This conspiracy was put up as part of our site's one year anniversary. To view the little (well, kinda long) one year anniversary statement I put up explaining the three conspiracies I put up for our anniversary, click here.

Huey Pierce Long was a man who had the kind of charisma that made him popular with some, and hated by others. Long could have been the one to step up and challenge Roosevelt for the Presidency. What? You haven’t heard of him you say? That’s because in today’s history classes the only way you are remembered is if you were president or if you assassinated one. That, is in fact a shame.

Huey Long was a Louisiana native who had a down home style that helped him win support from the millions still trying to survive in a country where the continuing depression made day-to-day existence a struggle. He had the stature of a man that carries himself higher than others. That, combined with his physical appearance helped earn him the nickname "Kingfish". Not since Roosevelt had anyone had as much charisma as Long did. This charisma was also intertwined with his ability to take action. Those two forces helped Long become elected governor of Louisiana in 1928. He promoted a "Share the Wealth" program. He taxed the oil refineries and built hospitals, schools, and thousands of miles of new highways. In 1931 he was elected to the Senate. There, he advocated his "Share the Wealth" program even more and by 1934, he was the virtual dictator of his state, personally controlling the police and courts. Long talked about a guaranteed $2,000 to $3,000 income for all American families (18.3 million families earned less than $1,000 per year in 1936) and promised pensions for the elderly and a college education for the young. He would pay for these programs by taxing the rich and liquidating the great fortunes. Because of this, the rich and powerful thought him to be the Devil Incarnate. (Bill Gates wasn’t around back then; you’ll have to remember.) But most people thought that the only way to stop Long from implementing those programs was to assassinate him. And this is where the conspiracy part of the story comes in.

On September 8th 1935, Huey Long and his entourage were assembled at the state capitol building. They were waiting to see if a bill would pass that would put an old judge out of his seat on the Senate. That judge was the father of Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, the man who shot Huey Long. (Well as the belief goes anyway.) What is said to have taken place (and what went down in history) is this: Long was roaming the hallway of the state capitol looking for one of the people that would help the bill pass. Standing outside of the office of the guy that Long was looking for was none other than Carl Austin Weiss. But as long made his way into the office, Weiss was reported as trying to talk to Long and he just got brushed aside with a, "I’m too busy, kid." It happened like this three times. But on the third time, Weiss just came out and shot Long and then proceeded to get shot about sixty times by Long’s bodyguards. The reasoning behind Weiss assassinating Long was said to have been because he wanted to stop Long from trying to get his father dethroned. That’s how everyone who was there was tricked into believing it happened.

But there is another side to the story as many Conspiracy Theorists (myself included) believe that is happened. On the day of the assassination, Weiss and his family were having a nice dinner. And according to people who were there, Weiss’ dad was the one who was against Long, not Weiss himself. Weiss actually thought that Long had good policies and believed that they would work. Weiss was a father and had a wife, and during the conversation at dinner, no one believed that Weiss would be able to do something as evil as that. One excellent point as to a discrepancy in the idea that placed Weiss as an assassin was the fact that he didn’t leave a "Paper Trail". Most assassins leave reasons as to why they want to shoot someone, Weiss didn’t. They said why they THOUGHT he did it, but that’s not undeniable proof. Other discrepancies occur when we examine the operation that took place to try and save Long’s life. Long was shot around 9:20 p.m. and he was operated on around 11:00 p.m. While he was on the operation table, eyewitnesses noticed that Long’s lip was bleeding. Doctors fixed his colon, which they believed was the only damage that was done. But, after the operation, no bullet was mentioned being retrieved. That’s mostly due to the cover-up. If people found out that the bullet they retrieved from Long’s body was a .38 caliber and the gun belonging to Weiss fired .32 caliber, then surely the truth would have come out. The only people in the state capitol who had .38 caliber bullets were Long’s bodyguards, who also happened to carry .45 caliber bullets that were called "slugs". So when Huey Long died on September 10th from a serious kidney would that the doctors had overlooked another investigator was sent in to find the bullet. Guess what caliber it was? Nope not .32 which would have pointed the blame to Weiss, it was a "slug" or .45 caliber. But as if those obvious facts weren’t enough evidence, let’s think about some other key factors. Weiss was said to have been waiting outside an office while waiting to talk to Long. Well eyewitnesses reported seeing Weiss talking to people who knew his father. If he was hiding a gun, it is highly unlikely that not a single one of the people that Weiss had a conversation with would have noticed the outline of it. Another thing, this whole event happened in the state capitol. How likely is it that someone other than a bodyguard or security guard would be able to get in while carrying a gun? Not very likely. Also, if Weiss really wanted to shoot Long, he could have emptied his gun’s entire clip into Long’s back while Long poked his head into the office that Weiss was waiting outside of.

So with all these discrepancies, Conspiracy Theorists believe that the whole event was the same up until Long tried to brush away Weiss on the third attempt. On the third attempt, Conspiracy Theorists believe that Weiss got angry because Long wouldn’t listen to him and punched Long in the face. The bodyguards upon seeing this, opened fire accidentally shooting Long twice, and then shooting Weiss point blank around sixty times. This theory would make sense because of the fact of Long’s lip being busted when he went into the operating room. But after the murder, Weiss’ brother heard the rumors and went to see for himself. Outside of the capitol building, he found Weiss’ car and in it was his bag where he kept all of his medical tools. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the keys to get in on him, so he went to his house to get them. When he got back, the car was gone. He later found it around the back of the building and the bag that was in it was in disarray with all the contents strewn about and the gun that was in the glove compartment was gone. A security guard that Weiss’ brother talked to said that he saw one of Long’s bodyguards get the gun and place it near Weiss’ body.

With all this compelling evidence, they would obviously re-open the case right? Well, even if someone wanted to, they couldn’t, because a little while after the assassination, all the official records of the case and Weiss’ gun disappeared. When the files and the gun were later recovered (by examining the will of a bodyguard, investigators found them in a safe deposit box in Louisiana), ballistics tests were done on the used bullet that was found with the gun. Those tests showed that the bullet did not come from Weiss’ gun. The official records were released into police custody and the police later mentioned that nothing in the files was, "worth mentioning." (* Cough * cover-up * cough *)

So did Huey Long get assassinated? Or were both his and Weiss’ deaths caused by poor training on the part of the bodyguards? In truth, it really doesn’t matter because only one is the "correct" version that people want to hear. And as my U.S. history textbook so eloquently put it: "Had not an assassin’s bullet cut Long down in September 1935, he might have mounted a third-party challenge to Roosevelt."

-Matt

This topic seems to have generated more interest from our viewers than most others on this site. Here are a few emails that have been sent to Matt and myself-</P>

From: Luke McNeeley

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