In fact, by late 1935, Huey Long was already effectively working on his campaign for the White House; a campaign that he hoped would culminate with him at the loftiest perch possible in his vertical empire. He was not alone in recognizing his potential. A poll, quietly commissioned by Roosevelt at the time found that Long, if he decided to run as a third party candidate, could have pulled more than 3 million votes, enough to threaten the Democratic incumbent

But first Long had to make sure that the foundation of his empire, his dukedom in the bayous, was secure. He had placed his loyal toadies in office — by that point, Oscar Allen was firmly ensconced in Huey's state house chair — but Huey was still the power behind. It is, almost certainly an apocryphal story, but Huey's colorful — some say eccentric — brother Earl, who later became governor himself, once claimed that Allen so scrupulously followed Huey's instruction to sign every thing that landed on his desk, that when a leaf blew in through an open window, Allen scrawled his name on it.

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Earl Long

Not everyone in Louisiana, however, was as accommodating to Huey. Members of the Old Regulars and their supporters continued to oppose him, and on Sept. 8, 1935, Huey stalked into the magnificent capitol he had built to send a powerful message to his foes. The object of his wrath that day was Judge Benjamin Pavy, but the message he was trying to send was, by all accounts far broader than that. He was out to bring all his opponents to heel, and was prepared to go to great lengths to do it.

To that end, Huey Long, who had enlisted the support of the black community when it fit his needs, had allegedly decided not just to call a special session of the legislature to, among other things, alter the lines of Pavy's district to make sure that he would be defeated for reelection, but Long also allegedly planned to spread a rumor that Pavy's clan had at least some African roots in its family tree. At the time, such an allegation — even unfounded — would have been a devastating blow to a white, aristocratic judge.

According to the accounts of the time, Pavy's son-in-law, Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, a soft spoken 30-year-old physician, educated in Europe, tried to thwart the attack by stalking up to Huey Long as he traversed the corridor of the Capitol. Weiss it is said stormed up to the Kingfish, shoved his .22 caliber handgun into his gut, and pulled the trigger. As Huey staggered away, his army of bodyguards unleashed a hail of bullets, killing the assassin.

At least that's the way the story has always been told.

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