On September 8, 1935, Huey Long was a sitting U.S. Senator and oppositional presidential candidate to F.D.R. A populist politician, Long had been an enormously influential figure in Louisiana politics: suing Standard Oil for unfair business practices and starting numerous social programs, as well as being militantly defensive of his political aspirations.

On that day in September, Long was at the Louisiana State Capital building when Carl Weiss, a disgruntled relative of a judge that Long was trying to oust, shot the senator in the abdomen. "The Kingfish" (as Long was known) died two days later.

Long's life has been the inspiration for many works, including the novel All the King's Men (1946) and the subsequent movie (1949 and 2006), as well as the Sinclair Lewis play It Can't Happen Here (1936).

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