During his brief but extraordinary life, Huey P. Long inspired and enraged, fundamentally reshaping how politics would be defined in his home state for generations. Today, more than 85 years after his death, disagreement about whether this epochal event was an assassination or an accident carries with it assumptions about class and privilege, questions about loyalty versus duty, and competing claims over whom we should entrust to tell historical truths.
During the last week of his life, Huey P. Long celebrated the high-life in Manhattan, signed a book deal in Pennsylvania, campaigned like a country preacher in Oklahoma, and commanded Louisiana from his 24th floor private apartment inside of the state Capitol.
Featuring exclusive, previously unreleased photographs and reports that have been either buried with time or kept hidden from the public, this sweeping conclusion to the Bayou Brief's trilogy on the assassination of Huey P. Long unpacks a conspiracy theory that has persisted for more than 86 years and challenges the portrayals of his alleged assassin, Dr. Carl A. Weiss, Sr., as an innocent victim of a corrupt cover-up.
Note: This will be periodically updated.
Preface
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The iconic American folk artist Clementine Hunter conducted a series of oral interviews in the 1970s.
For the first time ever, a transcript of one of those interviews is being made available to the public on the Bayou Brief, courtesy of LSUA's Sue Eakin Archives.
Before he won his first election, a campaign for Louisiana's Third Congressional District in 2010, Jeff Landry's claim to fame was his victory, ten years prior, in the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival's 36th annual Crawfish Eating Competition. Landry, now in his second term as Louisiana attorney general, had a...
Louisiana's attorney general is now considered a leading contender in the 2023 governor's race, but while his record of intransigent and pugilistic partisanship may have made him into a force among the far-right, it also threatens to undermine his credibility with an electorate that scrutinizes gubernatorial candidates far more extensively than the electorate that shows up during federal elections. In this sweeping review of Landry's career in politics, we consider the issues most likely to dominate any discussion about whether he is qualified to lead one of the most diverse and most economically disadvantaged states in the nation.
As the U.S. Senate soon considers whether or not to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, we consider the complicity of his most ardent and influential supporters in Louisiana, a state that played a critical part in fomenting outrage by propagating the Big Lie. This is the first in a three-part series.
In an attempt to defend President Trump on Twitter, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry reveals a profound ignorance of the law, humiliating himself and generating a torrent of ridicule from more than 15,000 people.
Recently, a conservative judge didn't buy Jeff Landry's defense that state public records laws only apply to state residents. However, the judge awarded the plaintiff nothing except legal fees.
The Bayou Brief attended the court hearing and then obtained a trove of documents that tell the full story.
Landry led a legal challenge that may result in tens of millions of Americans and potentially over a million Louisianians losing their health insurance, but he is not the only elected official in the state who should be held accountable.
Landry and Murrill are the first public officials to apply the term to an entirely ministerial accounting procedure or to suggest that career civil servants at the Department of Health and Human Services are somehow actively involved in this conspiracy.
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