Biography And Memoir Politics Louisiana History Southern History Law And True Crime

Killing the Kingfish

The Huey Long Assassination

By Jack B. McGuire

Hardcover : 9781496861351, 824 pages, 48 b&w illustrations, March 2026

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Contents
Acknowledgments 000
1. The Kingfish 000
2. Hatred of Huey and His Regime 000
3. The Bodyguards 000
4. Confrontations and Altercations 000
5. The Square Deal Revolt 000
6. Dictator Laws 000
7. The Desoto Hotel Conference 000
8. The Pavy-Long Battle in St. Landry Parish 000
9. The Gerrymander 000
10. Carl’s Hatred of Huey 000
11. The Racial Slur 000
12. The Shooting 000
13. The Inquest 000
14. The Bodyguards Defend Themselves 000
15. Justice Fournet’s Stories About the Shooting 000
16. The Death of the Kingfish, by Richard Briley (1960) 251
17. The Huey Long Murder Case, by Herman Deutsch (1963) 000
18. The Day Huey Long Was Shot, by David Zinman (1963) 000
19. Dr. T. Harry Williams Reviews Deutsch and Zinman (1963) 000
20. Requiem for a Kingfish: The Strange and Unexplained Death of Huey Long, by Ed Reed (1986) 000
21. The Mortician’s Tale 000
22. Ed Reed’s Conclusions 000
23. The FBI and the Shooting000
24. Russell Long Meets with the Doctors Weiss 000
25. The Exhumation, Gun, and Guerre Papers 000
26. The Louisiana State Police Final Investigative Report (1992) 000
27. The Huey P. Long Assassination Collection at the State Archives 000
28. The Guerre Papers and Murder Plots 000
29. Guerre’s Investigative Files from the McGuire Collection 000
30. Huey At 100: Centennial Essays on Huey Long (1993) 000
31. The Grevemberg Affidavit (1993) 000
32. Accident and Deception: The Huey Long Shooting, by Dr. Donald A. Pavy (1999) 000
33. A Voice for the Dead, by Dr. James Starrs (2005) 000
34. The Huey Long Symposium (2010) 000
35. The Debate Over What Happened Has Continued 000
36. The Author’s Conclusions 000
The Guerre Papers and the Gun 000
The Grevemberg Affidavit 000
Huey’s Cut Lip 000
One Shot 000
Huey Could Not Have Been Shot by a Bodyguard 000
Weiss’s Gun Was Not “Planted” at the Scene 000
The Inquest 000
Weiss’s Normal Day Sunday000
The Racial Slur 000
Weiss Distressed by Long Dictatorship 000
Weiss’s Motives 000
Final Conclusion 000
Notes 000
Bibliography 000
Index 000

The definitive recounting of the mysterious assassination of one of Louisiana’s most powerful politicians

Description

On September 8, 1935, Huey Long, a United States senator and former Louisiana governor, was fatally shot in a back corridor of the Louisiana state capitol. Although the most widely accepted theory holds that Dr. Carl Weiss, son-in-law of Long’s political opponent Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy, was responsible, the assassination remains one of the most debated events in American political history. In Killing the Kingfish: The Huey Long Assassination, author Jack B. McGuire offers a comprehensive and revelatory examination of what really happened that night.

Killing the Kingfish explores critical incidents leading up to the assassination, including Long’s investigation of a murder plot in early 1935 and his battles with Judge Pavy. These events, often overlooked by other historians, are crucial to understanding the volatile climate that surrounded Long’s leadership. The volume also presents previously undisclosed information, including secret state investigative files that have never been made public—until now. McGuire uncovers secret plots to assassinate Long, some involving local political figures and law enforcement officials. He details planned attempts on Long’s life originating from influential factions in Louisiana. McGuire’s findings suggest that, had Long not been killed when he was, an ambush would likely have occurred within weeks.

McGuire’s scholarship not only corrects the historical record but also offers essential insights into the dangerous political landscape of 1930s Louisiana. Incorporating rare investigative materials, Killing the Kingfish will be an invaluable resource for scholars and readers interested in the true story behind Huey Long’s tragic end.

Reviews

"Killing the Kingfish is the definitive, most authoritative account of Huey Long’s assassination and its aftermath. No historian has approached this topic with greater care, knowledge of Louisiana political history, and a better, more dispassionate command of the facts than Jack McGuire."
- Robert Mann, author of Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU