Carl Weiss
Encyclopedia
Carl Austin Weiss was a young Baton Rouge, Louisiana
physician
who assassinated U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
on September 8, 1935.
of Catholic High School
. He then obtained his bachelor's degree
in 1925 from Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge. He did postgraduate work in Vienna, Austria, and was thereafter awarded internships in Vienna and at Bellevue Hospital in New York City
. In 1932, he returned to Baton Rouge to enter private practice with his father. He was president of the Louisiana Medical Society in 1933 and a member of the Kiwanis Club (Conrad 1988, 2:831).
, the seat of St. Landry Parish. The couple had one son, Carl Austin Weiss, Jr. (born 1934). Pavy was the daughter of Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy
(1874–1943) and Ida Veazie (died 1941). Judge Pavy was part of the anti-Long political faction
. Judge Pavy's brother Felix Octave Pavy, Sr. (died 1962), an Opelousas physician, had run for lieutenant governor
in 1928 on an intraparty ticket opposite the Long slate. Felix Pavy was defeated for lieutenant governor by Paul N. Cyr
of Iberia Parish, who thereafter turned against Long.
Benjamin Pavy was the Sixteenth Judicial District state judge from St. Landry and Evangeline parishes. He did not seek reelection in 1936, after Long had the legislature gerrymander the seat to include a majority of pro-Long voters within a revised district.(Conrad 1988, 2:635). Weiss's father was a prominent eye specialist who had once treated Senator Long.
Dr. Weiss's sister-in-law, Ida Catherine Pavy Boudreaux (born 1922) of Opelousas recalls that his body was sent to the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C.
, for a study of bullets entering and exiting the body. Dr. Weiss was interred in Roselawn Cemetery in Baton Rouge by Rabenhorst Funeral Home. As measured by the number of mourners, Weiss' funeral is believed to be the largest ever held for a suspected political assassin in the United States. Weiss' body was exhumed on October 29, 1991, for forensic evaluation, fifty-six years after the event, and never returned to Roselawn.
However, Weiss's son—Carl Weiss, Jr., an infant at the time—has since vigorously disputed the assertion, most recently in an interview on an Unsolved Mysteries
program first aired in 1993. Weiss was shot on the spot by Long's bodyguards. One argument made in that program revolves around the ballistics evidence. Long died from either a .38 caliber or a .45 caliber bullet consistent with the bodyguard's ammunition, while Dr. Weiss actually owned a .32 caliber gun which was not seen by anyone at the scene at the time of the confrontation. Weiss claims without evidence that the insurance company reported that Long's death was "accidental." The fatal shell, fired at relatively close range, was found by the surgeons lodged in Long's body and the conclusion reached on Unsolved Mysteries
was that the fatal bullet had either passed through Dr. Weiss's body first or ricocheted off the solid marble walls. In addition, the surgeon's report noted that Long's lip was cut, bleeding and severely bruised, consistent with the punch to Long's mouth attributed to Dr. Weiss by several observers at the scene.
However, the thesis that Huey was shot by one of his own bodyguards has not been accepted by any scholars. Prof. T. Harry Williams dismissed it as wishful thinking on the part of Dr. Weiss's son. In his exhaustive, Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography of Long, Williams wrote (p. 870, Vintage edition) that "no one had taken it very seriously, for unless all the witnesses to the event were lying or mistaken, only four shots had been fired while Huey was still in the corridor, the two from Weiss's pistol that struck Huey and Roden's wristwatch respectively and the two from the revolvers of Roden and Coleman that dropped Weiss. By the time the other guards had got their guns out and started to fire Huey had run from the scene."
2. Coleman Vidrine Jr interview. He explained how his father told him that Dr Arthur Vidrine, his uncle, had given his father, Coleman Sr. a 38 cal spent bullet for safekeeping, telling him that this was the bullet removed from Long's body during surgery. Arthur's instructions to Coleman Sr. were to keep the bullet in a safe place and tell no one about it, obviously because it was a different caliber than Weiss‘ gun. This was corroborated by J. C. Broussard a south Louisiana restaurant owner and friend of Arthur Vidrine. Broussard told T. Harry Williams during his research for his Pulitzer Prize winning book “Huey Long” that Vidrine confirmed to him that Long had two bullets in him, one being a 38 cal. Dr Vidrine also confirmed the same story to Col Francis Grevemberg’s father.
3. The recollection of Tom Ed Weiss, Carl's brother about the events he experienced the night of the Long shooting. His explanation was that after he heard about the shooting , he went to the State Capitol and located Carl's automobile which was locked. He went to his home to find the spare key and when he returned to the capitol, the automobile was moved, unlocked and ransacked. The glove compartment where Weiss kept his pistol was open and the pistol was gone.
4. The true details on the Long shooting from some of the state police officers who were at the shooting that were inadvertently disclosed to Francis Grevemberg during a long automobile trip after a raid. Grevemberg was Superintendent of state police at that time. These details included the accidental shooting of Long by his bodyguards, introducing a throw down gun which was later replaced by Weiss’s own gun, and a gathering of all of witnesses by Superintendent L. F. Guerre later to admonish them to close ranks in support of a Weiss shooting. This version was corroborated by Morris Soileau a barber , whose shop was close the state police headquarters and who heard this same story for those state police troopers who were present at the Long shooting.
5. The testimony of the two emergency room nurses at the hospital, who said that Long explained that the cut on his lip was caused by Weiss hitting him. They also related that Long asked his bodyguards “who was that ‘sob’ who hit me?” Not who shot him but who hit him which is highly probative that Long knew that Weiss did not shoot him. It would be inconceivable to believe that Weiss struck Long and five body guards standing very close would allow Weiss time to draw a gun and shoot Long after he hit him.
6. Weiss confronted Long on three separate occasions. The shooting incident occurring on the third occasion. If Weiss had gone to the Capitol intending to shoot Long, it makes no sense that he would have passed up two earlier occasions to shoot him, not knowing if he would have been presented with additional occasions later.
7. Judge Fournet’s testimony that he saw Weiss shoot Long. This has been heavily relied on for many years as the key evidence supportive of Weiss shooting Long. His declaration took place several days after the shooting and according the Grevemberg statement, after General L. F. Guerre brought all of those present at the shooting into a gathering and directed them under extreme repercussions not to break ranks against the version of Weiss shooting Long that Guerre orchestrated. Fournet recanted to at least five different individuals that he lied about what he said he saw but refused to go public with his recantation.
8. Stories about the Long shooting told to others by Vernon McGee a reporter at the scene who witnessed a bodyguard accidentally shoot Long. He and all the other reporters were later subjected to extreme intimidation by General Guerre not to report the facts but only that Weiss shot Long.
Philip Maranto also told his story of being at the shooting to a Port Allen newspaper. His story was that a bodyguard accidentally shot long in the back. Federal Judge Lansing Mitchell who was General Guerre’s attorney acknowledged that Guerre admitted to him that the Weiss gun was removed from his car after the shooting.
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
who assassinated U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr.
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
on September 8, 1935.
Baton Rouge doctor
Weiss was born in Baton Rouge to Carl Adam Weiss and Viola Maine. He was educated in local schools and graduated as the valedictorianValedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
of Catholic High School
Catholic High School (Baton Rouge)
Catholic High School is an all-male Catholic college-preparatory school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. It offers grades eight through twelve.-Awards and recognition:...
. He then obtained his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1925 from Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge. He did postgraduate work in Vienna, Austria, and was thereafter awarded internships in Vienna and at Bellevue Hospital in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1932, he returned to Baton Rouge to enter private practice with his father. He was president of the Louisiana Medical Society in 1933 and a member of the Kiwanis Club (Conrad 1988, 2:831).
The Pavy-Opelousas connection
In 1933, Weiss married Yvonne Louise Pavy of Opelousas, LouisianaOpelousas, Louisiana
Opelousas is a city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should put the city's...
, the seat of St. Landry Parish. The couple had one son, Carl Austin Weiss, Jr. (born 1934). Pavy was the daughter of Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy
Benjamin Pavy
Benjamin Henry Pavy was a state district judge in St. Landry and Evangeline parishes, Louisiana, who was gerrymandered out of office through the intervention of his political rival, the powerful Huey Pierce Long, Jr...
(1874–1943) and Ida Veazie (died 1941). Judge Pavy was part of the anti-Long political faction
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
. Judge Pavy's brother Felix Octave Pavy, Sr. (died 1962), an Opelousas physician, had run for lieutenant governor
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
The Office of Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current Lieutenant Governor is Jay Dardenne, a Republican...
in 1928 on an intraparty ticket opposite the Long slate. Felix Pavy was defeated for lieutenant governor by Paul N. Cyr
Paul N. Cyr
Paul Narcisse Cyr was the elected lieutenant governor in the Huey Pierce Long, Jr., gubernatorial administration who quarreled with the self-designated "Kingfish" throughout most of their tenure...
of Iberia Parish, who thereafter turned against Long.
Benjamin Pavy was the Sixteenth Judicial District state judge from St. Landry and Evangeline parishes. He did not seek reelection in 1936, after Long had the legislature gerrymander the seat to include a majority of pro-Long voters within a revised district.(Conrad 1988, 2:635). Weiss's father was a prominent eye specialist who had once treated Senator Long.
The shooting
On September 8, 1935, Weiss confronted and shot Huey Long in the Capitol building in Baton Rouge. Long's bodyguards opened fire and Weiss was hit with sixty-two bullets.Dr. Weiss's sister-in-law, Ida Catherine Pavy Boudreaux (born 1922) of Opelousas recalls that his body was sent to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, for a study of bullets entering and exiting the body. Dr. Weiss was interred in Roselawn Cemetery in Baton Rouge by Rabenhorst Funeral Home. As measured by the number of mourners, Weiss' funeral is believed to be the largest ever held for a suspected political assassin in the United States. Weiss' body was exhumed on October 29, 1991, for forensic evaluation, fifty-six years after the event, and never returned to Roselawn.
Family denials
At the time, Weiss's wife, parents and other family members accepted his guilt, but his parents disagreed because Weiss had seemed to be quite happy earlier in the day.However, Weiss's son—Carl Weiss, Jr., an infant at the time—has since vigorously disputed the assertion, most recently in an interview on an Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
program first aired in 1993. Weiss was shot on the spot by Long's bodyguards. One argument made in that program revolves around the ballistics evidence. Long died from either a .38 caliber or a .45 caliber bullet consistent with the bodyguard's ammunition, while Dr. Weiss actually owned a .32 caliber gun which was not seen by anyone at the scene at the time of the confrontation. Weiss claims without evidence that the insurance company reported that Long's death was "accidental." The fatal shell, fired at relatively close range, was found by the surgeons lodged in Long's body and the conclusion reached on Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack, from 1987 until 2002, and later by Dennis Farina, starting in 2008...
was that the fatal bullet had either passed through Dr. Weiss's body first or ricocheted off the solid marble walls. In addition, the surgeon's report noted that Long's lip was cut, bleeding and severely bruised, consistent with the punch to Long's mouth attributed to Dr. Weiss by several observers at the scene.
However, the thesis that Huey was shot by one of his own bodyguards has not been accepted by any scholars. Prof. T. Harry Williams dismissed it as wishful thinking on the part of Dr. Weiss's son. In his exhaustive, Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography of Long, Williams wrote (p. 870, Vintage edition) that "no one had taken it very seriously, for unless all the witnesses to the event were lying or mistaken, only four shots had been fired while Huey was still in the corridor, the two from Weiss's pistol that struck Huey and Roden's wristwatch respectively and the two from the revolvers of Roden and Coleman that dropped Weiss. By the time the other guards had got their guns out and started to fire Huey had run from the scene."
Other Evidentiary Problems
1. Merle Welsh interview. As the mortician at Rabenhorst Funeral Home where Long’s body was brought, he described in detail how Dr. Clarence Lorio removed a large caliber bullet from Long's body at the funeral home. He was given the bullet by Lorio and he, in turn, gave it to his assistant, Jack Umbagahen. Unbagahen’s relatives confirmed that he had a large caliber spent bullet on his watch chain for years describing it as the bullet that killed Huey Long. Weiss’s gun was a rather small 32 caliber.2. Coleman Vidrine Jr interview. He explained how his father told him that Dr Arthur Vidrine, his uncle, had given his father, Coleman Sr. a 38 cal spent bullet for safekeeping, telling him that this was the bullet removed from Long's body during surgery. Arthur's instructions to Coleman Sr. were to keep the bullet in a safe place and tell no one about it, obviously because it was a different caliber than Weiss‘ gun. This was corroborated by J. C. Broussard a south Louisiana restaurant owner and friend of Arthur Vidrine. Broussard told T. Harry Williams during his research for his Pulitzer Prize winning book “Huey Long” that Vidrine confirmed to him that Long had two bullets in him, one being a 38 cal. Dr Vidrine also confirmed the same story to Col Francis Grevemberg’s father.
3. The recollection of Tom Ed Weiss, Carl's brother about the events he experienced the night of the Long shooting. His explanation was that after he heard about the shooting , he went to the State Capitol and located Carl's automobile which was locked. He went to his home to find the spare key and when he returned to the capitol, the automobile was moved, unlocked and ransacked. The glove compartment where Weiss kept his pistol was open and the pistol was gone.
4. The true details on the Long shooting from some of the state police officers who were at the shooting that were inadvertently disclosed to Francis Grevemberg during a long automobile trip after a raid. Grevemberg was Superintendent of state police at that time. These details included the accidental shooting of Long by his bodyguards, introducing a throw down gun which was later replaced by Weiss’s own gun, and a gathering of all of witnesses by Superintendent L. F. Guerre later to admonish them to close ranks in support of a Weiss shooting. This version was corroborated by Morris Soileau a barber , whose shop was close the state police headquarters and who heard this same story for those state police troopers who were present at the Long shooting.
5. The testimony of the two emergency room nurses at the hospital, who said that Long explained that the cut on his lip was caused by Weiss hitting him. They also related that Long asked his bodyguards “who was that ‘sob’ who hit me?” Not who shot him but who hit him which is highly probative that Long knew that Weiss did not shoot him. It would be inconceivable to believe that Weiss struck Long and five body guards standing very close would allow Weiss time to draw a gun and shoot Long after he hit him.
6. Weiss confronted Long on three separate occasions. The shooting incident occurring on the third occasion. If Weiss had gone to the Capitol intending to shoot Long, it makes no sense that he would have passed up two earlier occasions to shoot him, not knowing if he would have been presented with additional occasions later.
7. Judge Fournet’s testimony that he saw Weiss shoot Long. This has been heavily relied on for many years as the key evidence supportive of Weiss shooting Long. His declaration took place several days after the shooting and according the Grevemberg statement, after General L. F. Guerre brought all of those present at the shooting into a gathering and directed them under extreme repercussions not to break ranks against the version of Weiss shooting Long that Guerre orchestrated. Fournet recanted to at least five different individuals that he lied about what he said he saw but refused to go public with his recantation.
8. Stories about the Long shooting told to others by Vernon McGee a reporter at the scene who witnessed a bodyguard accidentally shoot Long. He and all the other reporters were later subjected to extreme intimidation by General Guerre not to report the facts but only that Weiss shot Long.
Philip Maranto also told his story of being at the shooting to a Port Allen newspaper. His story was that a bodyguard accidentally shot long in the back. Federal Judge Lansing Mitchell who was General Guerre’s attorney acknowledged that Guerre admitted to him that the Weiss gun was removed from his car after the shooting.