John Edward Addicks: not for sale

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John Edward Addicks' persistent effort to win a seat in the Senate ultimately had some positive results for politics on both the state and national level. A constitutional amendment would take the appointment of senators out of the hands of state legislators and make the decision one made by the state's electorate as a whole, and black voters would become a more influential part of Delaware's democracy. Yet Addicks' contribution to these advances was ultimately an unintended side effect of a corrupt campaign which frequently paralyzed the state's legislature and forced Delaware to go without representation on the national scene.

Addicks was born in Philadelphia in November of 1841. He worked as a clerk and errand boy before becoming a partner in a flour business. Addicks suffered a setback in the Panic of 1873, but managed to recover. He further diversified his business dealings by becoming involved in wheat and railroad markets, but he would become a millionaire mainly by investment in the illuminating gas industry. Boston was his key market, and he did extensive business in other cities as well; in 1883, he was one of the financial backers for the new gas works in Chicago.

Addicks' first association with Delaware came in 1877. He bought a residence in Claymont, a community on the border with Pennsylvania that allowed him to commute easily to Philadelphia. Addicks later moved to Boston after his business dealings as the president of the Bay State Gas Company required him to spend more time there. He continued to hold the Claymont house as a summer residence, but for all intents and purposes it seemed he was a Massachusetts citizen. So it came as quite a surprise when Addicks announced in 1889 that he was a Republican candidate to represent Delaware in the Senate.

He joined three candidates in the race for the nomination, declaring that his opponents would compromise the Republican Party. "It is a sort of Kilkenny cat fight, and the election of any one of them would imperil Republican supremacy in the state," he said. "A new man is needed to hold the state, which I regard as the first step toward breaking the solid South. I am greatly interested in the success of the Republican Party and I feel that by my election Delaware can be kept a Republican state, while the election of any one of my opponents would make its retention very uncertain on account of their relation to the factional interests in the party."

Addicks was unsuccessful in this attempt, but it was only the first in a series of Senate bids where he would use his wealth and influence to try to buy his way to Washington. One of his most common tactics was paying the delinquent taxes of voters or else covering the poll tax in exchange for political support. With the state legislature the ultimate power behind choosing the Senate representation for Delaware, however, Addicks focused much of his attention on buying the support of legislators with thinly-veiled bribes. In 1892, it was alleged that he funded the campaign purses of several legislators to support his latest Senate bid. Many received $8,000 sums, four times the amount allowed for political campaigning, with the implication that they could max out their campaigns and keep the balance for themselves. Yet ultimately these efforts fell short of the majority needed to win the legislature's favor.

One of the most turbulent years occurred in 1895. Governor Joshua H. Marvil died in April, less than three months after he was sworn into office. The state senate's president, William T. Watson, replaced Marvil as governor. By this point, Addicks had gained a significant following of "Union Republican" followers to counterbalance the "Regular Republicans" uncorrupted by his influence. Watson's departure from the state senate left the Regulars with a single vote majority in support of their candidate: Henry du Pont, a businessman who had won a Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Civil War. Yet Watson was persuaded to return to the senate to cast his vote for Addicks, deadlocking the decision 15-15. Ultimately, du Pont would travel to Washington to try to take his seat on the argument that Watson's vote was null and void, but the Senate didn't accept him; one of Delaware's two seats would remain vacant.

It wouldn't be the last time that Addicks' efforts would stymie the state's representation. For over a decade, Addicks' machinations would occupy much of the legislature's business. Deadlock in the legislature meant that Delaware failed to appoint a senator in 1899, 1901, 1903, and 1905; between 1901 and 1903, neither Senate seat from Delaware was filled.

The strength of the Regular Republicans was enough to prevent every effort to appoint Addicks, but he came close on some occasions. In 1899, he received 21 of the 27 votes needed for the seat. Two years later, he had 22 votes. One article charged that Addicks tried to solidify his support in the legislature by covering the poll taxes of 130 of 134 registered black voters in Kent County and 258 out of 260 in Sussex County in 1902. "Other men have bought votes now and then on a small scale, and other parties have resorted, occasionally, to tricky or dishonest methods; but no systematic attempt was ever made to corrupt the whole population and buy up the whole State until J. Edward Addicks and the Union Republican party took the field," George Kennan wrote in an account of Addicks' activities for Outlook Magazine. "'Addicks or nobody' for their war-cry, they began a campaign of corruption which has no parallel, I believe, in the history of the United States."

Kennan said Addicks was displeased enough about spending large amounts of money with no result that he sent a telegram to William Washburn, a former Republican senator from Minnesota, that showed he had little loyalty to the party. "The Republican Party will carry Delaware next year pledged to Addicks for Senator. I made Delaware Republican," Addicks ranted. "If the Republican Party is the party of treachery, I will bury it ten thousand fathoms deep."

Overall, Addicks spent about $3 million on his unsuccessful campaigns. Shortly after the start of the 20th century, his political aspirations were waning. The New York Times reported in September of 1905 that he was becoming a political obscurity, with supporters deserting him. Addicks still had some fight left, however. He said in 1907 that he was considering running for mayor of Wilmington, and four years later announced that he would try to challenge the legislature's election of his old rival, Henry du Pont. He quickly withdrew when it became clear that the deadlock over du Pont was not as serious as he thought. The vacant seat left in 1905 had prompted the legislature to elect du Pont to the Senate in 1906, and he was re-elected in 1911.

State reforms aimed at addressing the corruption included the establishment of a secret ballot and elimination of the poll tax. Both had the secondary effect of scoring a victory for civil rights and empowering black voters. In 1901, the the first black candidate was elected to the Wilmington City Council. Cases like that of Addicks and William Lorimer of Chicago also made it clear that state legislatures were far more vulnerable to corrupt bargaining than the general electorate. In April of 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified and Senate elections went to a popular vote.

Addicks fell on hard times in his waning years. Once worth between $10 and $15 million, he lost much of his fortune when his investments in the copper market didn't pan out. No stranger to lawsuits, Addicks ignored a summons to appear in court for further proceedings after Hiram H. Burton of Boston won a $20,000 judgment against him. Subsequently, Addicks was arrested in New York City for contempt of court. Two years later, he was again jailed for contempt after prolonged efforts to elude the authorities by only going to the city on Sundays, when he could not be served with papers.

Addicks died in August of 1919.

Sources: The Political Graveyard, The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "New Gas-Works in Chicago" in the New York Times on Jun. 1 1883, "Wants to Save Delaware" in the New York Times on Jan. 5 1889, "Absolute Divorce Asked" in the New York Times on Nov. 27 1894, "The Addicks Divorce Case" in the Philadelphia Record on Jan. 8 1895, "Higgins and Addicks Both Out" in the New York Times on May 9 1895, "Addicks for Senator" in the New York Times on Jan. 19 1897, "Delaware Bribery Case" in the New York Times on May 3 1899, "Political Obscurity Creeps Upon Addicks" in the New York Times on Sep. 3 1905, "Addicks Would Be Mayor" in the New York Times on Dec. 15 1907, "Addicks Out For U.S. Senate" in the Gettysburg Times on Jan. 24 1911, "Concede Du Pont Election" in the New York Times on Jan. 25 1911, "Deputies Arrest J. Edward Addicks" in the New York Times on Apr. 2 1913, "J. Edward Addicks in Jail Over Sunday" in the New York Times on May 18 1915, "J. Edward Addicks, of Gas Fame, Dead" in the New York Times on Aug. 8 1919, "Addicks, Daring and Unscrupulous Political Adventurer, Deserted by the Leeches Who Clung to Him While Wealthy, Passes Away In Obscurity" in the Sunday Morning Star on Aug. 10 1919, Delaware Politics and Government by William W. Boyer and Edward C. Ratledge, Pirates and Patriots: Tales of the Delaware Coast by Michael Morgan

Theodore G. Bilbo: race to the end

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Theodore Gilbert Bilbo's earlier career has been virtually overshadowed by the hateful rhetoric he embraced during his time as a United States Senator. Long before his race baiting ways started to eat away at his political strength, however, Bilbo had run afoul of bribery accusations in state level positions. In each bribery matter, he took a dubious but effective defense: admitting to taking a bribe, but maintaining that he only did so to expose corruption by his foes.

The first incident happened in 1909, a year after Bilbo started serving in the Mississippi state senate. Senators for Congress were still chosen by the state legislature, and with the death of Senator A.J. McLaurin in December of 1909 it was up to Bilbo and his compatriots to choose a replacement. The choices came down to former Governor James K. Vardaman and planter Leroy Percy, and after a protracted battle Percy was finally chosen. In March of 1910, a grand jury indicted planter L.C. Dulaney with the charge of tendering a bribe to Bilbo. It declined to indict Bilbo for receiving the bribe, but a resolution still appeared in the the senate to expel Bilbo.

Bilbo went on a swift offensive, explaining that Dulaney gave him $645 to support Percy over Vardaman. Bilbo said he took the money, but gave it to a local minister with a statement of facts as a way of obtaining proof of irregular methods in the election. He said the transaction was supposed to occur in a hotel room where a witness would be handy, but it ended up happening in another room instead.

Bilbo's innocence depended almost entirely on his word, and even this did not carry much weight considering that the minister denied having advance notice of the bribery or taking part in a stakeout in the hotel. The state senator maintained his innocence, but added the caveat asking voters to wait until all the evidence was in. "At this juncture of the greatest fight in the history of the state for a clean government, I feel that I ought to say to the people of Mississippi that the efforts of the politicians and corporate interests in attacking my reputation will prove a miserable failure, for the truth will prevail," he said.

On April 14, the senate took a vote to expel Bilbo. It fell along party lines and was 28 to 15 in favor - one short of the three-fourths majority needed to carry the action out. The Vardaman supporters left the chambers in protest after the vote, leading to a lopsided 25-1 vote favoring a resolution urging Bilbo to resign and criticizing the decision to not reveal the evidence of bribery until after the nomination as "utterly unexplainable and absolutely incredible." However, another resolution unanimously adopted the idea that the election was free from undue influence. Bilbo remained in the senate for the rest of his term, and Dulaney was acquitted at trial in November. The fallout from the matter continued into the next year. In July of 1911, former prison warden J.J. Henry hit Bilbo in the face with the butt of a pistol after Bilbo refused to apologize for remarks about Henry's character; Henry had been one of the witnesses before the committee investigating the bribery allegation.

The second accusation of bribery arose in December of 1913, when Bilbo was the lieutenant governor of Mississippi. He and state senator G.A. Hobbs were indicted on the charge of soliciting a bribe from Belzoni resident Steve Castleman to influence a bill in 1912 to create a new county out of parts of Yazoo, Holmes, and Washington counties. At the trial, Chicago attorney Ira M. Sample testified that Bilbo and Hobbs approached him with the idea of getting legal action against a certain Illinois lumber corporation dismissed in exchange for $50,000 for Bilbo and $5,000 each for the Mississippi attorney general and two special attorneys. Castleman said he agreed to pay $2,000 to Bilbo and Hobbs to support the county bill, and gave $200 to Hobbs in a Vicksburg hotel. The circumstances of the bribe were curiously similar to those a few years earlier, and the outcome was nearly identical. Hobbs claimed that he accepted the bribe to entrap Castlman and was acquitted at trial. Bilbo was also exonerated in July of 1914.

Bilbo was born on a Poplarville farm in October of 1877. He attended Peabody College in Nashville as well as the law department of Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He made a living as a high school teacher for five years and started practicing law in 1912, four years after he was admitted to the bar. If his later crusade was all about race, Bilbo's early work was more related to class. He often defended hill country farmers against the wealthier farmers from the Mississippi River Delta region.

The first political bid Bilbo made was in 1903, when he unsuccessfully ran for circuit court judge. Five years later, he started work in the state senate as a Democrat. He stayed there through 1912, when he became the lieutenant governor. Bilbo not only weathered the two bribery scandals, but won the gubernatorial election at the end of his time as lieutenant governor in 1916. During his first term, the state established a tuberculosis sanatorium; eliminated public hangings; founded a state board of embalming, state tax commission, and fish and game commission; and advanced the construction of highways. In another violent incident, the state's assistant attorney general, Walter Dent, knocked Bilbo down during a fistfight in August of 1919; the scuffle was a result of remarks in a newspaper attributed to Bilbo. At the end of his first term in 1920, he ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives.

Bilbo hit a rough patch after this term. In 1922, a woman named Frances Birkhead accused Bilbo's successor, Lee Russell, of seduction. It was akin to sexual harassment, and Bilbo's name came up as the person whom Governor Russell allegedly asked to settle the matter involving his stenographer. Bilbo had no desire to appear as a witness, and ignored the summons to court. Russell was ultimately acquitted, but Bilbo was arrested for contempt of court in February of 1923. He was convicted and sentenced to serve 30 days in jail and pay a $100 fine, although the term was later reduced to 10 days and the fine remitted. From his cell, Bilbo announced his candidacy for a renewed gubernatorial term.

This effort, naturally, was not very successful. Bilbo was again elected governor for a term starting in 1928, but met with considerably more difficulty the second time around as the Mississippi treasury was hit by financial setbacks. In April of 1932, a judge declared 217 pardons issued during Bilbo's term null and void since they had been issued without proper notice, but prison trustees refused to rearrest the newly freed men. Economic policies benefiting white farmers became common. These were one of the more subtle forms of racism Bilbo embraced. In October of 1928, he criticized Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover for allegedly dancing with a black woman during a flood relief visit to the state the previous year. Hoover replied by saying that it was mere rumor, and that if the voters made a decision based solely on the accusation it would "forever be a most infamous blot on the record of the state of Mississippi." Despite the law against public hanging passed in his first term, Bilbo took a rather more relaxed attitude toward lynchings. After a mob took Charley Shepherd, a black man accused of raping and murdering an 18-year-old girl, and burned him at the stake in 1929, Bilbo publicly declared his opposition to an investigation into the culprits. "I have neither the time nor the money to investigate 2,000 people," he said. Bilbo said no National Guard protection had been requested, or it would have been afforded for Shepherd. To his credit, Bilbo did order such a guard for a black man accused of murdering a white planter in 1931. However, this was likely done with reluctance; only a few months later, the North American Review quoted him as saying, "No colored man is worth calling out the National Guard to protect."

After leaving the governor's office for a second time, Bilbo made another unsuccessful run at the House. In a bizarre development, he managed to get a job with the Farm Adjustment Administration "assembling current information records for the Adjustment Administration from news, magazines, and other published sources." Translated, this meant that Bilbo would be paid to take clippings from newspapers and other published sources. He left the $6,000 post - a salary only $2,500 less than that of a senator - to start a campaign for Senate in February of 1934. In a surprise upset, he took the Democratic nomination from 22-year incumbent Hubert D. Stephens. The party dominated politics in the South to such a degree that a primary victory was a foregone conclusion for the general election; sure enough, Bilbo easily won victory in November of 1934.

Bilbo would stay in the Senate for two terms, chairing both the Committee on the District of Columbia and the Committee on Pensions. He became a strong supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives, seeing them as a good way to relieve poverty in Mississippi. Midway through his term, he and his bride of 34 years went through a messy breakup. In 1937, a divorce was granted and his ex-wife vowed to use some of the $20,750 she received in the deal to fund a Senate campaign opposing him. In his second term, Bilbo spoke against the idea of having the draft brought down to the ages of 18 and 19. The conflict would be a prolonged one, he felt, and it would be more prudent to call up men with more experience. "I am not opposed to taking 18 and 19 year old boys and training them, but I could never give my consent to putting them into combat service at this tender age," he said.

More than anything, however, Bilbo would become known for his vile, single-minded, and backward attitude on racial relationships. In one of his most shocking proclamations, he said the white race was doomed to decadence if it was to live alongside the black race; he said he would attach an amendment to a federal emergency relief bill to provide $250 million for the transportation of the country's black residents to new homes in Liberia. Worst of all, Bilbo turned to the Nazi regime in Germany as a model. "It will be recalled that Hitler, in his speech on April 9 in Vienna, gave as the basis of his program to unite Austria with Germany, 'German blood ties,'" he said. "Germans appreciate the importance of race values. They understand that racial improvement is the greatest asset that any country can have." Bilbo claimed that he had two million signatures from blacks who were willing to make the move and thought millions more would join in. Bilbo's relocation ideas extended to the nation's capital, with a proposal that 10,000 people be removed from alley homes. "We predict he will be a curse to his party and to his capital. Indeed he is one already," one newspaper commented. "He is one of the worst blights ever to strike our town, and we hold his party and this administration responsible for inflicting this socially benighted man on the people of Washington."

In 1938, Bilbo filibustered a proposed anti-lynching bill. He said violence and race riots would accompany the passage of such a measure, and referred to its supporters as "mulattoes, octoroons, and quadroons." In May of 1943, he said he was prepared to repeat the effort on a bill that would make it unlawful to require a poll tax to vote in a federal election. Such a tax, common in several southern states, was designed to exclude black voters but Bilbo saw the matter as one of states' rights. "I will feel that I am just as much a soldier as a marine on Guadalcanal or a private on Attu Island," he said, admitting that he would yield if essential war issues needed discussion.

In June of 1945, Bilbo filibustered the Fair Employment Practices Commission, saying he felt it was an attempt to fuse races and garner the black vote. By this point, with the war in Europe concluded and the Pacific conflict drawing to a close, the patience for Bilbo's hateful outbursts was growing thin. The Veterans Committee for Equal Rights demanded his impeachment due to his frequent statements against religious and racial equality. The Jewish War Veterans of the United States accused him of promoting divisiveness and violating the Constitution. The Committee of Catholics for Human Rights declared his conduct "a chilling deterrent to the worldwide belief that America is the symbol of democratic freedom and human rights."

Bilbo's conduct signaled the end of his career in Washington. In April of 1946, the Senate established a special committee to investigate election practices. In July, Bilbo won the Democratic nomination for a third term in the Senate. Two months later, a group of black voters charged that Bilbo "conducted an aggressive and ruthless campaign...with the purpose...to effectively deprive and deny the duly qualified Negro electors...of their constitutional rights...to register and vote." Glen H. Taylor, a liberal Democrat from Idaho, had already requested the committee to look into Bilbo's inflammatory speeches in June.

In August of 1946, Bilbo admitted that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, although he said he had not attended any meetings since his inaugural one since he was "not in sympathy with some things in it." He disputed a quote attributed to him in which he allegedly said that "the way to stop Negroes from voting was to start from the night before" with a clarified, perhaps more horrible statement that kept the intent intact: "The best time to keep a nigger away from a white primary in Mississippi was to see him the night before."

There was little question that Bilbo had urged intimidation and other unsavory practices in the 1946 primary. In a radio campaign, he had called upon "every red-blooded Anglo-Saxon man in Mississippi to resort to any means to keep hundreds of Negroes from the polls in the July 2 primary. And if you don't know what that means, you are just not up to your persuasive measures." In one well-publicized incident, a black war veteran was beaten for trying to register to vote in Mississippi. The National Negro Council denounced Bilbo's requests as "more diabolical than Hitler in his heyday."

In December of 1946, the committee convened for four days of hearings on Bilbo's exhortations prior to the primary. Over 100 witnesses, about two-thirds of them black, told about the restrictions on registration and voting. It wasn't enough to knock Bilbo from his perch. On January 3, 1947, the majority report of the Campaign Expenditures Committee determined that Bilbo's financial conduct was not an issue, finding instead that his anti-black crusade had been a response to "outside agitation" such as the national press, and determined that he was eligible for a seat in Congress. The minority report took a decidedly different tack. It charged Bilbo with violating the Constitution, federal criminal code, and Hatch Act, and with vigorously encouraging state officials to do the same.

It may have marked another close call for Bilbo, but the civil rights violations were not the only matters he was under investigation for. In November of 1946, the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program launched a probe into his relationship with war contractors. This committee was less sympathetic toward the senator, and uncovered a wealth of unscrupulous activity. Over the course of the war, Bilbo had accepted from war contractors a new Cadillac, a swimming pool, the excavation of a lake around his "dream house," the painting of this mansion, furnishings for a second home, and overall a total benefit of between $57,000 and $88,000. The day before the determination that Bilbo had not violated civil rights laws, six of nine members of the defense committee agreed that his connections with war contractors were questionable.

Along with the first Republican majority in 14 years, it was enough to stall Bilbo's seating in Congress. Taylor asked the legislature to bar Bilbo from holding a seat until the Committee on Rules of Administration could review his conduct. The Senate voted 38-20 to table the resolution, but the matter turned out to be something of an anticlimax. Though Bilbo would continue to receive his government salary, he returned to his home state for an emergency surgery.

Somewhere along the way, Bilbo found time to put together a hateful treatise entitled Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization, which continued to embrace the notion of deporting the nation's black population. Ironically, the man who had spewed so much hatred died in August of 1947 following three surgeries for mouth cancer, although the official cause of death was given as heart failure following a surgery to tie off a blood clot. A life size bronze statute of Bilbo was dedicated in the Mississippi Capitol rotunda in 1954, but proved an embarrassment as the civil rights movement progressed. In 1982, Governor William Winter quietly ordered that the statue be removed to an out of the way meeting room. This room is now frequently used by the Legislative Black Caucus, and some members cheekily hang their coats or hats on the statue's outstretched arm.

Sources: The Political Graveyard, The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, National Governors Association, Mississippi History Now, U.S. Senate Art and History Home Page, "Bribery Charged in Mississippi" in the Spartanburg Herald on March 29 1910, "Preacher Didn't Confirm Bilbo" in The Day on April 2 1910, "Look Into Bilbo's Record" in the News and Courier on April 2 1910, "Bilbo is Forced to Resign From the Mississippi Senate" in the Spartanburg Herald on April 15 1910, "Senatorial Primary Called" in the New York Times on April 17 1910, "Real Money in Bribe Trial" in the Boston Evening Transcript on Nov. 30 1910, "Senator Bilbo is Severely Beaten" in the Spartanburg Herald on Jul. 7 1911, "Indict State Officials" in the New York Times on Dec. 3 1913, "Attempted Bribery Alleged in Big Case" in the Pittsburgh Press on Jul. 8 1914, "Bilbo Acquitted By Jury" in the News and Courier on Jul. 10 1914, "Mississippi Governor Knocked Down in Fight" in the Evening Independent on Aug. 9 1919, "Suit Against a Governor is On" in the Lawrence Journal-World on Dec. 7 1922, "Russell Acquitted of Woman's Charge" in the New York Times on Dec. 12 1922, "Ex.-Gov. Bilbo Arrested For Contempt" in the New York Times on Feb. 7 1923, "Bilbo to Run Again" in the Palm Beach Post on Apr. 17 1923, "Reduces Bilbo Sentence" in the Evening Independent on Apr. 20 1923, "Hoover Denies Charge Made by Governor Bilbo" in the Washington Reporter on Oct. 20 1928, "Governor Refuses to Order Inquiry into Negro Lynching" in the Meriden Record on Jan. 2 1929, "National Affairs: People vs. Shepherd" in Time on Jan. 14 1929, "Troops to Guard Mississippi Negro Being Held as Killer" in the St. Joseph Gazette on Oct. 23 1931, "Prison Trustees Refuse to Carry Out Their Orders" in the Herald-Journal on Apr. 14 1932, "Bilbo to Gauge Farm Act Foes by the Shape of Their Heads" in the Gettysburg Times on Jun. 23 1933, "Ex-Governor Quits Post; Eyes Senate" in the Pittsburgh Press on Feb. 23 1934, "Bilbo Rockets Into U.S. Senate" in the Herald-Journal on Sep. 20 1934, "Wife Contests Divorce of Sen. Bilbo of Miss." in the Lewiston Daily Sun on May 19 1937, "Ted Bilbo is a Coward" in the Afro American on Jan. 29 1938, "Bilbo Sees Decadence of Pure Anglo-Saxon Race" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Mar. 2 1938, "News Behind the News" in the Miami News on May 30 1938, "Sen. Bilbo, Ex-Wife to be Campaign Foes" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jul. 28 1938, "18-19 Draft Bill is Introduced" in the Mt. Airy News on Sep. 11 1942, "Bilbo Ready to Talk 18 Months" in the Tuscaloosa News on May 30 1943, "A Curse on Washington" in the Afro-American on Mar. 25 1944, "Sen. Bilbo Starts Filibuster Against FEPC" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Jun. 28 1945, "Catholic Group Assails Bilbo" in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Aug. 8 1945, "Vet Group Asks Bilbo Impeachment" in the Evening Independent on Sep. 25 1945, "Jewish War Veterans Would Impeach Bilbo" in the Deseret News on Nov. 26 1945, "Senate to Investigate Bilbo's Efforts to Keep Negroes from Primary Polls" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jun. 27 1946, "Senator Says He is Klansman" in the Kentucky New Era on Aug. 10 1946, "The Washington Merry Go Round" in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Oct. 26 1946, "Deny Bilbo a Seat" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Nov. 16 1946, "Senator Bilbo's Case" in the Indian Express on Jan. 5 1947, "Bilbo Succumbs After Operation in New Orleans" in the St. Petersburg Times on Aug. 22 1947, "Governor Fights to Educate Poor, Backward Mississippi" in the Ottawa Citizen on Dec. 11 1982, "South in New Disputes Over Heritage" in the Washington Times on Feb. 10 2009, "Theodore G. Bilbo and the Decline of Public Racism, 1938-1947" in the Journal of Mississippi History, Historical Dictionary of the 1940s by James Gilbert Ryan and Leonard C. Schlup, The Governors of Mississippi by Cecil L. Summers

Nelson G. Gross: regular contributor

Image from the Evening News

Nelson G. Gross was the type of politician who, though deeply influential in government, worked more out of the public eye than as an official. The closest he came to being an elected member of the national government was a failed Senate bid, and he undertook that effort with experience limited mostly to campaigns and party positions. Though he drew some controversy during his work in politics, the incident which would garner more attention was the senseless manner in which his life ended. 

Born in Saddle River, New Jersey in 1932, Gross went from being a lawyer to a close involvement with the state's Republican Party. He was a member of the state house of assembly in 1962, but his major breakthrough came six years later as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Among the New Jersey Republicans, the hope was that the presidential nod could go to "favorite son" candidate Clifford P. Case, who had been in the Senate since 1955. 

To the chagrin of some party members, however, Gross led an effort to support former Vice President Richard Nixon and persuaded 18 of the state's 40 delegates to change their vote. When Nixon captured the nomination, Gross led his campaign in New Jersey, where Nixon triumphed by about 60,000 votes on his way to the White House in the 1968 election. Despite the breakaway from Case, Gross's relationship with the state Republicans were still strong enough that he chaired the state party in 1969. 

In April of the next year, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Frederick Lacey announced that Gross was under investigation for ties to a labor union allegedly dominated by the Mafia. No charges came out of the matter, and only a week after the announcement Gross announced that he was resigning as chairman to enter the 1970 Senate race. He easily won the GOP primary against two opponents. 

A month before the election, he was pummeled by political columnist Jack Anderson. "Nelson Gross, the Republican candidate for the Senate in New Jersey, has made a big show of opening up his records for public inspection. But apparently we are the only ones who have bothered to inspect them. What we found may make Gross wish he had kept his records hidden." Anderson claimed that Gross had charged numerous personal expenses to failing companies he controlled, including bouquets for his wife, vacations, and tickets to the Moscow Circus visit to Madison Square Garden. 

Anderson said that when confronted with the charges, Gross claimed that the court had thrown the suit out. Anderson countered that a $25,000 settlement had been involved in the resolution. Gross failed to dislodge the incumbent Democratic, Senator Harrison A. Williams, in the general election. Williams, who had served in the Senate since 1959, earned about 250,000 more votes than Gross. Case got in a dig at Gross, commenting that his close ties to the Nixon Administration may have hurt him. "Nelson had some excellent position papers. It is a real tragedy that he and his media people did not choose to emphasize them--that his media campaign chose to emphasize the negative side." 

The ties to the President did help him to secure employment after the loss, however. In August of 1971, he began working for the State Department as a senior adviser and coordinator on international narcotics matters. Then in May of 1973, Gross was indicted on fraud charges. The charges said Gross issued false invoices to the Stop and Save Stamp Corporation, a subsidiary of Grand Union Co., in order to make a $5,000 contribution to the 1969 campaign of New Jersey Governor William T. Cahill and make it appear to be tax deductible. Gross was also accused of encouraging William H. Preis, president of the Stop and Save Stamp Corporation, to make false statements to the grand jury; Preis pleaded guilty the same month to perjury. 

U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern said there was no evidence to suggest that Cahill knew about the illegality of the contribution, but the damage was done. The scandal was one factor playing into Cahill's defeat in the 1973 Republican primary, where the gubernatorial nomination went to Representative Charles Sandman. To the charges, Gross said, "I am astounded that anyone could conceivably believe that I would be in a position to counsel or did counsel one of the largest retailing supermarket chains in the country as to the manner in which it should complete and file federal income tax returns." 

 The trial happened in March of 1974. Among the 28 witnesses to testify over the course of five weeks was Bernard Striar, owner of a Maine textile company. Striar said Gross arranged for him to make a $2,000 contribution to Gross's Senate campaign and illegally deduct it. Gross took the stand in his own defense, not only claiming innocence but accusing the U.S. Attorney's Office of trying to topple his law firm. Gross's father also took the stand, testifying that Gross actually advised Preis to tell the truth to the grand jury rather than lie. When the jury returned a verdict, it found Gross guilty of tax evasion and perjury. 

Gross's lawyers made a curious argument for a new trial, arguing that wealthy people were excluded from the jury. In June of 1974, Gross was sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine; a week later, Preis received the same sentence, but with the jail term suspended. Gross remained a free man while he ground his way through the appeals process. In December of 1974, he asked the three-judge Federal Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to overturn his conviction; they upheld the verdict in February of 1975. In November of that year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction as well. Finally, in June of 1976, Gross began serving his sentence after first trying to turn himself in at the federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He ended up serving six months. 

 In a surprising turn of events, it was revealed a couple of years later that the marshals at the trial had taken a far more active role at the trial than was allowed. Leon Harvey Stacey said he and his fellow officers seduced some of the female jurors, persuading them that the prosecution's case was sound and capitalizing on the increasing dissatisfaction with Nixon. "We all knew Nelson Gross was part of the Nixon administration. It was therefore easy to allude to a general disenchantment with politicians," Stacey said. "In other words, as part of the romancing of the jurors, my reference to politicians was always in a negative attitude." 

With this revelation, Gross tried to reopen the case and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in New York granted a hearing in November of 1978. It is unclear how this turned out, but if subsequent developments are any indication it was not very successful. In June of 1981, he was disbarred from practicing law in federal courts due to his conviction and his failure to show up at a hearing. An ethical board later disbarred him from the state courts for three years after finding that he had committed "unethical conduct." 

Despite his legal troubles, Gross was still financially successful through his investments in real estate development and restaurants. He was a millionaire in September of 1997, stopping in at a floating restaurant he owned in Edgewater, New Jersey every day for a meal. Then he disappeared. Gross was last seen taking $20,000 from a bank near the restaurant, a transaction not unusual due to his frequent large withdrawals. His wife and son reportedly saw him getting into his BMW with two men, and his son called his cell phone to see if everything was all right. "It's business. It's just business," Gross replied before hanging up. 

A search for Gross began, and first found his car abandoned about 15 blocks south of the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan. His family offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to his return. Gross's body was finally found on the wooded bank of the Hudson River; he had been stabbed to death. 

It didn't take long for police to implicate three youths in the crime. Arrested were 18-year-old Anthony "Alex" Esteves and 17-year-olds Christian Velez and Miguel "Papo" Grullon. They had used the money to buy two used cars, a motorcycle, and jewelry and a bystander reported them to the authorities after overhearing them openly talking about the murder. Velez, who had worked as a busboy at the floating restaurant, was arrested and implicated his two friends. It seemed they had conspired to rob the wealthy businessman, but had not thought the plan through; when they realized that Gross would report the robbery to the police, they took his life as well. 

A death notice taken out by Gross's family in the New York Times did not mince words. It said Gross had died after "succumbing to an unprovoked vicious attack by three thugs who inflicted multiple stab wounds to his chest and back." 

Ultimately, Estevez entered an agreement to testify against his co-defendants if the cases went to trial and Velez and Grullon pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder. Describing the crime as "cruel and heinous" and a "truly senseless thing," Estevez was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years in prison without parole. His two co-defendants received 30 years in prison, also without parole. 

Sources: The Political Graveyard, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Lacey Says Ties of Gross to Union Are Under Inquiry" in the New York Times on Apr. 2 1970, "Gross Quits as GOP Chairman in Jersey to Run for the Senate" in the New York Times Apr. 9 1970, "Wallace Triumphs in Alabama Run-Off" in the Schenectady Gazette on Jun. 3 1970, "Williams Recovering From Bad Start in N.J." in the Park City Daily News on Oct. 25 1970, "Gross Squeezes Companies" in the Free Lance Star on Oct. 24 1970, "Says Nixon Campaign Wrong" in the Virgin Island Daily News on Nov. 7 1970, "Coordinator" in the Evening News on Aug. 13 1971, "N.J. Republican Pleads Innocent In Funds Case" in The Journal on May 23 1973, "Gov. Cahill Defeated in N.J. GOP Primary" in the Los Angeles Times on Jun. 6 1973, "Illegally Deducted Gift, Magnate Says" in the Bangor Daily News on Mar. 3 1974, "Father Supports Gross Testimony" in the New York Times on Mar. 21 1974, "Gross Accuses U.S. of Harrying Firm" in the New York Times on Mar. 23 1974, "Federal Jury Begins Its Deliberations in Campaign Fraud Case Against Gross" in the New York Times on Mar. 29 1974, "Gross, Citing Jury, Seeks a New Trial" in the New York Times on Apr. 20 1974, "Gross is Sentenced to 2 Years in Jail" in the New York Times on Jun. 15 1974, "Preis is Fined, Term Suspended" in the New York Times on Jun. 22 1974, "New Jersey Briefs" in the New York Times on Dec. 11 1974, "New Jersey Briefs" in the New York Times on Feb. 20 1975, "Supreme Court Upholds 2 Convictions of Gross" in the New York Times on Nov. 4 1975, "Gross Wins Stay of Sentence" in the Argus-Press on Dec. 5 1975, "Nelson Gross Off To Prison" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Jun. 3 1976, "Candidate's Husband to Try to Reopen Old Case" in the Lakeland Ledger on Feb. 3 1978, "Marshals, Jurors May Have Tainted N.J. Verdict" in the Deseret News on Feb. 10 1978, "New Hearing OK'd in Tax Fraud Case" in the Milwaukee Journal on Nov. 10 1978, "Ex-Jersey GOP Chief is Barred by U.S. Judge" in the New York Times on Jun. 28 1981, "Car of Missing New Jersey Developer is Found" in the New York Times on Sep. 21 1997, "Youths Accused of Killing New Jersey Millionaire" in the New York Times on Sep. 25 1997, "Police: Slain Millionaire Victim of Botched Plot" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sep. 26 1997, "Gross, Nelson Gerard" in the New York Times on Sept. 27 1997, "Prison For Tycoon Slay" in the New York Daily News on Oct. 8 1998, "2 Are Given up to 30 Years in Murder of Millionaire" in the New York Times on Oct. 8 1998.

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

Herman Methfessel: the racketeer housewives of Staten Island

Image unavailable

For most of his career, Herman Methfessel stayed out of the news. In the midst of his career as a New York City prosecutor, he made the syndicated column "Dizzy Doings in the News" in a 1942 account of fishing tales. Without noting Methfessel's profession, it took his claim that he caught two 14-inch bass on the same plug and cast with a grain of salt. Nine years later, Methfessel's own handling of questionable tales would end his career in the Empire State.

Born somewhere in the vicinity of 1901, Methfessel worked as a newspaper reporter before becoming an attorney. He was elected to the New York state assembly as a Democrat and served there between 1935 and 1938. From there, he went on to become the second assistant district attorney of Richmond County, and was promoted to the first assistant district attorney at the end of 1944. Three years later, he was elected to be district attorney of the county with backing from the Republican Party. In April of 1949, he witnessed the shooting of former Republican representative Ellsworth B. Buck outside his office by Charles van Newkirk, 57-year-old former marine engineer who confessed that it was retaliation for Buck heading a congressional committee that returned decision against him; Buck survived his injuries.

Methfessel's time in office ended ignominiously in September of 1951. As the New York State Crime Commission investigated rackets in Staten Island, 36-year-old housewife Anna Wentworth testified that she had seen Methfessel in a gambling den run by the D'Alessio brothers, known to be key players in gambling and racketeering operations in Richmond County. Wentworth served as their maid, and said the district attorney was at a roulette party there; the implication was that Methfessel was protecting vice. Methfessel responded by having her arrested for perjury.

The action appalled other members of the commission and New York government. Wentworth said she was terrified that the officers might not be legit, and said they refused to allow any of her six children to call a lawyer. Methfessel, along with commission chairman Joseph M. Proskauer, asked that a special prosecutor be used for testimony related to Wenworth.

At the request of the Crime Commission, however, Governor Thomas E. Dewey ordered that a special prosecutor would supersede Methfessel in all matters related to the investigation. Dewey added that the officers admitted they didn't have a warrant for Wentworth's arrest and left her with black and blue marks after dragging her from her home. "On the basis of the facts before me, it is clear that the district attorney in using the power of his office to direct the arrest and questioning of a person who testified against him personally was a gross abuse of power," said Dewey. "The use of a district attorney for personal or political purposes is intolerable." Dewey appointed William B. Herlands, a former New York City commissioner of education, to replace Methfessel.

Methfessel was unapologetic when speaking before the commission on the incident. Wentworth, he said, had been an "unqualified liar" in her testimony; he also contended that she was seeking publicity and wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. He didn't meet with much sympathy. When he said the officers had followed a regular routine in the arrest, Proskauer replied, "Well, if this happens in every police station it's time we found out. This is America, not Russia."

John M. Harlan, chief counsel for the commission, said Wentworth's arrest amounted to intimidation. In September of 1951, gambler Michael D'Alessio admitted that he made thousands of dollars that were never subject to tax. He had contributed to the GOP, but also was on friendly terms with Methfessel. The scandal resulted in an easy defeat in the 1951 election, as voters chose Republican-Liberal candidate Sidney O. Simonson to replace him.

Methfessel's ouster didn't quite close the book on the matter. He was charged, along with an assistant named Irving Rivkin, with official misconduct. The case went before a disciplinary trial in June of 1952, but both men were acquitted at the recommendation of Supreme Court referee Peter P. Smith on the basis of insufficient evidence. Herlands tried to get the case reopened, but was denied by an appellate court. Wentworth, meanwhile, sued the city for $100,500 in December of 1951 after charging false arrest. A magistrate dismissed the perjury charge against her in February of 1952. The civil charge didn't come to trial until 1958, by which point the damages had ballooned to $1,175,000 sought from Methfessel and the two detectives involved in her arrest; the case ultimately settled for a mere $3,500.

Methfessel moved to Miami, Florida to become a private attorney. He resurfaced briefly when John M. Harlan, who acted as counsel for the crime commission, was considered to be a Supreme Court justice in 1954. Before Congress, Methfessel accused Harlan of springing Wentworth as a surprise witness during the crime commission investigation and never allowed him to cross-examine her or introduce witnesses to dispute her testimony. Methfessel claimed that the debacle led to his re-election defeat despite the fact that he was never formally implicated. He told the congressmen that Harlan's "attitude toward cross-examination and toward a right of a person to defend himself is not the attitude that I feel should be carried into the Supreme Court." Despite Methfessel's opposition, Harlan was confirmed by the Senate and served on the high bench until 1971.

Methfessel continued working as a lawyer until July of 1963, when he suffered a fatal heart attack while driving along the North-South Expressway.

Sources: The Political Graveyard, "Dizzy Doings in the News" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jul. 16 1942, "Named Assistant Prosecutor" in the New York Times on Dec. 31 1944, "Says Shooting 'Spite Job'" in the Ottawa Evening Citizen on Apr. 6 1949, "DA Faces Quiz on 'Intimidation'" in the Pittsburgh Press on Sep. 21 1951, "District Attorney Barred by Governor in N.Y. Crime Case" in the Wilmington Morning Star on Sep. 22 1951, "Gambler Admits Making Untaxed Fortune" in the Milwaukee Sentinel on Sep. 25 1951, "William B. Herlands" in the Wilmington News on Sep. 27 1951, "Corruption, Racketeering Issues in Several Elections Today" in the Reading Eagle on Nov. 6 1951, "City Sued for $100,500" in the New York Times on Dec. 23 1951, "Mrs. Wentworth Cleared" in the New York Times on Feb. 29 1952, "Methfessel Case Goes to Referee" in the New York Times on Jun. 6 1952, "Hear Methfessel Motion" in the New York Times on Nov. 15 1952, "Methfessel Is Cleared" in the New York Times on Dec. 9 1952, "Herland Reopens Methfessel Case" in the New York Times on Jan. 18 1953, "State Loses Appeal in Methfessel Case" in the New York Times on Mar. 6 1953, "Oppenheimer Pal Wins Solons' Approval" in the Spokesman-Review on Feb. 25 1955, "False Suit Settled for $3,500" in the New York Times on Jun. 13 1958, "Motorist Died of Heart Attack" in the Miami News on Jul. 12 1963, John Marshall Harlan: Great Dissenter of the Warren Court by Tinsley Y. Yarbrough

Walter E. Brehm: nothing but the tooth

President Harry Truman signs the bill creating the National Institute of Dental Research. Walter E. Brehm is second from the left.

It took a single, random incident to provide the impetus for the end of Walter Ellsworth Brehm's career in the House of Representatives: an old woman breaking her arm a thousand miles away. From this mishap and its aftermath, political columnist Drew Pearson was able to piece together enough evidence to implicate Brehm in a kickback scheme.

Brehm was born in Somerset, Ohio in May of 1892. After completing high school, he earned money through jobs in steel mills, rubber factories, and oil fields. He was also a member of Company D, Seventh Regiment, of the Ohio Infantry from 1908 to 1913. He attended Boston University and Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating from the Ohio State University Dental School in 1917. He began a dental practice in Logan, Ohio in 1921.

After about 15 years in this field, Brehm started dabbling in politics. Between 1936 and 1938, he was treasurer of the Republican executive committee of Hocking County and also served on the city council of Logan. He served in the state house of representatives from 1938 to 1942 before moving on to its federal counterpart after the election of 1942. He was returned in the next three elections and maintained a rather unassuming presence in Washington. His profession did influence his work there to some degree. His most notable action was the introduction of a bill to establish the National Institute of Dental Research. President Harry Truman signed it into law after it passed both chambers.

Brehm received a major test just a few months before the regular election of 1950. In September and October, Pearson wrote in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that Brehm had accepted kickbacks from a woman who formerly worked as a clerk for him. Clara Soliday, a 75-year-old widow, worked for Brehm between January of 1945 and January of 1948. Pearson accused Brehm of taking $100, about half of Soliday's paycheck, each month and increasing the amount with each pay raise until it hit $240 a month. Though Brehm told Soliday that the money was going to a committee in Ohio for campaign work, Pearson asserted that this was illegal under the Corrupt Practices Act since Soliday's pay was provided by taxpayer dollars and was not to be used for political purposes.

Pearson seemed more concerned with ethical issues. He clearly didn't think much of a man who was routinely taking money from an elderly woman. Pearson said Soliday worked for the Treasury before taking the job with Brehm, since it was a slightly better salary even with the kickbacks and she didn't know those payments were illegal. He said Soliday was fired after she broke her arm late in 1947 while visiting her sister in Cleveland. Soliday got her X-rays in Washington, D.C. and cashed her paycheck with the Sergeant-at-Arms in the House. She told her daughter that she could get an additional $240 from her pocketbook, and the woman was surprised to find that it was in an envelope addressed to Brehm. Her son, Ray Soliday, delivered the money in person but asked that she be allowed to keep it to address her doctor's bills. Brehm refused, but eventually allowed Soliday to keep $100 of the allotted money. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Brehm fired Soliday not long after and replaced her with his son, James F. Brehm. All told, Pearson said, Brehm pocketed some $7,300.

Brehm denounced the columnist as a liar, but Pearson was unfazed; he'd received a similar response from J. Parnell Thomas and Andrew May, he noted, and both of them had gone to jail on charges of receiving illegal income. He added that Brehm was apparently trying to keep Ray quiet, accusing the congressmen of telling Ray not to talk to Pearson. Pearson also said that Brehm was pressuring Ray to tell FBI investigators that the kickbacks only amounted to $1,200. Then in late October, Soliday sued Brehm to recover the approximately $7,300 with another $10,000 in punitive damages. Brehm said the charges were "so fantastic" that "I just do not have anything to say." He later responded with a countering lawsuit accusing her of a political attack, asking for dismissal and $5,000 in damages. The quarrel and Pearson's accusations became an issue in the 1950 election, but Brehm still triumphed over Democratic rival Mell G. Underwood, Jr.

A federal grand jury didn't find Soliday's charges to be fantastic. In December of 1950, it indicted Brehm on six violations of the Corrupt Practices Act in 1947 and 1948. Whether or not Pearson's charge that Brehm was tampering with Ray was accurate, the amount of pilfered money was much lower than the columnist's count and quite close to the tally Brehm was allegedly trying to get Ray to agree to: $1,380. In addition to Soliday, Brehm was accused of taking chunks out of the paycheck of another clerk named Emma Craven. Brehm accepted the news with aplomb, saying, "Now maybe we can get the facts on the record. This is the only way I know to clear the good name of all concerned. I have never at any time or any place or under any circumstances committed a criminal act."

The trial started in April of 1951. Both clerks testified that they had given up half of their salaries, mailing the money to Brehm when he was in Ohio and delivering it in person when he was in Washington. Midway through the trial, Brehm's attorney argued for acquittal on the argument that the prosecution didn't have a solid enough case. The judge refused, and Brehm took the stand to say that he was unaware of the existence of the Corrupt Practices Act and that none of the money went to personal use.

After four hours and 20 minutes of deliberation in May, the jury found Brehm guilty of five of the counts, charging that he received $1,000 from Craven. The next month, he was given a suspended jail sentence of five to 15 months and a $5,000 fine. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction in October of 1952. Brehm retired from Congress not long after, having decided against running for a sixth term.

Brehm returned to dental work, eventually retiring from private practice and joining a dental supply company. He died in Columbus in August of 1971.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" in the Tuscaloosa News on Sep. 26 1950, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" in the Southeast Missourian on Oct. 2 1950, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Oct. 9 1950, "Solon Of Ohio Faces Suit For Kickback" in the Deseret News on Oct. 25 1950, "Rep. Brehm, Of Ohio, Is Indicted On Illegal Contributions Charge" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Dec. 21 1950, "Legislator Loses Acquittal Plea" in the Pittsburgh Press on Apr. 24 1951, "Congressman's Trial Near End" in the Pittsburgh Press on Apr. 30 1951, "Brehm Is Guilty On Five Counts" in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on May 1 1951, "Rep. Brehm Gets Suspended Sentence" in the Miami News on Jun. 11 1951, "Refuses To Review Rep. Brehm Case" in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 14 1952, Dental Science in a New Age: The History of the National Institute of Dental Research by Ruth Roy Harris, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-2005 by Andrew R. Dodge

Richard T. Hanna: jumping the gun

Richard T. Hanna at the Miles Square Park groundbreaking. Image courtesy of the Orange County Archives.

Though Richard Thomas Hanna deserves credit for taking responsibility for his wrongdoing, it is ironic that this action may have left his reputation worse off than if he had fought the charges harder. Several politicians were implicated in the "Koreagate" scandal in the 1970s, but Hanna was the only one who was criminally convicted in the case.

Hanna was born in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in June of 1914. He eventually migrated to California, graduating from the Pasadena Junior College as well as the University of California with a bachelor's degree in law. He promptly began a private practice, though he served in the U.S. Navy Air Corps between 1942 and 1945. Beginning in 1956, he spent six years as a member of the California state assembly. In 1962, he bucked the trend in his traditionally conservative Orange County district by winning a seat in the House of Representatives after running as the Democratic nominee. Even more impressive, he held the seat in the next five elections. In March of 1974, however, Hanna announced that he would not seek re-election due to his wife's health. In November, Orange County decided to keep a Democrat in the House, electing Santa Ana city councilman Jerry M. Patterson over former Vietnam prisoner of war and GOP candidate David Rehmann.

The same month he announced he would resign for unrelated reasons, investigative journalist Jack Anderson described Hanna as "Capitol Hill's premier globe-trotter." Writing in the Washington Merry Go Round column and citing State Department cables, Anderson wrote that Hanna had been escorting South Korean businessman Tongsun Park on his quest to find oil deals. Anderson wrote that in January Hanna had been in Indonesia as a guest of the Pertamina Oil Company and flew to meet Park in Yemen. This column ultimately let Hanna off easy, describing him as a "likable liberal" and printing Hanna's insistence that he had promised capital investment in Yemen but had not made any business deals alongside Park, but only talked to officials at informal gatherings such as cocktail parties.

The same month, however, Anderson was a little tougher. He gave Hanna another nickname, "King of the Road," noting how he made three junketing trips in 1973 to the Soviet Union and Africa. Anderson accused Hanna of demanding red carpet treatment in Japan, including a military helicopter to fly him over Tokyo's persistent traffic jams. He said Hanna also escaped Egypt during the outbreak of war by taking a train to Alexandria and boarding a freighter to Greece. Altogether, Hanna had taken numerous trips to Asia, Europe, and South America, mostly on the taxpayers' expense.

It would be another two years before the Justice Department gathered enough evidence to attach criminal charges to Hanna's activities. In October of 1976, the Washington Post reported that the department was investigating the funneling of gifts and cash from the Korean government to U.S. congressmen, with over 20 past and current politicians under examination. The newspaper reported that President Park Chung Hee of South Korea was accused of personally guiding agents in the goal to create a legislative environment more favorable to that country, with Tongsun Park acting as the key lobbyist. Park said he made payments to Hanna and two other congressmen, former Democratic representatives Cornelius Gallagher of New Jersey and Edwin W. Edwards of Louisiana, then governor of that state. The Post said they'd also obtained copies of six checks, totaling $22,500, that Park had written to Hanna in 1973 and 1974. One source said Park gave Hanna about $4,000 to be used on his house.

Hanna admitted to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct that he had been involved as a silent partner in Park's import-export work, earning $60,000 to $70,000 over the course of three years. Hanna said he had never taken a political contribution from Park, and that Park had never tried to influence congressional legislation. However, he did say that he grew uncomfortable with the relationship due to the possibility of a conflict of interest, especially as Park pressed for introductions to other legislators. "I guess I was his original friend on Capitol Hill," said Hanna. "He often told me I was his oldest, dearest, closest, most valuable friend. Then he turned around and kicked me."

By this time, Hanna's travel was continuing on a smaller scale. The Orange County board of supervisors had considered him as a potential Washington lobbyist for local issues, but he withdrew his name from consideration in December of 1975. From there, he moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas and was living there in seclusion when a probe of Park's business named 27 current and former representatives and senators in September of 1977.

As a foreign national, Park was prohibited from making campaign contributions and had also failed to register as a foreign agent. Two former directors of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, named as unindicted co-conspirators, said U.S. rice dealers paid substantial amounts to Park as an agent for rice sales to Korea. Kim Hyung-Wook, one of the former directors, said Hanna and Park visited the Korean prime minister to discuss rice commissions and that Park had run lobbying efforts out of a club he owned in Washington, D.C. since 1966. Kim said Hanna wanted rice to be bought in California, and that it would be easiest to do so with Park as an agent since he could take care of payments to other congressmen to favor Korean causes. It was a rather lucrative business, since rice could be bought at subsidized prices and sold for four times the world average in Korea. Out of $9 million in rice subsidies, Park funneled $850,000 to congressmen. The misconduct led to 36 criminal corruption charges against Park, and Hanna was named as an unindicted co-conspirator for his advisory role to Park in the alleged scheme to determine which congressmen could be bought and at what price.

In October of 1977, Hanna was brought up on criminal charges of his own. An indictment charged him with three counts of bribery, one count of failing to register as a foreign agent, 35 counts of mail fraud, and one count of conspiracy. Park, as well as the two former Korean CIA directors, were named as unindicted co-conspirators in the indictment. The charges accused Hanna of getting a cut of commissions paid to Park by U.S. companies in exchange for influencing decisions related to Korea. Park admitted to giving Hanna $262,000 for his role in the scandal.

In March of 1978, most of the laundry list of charges was dismissed after Hanna pleaded guilty to the single conspiracy count, three days before he was scheduled to go to trial. "I apologize as a lawyer, as a person who held public office," he said at his sentencing. "I hope in some way to atone for what I have done, whatever years I have left." However, Hanna also thought Congress as a whole had gotten a "bad rap" from the affair and characterized the payments as campaign contributions rather than bribes. In April, Hanna was sentenced to serve six to 30 months in prison; he began the sentence the next month at the minimum security prison at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Though Hanna was closer to the scandal than the other congressmen, he may still have had better luck if he had taken the case before a jury. Three other California Democrats were reprimanded by the House: Edward R. Roybal, Charles H. Wilson, and John J. McFall. Another former Democratic representative, Otto Passman of Louisiana, was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges on the accusation that he took as much as $213,000 from Park. Hanna was named as a witness at the trial, but Passman was found not guilty. The indictment against Park, who had spent at least some of his time following his indictment in Seoul, was dismissed in August of 1979 as part of an immunity deal for his giving investigators 31 names in the scandal. Hanna, the only person convicted in the entire Koreagate uproar, was released from prison after serving a little more than one year of his sentence.

Hanna resigned from the bar in September of 1982 and spent the rest of his days out of the spotlight. He died in June of 2001 in Tryon, North Carolina.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Rep. Hanna Won't Seek Re-election" in the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 13 1974, "Traveling Companions" in The Dispatch on Mar. 28 1974, "The Washington Globetrotters" in The Dispatch on Apr. 12 1974, "Brown Leads Democratic Sweep" in the Press-Courier on Nov. 6 1974, "Hanna To Quit As Prospect For Lobbyist Post" in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 23 1975, "Gifts, Contributions From South Korea Under Investigation" in the Argus-Press on Oct. 26 1976, "Park Surrenders Bank Records" in the Lakeland Ledger on Oct. 27 1976, "Lawmaker Admits Korean Ties" in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal on Nov. 10 1976, "27 Present, Ex-Members Of Congress Linked To Park In Grand Jury Indictments" in the Toledo Blade on Sep. 7 1977, "Government Unveils Indictments Against Park" in the Rome News-Tribune on Sep. 7 1977, "Korea Probes Indict Former Lawmaker" in the Milwaukee Journal on Oct. 14 1977, "Koreagate Shadow Hits Hanna" in the Palm Beach Post on Oct. 15 1977, "Korean Agent Ties Hanna To Bribe Plot" in the Modesto Bee on Oct. 22 1977, "Korean Says Hanna Set Up Bribe Scheme" in the Anchorage Daily News on Oct. 22 1977, "Hanna Pleads Guilty In Korea Influence Buying Conspiracy" in the Lodi News-Sentinel on Mar. 18 1978, "Hanna Sentenced In Bribery Case" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Apr. 25 1978, "Park Admits Handing $850,000 To Politicians" in the Montreal Gazette on Apr. 4 1978, "Hanna Begins Prison Term" in the Palm Beach Post on May 9 1978, "Rep. Hanna To Talk At Trial" in the Lodi News-Sentinel on Mar. 21 1979, "Passman Cleared In Korea Case" in The Dispatch on Apr. 9 1979, "Koreagate Charges Dismissed" in the Gadsden Times on Aug. 17 1979, "Ex-Congressman In Bribe Scandal" in the Los Angeles Times on Sep. 9 1982, Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats, and Generals in South Korea by Mark Clifford, Taking Care of the Law by Griffin B. Bell and Ronald J. Ostrow

Donald Edgar Lukens: deliniquent girls, delinquent bank book

Image from nytimes.com

The first sex charge against Donald Edgar Lukens emerged when he was nothing more than a college kid. He was investigated for child molestation in 1954, but the parents declined to file charges. That same year, Lukens graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in sociology and joined the United States Air Force. He was 23 years old, having been born in Harveysburg, Ohio in February of 1931. He became a captain and served six-and-a-half years with the service, specializing in criminal investigation and counterintelligence, and was later a member of the Air Force Reserve. Thirty-five years later, when Lukens was well into a political career, an aide revealed the criminal investigation from his past. It was only in relation to another allegation, however, and by that time Lukens was well on his way to getting thrown out of office and into a jail cell.

After his time in the Air Force, Lukens (who nicknamed himself "Buz" out of distaste for his given name) became a minority counsel for the House Rules Committee. In 1963, during a tumultuous convention, he became the chairman of the Young Republicans. Lukens was an ultraconservative, and this post marked one of a series of victories that swayed the party farther to the right at that year's convention. New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, a moderate, even accused Lukens and his compatriots of using the "tactics of totalitarianism" at the convention. At one point, Lukens was accused of promoting biased journalism for advocating the injection of 100 Young Republicans into media jobs. He led the organization for two years, which included active stumping for unsuccessful 1964 GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

In 1966, Lukens came to the House of Representatives and two years later he was re-elected. He was a staunch advocate of the Vietnam War, speaking at a rally in 1969. Imitating President Nixon's "V for Victory" sign, he said, "no one declares North Vietnam to withdraw from the war, and yet they're the ones that started it." He deemed antiwar protesters "selfish Americans and some of them, let's face it, are indeed cowardly." He opted not to run in 1970, instead trying unsuccessfully to win that year's gubernatorial race in Ohio.

Lukens remained in Ohio and began serving in the state senate in 1971. This service was nearly cut short a few years later. He was barred from consideration in the Republican nomination for governor in 1974 after failing to file a 1972 campaign finance report. Lukens said he had done so and that the document must have gotten lost in the mail. The next year, however, he was nearly banned from running for re-election under a campaign financing law penalizing people who did not file such reports in time. The law was amended in time for him to win re-election in 1976. In 1984, the state board of elections split 2-2 on the question of whether he still complied with the residency requirements of his seat after his divorce. Lukens responded that he'd been living with a friend only a few blocks away, and that the issue was simply harassment by the state's Democrats. Lukens finally left the state senate after 15 years when he was elected to the House again in 1986, as well as re-election in 1988. During this second stint in Washington, he opposed the continuation of sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa and supported continuing aid for Nicaraguan contra rebels.

Lukens' fall from politics was an ugly affair that stretched over several years. It began in February of 1989, when he was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the unruliness and delinquency of a child. The charge was only punishable by a maximum of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, but it was essentially another child molestation accusation.

The mother of a 16-year-old girl had gone to Columbus television station WSYX regarding the matter and agreed to have the station secretly videotape a meeting between her and the representative. The two met at a McDonald's fast food restaurant, where the woman questioned Lukens about past sexual encounters with her daughter. One occurred in 1985, when the girl was 13; the other in November of 1988, when she was 16. The mother found out about the incidents after overhearing a conversation between the girl and her friend.

When confronted with the allegations at the restaurant, Lukens said he didn't know at the time that the girl was underage. He then said he would see if he could find a government job for the woman. It was a rather baldfaced effort to keep things quiet, but the FBI determined that there wasn't enough evidence for a bribery charge. Lukens denied the charges when they first came up, suggesting that he was set up and approached for money on a general allegation.

The trial began in May of 1989. The girl testified that she told Lukens she was 19, but that he had laughed it off and responded, "No, you're not." Much to Lukens' discomfort, she described the second time they met to have sex. As the girl told it, she and her 19-year-old friend went to Lukens' apartment, where the congressman greeted them wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. Lukens asked them to get changed into black robes (commenting that the white robes he had were for "white people, other kind of people;" both girls were black). They slept together, and Lukens paid her $40 and gave her birthday gifts of a pink lace fan and a silver pillbox. He also gave her friend $30, a bottle of perfume, and a diamond pendant and compensated the duo for cab fare.

The defense attacked the girl's mother as chronically unemployed and desperate for publicity and money, but to no avail. The jury found Lukens guilty after one-and-a-half hours of deliberation. Chalmers Wylie, senior Republican representative from Ohio, called for his resignation immediately. The verdict came down at about the same time as another girl accused Lukens of paying to have sex with her five or six times in 1985, when she was 15. "I refuse to allow the lies and deceit of one delinquent individual to ruin me," Lukens said in a statement responding to the verdict. "I am now fighting for my life." He went on to say that the girl had "fantasies about 'getting even with the establishment.'"

In June, Lukens was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, along with sex offender counseling and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The sentence was stayed while Lukens appealed, seeking to have the girl's school and juvenile records admitted for consideration by the court. The girl in the case wasn't exactly an angel. A month after the trial, she was in a fight with a man and the preliminary investigation determined that she was a courier for cocaine, money, and guns. In August, her mother had her arrested after a fight between the two resulted in threats and the girl breaking in a door with a crowbar.

The judge and prosecutor had clearly had enough on this score, however. Prosecutor Rita Mangini said the girl's "prior unruliness" did not factor into the case. Judge Ronald Solove declared, "The court is particularly struck by the unwillingness of the defendant to recognize that he was not the victim" and the ridiculousness of the idea that he was "somehow seduced by a child." Prosecutors also threatened to pursue felony charges related to Lukens' 1985 conduct if his appeal of the misdemeanor was successful.

The legal fight came at about the same time that Lukens had to go through the normal run for the GOP nomination. The Ethics Committee said it would look into whether Lukens violated any House rules, along with Democratic congressmen Gus Savage of Illinois (accused of molesting a Peace Corps volunteer during a trip to Zaire) and Jim Bates of California (accused of sexually harassing female staffers). Vice President Dan Quayle, in a trademark gaffe, caused snickers at a Young Republicans meeting when he accidentally used Buz Lukens' name instead of Buzz Aldrin when referring to the 20th anniversary of the Moon landing; the St. Louis Dispatch quipped "Quayle Puts Sex Offender on Apollo 11."

With the convention approaching, Lukens finally gave a curt mea culpa: "I apologize. I made a dumb mistake. I'm sorry." He came in third place in the May primary, with 17 percent of the vote. The nomination, and subsequent series of elections, instead went to state representative John Boehner.

One month later, Lukens' appeal was rejected by a state court. He finally resigned on October 24, 1990 "for the good of Congress and the integrity of the institution." Even then, it took one last incident to force him out. A few days before, he was accused of fondling a young female House elevator operator. The resignation saved him from an inquiry by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The committee had opted not to pursue an investigation after Lukens' primary loss, but in light of his remaining few months of office and the recent allegations they were ready to reopen the matter.

In November, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Lukens finally began serving his sentence in January of 1991, but only completed nine days of the month-long sentence; the judge agreed to an early release so he could start attending sex offender counseling. Lukens was not quite out of hot water yet. The girl's mother filed a lawsuit against Lukens, seeking $250,000 in damages, but a judge threw it out in December of 1993 after Lukens could not be located.

Then the bribery charges started to poke up again. The House Ethics Committee determined in 1978 that Lukens had received two $500 gifts from South Korean businessman Tongsun Park (later indicted for bribery) during his first four years in office. In July of 1994, Pentagon contractor Edward Krishack was acquitted of 16 criminal charges, including one suggesting that he gave Lukens $5,500 to get access to a congressional committee during his last year in office. Krishack was cleared at trial when it was determined that he gave Lukens the money but that it did not constitute a crime.

Lukens found himself in court again not much later. In February of 1995, he was accused of taking $27,500 in bribes from two businessmen who were trying to keep the Cambridge Technical Institute trade school in Cincinnati in the federal student loan program. One businessman, John Fitzpatrick, was also charged; the other, Henry Whitesell, had been murdered in 1990. The state alleged that the bribery occurred at about the same time that Lukens was struggling to find money to pay his legal bills on the sex charge. The potential maximum penalty was much worse this time around: 65 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine.

In October of 1995, a jury found Lukens innocent of three bribery charges but deadlocked on a fourth charge as well as a single count of conspiracy. Another trial was held in March of 1996. Prosecutors argued that he received $15,000 from the businessmen a week before the 1990 primary, when he was operating on a shoestring. In June of 1996, he was convicted of accepting a bribe and sentenced to the minimum term of 30 months in prison; he began serving seven months later. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of conspiracy in March of 1997 and got two years in prison.

Not much was heard of Lukens after that. He moved to Texas, taught English as a second language courses, and volunteered with the Red Cross. He died of cancer in Dallas in May of 2010.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Only Two Incumbent House Members Meet November 8" in the Times-News on Nov. 3 1966, "Thousands Attend Washington Rally In Support Of Nixon Vietnam Policy" in the Toledo Blade on Nov. 12 1969, "Buz Lukens Asks Supreme Court Action" in the Bryan Times on Feb. 24 1973, "Lukens May Get Relief" in the Daily Sentinel on Mar. 8 1974, "Panel Questions Lukens' Status On Residency" in the Toledo Blade on Mar. 2 1984, "Brown Votes To Certify Sen. Lukens For Primary" in the Youngstown Vindicator on Mar. 22 1984, "Tape Links Congressman To Sex With Teen" in the Pittsburgh Press on Feb. 2 1989, "Ohio Congressman Indicted On Sex Charge" in the Tuscaloosa News on Feb. 24 1989, "Congressman Indicted In Sex Case With Teenager" in the Rock Hill Herald on Feb. 24 1989, "Lukens Defends Himself, Says Sex Charge A Setup" in the Toledo Blade on Feb. 27 1989, "Congressman Denies Morals Charge" in The Telegraph on May 20 1989, "Mother Takes Stand In Lukens Sex Case" in the Reading Eagle on May 24 1989, "Teen Says Congressmen Paid Her For Sex" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on May 25 1989, "Lukens Convicted Of Sex Charge" in the Herald-Journal on May 27 1989, "Congressman Won't Resign Despite Morals Charge" in the Anchorage Daily News on Jun. 2 1989, "Girl In Lukens Case In Fight" in the Portsmouth Daily Times on Jun. 7 1989, "Lawmaker Sentenced To Jail For Sex Crime" in the Union Democrat on Jun. 30 1989, "Lukens May Face Felony Charges" in the Gadsden Times on Jul. 4 1989, "A Quayle Of A Gaffe" in the Times Daily on Jul. 16 1989, "House to Probe Lukens" in the Portsmouth Daily Times on Aug. 5 1989, "Lukens' Accuser Jailed On Charges Filed By Her Mother" in the Reading Eagle on Aug. 16 1989, "Lukens Apologizes, But Will Seek Re-Election" in the Portsmouth Daily Times on May 3 1990, "Lukens Loses After Sex Scandal" in the Free Lance-Star on May 10 1990, "Lukens Will Appeal To State High Court" in the Portsmouth Daily Times on Jun. 13 1990, "Lukens Quits To Avoid New Ethics Investigation" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Oct. 25 1990, "Ex-Legislator Loses Appeal In Sex Case" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Nov. 22 1990, "Lukens Released From Jail" in the Toledo Blade on Jan. 10 1991, "Judge Tosses Out Suit Against Former Congressman" in The Vindicator on Dec. 17 1993, "Man Acquitted Of Bribing Lukens" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jul. 11 1994, "Ex-Legislator Accused of Bribery" in The Hour on Feb. 24 1995, "Ex-Statesman Gets Bribery Mistrial" in the Gainesville Sun on Oct. 20 1995, "Lukens Convicted On Bribery Charges" in the Toledo Blade on Mar. 16 1996, "Ex-Congressman Gets 30-Month Prison Term" in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Jun. 20 1996, "Lukens Begins Sentence For Accepting Bribe" in the Toledo Blade on Feb. 20 1998, "Trade School Operator Enters Guilty Plea" in the Toledo Blade on Mar. 7 1998, "Donald Lukens, 79, Dies" in the Washington Post on May 25 2010, "Donald Lukens, Scandal-Tainted Lawmaker, Dies at 79" in the New York Times on May 25 2010, "Former Congressman Donald Lukens Dies" from United Press International on May 25 2010, The Little Quiz Book of Big Political Scandals by Paul Slansky