Edwin Edwards, a flamboyant, poker-playing former Louisiana governor convicted inwards a gambling casino licensing scheme, died Monday. He was 93.
The four-term regulator died of respiratory problems at his rest home in Gonzales, just southeast of Baton Rouge, the tell capital. He had been under hospice give care and was with family and friends at his death shortly after daybreak, according to the Associated Press.
Despite Edwards’ federal strong belief and reputation for depravity and roguish behavior, supporters inward his home country viewed the Democratic regulator favorably as a title-holder of the downtrodden and marginalized. As a boy, he had seen a voice communication past populist LA political leader Huey Long. From that, Edwards said he adopted a philosophy that it is the task of government to “serve the needy, non the greedy.”
Family spokesman Robert E. Lee Honeycutt said inwards a financial statement that Edwards lately recalled that he loved Louisiana and “always will.”
I get lived a unspoilt life, had better breaks than most, had some unsound breaks, too, but that’s all component of it. I tried to assist as many people as i could and i hope I did that, and i hope, if i did, that they testament help others, too,” Jonathan Edwards said toward the remainder of his life, according to Honeycutt.
Trina George C. Scott Edwards, the former governor’s widow, said her husband’s cobbler's last words were to their boy Eli, who turns eight on Aug. 1.
“Eli told him every night, ‘I erotic love you.’ And he told Eli, ‘I passion you, too.’ Those were his in conclusion words,” she said.
Federal Gaming Conviction
After defeating neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader St. David Duke inwards the 1991 governor’s race, Edwards “set upwards the mechanism” for legalized cassino play inwards Louisiana, according to WWL-TV. The land at present has 13 riverboat casinos, ane land-based cassino in New Orleans, and quaternary racinos. Sports betting latterly has been legalized inward the country and is expected to live operating(a) past next year.
In May 2000, Edwards was convicted for his role inwards the awarding of riverboat cassino licenses. type A federal panel found Jonathan Edwards guilty on 17 counts of racketeering, mail service and wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, according to word accounts.
San Francisco 49ers possessor Eddie DeBartolo Jr. testified that he attempted to obtain a riverboat casino license by gift Edwards a briefcase with $400,000 inwards cash, according to reports. DeBartolo later pleaded guilty and was granted two years probation and a $1 1000000 fine. The NFL and then pressured DeBartolo to turn of events the football game team o'er to his sister.
After existence released from a federal lockup in 2011, Edwards, then 83, married a prison house pen pal, Trina Grimes Scott, and so 32. She was his thirdly wife.
“They sent me to prison for life, and i came out with a good-looking wife,” Jonathan Edwards quipped.
Las Vegas Gambling Losses
Known to host $10,000-ante fire hook games at the governor’s mansion, Jonathan Edwards came below fire in the 1980s when reports surfaced that he lost to a greater extent than $2 trillion during 17 trips to Las Vegas casinos. During these Nevada gambling excursions, he used names such as T. Wong and T. Robert E. Lee inward an effort to hide out his identity, according to the FBI.
Historian T. E. Lawrence Colin luther Powell called Edwards “the utmost of the buccaneer liberals who governed in the tradition of Huey Long,” the Washington Post reported.
“They were characterized by a redistributionist politics, where you could e'er insure forward motion inwards lifting people out of impoverishment — but it was linked to easy political morals,” said Powell, a chronicle prof emeritus at Tulane University inwards New Orleans.
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