote at a convention in Montgomery was 53-46 against immediate secession. Sheats sided with the "cooperationists," who argued that secession shouldn't take place without giving Lincoln's policies a try and that it should only occur if approved at a popular vote. But increasing tensions and the secession of more states prompted Alabama to take another vote. On January 11, 1861, the convention voted 61-39 in favor of secession. Sheats not only opposed secession on the second vote, but refused to sign the ordinance of secession adopted at the convention.

Sheats would soon grow bolder, leading the opposition to the Confederacy in Winston County. After the CSA went to war with the Union, an anti-secessionist rally was held at Looney's Tavern. The date given for the rally was the symbolic day of July 4, 1861, though other scholars suggest the meeting may have been held as late as the early months of 1862. Sheats was the lead speaker at this rally, which ultimately passed three resolutions. One praised Sheats for his actions at the secession convention. Another denied that a state had the ability to secede, but proclaimed that a county could break away from its state if secession was recognized. The last resolution declared Winston County to be neutral in the conflict. The claims, particularly the second one, earned the region the nickname "Free State of Winston County," although it never formally seceded from Alabama.

Winston County was not without its pro-Confederate residents, who angrily called for Unionists like Sheats to be jailed. But Sheats remained a popular figure, and in 1861 he was elected to the Alabama state house of representatives. He never attended a session. Since representatives had to sign an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy to serve, Sheats opted to stay at home rather than pledge support for the secessionist government.

In 1862, amid increasing concerns that his Unionist statements would lead to his arrest, Sheats fled to the mountains of Morgan County in northern Alabama. This was a common refuge for Unionists who were seeking to avoid conscription into the Confederate military. Soon after Sheats arrived, Colonel Abel Streight led a contingent of Union soldiers into the area. Streight knew about the Unionist sentiment among the refugees, and he was looking for men who would fight for the Union.

Sheats was eager to help, encouraging others to join the Union Army. In one stirring speech, he declared, "Tomorrow morning I am going to the Union Army. I am going to expose this fiendish villainy before the world." He vowed to fight CSA "to hell and back" and said he would "stay here no longer till I am enabled to dwell in quiet at home."

A bad leg would prevent Sheats from ever joining the Union military, but he helped to get at least 150 men to go north. Then, in the autumn, Confederate troops arrested Sheats on the order of Governor John G. Shorter. Shorter accused Sheats of "having communications with the enemy, giving them aid and comfort, and inducing citizens of this state to enlist as soldiers in the army of the United States." The arrest prompted the legislature to expel Sheats in a 69-4 vote, but Winston County remained Unionist. Their choice to succeed Sheats was Zachariah White, a man who had also made pro-Union speeches, helped people join Union army, and proclaimed that he would have fought for the Union if he was younger.

Indicted on a charge of treason, Sheats was unable to get a trial and was transferred to prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. He was later returned to the Madison County jail before his release. However, he was again arrested in the middle of 1863 for his active role in the Peace Society, an organization urging Alabama to surrender to the Union. This time, Sheats would stay in jail until the Confederacy's surrender.

Sheats' consistent opposition to the Confederacy would save his political future. Having never sworn allegiance to the CSA, he was never subject to the postwar restrictions on holding office. He was an unsuccessful candidate, among four other Unionists, for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1864. A year later, he was elected to the Alabama constitutional convention. He turned his focus from education to the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867 before starting a practice in Decatur.

Sheats was also a Republican elector in 1868 and 1872, the years Ulysses S. Grant ran for President. Grant rewarded him after his 1868 election by appointing him to be consul at Elsinore, Denmark, on May 31, 1869. Sheats remained in this role until 1872, when he was elected to the House. He served one term before he was defeated in the 1874 election.

Sheats was appointed appraiser of merchandise for the port of Mobile, and also served as the state's assistant collector of internal revenue. He held a few other minor offices and maintained a farm in his later years. He died in Decatur on May 27, 1904.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Encyclopedia of Alabama, Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama in the Civil War by Ben H. Severance, Congressional Directory of the Forty-Third Congress by Ben Perley Poore, Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical, Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. and the South's Fight over Civil Rights by Jack Bass

Thomas Heflin: even bad men love their mommas

Photo credit: bioguide.congress.gov

"Cotton Tom" Heflin had a curious pair of choices in what he considered to be his accomplishments while a member of Congress. He was especially proud of his role in the establishment of Mother's Day. He also looked back fondly on the time he shot a black man during a confrontation on a Washington, D.C. streetcar.

James Thomas Heflin was born in Louina, Alabama, in April of 1869. After attending Southern University in Greensboro and Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, later named for its host city of Auburn, Heflin began studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and began practicing in Lafayette. His first entry into politics came in 1893, when he served for a year as the community's mayor.

Heflin continued a steady progression from local politics into state level positions. He served as register in chancery from 1894 to 1896, when he resigned to become a member of the state house of representatives; he held a seat there until 1900. One of his first overtly white supremacist acts came in 1901 when he was a member of the state constitutional convention. Heflin helped draft legislation in the document aimed at barring African-Americans from voting.

In 1902, Heflin began serving as Alabama's secretary of state. He resigned in 1904, halfway through his term, to run in a special election called to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Representative Charles W. Thompson. Heflin won both this election and the year's general election and served in the House of Representatives for the next seven Congresses. He earned his nickname through a persistent advocacy for more favorable cotton prices, while also recommending an expansion of rural mail routes and railroad regulation.

The shooting incident had its roots in Heflin's proposal in February of 1908 to bring Jim Crow laws to D.C. streetcars, arguing that segregation of public transportation had proved successful in Alabama. The proposal was voted down by the House, and earned Heflin plenty of criticism. One person, writing a letter to him, suggested that Heflin's morals should encourage him to stand to give up his seat to a black woman on the streetcar. Many other writers threatened him with death. In response, Heflin applied for permission to carry a pistol in public.

A month later, Heflin was riding on a streetcar with Rep. Edwin J. Ellerbe of South Carolina on his way to deliver a temperance lecture. The exact circumstances of the incident are unclear, as contemporary reports give several versions of what happened. They all agree, however, that Heflin was offended by a black passenger who was cursing and drinking from a bottle of whiskey while a woman sat nearby. When Heflin asked the passenger, Louis Lundy, to stop, Lundy shouted insults back at him. A scuffle erupted on the streetcar as it pulled up to a station in front of the St. James Hotel, and Heflin threw Lundy onto the platform.

The reports on what happened next varied widely. One version suggested that Heflin had struck Lundy in the head with his pistol, accounting for the wound there, and then fired warning shots at his feet. Another said Heflin shot Lundy in the neck or a grazing wound above the ear. In any case, Heflin thought Lundy was reaching for a razor and opened fire at the streetcar platform as several bystanders milled about. One round ricocheted and hit Thomas McCreary, a horse trainer, in the leg. It was described as a minor wound, but the New York Times later claimed that complications stemming from the injury put McCreary in the hospital for six weeks and nearly took his life.

Arrested on a charge of assault to kill, Heflin was kept in a police captain's office rather than a cell before making a $5,000 bail. Upon his return to Congress, he was thronged by like-minded representatives who congratulated him; several telegrams also poured in, praising him for his action. Yet some Southern newspapers criticized him for turning what they saw as a relatively minor annoyance into a violent episode, saying it was a foolish kneejerk reaction based on little more than racist sentiment. Heflin defended his action. "Under the circumstances there was nothing more for me to do," he said. "I am glad to say I have not yet reached the point where I will see a Negro, or a white man either, take a drink in the presence of a lady without saying something to him. I did only what any other gentleman placed in similar circumstances would have done."

Heflin even threatened to press a case against Lundy for carrying a weapon on a streetcar. Indeed, Lundy was a repeat offender with 12 arrests on record between 1905 and 1907, with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to grand larceny. Yet Heflin's threat was somewhat hypocritical. Despite his claim that he had been cleared to carry a pistol, the D.C. police wouldn't confirm the permission to the New York Times and the newspaper's search of police records found no such authorization.

Prosecutors ultimately decided to indict Heflin on three counts of assault. However, the indictment was quashed when Lundy failed to show up in the court appearance. Soon after, Lundy sued Heflin and demanded $20,000 in damages. While this suit apparently never amounted to anything, Heflin did agree to pay for McCreary's medical expenses.

Heflin was not quite done with public scuffles. In August of 1909, he and another congressman were nearly hit by a speeding car. Heflin chased down the vehicle and took the plate number. When the driver asked what he was doing, the two exchanged insults and then blows. Unlike the shooting, no charges were filed in this fight.

Heflin was especially proud of his role in establishing the legislation which would lead to the declaration of the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. The idea had been championed by Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, and in 1914 Heflin introduced the House resolution on the holiday; it would later be approved by President Woodrow Wilson. Yet Heflin was also a noted opponent of women's suffrage, with women's groups in Alabama vowing to fight his re-election after he said he thought a woman's place was in the home.

Aside from his role in Mother's Day, Heflin's congressional career was marked largely by bombast. His loud speeches and dress, which typically including a frock coat and 10-gallon hat, made him a favorite to spectators in the Capitol. In September of 1914, he claimed that the votes and proposals of 13 to 14 members of the House indicated that they were being influenced by a German slush fund. In October of 1917, an investigating committee determined that the accusation was false.

It was far from the last unfounded accusation Heflin would make. He constantly blustered about conspiracies or made spirited accusations, denouncing everything from another candidate's supposedly soft stance on Communism to the presidential handshake policy. He later developed a central theme of supporting Prohibition and opposing Catholicism. Critics said Heflin's remarks were making an embarrassment of Alabama and Congress; the New York Times noted in 1927 that his anti-Catholic remarks had "become almost a habit" and that a fellow member had denounced his remarks as those of an "ill-mannered fellow."

Yet the electorate continued to like Heflin enough to return him to office again and again. In November of 1920, he was elected to the Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the death of John H. Bankhead. He was re-elected in the regular election of 1924.

Heflin's fall from grace came in 1928. The Democrats chose Governor Al Smith of New York, a Catholic, as their presidential candidate. Accusing Smith and Catholics in general as conspiring to overthrow the United States, Heflin broke ranks and publicly supported Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover. "Alabama isn't going for Al Smith. Neither is any other southern state, except possibly Louisiana," Heflin declared in January of the election year. "He is a Tammanyite, wringing wet and a Roman Catholic. I would vote against him for all three reasons."

The remarks against Smith earned Heflin plenty of denunciation. The state's newspapers and Democratic leaders accused him of being little more than a mouthpiece for the Ku Klux Klan. When he made a speech against Smith at an Alabama high school the day before the election, protesters threw eggs at him. In one appearance before a Massachusetts KKK group in 1929, Heflin was pelted with stones and a quart bottle.

The "Yellow Dog Democrats" organized a campaign against Heflin. Although there are other stories related to the origin of the name, it generally referred to Southerners who would support the Democratic Party in any case. The phrase "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket" surfaced in response to Heflin's support of Hoover.

Alabama Democrats had their revenge shortly after Smith's unsuccessful run for the White House. Party leaders made an amendment to the qualifications for 1930 candidates, requiring them to swear an oath that they had not openly opposed any Democratic candidates in 1928. Heflin organized the Jeffersonian Democratic Party in an attempt to retain his seat, but his biases continued to undermine him. Prior to the election, he made a number of baseless accusations in a prolonged rant. They included charges that a slush fund overseen by Tammany Hall and the Catholics had been at work in forcing him out, that Catholics dominated the press, that some of the members changing the party rules had been drunk while doing so, that prior presidents had vetoed immigration bills so more Catholics could flood into the country, and that national Democratic Party chairman John J. Raskob was in bed with the Catholics. "He is the chamberlain to the Pope," Heflin proclaimed. "No doubt he is now in the royal chamber discussing plans."

Voters dealt Heflin a resounding defeat at the polls, where he fell by 50,000 votes to Democratic candidate John Bankhead II. Nevertheless, Heflin kept up his charges of fraud and corruption and challenged the result. The Alabama house of representatives, by now weary of Heflin's antics, passed a resolution in January of 1931 criticizing him for "very poor sportsmanship" and skewering his record in general, saying it "made Alabama the laughing stock of the Union by his bigotry, lack of religious tolerance, and the lack of many of the courtesies generally expected between one gentleman and another."

But the Senate still took up the challenge, and in March of 1932 the Senate Election Committee voted along party lines to vacate Bankhead's seat and open it up to appointment. The committee felt there had been a widespread violation of election laws, including an illegal primary. In April, Heflin appeared before the Senate to ask for Bankhead's ouster and said there had been expenditures of over $1 million in the 1930 election. The same month, however, the full Senate voted 64-18 to reject Heflin's appeal.

By this time, Heflin had also earned rebuke for a letter he had submitted to the Congressional Record criticizing New York's legalization of interracial marriage. Critics said the letter would harm Alabama businesses at a particularly inopportune time, since the Great Depression had been burdening the country for several years. Grover Cleveland Hall, writing an editorial for the Montgomery Advertiser, blasted Heflin as "a bully by nature, a mountebank by instinct, a Senator by choice...Thus this preposterous blob excites our pity if not our respect, and we leave him to his conscience in order that he may be entirely alone and meditate over the life of a charlatan whose personal interest and personal vanity are always of paramount concern to him."

The unsuccessful challenge to the 1930 election results ultimately led Heflin to seek reconciliation with the Democrats. In October of 1932, he offered to campaign on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Three years later, he was appointed a special representative of the Federal Housing Administration. He left in 1936 to serve a year as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in Alabama, a position he held in 1937. Heflin again became a special representative of the Federal Housing Administration between 1939 and 1942.

Following his retirement, Heflin died in Lafayette in April of 1951.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Encyclopedia of Alabama, "'Jim Crow' Cars Denied by Congress" in the New York Times on Feb. 23 1908, "Congressman Shot Negro in Street Car" in the New York Times on Mar. 28 1908, "2 Negros Shot By Congressman" in the Newburgh Daily Journal on Mar. 28 1908, "Praise Congressman Who Shot a Negro" in the New York Times on Mar. 29 1908, "Heflin Sued by Negro" in the New York Times on Apr. 5 1908, "Topics of the Times" in the New York Times on Apr. 5 1908, "Heflin, M.C., Fights a Reckless Motorist" in the New York Times on Aug. 5 1909, "Heflin Pays for Shooting" in the New York Times on Apr. 30 1908, "Women to Oppose Heflin" in the New York Times on Feb. 13 1913, "Charges Fail" in the Gettysburg Times on Oct. 6 1917, "Rebuke Senator For Abusing Other Solon" in the Evening News on Feb. 3 1923, "Heflin is Silenced in Church Attack" in the New York Times on Feb. 19 1927, "Heflin Renews His Attack on Church and Gov. Smith" in the Evening Independent on Jan. 24 1928, "Heflin Centre of Egg Shower in Alabama" in the Providence News on Nov. 7 1928, "Heflin is 'Missed'" in the Pittsburgh Press on Mar. 19 1929, "Heflin Assails Press, Church" in the Pittsburgh Press on Apr. 22 1930, "Legislature Flays Heflin" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jan. 30 1931, "Heflin Wins Ouster Point" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Mar. 5 1932, "Heflin Tells Senate 'Leads' Indicate More Than a Million Spent" in the Evening Independent on Apr. 27 1932, "Senate Refuses To Oust Bankhead, 64 to 18" in the New York Times on Apr. 29 1932, "Heflin Proffers Service to Party" in the Lewiston Morning Tribune on Oct. 16 1932, "J. Thomas Heflin, Former Senator From Alabama, Dies" in the News and Courier on Apr. 23 1951, "The Bum Who Fathered Mother's Day" in the New York Times on May 8 1994, Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took On the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama by Wayne Greenhaw, Encyclopedia of the United States Congress by Robert E. Dewhirst and John David Rausch

Melba Till Allen: We are not amused

Image from the Tuscaloosa News

Working to root out corruption at the state level early in her career, Melba Till Allen is credited with helping win adoption of a ethics law for Alabama in 1973. Five years later, she and her lawyers were scrambling to show that the law was unconstitutional in order to keep her out of jail.

The daughter of a farmer, Allen was born in March of 1933 in Friendship Community, Alabama. She lived in Hope Hull and Grady before marrying in December of 1950, at the age of 17, to Marvin E. Allen. From a young age she had dreamed of achieving political office, and finally did so in 1966. That year, she was elected state auditor on the Democratic ticket. It was a banner year for women in Alabama politics; Hull replaced Republican Alice Hudson, and five other women were also elected to high office. Hull held the job from 1967 to 1975, and became known as a crusader against state employees with padded expense accounts. It earned her the nickname "Melba 'Watching the Till' Allen."

Allen's first high-profile scuffle came in the years of 1969 and 1970. After Allen made allegations of violations of law in some contracts and purchases at the state docks in Mobile, Governor Albert Brewer ordered an investigation into the matter. The two were soon at loggerheads over the issue. When the governor's probe cleared docks director Houston Feaster of any wrongdoing, Allen accused him of incompetence. "I doubt the competence of his investigators. I believe they were deliberately trying to whitewash the situation or just doing a poor job," she said. Events continued to seesaw in favor of Allen's contentions and against. Brewer fired Feaster in July of 1970 after he failed to appear before a grand jury, reasoning that it was his right as a private citizen but conflicted with the gubernatorial administration. When the grand jury also cleared Feaster, however, Brewer had harsh words for Allen: "We have reached a sad state of affairs when an an elected official, for political expediency, will engage in character assassination and even attack a grand jury and court." Allen contended that the grand jury had been pressured into an early decision. Finally, in January of 1972, Feaster was convicted of one count of tax evasion charging $14,000 in under-reported income in 1966. The trial included testimony by Marvin Massengale, who testified under immunity and said his firm received $93,000 in kickbacks for construction projects at the docks. Though Feaster was accused of seven other counts of tax evasion charging failure to pay taxes on ill-gotten gains between 1965 and 1968, he was acquitted of all of them.

In the midst of these events, Allen announced that she would be running for the Senate. In December of 1971, she said she would be a candidate in 1972, declaring, "I believe that I could better serve my fellow Alabamians in this capacity." Commenting on the decision, Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily staff reporter Mel Newman wrote, "Despite the imposing sound of her title and its constitutional prerogatives, the state auditor has been left without great power to ferret out mishandling of public funds, by lack of support from the governor's office, the legislature, and the general public." However, he said, Allen"can be expected to keep the contest a lively one." She kept the promise, but fell short in the primary. She began serving as state treasurer in 1975, and in April of 1977 said she intended to run for governor in the next year's election.

Five months later, the Birmingham News began printing a series of articles accusing Allen of failing to report to the State Ethics Commission a series of loans in 1975 and 1976. These loans were meant to finance the construction of Stars Over Alabama, an amusement park in northern Alabama which never got off the ground; the site itself was destroyed in a suspicious 1977 fire. The newspaper said a number of loans also aimed to boost other, mostly personal business ventures. By law, the state funds (as much as $550 million) had to be deposited in the 300 banks in Alabama; bankers were willing to play along with Allen, realizing they could get the state as a customer if they made personal loans to Allen. In the end, Allen had taken a total of $2.9 million from 58 banks. These included $400,000 in land investments, $378,000 to expand her husband's trucking business, $281,000 for Stars Over Alabama, $75,000 for a movie distribution company, and $14,165 in a wicker distribution company run by her two children. The loans, or rather Allen's failure to report them, attracted the attention of the State Ethics Commission as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and Federal Deposit Insurance Company. The Montgomery County district attorney, Jimmy Evans, said investigators would probe the allegations against Allen and her assistant.

Allen denied any wrongdoing, saying, "My only mistake has been in putting too much trust in some of my business friends." Her tactic was clearly that the best defense was a good offense. She asked state and federal attorneys to look into whether elements in organized crime were trying to discredit her. She also criticized the February 1978 arrest of her financial adviser and University of Tennessee at Nashville professor John Byron Pennington, who was caught in a sting operation while trying to buy information on grand jury proceedings against her. Allen found out what the grand jury had been doing soon enough. The next month, she was indicted on four counts. These charged her with soliciting or accepting the use of an airplane from Florida financier E.A. Gregory (who was associated with one of the Alabama banks during the time of the alleged offenses); two counts of depositing state funds in the American Bank of Geneva in exchange for loans; and demanding a fee, reward, or compensation from the bank for depositing money. One month later, she was indicted again on a charge of violating the State Ethics Act by failing to disclose her banking activity to the State Ethics Commission, reporting only 12 of 36 loans. Allen pleaded innocent to all counts, declaring she would "fight for what is right. I will never give up." She also announced that she wanted to avoid a "trial by newspapers" and that she still intended to run for governor later in the year.

At her trial in May, one banker testified that Allen deposited $100,000 in their institution. In return, Allen borrowed $175,000 and granted the banker 10,000 shares in Stars Over Alabama stock. Another banker said Allen deposited $775,000 in state funds after he granted a $50,000 loan. The defense tried to throw the case out by arguing that the 1973 ethics law was unconstitutional, but when that failed they could only rely on a string of character witnesses, including Governor George Wallace. After only 45 minutes, the jury found Allen guilty of two counts of using her office to gain loans, a violation of the State Ethics Act. She was the first person convicted in Alabama under the law.

In June of 1978, Allen was sentenced to three years in prison. Her attorneys argued that no one in the state lost money by her actions, and that Alabama had made a net gain due to her cost-saving measures. When asked if she had anything to say, she responded, "So help me God, I am not guilty." A new element was thrown into the mix when a legal argument came up regarding her status as treasurer. Though state law declared that public officials sentenced to prison or hard labor automatically forfeited their office, it was unclear whether it applied to the treasurer since that position and other constitutional officers were normally removed by impeachment. Her attorneys vowed that Allen would stay firmly seated in the treasurer's chair until the issue was cleared up.

In response, the state supreme court returned a decision almost immediately saying that the law was different from an impeachment process, and that Allen was out of the job. Governor Wallace replaced her with Annie Laurie Gunter, director of the State Office of Consumer Protection, to fill the remainder of her term. Meanwhile, Allen tried for a new trial, alleging that one juror said several months before the trial that he thought the treasurer guilty based on news accounts. Right on the heels of the first trial, Allen returned to court on the second indictment. She was quickly convicted and sentenced to serve a year, concurrent with the three-year sentence already pending. The judge also dismissed the remaining counts against her. At the latest sentence, she again proclaimed innocence, saying, "I am absolutely not guilty."

Allen kept up a dogged resistance. In August of 1978, she held a press conference to allege that there had been a conspiracy to oust her from office and asked state attorney general Bill Baxley to investigate while both convictions went to trial. She remained free in February of 1979 and proclaimed, "I know I serve the same God Daniel did and God saved him in the lion's den. I will take whatever I have to take." In March of 1980, an attempt to pardon her died in the state house of representatives' rules committee. Seven months later, Allen had won some stays in the execution of her sentence, but had reached the end of the line with the United States Supreme Court's refusal to hear her appeal. The same month, a circuit court judge finally ordered her to serve six months of the sentence. The judge, Perry Hooper, thought she had suffered enough "humiliation and embarrassment" and felt that the county jail was a more fitting lockup than the state penitentiary. Hooper said Allen had led an exemplary life prior to conviction and was "pulled from the pinnacle of political success" with the conviction. The remaining two and a half years were to be served as probation.

Allen finally began her term of incarceration in November of 1980. The reduced time, along with other perks, led to some editorials charging that her station had helped to get her more leniency than would otherwise be found in similar cases. Allen was not only allowed to visit her family for Thanksgiving, but spent the remainder of her prison term after that time working as a bookkeeper at a retirement home under the supervision of a nun.

In January of 1986, Allen again entered the political fray by putting her name up for consideration in the lieutenant governor's race. She had to again argue that she had been wrongly convicted, and mustered less than 2,000 votes at the June primary. The next April, she opened The Little Red Hen Restaurant in Wadsworth. Allen died of cancer in Montgomery in October of 1989.

Sources: The Political Graveyard, "The Petticoat's Place in Alabama Politics Assured" in the Sumter Daily Item on Nov. 17 1966, "Brewer Orders Probe of Docks" in the Tuscaloosa News on Feb. 13 1969, "Docks Probe Called Whitewash" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jun. 17 1969, "Ala.'s Dock Director is Fired" in the Ocala Star-Banner on Jul. 27 1970, "Brewer Charges State Auditor With 'Witch Hunt' at State Docks" in the Gadsden Times on Aug. 1 1970, "Reporter's Notebook" in the Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily on Dec. 5 1971, "In Alabama" in the Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily on Dec. 6 1971, "Feaster Denied A New Trial" in the Tuscaloosa News on Apr. 19 1972, "Allen Has Eye on the Governorship" in the Tuscaloosa News on Apr. 21 1977, "Melba Till Allen Denies Charges" in the Tuscaloosa News on Sep. 24 1977, "Melba Till Allen Challenges Reports" in the Tuscaloosa News on Oct. 17 1977, "Ethics Probe on Allen" in the Tuscaloosa News on Oct. 22 1977, "Allen Says Crime Tied to Probes" in the Tuscaloosa News on Dec. 1 1977, "DA To Probe Allen Affair" in the Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily on Dec. 9 1977, "Mrs. Allen Raps Arrest" in the Tuscaloosa News on Feb. 24 1978, "Melba Till Pleads Innocent" in the Gadsden Times on Mar. 30 1978, "Mrs. Allen is Indicted a Fifth Time" in the Tuscaloosa News on Apr. 12 1978, "Mrs. Allen is Candidate for Governor" in the Tuscaloosa News on Apr. 30 1978, "Melba Convicted on Two Counts" in the Gadsden Times on May 25 1978, "Melba Till Fights Ouster From Job" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jun. 9 1978, "Nation: Too Much Trust" in Time on Jun. 11 1978, "Alabama Treasurer Lost Her Job On Conviction" in the Lewiston Evening Journal on Jun. 10 1978, "Mrs. Allen Loses Bid For New Trial" in the Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily on Jun. 11 1978, "Governor Wallace Replaces Melba Till As State Treasurer" in the Gadsden Times on Jun. 13 1978, "Melba Till Sentenced to One Year" in the Gadsden Times on Jun. 28 1978, "Conspiracy is Charged" in the Tuscaloosa News on Aug. 25 1978, "Melba Till Allen Faces Jail" in the Tuscaloosa News on Feb. 22 1980, "Allen Pardon Proposal Dies in House Committee" in the Florence Times and Tri-Cities Daily on Mar. 20 1980, "No Hearing, Melba Till Told" in the Gadsden Times on Oct. 7 1980, "Melba Till Gets 6 Months in Jail" in the Tuscaloosa News on Oct. 29 1980, "Melba Till Allen Goes to Jail" in the Gadsden Times on Nov. 3 1980, "Justice: Holiday at Home For Some" in the Tuscaloosa News on Nov. 30 1980, "Melba Till Allen Kicks Off Her Political Drive" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jan. 5 1986, "Official Vote Tally Reflects Only 'Minor' Changes" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jun. 5 1986, "Former State Treasurer Opens Restaurant" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jul. 31 1987

H. Guy Hunt: the accidental governor

Image from encyclopediaofalabama.org

The first Republican to occupy the Governor's office in Alabama after a long post-Reconstruction Democratic domination, Harold Guy Hunt was also the first Governor in the state to be removed from office.

Born in 1933 at Holly Pond in Alabama, Hunt served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Working as an Amway salesman and farmer, he was ordained as a Primitive Baptist preacher in 1958 and worked part-time in that capacity. Though he did not go to college, Hunt received honorary doctor of law degrees from Troy State University, the University of North Alabama, and Alabama A&M in 1987.

After losing a bid for state senate in 1962, Hunt was elected probate judge of Cullman County in 1964 and held the post for the next 12 years. He supported Ronald Reagan during his presidential aspirations, serving as the state chairman of Reagan's campaign in 1976 and his successful 1980 race. In return, Reagan appointed him state executive director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (a part of the Department of Agriculture) in 1981. Hunt ran for Governor as the Republican candidate in 1978, losing to Democratic candidate and former Republican Fob James, Jr.

Hunt left the agricultural post in 1985 to pursue another gubernatorial campaign in 1986. State politics up to this point had been dominated by the Democratic Party, with the last Republican Governor serving in 1874. Noted segregationist George Wallace, who had served four terms comprising 16 of the prior 24 years, announced he would not run that year. Attorney General Charles Graddick, a conservative and former Republican, faced off against Lieutenant Governor Bill Baxley and won the Democratic nomination by 8,756 votes out of about 900,000 cast.

The narrow victory was contested in federal court after a black couple filed suit, saying Graddick had used his position in the government to minimize the black vote. Shortly before the runoff, Graddick issued an opinion as Attorney General that Republican voters should not be barred from participating in the Democratic runoff, a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court found that the move had attracted enough conservative support to sway the result to Graddick over Baxley, whose base relied more on black, liberal, and union voters. Graddick's name was removed from the ballot and the nomination was awarded to Baxley.

Hunt had won the Republican nomination from a pool of less than 33,000 voters. For a time, it seemed that even those supporters might be split by Graddick, who threatened to run as a third party candidate. Instead, Graddick decided to drop out of the race, and Hunt found himself appealing to Graddick's conservative white supporters. He won the election with 56 percent of the vote.

Hunt came into office with the goals of bringing more business into the state and improving education. He established a tax reform commission, as well as several committees to look into improvements in education. However, educational leaders in 14 of the state's poorer counties sued the government, arguing that government funds were not equitably distributed. The court agreed, ordering the state to start remedying the problem.

Hunt also pledged that his administration would be "color blind," but was criticized by some Democrats for appointing only one black person in the 23 cabinet positions. He was further criticizing for his support of flying the Confederate flag from the state Capitol building, a practice Wallace had started in defiance of the civil rights movement. The flag was later removed after a court decision. In 1990, Hunt won re-election over Alabama Education Association leader Paul Hubbert. In that race, Republicans were accused of playing off race fears by circulating photos of Hubbert with black political leaders.

Much of Hunt's second term was consumed by controversy over whether he had violated state ethics laws. The investigation began after Hunt was found to have used a state plane to travel to preaching engagements across the South, where he was paid with cash donations. Hunt wrote a check for the expenses and dismissed the controversy as party politics. He also tried to have the investigation stopped on the argument that the ethics probe compromised the separation of powers in the state government, but the court of appeals ruled the investigation legal in 1992. In December of that year, he was indicted on 12 theft and conspiracy charges and one ethics charge. Only the ethics charge could go forward, as the statute of limitations had run out on the other counts.

Hunt went to trial in April of 1993. The remaining felony charge accused him of diverting $200,000 of a tax-exempt $800,000 inaugural fund to banks near his home for personal use. The items ranged from mortgage payments and cattle feed to a riding lawnmower and marble shower stall. The defense argued that Hunt had used the inaugural fund to legally pay back money advanced for a gubernatorial campaign.

The jury found Hunt guilty; the felony conviction automatically expelled him from office and promoted Lieutenant Governor James E. Folsom, Jr., a Democrat (and, at the time of this article, Lieutenant Governor of the state once again). The judge had instructed the jury that excess campaign funds could not legally be used for personal payments, a statute Republicans argued was not regularly enforced. "For a year and a half now practically the whole emphasis of that office has been to try to find something on me," Hunt said. In May of 1993, he was sentenced to five years of probation, 1,000 hours of community service, and a $211,000 fine.

Hunt unsuccessfully appealed the case. In 1997, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted him a pardon on the basis of innocence. However, no judge or district attorney was willing to sign the order. The next year, Hunt sought to end his probation four months early. Instead, a judge extended it by five years because he had only paid about $4,200 off the fine.

One month after the judge's decision, Hunt's attorney produced a check paying off the remaining balance; the money had been collected from donors sympathetic to the ex-Governor. Things moved swiftly after that. One day after his probation was lifted, Hunt was granted a pardon, again on the basis of innocence. The day after that, he qualified to run for the Republican nomination for Governor. Strangely enough, he was challenging Fob James, Jr. The same man who had defeated Hunt in the 1978 gubernatorial election had changed his allegiance back to the Republican Party and been elected in 1994.

Hunt was unable to secure the nomination, and returned to preaching and working on his farm. In 2002, he made another unsuccessful bid for the state senate. He died on January 30 of this year of complications from lung cancer.

Sources: Alabama Department of Archives and History, National Governors Association, Encyclopedia of Alabama, "Wallace's Successor Ushers In Conservative Era" in the New York Times on Jan. 20 1987, "Alabama Governor Found Guilty of Ethics Charge and Is Ousted" in the New York Times on April 23 1993, "Ex-Governor of Alabama Loses Ruling" in the New York Times on April 22 1994, "Alabama Ex-Governor Gets More Probation" in the New York Times on Feb. 15 1998, "Elections 2002 - Around the Nation" in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer on Nov. 7 2002, The New Politics of the Old South by Charles S. Bullock and Mark J. Rozell, Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1988-1994 by Marie Marmo Mullaney