The Huey-Factor

In the mid-1920s....Huey Long found a magical path to becoming the governor of Louisiana.  What he basically did was circle himself around a concept of 'Share Our Wealth'....which was the first real Bernie-program in existence within the US.  He intended to take the oil money that the state was making and plow this into roads and hospitals.  As he got into the mid-1930s, he went onto the next program: 'Every Man a King'.  In February of 1934, this program was openly discussed, and what people were promised was: a car, a $5,000 home, and a radio.

I know....here in the midst of the depression....he was offering an awful lot and no one could explain where this would come from.

What was being assembled in the spring of 1935, was a Huey Long presidential election campaign, which would start up in the primary season of 1936, and end with him being the official replacement to FDR with the November 1936 results.

Oddly, history doesn't get a chance to play out.

In the early fall of 1935, Long is working on dumping a long-term hated associate of his....Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy.  Few folks ever dig down into this hatred thing or how Pavy got on Long's bad side.

But this led to a conflict which would involve the son-in-law of Pavy.

So on the evening of 8 September 1935....Senator Long showed up at the state capital building and around 9:30 PM....and ran into Carl Weiss (son-in-law of Pavy).  Carl is noted as a successful doctor from Baton Rouge.

There are various accounts of the minute involved in this episode.  Some folks suggest that Carl just wasn't a gun-carrying kind of guy.  Some folks suggest that Carl just wanted to talk to Huey. 

There is some type of gun action here, and Huey is shot in the torso (figure four feet away).  He's bad off but is quickly carried off to the hospital.  Here, folks again have various accounts.  Some say that Huey got himself a marginally qualified doctor, and the guy just ended up letting Huey die.

The possibility that one of the bodyguards accidentally shot Long?  I suspect it's better than a 50-percent chance that this happened. 

Carl?  Well....Huey's bodyguards then opened up on him, firing away. Carl was dead on the spot.  Huey lived on for two days, before passing. 

For most people around Louisiana, it was the end of a 'Huey-saga'.  He was a year away from the Presidency and would have changed the whole dynamics to America, and likely avoiding WW II in some fashion.

It's figured that 200,000 folks came to Baton Rouge for the funeral.  For years, folks sat around and talked about the deal coming with Huey.....the $5,000 house, the car, and the radio.

Whether folks want to believe it or not....this was the first guy presenting the Bernie-deal and suggesting that the government could give free stuff away.

If Huey hadn't been shot?  I'm guessing that you would have gotten Huey in office in 1936, and he would have been there through 1948.  We would be a much different world today, (hint: I'm not saying this in the positive).