Early Career
Connor began his career as a telegraph operator. As a sideline, he conveyed reports on the exploits of the Birmingham Barons and other teams from the telegraph office to local pool halls, using a megaphone. His creative patter between updates, his use of a "bull horn", and his similarity to a cartoon drawing of columnist B. U. L. Conner in the Birmingham Post, combined to give him the nickname he used for the rest of his life.
Eugene Connor was a member of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Connor entered politics as a Democrat in 1934, winning a seat in the Alabama Legislature. As a legislator he supported populist measures and pro-union issues. He voted for extending the poll tax and against an anti-sedition bill meant to stifle union activity. He did not stand for a second term in 1936, instead running for Commissioner of Public Safety for the City of Birmingham. In 1936, Connor was elected to the office of Commissioner of Public Safety, beginning the first of two stretches that spanned a total of 26 years. Connor's first term ended in 1952, but he resumed the post four years later.
In 1938, Connor became a candidate for Governor of Alabama. He announced he would be campaigning on a platform of "protecting employment practices, law enforcement, segregation and other problems that have been historically classified as states' rights by the Democratic party."
In 1948, Connor's officers arrested U.S. Senator from Idaho, Glen H. Taylor, the running mate of Progressive presidential candidate (and former Democratic Vice President) Henry Wallace. Taylor, who had attempted to speak to the Southern Negro Youth Congress, was arrested for violating Birmingham's segregation laws.
Connor's concerted effort to enforce the law was sparked by the group's reported communist philosophy, with Connor noting at the time, "There's not enough room in town for Bull and the Commies." During the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Connor led the Alabama delegation in a walkout when the national party included a civil rights plank in its platform. The offshoot States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) nominated Strom Thurmond for president at its convention in Birmingham's Municipal Auditorium
A second run for Governor fell flat in 1954, but Connor remained a focal point of controversy that year by pushing through a new city ordinance in Birmingham that outlawed communism.
In late 1951, Connor's wife reportedly witnessed an incident of police brutality by Henry Darnell. Connor investigated and charged Darnell with conduct unbecoming of an officer. The issues between the two men truly exploded on December 26, when Connor was arrested, five days after having been found in a hotel room with his 34-year-old secretary, Christina Brown, following a Christmas party. Claiming he was set up, Connor nonetheless was convicted, fined $100 and given a 180-day sentence. Impeachment proceedings followed soon after, but on June 11, 1952, the conviction was thrown out by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The surrounding controversy led Connor to announce that he would not run again for the city commissioner position.
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