Further Inquiry, 56 Years Later
Submitted by:	N.O.V.A. April 2005
Source:  	Times Picayune 07-03-1991

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Washington

Further inquiry into the 1935 assassination of 42-year-old U.S. Sen.
Huey P. Long, allegedly by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, 29, who was gunned
down under a shower of bullets from Long's bodyguards, will bring on
a wave of renewed sorrow to members of both the Long and Weiss
families.

A member of the Long family who spoke with the understanding her
identity would not be disclosed said this tragedy has caused many
years of sorrow to both families.

Therefore, she expressed the conviction it would be a mistake to
exhume the body of the Baton Rouge eye, ear, nose and throat
specialist who was following in his father's medical footsteps.
Thus, she vowed the proposed new investigation would result in more
grief from both families.

One thing, the undertaking likely will reconfirm bits of information
that would have no bearing in a scientific investigation.

This double-barreled tragedy occurred at the peak of Huey's power,
when he controlled Louisiana's three branches of the state
government - the executive, legislative and a segment of the
judiciary. The Long and anti-Long sentiment was so bitter in those
days Louisiana appeared on the brink of revolt.

Dr. Weiss was buried on Monday following the tragedy, during a
driving rain. Thousands attended his funeral. Many did not know him
personally.

The senior Dr. Weiss said his son had carried a gun on night calls
since the time he found an intoxicated man sleeping in his parked
car. The weapon the younger Weiss carried to the state Capitol that
fateful night of Sept. 8 was never fully described nor traced by the
East Baton Rouge coroner's office or the police.

U.S. Sen. Russell B. Long, Huey's son, at a Capitol Hill press
conference in 1985 made an incidental passing reference to his
father's death.

He said Murphy Rhoden, his father's chief bodyguard, said Weiss had
pulled the trigger a second time but the pistol failed to discharge.

Rhoden and Joe Messina, another one of the bodyguards, unlimbered
their pistols after Weiss fired. Dr. Weiss' body bore 62 bullet
wounds, the coroner's inquiry disclosed.

There were mumblings that Weiss did not kill Long. However, Chief
Justice John B. Fournet of the Louisiana Supreme Court, who was
standing a few feet away, said the younger Dr. Weiss, wearing a
white linen suit, as was Huey Long, was the assailant.

No attempt was made at the inquest to try to determine the motive
for the alleged shooting. A single bullet had penetrated Long's
intestine, fatally wounding him.

Huey's wife, Rose McConnell Long, and their three children, Rose
Lolita, Russell and Palmer, were living in their Uptown New Orleans
home at the time. They rushed directly to the hospital in Baton
Rouge. Huey died before dawn on Sept. 10, 1935. His body lay in
state two days.

Before leaving Washington for the special legislative session in
Baton Rouge, Huey had broken with the administration of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. He announced that he would be a third-party
candidate for president of the United States.

Untold thousands thronged the Capitol area of Baton Rouge on the day
of the funeral and stood in the broiling sun. The Rev. Gerald L.K.
Smith, a well-known Shreveport clergyman, who headed Long's national
Share-the-Wealth organization of several millions of people,
conducted the services.

Gov. O.K. Allen appointed Rose Long to serve an interim term in
Washington as senator until a successor would be elected. In
subsequent years Russell Long became the only senator in history to
follow both his father and mother in that body. Chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee, he served his state well.

Incidentally it was during this tense era in the state that I heard
one of the most emotional speeches of my lifetime. It was nighttime
in Rayne, La., in the rice belt.

Judge Benjamin F. Pavy of Opelousas was the speaker. Judge Pavy, the
father-in-law of Long's assassin, was being gerrymandered out of his
district state judgeship.

A one-word description of the speech: The judge "exploded" with
anti-Hueyisms.

On vacation in Mexico at the time of the shooting at the Capitol, I
first learned of the incident when I got off the train high in the
mountains of Mexico. A lady boarding the train said she had just
heard that Sen. Long had been shot.