At the time, it was the only invocation of martial law for a U.S. city because of an inability to contain the criminal element. Liquor, gambling, prostitution, political corruption, and murder led to Alabama Governor Gordon Persons calling in the National Guard to assume law enforcement duties, disarm local law police departments and force them to surrender their badges.
At one time, Alabama’s Phenix City was America’s Sodom. It was called “the wickedest city in America” by the Police Gazette. General George Patton suggested taking the Army’s tanks and razing the city to the ground. A 1953 Birmingham News article stated that the town’s primary industry was “vice.” American Magazine said the city was “given over almost exclusively to honky-tonks and gambling dives.”
The article discussed the frequency of customers “being slipped a mickey:” and waking up needing one of the many “loan businesses” to provide cab fare home. That same year, a national magazine said that Phenix City had “more bars, slot machines and gaming tables than any community in the land, and “it considered itself immune to the laws of the U.S., Alabama and commonsense.”
The city is rich in history. It sits across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, GA, and was the site of what may have been the last battle of the Civil War. An injury in that skirmish led to the creation of Coca-Cola.
Many had tried to clean up the city, but all had failed. Bombs, fires, and gunshots deterred their efforts. It took the assassination of an Attorney General candidate who ran on a platform of cleaning up the city to spur the powers that be into action.
The vice issues were nothing new to Phenix City. Founded when two smaller towns were combined, corruption and illegal activities can be traced back to the 1910s. Alabama outlawed liquor six years before Prohibition was enacted for the entire country. However, the town was home to two large whiskey warehouses, and those businesses continued and thrived, with law enforcement looking the other way.
In 1916, Alabama’s Attorney General sent armed deputies to shut down the liquor business. A special prosecutor convened a grand jury, which convicted the city marshal, forced the resignation of the Mayor and council, and impeached the sheriff. Subsequent raids resulted in a million gallons of illegal whiskey being dumped into the nearby Chattahoochee River. At least for a time, this slowed much of the alcohol and gambling businesses.
A couple of years later, the United States Army opened Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) across the river in Columbus. With Auburn University and its large number of students in close proximity in the other direction, it didn’t take long for the soldiers and students to seek out the prostitution, gambling, and saloons that Phenix City offered. The once impeached sheriff was re-elected, and payoffs bought a blind eye from elected officials. Prohibition helped criminal enterprises thrive.
By the 1930s, the agreements between criminals and officeholders were more formal. Contributions to the city’s treasury and individual pockets were bartered for selective enforcement of the statutes that could compromise the illegal operations. Occasionally there would be token raids and arrests, but the punishment would be little more than a slap on the wrist, and the arrested quickly returned to their ventures. Elections were bought and paid for to ensure that no one could interrupt that massive flow of money entering corrupt pockets. A syndicate known as Shepherd-Matthews was the local equivalent of the mafia. They were able to keep the Governor from interfering in their various businesses. Growth in the number of soldiers stationed at Ft. Benning only added to their success.
After intensified scrutiny from the 1952 bombing of a man heading up an organization to try and clean up Phenix City, the Shepherd-Matthews organization exited vice for legitimate businesses, and the new leaders were even more ruthless. Phenix City attorney Albert Patterson ran for Alabama Attorney General on a platform of cleaning up Phenix City. He won the Democratic nomination by a narrow margin after alleged improprieties added to his opponents’ totals. On June 18, he was assassinated on the street just outside of his office. Media immediately poured into town looking for the story. That attention and concerned citizens pushing the Governor to act left him without options.
Governor Persons first ordered Alabama Highway Patrol to the town and then the Alabama National Guard. Guard leaders ordered all gambling stopped and began to raid the gambling houses and destroy their machines. Beginning to distrust local law enforcement that the Guard was technically there to assist and having no success getting indictments in the Patterson murder, Guard General Hanna petitioned the Governor to declare martial law.
After conversations with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight Eisenhower, Governor Persons did declare limited martial law and placed the Guard in charge of law enforcement. Soon Hanna discovered 28 murders in the previous four years for which no one had ever been charged. He called Phenix City “A whole damn town of ill repute.” The Guard took over all police facilities and disarmed officers and deputies, and confiscated their weapons. All weapon permits were voided in an attempt to restrict the rampant violence.
The Mayor was soon jailed for dereliction of duties, and military officials chosen by Hanna replaced the local government. Elections were held and monitored, and new representatives entered office. Martial law was ended in early 1955.
The Attorney General was institutionalized in a mental health facility, so Bernard Sykes, Jr. was appointed to his position. With a team of attorneys and investigators, Sykes was able to indict 150 individuals for 759 crimes and assist local prosecutors in obtaining indictments and convictions in the Patterson murder. Patterson’s son was elected Attorney General in 1955 and would later be elected Governor.
In an interview around the time of the military intervention, a Methodist minister attributed the success of vice in Phenix City to “apathy and indifference on the part of the majority of its people.” Petitions began to circulate, advocating for the county’s abolishment of liquor sales. Treasury officers began assessing tax liens for illegal income that had gone untaxed.
