Hale Boggs | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Boggs in March 1971 | |
| House Majority Leader | |
| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1973[a] | |
| Deputy | Tip O'Neill |
| Speaker | Carl Albert |
| Preceded by | Carl Albert |
| Succeeded by | Tip O'Neill |
| House Majority Whip | |
| In office January 10, 1962 – January 3, 1971 | |
| Leader | Carl Albert |
| Preceded by | Carl Albert |
| Succeeded by | Tip O'Neill |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Paul H. Maloney |
| Succeeded by | Lindy Boggs |
| In office January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1943 | |
| Preceded by | Paul H. Maloney |
| Succeeded by | Paul H. Maloney |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Hale Boggs (1914-02-15)February 15, 1914 Long Beach, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | On or after October 16, 1972 (aged 58) Alaska, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingBarbara,Tommy, andCokie |
| Education | Tulane University (BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1943–1946 |
| Rank | Ensign |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Disappeared | October 16, 1972(1972-10-16) (aged 58) Alaska, U.S. |
| Status | Declared deadin absentia (1972-12-29)December 29, 1972 (aged 58) |
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. (February 15, 1914 – disappeared October 16, 1972;declared dead December 29, 1972) was an AmericanDemocratic Party politician and a member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Orleans,Louisiana. He was theHouse majority leader and a member of theWarren Commission.
In 1972, while still majority leader, Boggs was on a fundraising drive inAlaska when the twin engine airplane on which he was travelling along with Alaska congressmanNick Begich and two others disappeared en route fromAnchorage toJuneau, Alaska.
Boggs was born inLong Beach inHarrison County on theMississippi Gulf Coast, the son of Claire Josephine (Hale) and William Robertson "Will" Boggs.[1] Boggs was educated atTulane University where he received abachelor's degree injournalism in 1934 and alaw degree in 1937. He first practiced law inNew Orleans but soon became a leader in the movement to break the power of thepolitical machine ofU.S. SenatorHuey Long, who wasassassinated in 1935. Long had previously broken the power of New Orleans politicians in 1929.[2][3]
ADemocrat running as ananti-Long candidate in the2nd congressional district, Boggs defeated incumbentPaul H. Maloney in the 1940 Democratic primary and won the general election unopposed. When he was sworn in he was, at 27, the youngest member of Congress.
His initial election was not without controversy; five of his political allies who served asOrleans Parish election commissioners were convicted of changing 97 votes for Boggs's Democratic primary opponents into votes for Boggs. The case,United States v. Classic, reached the Supreme Court, where it established the federal government's authority to regulate local primary elections, setting a key precedent for latercivil rights decisions.[4]
After an unsuccessful bid for renomination in 1942 against his predecessor Paul Maloney, Boggs joined theUnited States Navy as anensign. He served the remainder ofWorld War II.[citation needed]
After the war, Boggs began his political comeback. He was again elected to Congress in 1946 (on Maloney's retirement) and was then re-elected thirteen times, once just after he disappeared, but before he was presumed dead. In 1951, Boggs launched an ill-fated campaign forgovernor of Louisiana. Leading in the polls early in the campaign, he was soon put on the defensive when another candidate,Lucille May Grace, at the urging of long-time southeastern Louisianapolitical bossLeander Perez, questioned Boggs's membership in theAmerican Student Union in the 1930s. By 1951, the ASU was thought to be aCommunist front. Boggs avoided the question and attacked both Grace and Perez for conducting a smear campaign against him. In his book,The Big Lie, authorGarry Boulard suggests strongly that Boggs was a member of the ASU but tried to cover up that fact in the different political climate of the early 1950s.[citation needed]
TheBoggs Act of 1952, sponsored by Hale Boggs, set harsh mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses. A first-offense conviction for marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2 to 10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.[5]
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During his tenure in Congress, Boggs was an influential member. After theBrown v. Board of Education decision, he signed the 1956Southern Manifesto condemning desegregation. Boggs voted against theCivil Rights Acts of 1957,[6]1960[7] and1964,[8] but voted in favor of theVoting Rights Act of 1965 and theCivil Rights Act of 1968.[9][10] He was instrumental in passage of theinterstate highway program in 1956.
Boggs was the youngest member of theWarren Commission, which, from 1963 to 1964, investigated theassassination of John F. Kennedy.[11] Boggs has been reported to have differing positions regarding the Warren report. Based upon Office of the House Historian and Clerk of the House Office of Art and Archives, Politico reports that "Boggs dissented from the commission's majority report which supported the single bullet thesis — pointing to a lone assassin. Boggs said he "had strong doubts about it".[12] But in a 1966 appearance onFace the Nation, Boggs defended the commission's findings and stated that he did not doubt thatLee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.[13][14] He said that all the evidence indicated that Kennedy was shot from behind and that the argument that one bullet hit both Kennedy andTexas GovernorJohn Connally was "very persuasive".[14] Boggs took issue with the assertions of Warren Commission critics and stated that it was "human nature" that "many people would prefer to believe there was a conspiracy".[13][14] Boggs' son,Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., later stated that his father had shown him dossiers compiled by the FBI on Warren Commission critics in order to discredit them.[15] It is unknown why his position was stated in such opposite terms, but conspiracy theorists have pondered that difference as significant. InOliver Stone's filmJFK, it is Sen. Russell Long who promptsJim Garrison (the District Attorney of Orleans Parish) to reopen his investigation into Lee Harvey Oswald's activities in New Orleans during the summer of 1963 (beginning with Oswald's association with David W. Ferrie and Guy Bannister). According to authorJoan Mellen in her bookA Farewell to Justice, Jim Garrison told her it was actually Boggs that prompted him to reopen his investigation into the assassination of the President.[16]
In the 1979 novel "The Matarese Circle", authorRobert Ludlum portrayed Boggs as having been killed to stop his probe into the assassination.[17]
Boggs served asMajority Whip from 1962 to 1971 and as Majority Leader from January 1971 up until the time of his disappearance. As the Whip, he ushered much of President Johnson'sGreat Society legislation through Congress. In late 1966, Boggs was asked to help theAFL-NFL merger by having the merged league receive an exemption from antitrust-law sanctions. He helped get the merger attached to a bill that would get to a vote (as assisted by state senatorRussell Long), which resulted in both a successful merger and a professional football team in Louisiana, which soon became known as theNew Orleans Saints.[18]
On August 22, 1968, while Secretary of StateDean Rusk was testifying in a hearing concerning the Vietnam War, Boggs interrupted the session to announce theinvasion of Czechoslovakia by the troops of theSoviet Union, after hearing of a recent Radio Prague broadcast telling the Czechoslovaks not to take any action against the occupying forces. That caused Secretary Rusk, who was previously unaware of the situation, to excuse himself immediately, mid-testimony, to attend to the issue of the invasion.[19] (Source:Walter Cronkite:The Way It Was: The 1960s)
On 5 April 1971, he made a speech on the floor of the House in which he strongly attackedFederal Bureau of Investigation DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover and the whole of the FBI.[20] He stated that the FBI had him under surveillance and that they were violating theBill of Rights. He added that numerous members of Congress had expressed their belief to him in private that the FBI was monitoring their phone conversations and criticized the FBI for placing agents on college campuses in order to infiltrate certain organizations.[21] Boggs demanded the resignation of Hoover and accused the FBI of utilizing "the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler'sGestapo". This speech shocked many, including his own staff and fellow Congress members.[22]
That led to a conversation on April 6, 1971 between PresidentRichard M. Nixon and the Republican minority leader,Gerald Ford. Nixon said that he could no longer take counsel from Boggs as a senior member of Congress. In the recording of this call, Nixon asked Ford to arrange for the House delegation to include an alternative to Boggs. Ford speculated that Boggs was either drinking too much or taking pills that were upsetting him mentally.[23]
On April 22, 1971, Boggs went even further:"Over the postwar years, we have granted to the elite and secret police within our system vast new powers over the lives and liberties of the people. At the request of the trusted and respected heads of those forces, and their appeal to the necessities of national security, we have exempted those grants of power from due accounting and strict surveillance."[24]
As majority leader, Boggs often campaigned for others, including RepresentativeNick Begich ofAlaska. On October 16, 1972, Boggs was aboard a twin-engineCessna 310 with Representative Begich, who was facing a possible tight race in the November 1972 general election against the Republican candidate,Don Young, when it disappeared during a flight fromAnchorage toJuneau. Also on board were Begich's aide, Russell Brown, and pilot Don Jonz;[25] the four were heading to a campaign fundraiser for Begich.
The search for the missing aircraft and four men included the U.S.Coast Guard,Navy,Army,Air Force,Civil Air Patrol and civilian fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.[26]: 3
An emergency position-indicatingemergency locator transmitter (ELT) was not required at this time. This accident influenced the adoption of the ELT requirement in 1973.[27]
No emergency-transmission signal determined to be from the plane was heard during the search. In its report on the incident, theNational Transportation Safety Board stated that the pilot's portable emergency transmitter, permissible in lieu of a fixed transmitter on the plane, was found in an aircraft atFairbanks. The report also notes that a witness saw an unidentified object in the pilot's briefcase that resembled, except for color, the portable emergency transmitter. The safety board concluded that neither the pilot nor aircraft had an emergency location transmitter.[26]: 6–8
On November 24, 1972, the search was suspended after 39 days. Neither the wreckage of the plane nor the pilot's and passengers' remains were ever found. After a hearing and seven-minute jury deliberation, his death certificate was signed by JudgeDorothy Tyner.[28]
After Boggs and Begich were re-elected posthumously that November, House Resolution 1 of January 3, 1973, officially recognized Boggs'spresumed death and opened the way for aspecial election. The same was done for Begich.
In summer 2020, Boggs's disappearance was investigated in a podcast produced byiHeartMedia calledMissing in Alaska.[29][30]
In 1973, Boggs's wife since 1938,Lindy, was elected as a Democrat to the 93rd Congress, by special election, to the second district seat left vacant by her husband's death.[31] She was reelected to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 20, 1973 – January 3, 1991) and retired after the 1990 election.[32][33] In 1997, PresidentBill Clinton appointed Lindy BoggsU.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, in which capacity she served until 2001.[34]
Hale and Lindy Boggs had four children:Cokie Roberts,[35] who was a U.S. TV and public-radio journalist and the wife of journalistSteven V. Roberts,Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., who was aWashington, D.C.–based lawyer and lobbyist,Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who served as mayor ofPrinceton, New Jersey, and William Robertson Boggs, who died as an infant on December 28, 1946. In 1982, Sigmund lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for theU.S. Senate toFrank Lautenberg.[citation needed]
Boggs was a practicing Roman Catholic.[36]
TheHale Boggs Memorial Bridge, which spans theMississippi River inSt. Charles Parish, is named in memory of the former congressman. The visitor center atPortage Glacier inSouthcentral Alaska (located withinChugach National Forest) is named the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center.Boggs Peak, four miles north of the visitor center, is also named for him. TheHale Boggs Federal Complex, at 500Poydras Street in New Orleans, is also named after him.
In 1993, Boggs was among 13 politicians, past and present, inducted into the first class of the newLouisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame inWinnfield.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 2nd congressional district 1941–1943 | Succeeded by |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 2nd congressional district 1947–1973 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Chair of the House Campaign Expenditures Committee 1951–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | House Majority Whip 1962–1971 | Succeeded by |
| House Majority Leader 1971–1973 | ||
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | House Democratic Deputy Leader 1962–1971 | Succeeded by |
| House Democratic Leader 1971–1973 | ||
| Preceded by | Response to the State of the Union address 1972 Served alongside:Carl Albert,Lloyd Bentsen,John Brademas,Frank Church,Thomas Eagleton,Martha Griffiths,John Melcher,Ralph Metcalfe,William Proxmire,Leonor Sullivan | Vacant Title next held by Mike Mansfield |
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