Assassination of Huey Long
On September 8, 1935, United States senator and former Louisiana governor Huey Long was fatally shot at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Long was an extremely popular and influential politician at the time, and his death eliminated a possible 1936 presidential bid against incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt.
| Assassination of Huey Long | |
|---|---|
Long about two weeks before his death | |
| Location | Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 30°27′26″N 91°11′15″W |
| Date | September 8, 1935 9:20 p.m. (Central Daylight Time) |
| Target | Huey Pierce Long Jr. |
Attack type | Assassination by shooting |
| Weapons | FN Model 1910 |
| Deaths | 2 (including the perpetrator) |
| Perpetrator | Carl Austin Weiss Sr. |
| Motive | Unclear |
| ||
|---|---|---|
Governor of Louisiana
U.S. Senator from Louisiana
|
||
Long was at the capitol to pass a redistricting bill to oust Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy, an opposition state judge. Shortly after passing the bill, Long was ambushed in a hallway by Carl Weiss, Pavy's son-in-law. According to the most widely accepted version of events, Weiss shot Long in the chest, and Long's bodyguards shot Weiss, killing him instantly. There remains some controversy over whether Weiss actually shot Long, with an alternative theory claiming he was shot by his bodyguard(s) by accident during the fight and another was that Weiss instead punched Long, who was then killed in the crossfire when his bodyguards opened fire on Weiss. Long was rushed to the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where emergency surgery failed to stop internal bleeding. He was pronounced dead at 4:10 a.m. on September 10, 31 hours after being shot.
Over 200,000 people attended Long's funeral. His remains were buried on the grounds of the Louisiana State Capitol, which he had constructed. A statue of Long by Charles Keck was erected on his grave in 1940. Without Long as its leader, his Share Our Wealth movement collapsed, clearing the way for Roosevelt to be re-elected to the White House in a landslide. Long and Robert F. Kennedy of New York (in 1968) are the only two sitting United States senators to be assassinated.