Politics is almost a religion here
by Warren Caudle - The Daily Advertiser (excerpt)

Few states have a history as colorful and varied as Louisiana. Politics is almost a religion here and corruption in days of yesteryear seems to have been an integral part of the political landscape. Jokes abound from both candidates and voters of “vote early an often” and Edwin Edwards famous 1983 statement of “If we don’t get Treen out of office there won’t be anything left for me to steal.”

Many say that Huey Long started most of the corruption that we know today. I hardly think he started it but was more or less in a long line of corrupt leaders in this state. He just fine tuned it and took political corruption to a new level.

A book titled “My Wars: Nazis, Mobsters, Gambling & Corruption has recently been written by Colonel Francis Grevemberg and Lafayette attorney Thomas Angers. It is an auto-biographical account of Francis Grevemberg’s stint as commissioner of state police from 1952 to 1955. It is a really good read for those who are remotely interested in Louisiana political history especially those who were living in Louisiana during that period of time.

Colonel Grevemberg goes to great length to discuss the many different raids and hundreds of arrests that were made. The interesting thing pointed out in the book and tells a lot about Louisiana and just deep the corruption ran in those days was that out of all those arrest only one person was ever convicted in this state and that conviction was overturned.