Francis Grevemberg - Louisiana State Police Superintendent

Louisiana State Police Superintendent

Grevemberg was appointed in May 1952 to head the state police, based in Baton Rouge, by newly elected Governor Robert F. Kennon. Grevemberg's autobiography, My Wars: Nazis, Mobsters, Gambling and Corruption, tells about his experiences with the Mafia, which he said tried to kill him and bribe him and to kidnap his sons. The mob sent him a Mafia black hand death-threat letter. Illegal gambling had existed in Louisiana for a century, and the mob began operating there during the administration of Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (1928–1932), when New York City mobster Frank Costello brought slot machines into the state. Grevemberg's book chronicles his fight against gambling and vice. Slot machines and casino devices, illegal in Louisiana at the time, were operated by the Mafia and other criminal elements.

Grevemberg defied the opposition and conducted more than one thousand lightning raids that shut down much of the illegal gambling. Most of the gamblers then moved to Nevada. He destroyed 8,229 slot machines. Grevemberg vastly reduced the amount of narcotics sold on Louisiana streets, dismantled an eight-state white slavery ring, and modernized the Louisiana state police into a premier law-enforcement agency.

Grevemberg said that he could not have carried on under constant threats from the mob without the inspiration of his wife, nee Dorothy Maguire (September 1, 1917–December 9, 2010), a New Orleans native whom he called "the love of my life." The couple had identical twin sons born in 1949 – Francis J. "Pete" Grevemberg, married to the former Melissa Coleman, of Conyers, Georgia, and Carroll S. Grevemberg, wed to the former Alice Henderson of New Orleans – two grandchildren, David Grevemberg of Bonn, Germany, later Killearn, Scotland, and Elisa Grevemberg of Reims, France, and two great-grandchildren. In his fight against the lawless elements, Grevemberg was aided by journalists such as Jim McLean of the Associated Press, as well as pastors and citizens from the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation, who gave Grevemberg the will to persevere.

Democratic U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the Influence of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, credited Grevemberg with transforming Louisiana from being one of the most corrupt states to one of the cleanest during the 1950s. Gambling spots across South Louisiana were closed en masse, and the raids on illegal liquor sales even touched Kennon's hometown of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish. On a Saturday in November 1954, the day of the traditional Louisiana State University v. University of Arkansas at Fayetteville football game in Shreveport, a state police raid in Minden resulted in the arrest of several local residents on charges of bootlegging, including the then-Democratic mayor, John T. David. David had to step down as mayor, but voters quickly elected him to the Webster Parish Police Jury, the parish governing council.

When state officials first considered legalizing gambling, Grevemberg said:

I think that if they want gambling, it must be legal. However, legal or illegal gambling corrupts public officials, especially police. It's a breeding ground for other kinds of vice. I think it would hurt our state immeasurably. The state has gone down the drain for the umpteenth time in my lifetime. I just think it's pathetic!"

Grevemberg's crusade was the subject of a 1958 film by Universal Studios titled Damn Citizen. Keith Andes (1920–2005) played the role of Grevemberg, and Margaret Hayes (1916–1977) played Dorothy. Gene Evans (1922–1998) played incorruptible police Major Al Arthur. Evans is best remembered as the father, Rob McLaughlin, on My Friend Flicka, a western television series, and for numerous guest spots on other westerns, such as CBS's Gunsmoke.