Louisiana Governor Taken To Mental Hospital

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28926, 20 June 1959, Page 13

Louisiana Governor Taken To Mental Hospital

BATON ROUGE (Louisiana). June 19. The tempestuous 63-year-o!d Governor of Louisiana, .Mr Earl Long, was hauled away cursing last night to a Louisiana State mental hospital. A commission of three doctors who examined him said that the Governor was suffering from paranoic schizophrenia—delusions of persecution and a retreat into fantasy. Sheriffs’ deputies had to pull the fighting Governor from one car and force him into another before speeding away to hospital “for an indefinite period.” This final journey came less than four hours after Governor Long fled the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, 75 miles a\Vay, in a bold bid to take over active control of the State Government.

The race started in late afternoon when the Governor, against the advice of his family and physicians, stormed out the back door of the New Orleans hospital to a waiting police patrol car. “I am the Governor,” he said. He had earlier signed an agreement saying that he would remain at the hospital as long as doctors recommended.

When Governor Long left the hospital it was feared he would attempt to surround himself with State police to thwart possible arrest.

The three deputies who intercepted the Governor said they en-

countered no resistance. They commandeered the patrol car and drove it to the courthouse. Governor Long at first refused to leave it.

The Coroner, Dr. Chester Williams, supervised an examination and the Governor was ordered to Mandeville Hospital. A crowd of 300 waited outside the Courthouse, some of them crying. Someone shouted: “No, no, they can’t do this to the Gover>nor.”

But four husky State troopers hauled the shouting (“Hell, I’m not going in there”), fist-swinging Governor from the building to another patrol car as police scuffled to hold back the crowd. Long will continue to be Governor, under the Constitution, until someone takes the responsibilty of declaring him incapable of performing his duties. The Governor had originally gone to a Galveston, Texas, clinic under escort after apparently an uncontrollable burst of shouting in the Louisiana Legislature about three weeks ago.