The Duke of Duval - delion

Texas Mutiny: Bullets, Ballots and Boss Rule

When Lyndon Johnson earned the nickname "Landslide Lyndon" in 1948, he did much more than barge into the U.S. Senate on the strength of 87 questionable votes. His election sparked a feud between two Texans, one, a powerful political boss, the other a law and order attorney. Their dispute degenerated into murder and a 12 year investigation that landed back on LBJ's doorstep on the eve of his presidency. The setting for the saga was South Texas Duval and Jim Wells counties. The key players were George Parr, “The Duke of Duval,” the boss of the South Texas political machine, patrón to the Mexican people; and Jake Floyd, prominent attorney, political operative, dairy farmer, Baptist deacon and family man. Through a powerful network of alliances, George Parr controlled politics in 15 South Texas counties and wielded influence at the state capital and in Washington. He also exercised considerable power over economic development in his realm, controlling banks and exacting high tax levies. His stranglehold was anathema to Jake Floyd, who practiced law in Jim Wells County, considered part of the duke's kingdom and next door to Parr’s home of Duval County. Floyd was also a successful businessman, owning dairy farms and a partnership in a profitable oil company. Out of a drive for economic survival and a distaste for corruption, Floyd led the opposition against Parr's near stranglehold. In September 1952, the Parr Floyd adversarial relationship took a personal turn. Becoming more of a menace in various legal battles, Floyd became the target of a Mexican gunman hired by the Parr regime. But the plot went awry. The triggerman killed Floyd's look alike 22 year old son. Parr never went to trial in the murder, but one of his sheriff's deputies, a thug named Mario Sapet, served a 99 year sentence for hiring the killer and providing the murder weapon and getaway car. A Parr compadre, a lawyer named Nago Alaniz, was charged in the case, but was acquitted after the Duke of Duval hired famed Texas attorney Percy Foreman to represent him. The Mexican triggerman, a hoodlum and drug trafficker named Alfredo Cervantes, disappeared into the mountains of his homeland for eight years before he was arrested. It took four more years to bring him to trial, but a Mexican judge eventually found him guilty and sentenced him to a 30 year term. Jake Floyd dedicated the last dozen years of his life to resolving the case, unbowed by a string of obstacles, many of them traceable to George Parr. There was plenty of overt evidence of Parr's involvement in a cover-up. At one point, Alaniz strongly suggested to Floyd that Parr was behind the murder plot. Yet, none of the three men arrested in the case ever told the truth about who was behind the murder. When Parr, himself, was questioned about Buddy Floyd in 1975, just months before the Duke committed suicide, he dismissed the matter with an evasive laugh. George Parr outlived his nemesis Jake Floyd by 11 years, yet he, too, tasted final defeat. The opposition led by Floyd and others continued to win support from the state and ultimately from federal authorities. In the end, Parr chose to end his own life rather than live out his days behind bars.

From: www.sheilaallee.com/Synopsis.doc

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