24 Facts About Hale Boggs

Hale Boggs was the House majority leader and a member of the Warren Commission.

In 1972, while still majority leader, Boggs was on a fundraising drive in Alaska when the twin engine airplane on which he was travelling along with Alaska congressman Nick Begich and two others disappeared en route from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska.

Hale Boggs was educated at Tulane University where he received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1934 and a law degree in 1937.

Hale Boggs first practiced law in New Orleans but soon became a leader in the movement to break the power of the political machine of US Senator Huey Pierce Long Jr.

Hale Boggs was again elected to Congress in 1946 and was then re-elected thirteen times, once just after he disappeared, but before he was presumed dead.

In 1951, Hale Boggs launched an ill-fated campaign for governor of Louisiana.

Hale Boggs avoided the question and attacked both Grace and Perez for conducting a smear campaign against him.

The Boggs Act of 1952, sponsored by Hale Boggs, set harsh mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses.

Hale Boggs voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,1960 and 1964, but voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Hale Boggs was instrumental in passage of the interstate highway program in 1956.

Hale Boggs has been reported to have differing positions regarding the Warren report.

Hale Boggs said that all the evidence indicated that Kennedy was shot from behind and that the argument that one bullet hit both Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally was "very persuasive".

Hale Boggs took issue with the assertions of Warren Commission critics and stated that it was "human nature" that "many people would prefer to believe there was a conspiracy".

Hale Boggs served as Majority Whip from 1962 to 1971 and as Majority Leader from January 1971 up until the time of his disappearance.

In late 1966, Hale Boggs was asked to help the AFL-NFL merger by having the merged league receive an exemption from antitrust-law sanctions.

Hale Boggs helped get the merger attached to a bill that would get to a vote, which resulted in both a successful merger and a professional football team in Louisiana, which soon became known as the New Orleans Saints.

Hale Boggs stated that the FBI had him under surveillance and that they were violating the Bill of Rights.

Hale Boggs added that numerous members of Congress had expressed their belief to him in private that the FBI was monitoring their phone conversations and criticized the FBI for placing agents on college campuses in order to infiltrate certain organizations.

Hale Boggs demanded the resignation of Hoover and accused the FBI of utilizing "the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo".

Ford speculated that Hale Boggs was either drinking too much or taking pills that were upsetting him mentally.

On October 16,1972, Hale Boggs was aboard a twin-engine Cessna 310 with Representative Begich, who was facing a possible tight race in the November 1972 general election against the Republican candidate, Don Young, when it disappeared during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau.

In summer 2020, Hale Boggs's disappearance was investigated in a podcast produced by iHeartMedia called Missing in Alaska.

Hale Boggs was reelected to the eight succeeding Congresses and retired after the 1990 election.

In 1993, Hale Boggs was among 13 politicians, past and present, inducted into the first class of the new Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.