From The Vault: The Unsinkable Edwin Edwards - The Kenner Star 2010

    I cannot remember the first time I met the man, but I do remember the first time I ever appeared with him on stage. I had received a call from a member of a local women’s business organization, who said her group was staging a mock awards program to make fun of New Orleans media types. They were calling it the Eddy Awards because they wanted me to co-host it with Governor Edwin Edwards. I said, “Does he know about this?”
    The lady replied, “Sure, he loves the idea.”
    So that was how I found myself on a stage in front of a rather large audience doing standup with the Grey Fox (that was one of the more polite nicknames given to the man usually known as Fast Eddy). The show was such a hit they asked us back to do it again the next year.

    That was in the mid ’70s. In 1986, we met again on stage, this time at what was billed as “The Ed Clancy Revenge Roast.”  It happened at the Holiday Inn in Kenner, (known as Holidome because of a large clear dome over the indoor swimming pool). The whole idea of the roast was to give local politicians the chance to get back at me for ten years of being skewered in the Ed Clancy Radio Cartoons. The show just happened to take  place the very day after Edwin had been acquitted by a federal jury in New Orleans for committing some crime or other. I just couldn’t resist getting on the phone to invite U.S. Attorney John Volz, the man who had, the day before, tried to put Edwin behind bars, to be a roaster. Edwin was not a happy man when he saw Volz at the head table. If looks could kill, I’m sure Mr. Volz would now be six feet under. I seated them at opposite ends of the long table. The evening was a big success, lots of laughs and we made a few bucks for the Ronald McConald House.
    I have missed Edwin, a lot, since he went away to the Big House. Another U.S. Attorney was finally successful in wearing the Teflon off our Teflon Governor, and Edwards is serving out a ten year sentence in a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, for allegedly extorting money from three men who wanted him to help them obtain riverboat casino licenses.
    I had not thought a lot about my ex-comedy partner until a couple of weeks ago when I looked at the book rack in Wal-Mart and saw Edwin’s face staring out at me from the cover of a new book titled “Edwin Edwards, Governor of Louisiana,” (Lisburn Press, LLC). It’s author is Leo Honeycutt, a 30 year veteran of journalism and broadcasting in upstate Louisiana, who started researching the book in 2004. It’s a well written, well researched book - 556 pages and 1,736 footnotes plus an index. You don’t get indexes a lot these days. A handsome dust cover too, with a great headshot of a smiling, younger, Edwin Edwards. The book is in it’s third printing.
    “I thought we would be lucky to sell 10 thousand copies in three months,” says Honeycutt, “but we sold out in three days! We’ve sold 30 thousand and counting.” Honeycutt says he’s very close to making the New York Times best seller list. That’s quite a feat when you consider none of the sales have been outside the state of Louisiana.
    Honeycutt met with the Governor every two or three weeks to start with, and then every two or three months. The sessions lasted three hours each.
    “The visiting area is in a doublewide trailer. I would get there before he was called because when he came in he started working the tables, joking with the guys, slapping backs, kissing babies.” That sounds like  Edwin, still campaigning.
    Although the book is labelled “an authorized biography,” Honeycutt makes it clear this is no puff piece. He says, “I told him ‘if you want a whitewash or a diatribe against the federal system, then get somebody else.’ He said, ‘Damn, you’re pretty adamant!’ And I was. He said, ‘I’m too far from the womb and too close to the tomb for it to make any difference now.’” But, in the book, Honeycutt says Edwards “protected himself, played his cards close to the vest, assessing to what extent he could trust me.” While the Governor pledged to tell the truth, it was sometimes hard to pull it out of him, says Honeycutt. “It was just like David Frost interviewing Richard Nixon at times. He wanted to leave some of the stuff out, especially if he thought it would embarrass his grandchildren.”
    While the author didn’t let him get away with anything in the interviews, he did make one concession to Edwards. The last ten pages of the book are “A Letter from Edwin Edwards,” where the Governor makes the case for his own defense. He blames the news media for being “cynical,” and tarring all politicians with the same brush. He does plead guilty to being “arrogant,” but only to get his programs passed. And he admits to using humor too much. (I object, your Honor). Finally, Edwards vows that when he gets out, he’ll write his own book. “I will show the efforts made by the U.S. Attorney to “get me” and I will show...just how far the judge went to help the government get a conviction.”
    I asked Honeycutt if he thought Edwin really did tell him the truth. He said, “As far as Edwin Edwards can tell the truth. He believes he was just doing a business deal, not extorting money.”
    Was Edwards depressed in prison?
    “Not really. I once said to him, ‘You gotta be bitter because they finally got you.’ He replied ‘Nope. I will never be the kind to roll around on the floor and kick and scream about what somebody has done to me.’ The most ‘down’ I have ever seen him is when President Bush left office without commuting his sentence.”
    Honeycutt believes Edwin’s ordeal will not defeat him, even though he’ll be 84 when he’s released: “This is a guy who will forever remain unsinkable.”