The Assasination of Huey Long

Huey Long, nicknamed the “Kingfish”, was a politician from Louisiana who had an interesting and tumultuous political career that culminated in his assassination attempt on September 8, 1935 and subsequent death two days later on September 10th. The book The Huey Long Murder Case by Hermann Deutsch provides a good description of the events surrounding his assassination before, during, and after. Deutsch explains Long's political career, his views, and his popularity with the people of Louisiana and the media. He also examines the assassination, the subsequent surgery, the aftermath, and the motive of the killer. His analysis makes this assassination and the events surrounding it very clear.

Huey Long's political career was something of great interest to many people in the United States. He began his political career as a member of the railroad commission and was eventually elected as governor of Louisiana in 1928. As governor he attacked the Standard Oil Company and was a huge proponent of taxation for big business. He proposed free books for all school children in both public schools and even catholic parochial schools. His wealth sharing mentality however was not always viewed very favorably by other politicians. The House of Representatives attempted to impeach Long on nine counts but the charges were dropped after the Senate did not receive the two-thirds majority that it needed to remove Long from office. His work as a “man of the people” garnered a lot of popular support for him and his philosophies that would benefit his career in the future.

In 1932 Huey Long ran for a Senate seat in Louisiana. Once elected to the Senate he developed a plan for the economic status of the country after the Great Depression which was called “Share Our Wealth”. The “Share Our Wealth” plan calls for a redistribution of the wealth in the country evenly to everyone and calls for taxation of big business. This plan strictly opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's “New Deal” and would serve as a debating point for a questionable conspiracy theory having to do with Long's assassination. Deutsch quotes him as saying:

“вЂ?In this country’ he proclaimed, вЂ?We raise so much food there’d be plenty for all if we never slaughter another hog or harvested another bushel of grain for the next two years, and yet people are still going hungry. We’ve got enough material for clothes if in the next two years we never tanned another hide or raised another lock of cotton, and yet people are still going barefoot and naked. Enough houses in this land are standing empty to put a roof over every head at night, and yet people are wandering the highways for lack of shelter.’

The remedy he proposed was simple: share our wealth instead of leaving almost all of it in the hands of a greedy few” (Deutsch 23).

Long took complete political control of Louisiana politics in the years he was governor and senator. Long championed education in his system and provided free schoolbooks to all students in Louisiana’s schools including Louisiana State University. He however was know for gerrymandering political lines, implementing his allies into the political system when he was governor and pressing his bills through the Louisiana State Legislature when he was a senator. He often did not have constitutional rights to the power he wielded which made him plenty enemies in Louisiana.

By the time Long had been elected to the senate his power over the state of Louisiana was unsettling and even upsetting some people. The statistics for Pro-Long and Anti-Long factions in Louisiana at the time were split to about fifty-fifty. Many Long supporters pointed out his “Share Our Wealth” and “Every Man a King” economic agendas while his enemies countered by emphasizing his dictatorial rule of Louisiana. One of the people who disagreed with Long was the newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long’s proposed taxation of big business and his avid criticism of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and his Federal Reserve System garnered much attention, including from Roosevelt himself. Rumors began to circulate of a plot to kill Huey Long that Roosevelt endorsed or at least was cognizant of.

On Sunday July 21, 1935 there was a political caucus held at the Hotel De Soto in New Orleans. Deutsch explains it like: “The gathering had been convened presumably without letting any outsider (i.e., вЂ?non-plotter’) know it was held. Its ostensible objective was the selection of an anti-Long gubernatorial candidate whom all anti-Long factions would agree to support against any nominee the Senator might hand-pick for endorsement” (Deutsch 33). He goes on to say:

“However, with what still appears to be a positive genius for fumbling, the anti-Long leadership guarded with such butter-fingered zeal the secret of whether, where, or when they were to meet that even before they assembled, Long aids had ample time to install the microphone of a dictograph in the room where the anti-Long General Staff was to confer. The device functioned very fuzzily…But a couple of court reporters had also been equipped with earphones at a listening post, and their stenographic transcript, though incomplete, afforded some excepts which Senator Long inflated into what he presented as a full scale murder plot” (Deutsch 33).

Long spoke openly about this alleged murder plot: “The statement most frequently quoted in the weeks and months that followed was that of an unidentified voice which the transcript has as saying: вЂ?I would draw in a lottery to go out and kill Long. It would take only one man, one gun and one bulletвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Deutsch 36). The news of these accusations by Long eventually drifted to President Roosevelt and he and his cabinet vehemently denied any involvement in a plot to take Huey Long’s life. Because Roosevelt was fairly popular, and because Huey Long came off as abrasive and wild people did not believe Long and even scoffed at the records which he presented to the Senate and the people of the United States. This led to even more controversy and people simply could not believe that the President could encourage, or even be cognizant of, a murder plot to be carried out by his own people.

On September 8, 1935 at 9:00pm Huey Long commissioned Judge James O’Connor to go to the cafeteria one floor below and buy Long some cigars and a coffee for himself. At 9:30pm Long emerged from the governors office and walked