John Dowdy

John Dowdy (1969)

John Vernard Dowdy (born February 11, 1912 in Waco , Texas , † April 12, 1995 in Athens , Texas) was an American politician . He represented the state of Texas as a member of the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Dowdy graduated from Henderson High School in 1928 . He then attended the College of Marshall (now East Texas Baptist University ) from 1929 to 1931 . He then studied law and worked as a clerk from 1931 to 1944. He then served as an attorney in his practice and later from 1945 to 1952 as the District Attorney for the Texas Third Judicial District.

Dowdy was elected a Democrat to the 82nd Congress in a special election to fill the vacant space left by the resignation of MP Tom Pickett . He was first a member of the Seventh electoral district in Texas and, after this district had been taken over by George Bush , started in 1967 for the second constituency. Dowdy was re-elected ten more times. His term of office lasted from September 23, 1952 to January 3, 1973. Then Dowdy decided in 1972, also because of the bribery charge , not to run again for re-election to the 93rd Congress. During his time in Congress he was involved in the constitution of the Southern Manifesto , which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions.

Bribery incident

Prosecutors believed Dowdy took a $ 25,000 bribe to intervene in the federal investigation by the Monarch Construction Company of Silver Spring , Maryland . In 1971 Dowdy was charged on eight counts: two cases of conspiracy, one case of transporting bribes across the state line, and five cases of perjury. After Dowdy resigned and resigned in Congress in 1973, the fourth federal appeals court in Richmond , Virginia overturned the bribery and conspiracy judgments. When the verdict was announced, Dowdy was still in jail for perjury.

Right wing groups rallied in his defense, including the Washington Observer and the Liberty Lobby , which advocated the thesis that Dowdy was a victim of "an evil trap by the Justice Department in association with a real estate mafia group." According to the newspaper, its ulterior motive was to terminate Dowdy's subcommittee investigation into fraud in the US Department of Construction .

Committees

• 83rd Congress - Post Office and Civil Service
• 84th Congress - Post Office and Civil Service, House Administration
• 85th through 92nd Congress - Judiciary, District of Columbia Subcommittee

Individual evidence

1. ^ Washington Observer , April 15, 1973

Web links

• John Dowdy in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)