Albert Patterson - Assassination and Aftermath

Assassination and Aftermath

On the evening of June 18, 1954, Patterson was working in his law office in the Coulter Building in Phenix City. As he left at about 9 p.m., he walked to his car, which was parked in an alley off Fifth Avenue next to the Elite Cafe. An unidentified assailant walked up to him, pushed a gun in his mouth and shot him three times. One cartridge was found wedged in an opening where two or three front teeth had been knocked out. Patterson was well aware that his life was in danger, commenting just one night earlier to a church group, "I have only a 100-to-1 chance of ever being sworn in as attorney general."

Reaction from the state was swift. Within weeks, Gov. Gordon Persons declared martial law in the city, effectively giving the Alabama National Guard the law enforcement duties in the city and county. The state sent special prosecutors from Montgomery to replace the local judiciary.

Within six months, the Phenix City Machine was dismantled. A special grand jury in Birmingham handed down 734 indictments against local law enforcement officers, elected officials and local business owners connected to organized crime. Three officials were specifically indicted for Patterson's murder: Chief Deputy Sheriff Albert Fuller, Circuit Solicitor Arch Ferrell and Attorney General Si Garrett. Of the three, only Fuller was convicted; he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released after 10 years. Ferrell was acquitted and Garrett was never brought to trial, as he was convalescing in a mental institution for most of the year after Patterson's murder.

Patterson's son, John Malcolm Patterson, assumed the Democratic nomination for Attorney General and won, taking office in 1955. In 1958, John was elected Governor, running on a platform of fighting organized crime and public corruption.