David Duke | 5. The Road to Hell

Summary

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Slow Burn: David Duke | 5. The Road to Hell

Release Date: July 15, 2020
Host: Josh Levine (Slate Podcasts)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Slow Burn examines the political career and cultural influence of Edwin Edwards, Louisiana’s flamboyant and controversial former governor, as a crucial backdrop to the rise of David Duke. Through interviews, archival tape, and detailed storytelling, the episode paints a picture of Louisiana’s unique political landscape in the late 20th century—one defined by charisma, corruption, and deeply divided loyalties. The central narrative explores how Edwards’ era shaped the environment in which David Duke, notorious white supremacist, nearly seized statewide power.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Edwin Edwards: The Person & the Politician

• Private vs. Public Persona:
  • Edwin Edwards is described as introverted in private life, in stark contrast to his public flamboyance.
  • "[I'm] a very different person when I'm not on the stage. ...I don't drink at all. ...the most fun I have in life is taking care of my 7-year-old child and my wife." (Edwin Edwards, 01:15)
• Trina Edwards as a Bridge:
  • His much-younger wife, Trina, serves as a go-between in the interview due to his age and hearing difficulties.
  • Their relationship began while Edwards was in prison for corruption charges.

2. Edwards’ Rise and Unique Coalition Politics

• Distinct Louisiana Political Landscape:
  • Louisiana’s politics are depicted as unique, shaped by entrenched corruption, shifting alliances, and colorful figures.
  • Edwards’ ability to unite Cajuns and Black voters is cited as an electoral formula.
    • "He had a coalition... Cajuns and blacks. If you can put those two voting bases together... it was an unbeatable coalition." (Marc Morial, 03:10–03:24)
• Bucking Party Trends:
  • Unlike most Southern white Democrats, Edwards was a strong civil rights proponent, increasing Black representation in government and fighting discrimination.

3. Charisma, Scandal, and Popularity

• Mythic One-Liners:
  • Edwards became famous for sharp, sometimes outrageous quips that cemented his populist image.
    • "The only way I could lose this election is if I got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." (Edwin Edwards, 04:56)
    • On regret: "No, it's one of the things I said that people identified with me and they thought it was kind of funny." (Edwin Edwards, 05:26)
• Scandal Tolerance:
  • Voters were remarkably forgiving about Edwards' numerous scandals and grand jury investigations; he seemed untouchable in the 1970s and early 1980s.

4. The Highs: Political Victory and the Paris Fundraiser

• 1983 Election and Celebration:
  • Edwards wins big (62% of the vote), then hosts a lavish fundraiser in Paris for supporters willing to pay $10,000. Over 600 guests attend.
  • "The whole deal did not smell of righteousness, that's for sure. But... it's hard to be proper and have a real good time." (Roy Blunt Jr., 06:21–06:35)
  • Anecdotes include playful banter with a Parisian nun, highlighting Edwards’ irreverent charm.

5. The Lows: Economic Decline and Indictments

• Collapse of Oil Economy:
  • The 1980s oil bust hits Louisiana hard; Edwards responds with tax hikes, eroding his popularity.
    • "When you're trying to raise taxes on people who are really struggling already, it's a very precarious political situation." (Marc Morial, 07:51)
• Federal Indictment:
  • Edwards is indicted on racketeering and fraud (1985), but after a lengthy trial, he’s acquitted.
  • On the prosecutor: "That was an example of a stupid prosecutor who didn't know anything about what was happening." (Edwin Edwards, 09:30)
  • He denies ever profiting improperly: "No, because there's no truth to it. So it didn't bother me at all. I just laughed about it." (Edwin Edwards, 09:49)

6. Transition & Political Downfall

• 1987 Election Loss & Strategic Exit:
  • After a poor showing in the 1987 election, Edwards shocks everyone by withdrawing before the runoff, ending his long gubernatorial reign.
    • "I have determined that under the circumstances... it would be inappropriate for me to continue this election." (Edwin Edwards, 11:01)
    • His family is in tears; the state moves on to Buddy Roemer as governor.
• Calculated Comeback Plan:
  • Edwards’ withdrawal was strategic—he predicted his successor would fail, positioning himself for a future return.
    • "He was absolutely resolute... oh, look, I’m gonna let him have it... and he's gonna disintegrate. You mark my word." (Marc Morial, 11:39)
• 1991: The Stage is Set for David Duke
  • The episode concludes by suggesting that the instability and resentments of the late '80s set the stage for David Duke’s rise. The battle for Louisiana would now be about its identity and future, with Duke entering at the height of his influence.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Edwin Edwards on Louisianan Identity:
  • "I don't like Louisiana politics. I love Louisiana. I love Louisiana enough to make some people angry." (Edwin Edwards, 10:18)
• On His Own Infamy:
  • "It was illegal for them to give, but not for me to receive." (Edwin Edwards, paraphrased from narrator, 03:52)
• Paris Fundraiser, with humor:
  • "She gave him what she described as a French kiss... so he said, 'Okay, Sister, but just don't let me get into the habit.'" (Roy Blunt Jr., 06:46)
• On Resignation and Comeback:
  • "Dropping out of the race, that was the first step in his comeback plan." (Narrator, 11:21)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:08–02:51 – Edwin Edwards discusses his private life and relationship with Trina.
• 03:10–03:24 – Marc Morial explains Edwards’ winning coalition.
• 04:56 – Edwards delivers his most famous “dead girl/live boy” one-liner.
• 06:06–07:10 – Roy Blunt Jr. recounts the Paris fundraiser.
• 07:34–09:59 – Discussion of Edwards’ legal troubles and public reaction.
• 11:01–11:21 – The moment Edwards stuns supporters by withdrawing from the race.
• 11:39–end – Morial explains Edwards’ strategy; the narrative pivots to the coming battle with David Duke.

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Tone & Style

The episode is reflective and wry, filled with colorful anecdotes and a sense of Louisiana’s outsized, theatrical politics. The storytelling is rich in direct quotations, letting the personalities of Edwards and his contemporaries come through. Josh Levine’s narration weaves a connection between past and present, setting the political scene that made David Duke’s later rise both possible and chilling.

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For listeners new to the saga, this episode delivers a vivid portrait of Louisiana’s political circus and the larger stakes at play as David Duke prepares to enter the national stage.

Transcript

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[Narrator/Interviewer]

Is it true that he's kind of a private and quiet like introverted person when he's by himself?

[Interviewer/Host]

Are you asking me or him?

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Asking him? If you want to weigh in too, that's fine.

[Interviewer/Host]

He definitely is.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

That's Trina Edwards. We were talking about her husband, Edwin Edwards, the former governor of Louisiana. Trina is almost 42 and Edwin will be 93 in August. She was passing along my questions because he has a hard time hearing over the phone.

[Interviewer/Host]

Is it true that you're a quiet kind of introverted person when you're not in public, when you're home by yourself?

[Edwin Edwards]

Well, I'm a very different person when I'm not on the stage. That's the way I am. I'm very quiet and private and I don't drink at all. I don't use drugs at all. And so now the most fun I have in life is taking care of my 7 year old child and my wife.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Trina is Edwin's third wife. They've been married since 2011. The two of them met when she started writing him letters in federal prison. Edward served eight years on corruption charges. He was convicted of rigging casino licenses during his final term as governor. When he got out, he and Trina brought their relationship to reality tv.

[Interviewer/Host]

The fair maiden in this story is me. I'm the governor's wife.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Their show went off the air after eight episodes. Since then, Edwards has run for Congress and lost, and he's had a couple of health scares. But he still has a remarkable command of Louisiana political history, much of which he shaped during his four terms as governor. To understand David Duke, you need to understand what makes Louisiana politics distinctive. The unique alliances, the entrenched corruption, and the charismatic figures who've molded the state in their own images. And Edwin Edwards is Louisiana politics personified. Edwards first gubernatorial campaign began in 1971.

[Edwin Edwards]

First of all, I spoke French. And in 1971 there were still people, older people in Louisiana who understood English, but they preferred to hear and speak in French. So I made some French ads and I it helped Me with that particular group of people.

[Marc Morial]

I mean, he had a coalition, a distinctly Louisiana coalition. He had Cajuns and blacks.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

That's Marc Morial. He worked with Edwards as the state legislator and as the mayor of New Orleans in Louisiana.

[Marc Morial]

If you can put those two voting bases together in those days, it was an unbeatable coalition.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Unlike most of his white Democratic peers, Edwards was an unabashed civil rights champion. He invited black Louisianans to work in government positions and helped craft a state constitution that outlawed discrimination. He also made Louisiana richer. As governor, Edwards helped change how crude oil got taxed, moving from a flat fee per barrel to a percentage of the barrel price. When oil prices shot up, state revenues soared. So did Edwin Edwards. Popularity stories about Edwards gambling and womanizing didn't hurt him with voters. The miasma of corruption and scandal that hung over his administration didn't damage him either. There were six grand jury investigations during Edwards first term, but he wasn't indicted in any of those cases. It seemed like the silver haired, silver tongued governor could talk his way out of anything. When asked about some iffy political donations, Edwards said it was illegal for them to give but not for me to receive. Edwards led Louisiana for eight years, leaving office in March 1980. The only thing stopping him from being governor for life were term limits that Edwards himself had pushed for. So he went on a brief hiatus, sitting out the next election cycle, then returning in 1983 to reclaim his throne. In the last days of that campaign, Edwards fired off his most famous one liner.

[Edwin Edwards]

The only way I could lose this election is if I got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. And that took on a life of its own and has been quoted many times since by other people.

[Interviewer/Host]

Is that good enough or.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Yeah. Thank you, Trina. Does he regret saying that or is he happy that he said it?

[Interviewer/Host]

I guarantee he doesn't regret anything he's ever done. Hold on. Do you regret saying that or are you happy you said that?

[Edwin Edwards]

No, it's one of the things that I said that people identified with me and they thought it was kind of funny.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Edwards was right to believe that 1983 election was a lock. He'd win it with 62% of the vote. To celebrate his victory, he did something audacious even by Edwin Edwards standards.

[Narrator/Reporter]

If there's one thing Louisiana Governor elect Edwin Edwards knows, it's how to have a good time. Even with a $4 million campaign deficit staring him down, Edwards chartered two jumbo jets, announced he was going to Paris, and invited anyone willing to contribute $10,000 to come on along.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

More than 600 people joined Edwards on that trip to France, which was touted as the largest single political fundraiser ever thrown by an American politician. The writer Roy Blunt Jr. On assignment for People magazine, went along for the ride.

[Roy Blunt Jr.]

You know, the whole deal did not smell of righteousness, that's for sure. But as some people said, it's hard to be proper and have a real good time.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

The French speaking Edwards and his crew of Louisianans ate high class cuisine at the palace of Versailles. The governor also received a warm greeting from a nun outside Notre Dame Cathedral.

[Roy Blunt Jr.]

And she gave him what she described as a French kiss, which was actually of course more like a nun's kiss, but she could take a joke. And so he said, okay Sister, but just don't let me get into the habit. And all of his supporters gathered around, cheered and beamed and that's kind of thing they had come to Paris for.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

The party ended for Edwin Edwards as soon as those jumbo jets landed back in Louisiana.

[Marc Morial]

The campaign of 83 was great. It was one of the funnest experiences of my life. The service in the governor's office from 84 to 87, it was not. It was a very difficult experience.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

That's Sid Moreland. He was Edwin Edwards assistant. By the mid-1980s, oil and gas revenues had plummeted and the state was facing a huge deficit. Edwards tried to fill that hole with tax increases. His constituents didn't find that rakish or charming.

[Marc Morial]

You know, when you're trying to raise taxes on people who are really struggling already, it's a very precarious political situation to be in. So this tax package was probably the beginning of his unpopularity.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

In February 1985, Edwin Edwards run of bad luck got a whole lot worse.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The 50 count federal indictment charges Governor Edwards and six others, including his brother and a nephew, with racketeering and fraud in a multimillion dollar scheme involving the effective sale of state approval for medical facility construction projects.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Edwards was accused basically of accepting bribes to steer state money to his friends. The trial dragged on somehow for 14 weeks. Moreland spent most of it on a payphone outside the New Orleans courtroom.

[Marc Morial]

I was constantly calling the governor's office in Baton Rouge and getting the phone messages and returning those phone calls and explaining to people under the circumstances, you know, the governor can't talk to you right this minute. And, and we tried to be as diplomatic about it as we could. And of course most people knew where he was and what he was going through, but they called Anyway, the case.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Ended in a mistrial. Edwards was later retried and found not guilty. When that verdict came in, the prosecutor said, if we didn't make him honest, I hope we made him sorry. When I asked Edwards about the case, he didn't sound all that sorry.

[Edwin Edwards]

That was an example of a stupid prosecutor who didn't know anything about what was happening.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Did it bother him when people said he was profiting from his role as the governor?

[Interviewer/Host]

Did it bother you when people said you were profiting from your role as governor?

[Edwin Edwards]

No, because. Cause there's no truth to it. So it didn't bother me at all. I just laughed about it.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Edwards may have been laughing, but he was still in a precarious spot in good times. Most people in Louisiana loved his misadventures. But these weren't good times. The boom years of the 1970s were long gone. In 1987, Louisiana was ready for a change.

[Edwin Edwards]

I notice my opponents don't make many people angry. That doesn't surprise you, does it? Politics as usual. I don't like Louisiana politics. I love Louisiana. I love Louisiana enough to make some people angry.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Buddy Romer was a congressman from north Louisiana. In the last four weeks of the 1987 governor's race, he zoomed from fifth to first in the polls. Buoyed by folksy TV ads and a string of newspaper endorsements. Romer led Edwards by 5 percentage points after the first round of voting, setting the stage for a runoff. But when Edwards emerged after 1am to greet his supporters, he made a move that nobody had anticipated.

[Edwin Edwards]

And I have determined that under the circumstances, since I did not run first, that it would be inappropriate for me to continue the selection.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Supporters were stunned. Some of his family cried. He's 60. He's been governor 12 years. He said, that's long enough. Most voters thought so, too.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

There would be no runoff. Romer would be the next governor of Louisiana. And Edwin Edwards. It looked to outside observers like his career was finished. But that's not how Edwards saw it. Dropping out of the race, that was the first step in his comeback plan.

[Marc Morial]

I spoke with him that night and he was absolutely resolute that, oh, look, I'm gonna let him have it. I'm gonna turn it over to him. He's been going all over this state saying, he's gonna fix this, he's gonna fix that, and he's gonna disintegrate. You mocked my word.

[Narrator/Interviewer]

Edwards had it all mapped out. He would let Romer run the state for a few difficult years, then re emerge to save the day. It wouldn't be that simple. The 1991 election would be about a lot more than who got to sleep in the governor's mansion. It'd be a fight over what Louisiana was and what it should be. And Edwin Edwards and Buddy Roemer wouldn't be the only ones in that battle. In 1991, David Duke was at the height of his powers. He'd honed his message, built a rabid fan base, and come shockingly close to getting elected to the U.S. senate. The governor's race would be the culmination of his life's work. This was Duke's chance to turn his words into actions, to take control of an entire state and make it into whatever he wanted. This is Slow Burn. I'm Josh Levine. Episode 5 the Road to Hell. Hi, I hope you're enjoying this season of Slow burn. The last two episodes are available only to Slate plus members. You can sign up by going to slate.com slowburn or by clicking on the link in the show notes. It's only $15 for your first three months with your subscription. You also get access to bonus Slow Burn episodes with extra interviews and behind the scenes stories, and your membership lets you listen to every Slate show ad free and gives you unlimited access to Slate's website. So to hear the rest of this season and become a member, go to slate.com slowburn or click the link in the Episode Notes. Thanks for supporting our work.