The Fall of the House of Zeus (56 page)

Scruggs was astonished by the statement. Across the conference table, it seemed to him that Delaney had grown uncomfortable, for Norman’s remark carried an implication that the government investigation had turned an unethical overture to Judge Lackey into a crime that reached monstrous proportions.

“We tried to tell you that,” Scruggs said.

That had been at the heart of Scruggs’s explanation of the crime: That Balducci had been instructed to do nothing that would break the law in his ear-wigging conversation with Judge Lackey. That Scruggs had not known of the payments to the judge until they had already been made in his name by Balducci.
Even as he had pleaded guilty, Scruggs insisted in his remarks before the court “there was no intent to bribe the judge; it was an intent to earwig the judge.”

But Scruggs had acknowledged, “I joined the conspiracy later in the game.”

    More than a month later, Scruggs was returned to prison in Ashland.
He spent his sixty-third birthday in a solitary cell known by
inmates as “the hole.” Prison authorities said he had been put there because it was feared he might have been exposed to swine flu while away.

    
In the fall of 2009, after more than a year in confinement, Scruggs was moved to a prison camp at Ashland where inmates had more freedom. Reflecting on the variety of cellmates he had during his journeys he wrote a friend, “So far, I’ve learned how to run a Ponzi scheme, an Internet porno network, a still, a meth lab, proper bank robbery, espionage, and now pimping. Surely there is a degree for this.”

    
Diane was capable of her own displays of black humor. When their daughter, Claire, was married in September 2009 at the family home in Oxford, Diane had a life-size pasteboard cutout of Dick, grinning and wearing a tuxedo, on hand for the ceremony. Guests posed for photographs with the facsimile of the missing father of the bride.

    Anticipating the need for a defense team, P. L. Blake began hiring lawyers shortly after Scruggs’s second guilty plea. Blake’s attorneys dispatched two private detectives to Pascagoula, where they went to see Diane Scruggs’s twin brother, David Thompson. He was not quite sure what to make of their visit. One of the detectives was quite intimidating in size, though nothing that was said seemed overtly threatening. They told Thompson that Blake “thought the world of Dick Scruggs.”

When Thompson told his sister of the visit, she found it unsettling. Diane felt that Blake was trying to send some sort of message, but she was not sure what.

    
At the end of July 2009, Bobby DeLaughter pleaded guilty to one of five counts in an indictment against him. His decision came after intense plea bargaining in the days before his trial, which had been set for August.

DeLaughter admitted guilt in lying to an FBI agent when asked about his contacts with Ed Peters. The charge constituted obstruction of justice and carried a maximum sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment. The government chose to recommend an eighteen-month sentence, and the remaining four counts of the indictment were dropped.

The sentence was formally imposed in November 2009.

Before agreeing to the reduced charges, the prosecutors realized
they would have problems in a trial. There was no hard evidence of a quid pro quo that DeLaughter received in exchange for his ruling in the
Wilson v. Scruggs
case, and the key witnesses—Tim Balducci, Joey Langston, Ed Peters, and Steve Patterson—might display shaky credibility on a vigorous cross-examination. If Trent Lott appeared as a witness, he would be expected to testify that his call to DeLaughter had been merely a courtesy, and that no federal judgeship was ever offered. But if the former senator were not called, he would represent a hole in the government’s case.

The federal courtroom in Aberdeen was crowded for DeLaughter’s appearance. Earlier in the day, he had resigned as circuit judge, and his guilty plea would end his legal career. Charlie Merkel drove across the state, as he had done several times previously, to see justice done.
But there was a new face among the spectators who wanted to witness DeLaughter’s final disgrace: Byron De La Beckwith, Jr., the son of the assassin whom DeLaughter had sent to prison for the remainder of his life.

At the first of the new year, DeLaughter went to prison himself, assigned to a federal facility in distant Kentucky.

    
In January 2010, a federal grand jury in Oxford indicted FBI agent Hal Neilson on charges of attempting to cover up his financial interest in a building housing the local FBI offices. He was also accused of lying to his own bureau. The formal charges came nearly two years after the U.S. Attorney’s Office recused itself from the investigation and the case had been turned over to federal prosecutors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Neilson’s fellow agents in Oxford were angered over the action. A member of an old Mississippi family—Neilson’s is the name of a venerable department store in Oxford that survived the Civil War—Neilson had many other friends in the area who rallied to his side. Considered part of the fabric of the community, he held undergraduate and law degrees from Ole Miss, and he and his wife and four children had settled in Oxford years earlier.

He had been reassigned to Washington in 2009 during the turmoil, but after his indictment he was suspended by the FBI—eleven months from retirement.

Neilson vowed to fight the charges, even though he underwent major heart surgery days after the indictment.

·    ·    ·

    
A week after Neilson’s indictment, Jim Greenlee announced that he would retire as U.S. attorney. The Obama administration had still not found a replacement for him, but Greenlee considered his work done.

    Though the wreckage of the house Zeus Scruggs built had been strewn about the landscape, the Force he dealt with endured.

The Washington branch remained intact. Trent Lott had yielded his power on Capitol Hill, yet he flourished in his new lobbying job, building a strong list of clients who would both enrich him and enable him to maintain influence. His Senate seat was retained by another member of the brotherhood, Roger Wicker. And Lott’s alter ego, Tom Anderson, a man who left few footprints, continued to get $1.5 million a year from Scruggs.
The money is wired to the Burke and Herbert Bank and Trust in Alexandria, Virginia, to be credited to the account of Bainberry LLC in Middlebury, Virginia, where Anderson lives.
Bainberry is not registered as a corporation with the secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Down south, more than two years after the investigation began, two of the darkest figures in the Force, P. L. Blake and Ed Peters, remained free.

V
irtually all interviews for this book were conducted in 2008 or 2009. Exceptions will be noted, such as cases where the author drew upon informal conversations that took place earlier.

1
Two months
 … Letter from Curtis Wilkie to Dick Scruggs, Jan. 31, 2008.

2
Afterward, I got
 … Letter from Scruggs to Wilkie, Feb. 12, 2008.

1
In the summer of 1992 …
Interviews with Dick Scruggs, Mike Moore, confidential sources.

2
In Pascagoula …
“The Asbestos Industry on Trial,” Paul Brodeur,
The New Yorker
, June 24, 1985.

3
Scruggs missed out …
Assuming the Risk
, Michael Orey (Little, Brown and Co., 1999); interviews with confidential sources.

4
After winning election …
Interviews with confidential sources.

5
The network teemed …
Interviews with confidential sources.

6
It was Eastland …
Interview with Robert Khayat.

7
Judge Cox …
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1980).

8
Khayat fought the charges …
“Settlement Ends Saga,”
Sun Herald
, March 22, 1985.

9
Emboldened by success …
“Background of Asbestos Cost Recovery
Litigation by the State of Mississippi,” attachment to letter from Attorney
General Mike Moore to State Auditor Steve Patterson, July 31, 1992.

10
At first, nothing appeared …
Interviews with confidential sources.

11
As money poured in …
“A Bitter Battle for Tobacco Spoils in
Mississippi,” Curtis Wilkie,
Boston Globe
, Oct. 18, 1998.

12
One of the principal figures …
2007 brochure for Patterson, Balducci and Biden PLLC Law Group.

13
After Winter won …
Interviews with confidential sources.

14
One document prepared …
Response of Steve Patterson to motion, document filed in Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, Aug. 13, 1992.

15
Moore would be cited …
Undated memorandum prepared for
Patterson by William Liston.

16
Scruggs would be implicated …
Interview with confidential source.

17
To handle the criminal charges …
Interviews with confidential sources.

18
Peters had a history …
Interview with Dan Goodgame.

19
One evening in 1992, as Scruggs struggled …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

20
Blake had been charged …
Newspaper clip, interviews with confidential sources.

21
By normal standards …
Interviews with Micajah S. Mills, confidential sources.

22
Blake was a standout …
Southeastern Conference Football Encyclopedia.

23
Sometime in the 1960s …
Interviews with Pete Johnson, confidential sources.

24
When David Bowen …
Interviews with David Bowen, confidential sources.

25
When Scruggs told his wife …
Interview with Diane Scruggs.

26
Despite Diane’s misgivings …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

27
The case was effectively settled …
Letter from Steve Patterson to District Attorney Edward J. Peters, Aug. 31, 1992.

28
Patterson would also …
Letter from Patterson to Steve Hicks, Dec. 29, 1992.

29
For his part …
Letter from Thomas E. Royals to Patterson, Sept. 14, 1992.

30
To cement the understanding …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

1
For all of the wealth …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

2
Scruggs worked out compulsively …
Interview with Johnny Morgan.

3
He was a bona fide …
Interviews with Bill Furlow, Dick Scruggs.

4
Forty years …
The Horse Soldiers
, a film directed by John Ford, 1959.

5
In the seventh grade …
Pascagoula
, Jay Higginbotham (Gill Press, 1967).

6
Their homeroom teacher …
Interview with Robert Khayat.

7
Otherwise, his was a normal …
Interview with Sam Davis.

8
Just as he had been …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

9
The Pascagoula newspaper …
The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Knopf, 2006).

10
“A pall of contradiction” …
Editorial,
The Chronicle
, September 1962.

11
For challenging orthodoxy …
The Smell of Burning Crosses: A White Integrationist Editor in Mississippi
, Ira B. Harkey (Harris-Wolfe, 1967).

12
To ensure that her son …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

13
There were few navy guys …
Interview with Johnny Morgan.

14
In the summer of 1968 …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

15
Diane attended …
Interview with Diane Scruggs.

16
A few years earlier …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

1
To his delight …
Interviews with William Winter, Dick Scruggs.

2
After graduation …
Interview with Bill Reed.

3
The firm entrusted …
Interview with Dick Scruggs.

4
When he decided …
Interview with confidential source.

5
Before Scruggs made …
Interview with Diane Scruggs.

6
Most of these local attorneys …
Interview with Lowry Lomax.

7
One of the more …
Interviews with confidential sources, confirmed in conversation with Joe Colingo.

8
At Ole Miss, Lott joined …
“Secret History,” Curtis Wilkie,
George
, June 1997.

9
Thad Cochran …
Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South
, Curtis Wilkie (Scribner, 2001).

10
After he entered politics …
Interviews with confidential sources.

11
Blake once described himself …
P. L. Blake deposition in connection with
P. L. Blake v. Gannett Company, Inc., Gannett News Service, Inc., and
Mississippi Publishers Corp.
, April 9, 1985.

12
Court documents …
“The P. L. Blake Empire Has Good Credit in Washington,” Mark Rohner and Dennis Camire, Gannett News Service,
Clarion-Ledger
, Dec. 11, 1983; Blake deposition; interviews with confidential sources.

13
Though he posed …
Blake deposition.

14
The Louisiana Buccaneers …
“Year-to-Year Notes” on New Orleans Buccaneers/Memphis Pros, courtesy of Robert Bradley.

15
In another sporting gesture …
Interviews with confidential sources; Blake deposition.