Huey Pierce Long Jr., a 42-year-old white male, was a polarizing figure in American politics, serving as the Governor of Louisiana and later as a United States Senator. On the evening of September 8, 1935, Long was at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge for a special legislative session. He was pushing through a redistricting bill aimed at ousting a political opponent, Judge Benjamin Pavy.
Shortly after 9:20 p.m., as Long walked through a hallway in the capitol building, he was approached by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, a 29-year-old physician and the son-in-law of Judge Pavy.
What happened next is a matter of historical debate. The most widely accepted account is that Weiss shot Long in the abdomen at close range. In the immediate chaos that followed, Long's bodyguards unleashed a hail of bullets at Weiss, killing him instantly at the scene. An alternative theory suggests that Weiss, angered by Long's political maneuvering against his father-in-law, merely punched the senator. According to this version, the fatal shot that struck Long was a stray bullet from the wild firing of his own bodyguards as they targeted Weiss. Weiss's body was later found to have been struck by as many as 61 bullets.
After the shooting, Long managed to stumble down a flight of stairs and was rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium. He underwent emergency surgery for a gunshot wound to his right upper abdomen, but the internal bleeding could not be stopped. Thirty-one hours after the confrontation in the capitol, at approximately 4:10 a.m. on September 10, 1935, Huey Pierce Long Jr. succumbed to his injuries.
Due to the chaotic nature of the event and the immediate death of the primary suspect, Dr. Carl Weiss, no arrests were made, and consequently, there were no charges or a trial. The official narrative has long held Weiss as the lone assassin, motivated by the political persecution of his family. However, the lack of a thorough investigation at the time, with no autopsy performed on Long, has fueled enduring controversy and alternative theories about the true sequence of events that led to the death of the 'Kingfish.'
