70 years ago today, Strom Thurmond’s mistress was put to death

[MinM]

On this day in 1943, a South Carolina woman named Sue Logue was executed along with her brother-in-law, George Logue, and a down-on-his-luck plasterer named Clarence Bagwell. The Logues had hired Bagwell to kill their neighbor, who had previously killed Sue Logue’s husband over a feud concerning a dead calf.

What makes this story interesting is that before Sue Logue’s arrest, she had been having an affair with an Edgefield County school superintendent named Strom Thurmond. Yes, that Strom Thurmond. Logue was a teacher in Thurmond’s district, and rumor has it that the two had once been “caught in the act” in the future senator’s own office. When police surrounded Logue’s house to arrest her, Thurmond — by now a local judge — even intervened in the standoff to ensure that she came quietly (no pun intended).

What makes the story even more interesting is that before Logue was to be executed, Thurmond rode with her from the Columbia women’s penitentiary to the prison which housed Death Row, and even managed to “get it in” one last time before his mistress was executed.

From “Ol’ Strom: An Unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond“:..

http://palmettopublicrecord.org/2013/01/15/70-years-ago-today-strom-thurmonds-mistress-was-put-to-death/

[Laurian]

1. Whoa, that's really bizarre. n/t

[LeftofObama]

2. Wow!

This is the first time I've heard this story.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. How interesting!

[JI7]

4. i have heard some stuff about him

[KittyWampus]

7. Sounds like a movie should be made about him. Perfect case for an expose of Rightwing freaks.

[JI7]

9. i was just thinking this all sounded like some soap opera story

[TwilightGardener]

5. Wow. Yikes.

[Fumesucker]

6. Didn't LBJ say something about Strom's pecker would have to be hammered down to fit in a coffin?

Too lazy to Google it.

[JI7]

11. that was the stuff i heard from some

[LittleBlue]

8. Bizarre

I'd like a good source on this before believing it

[JI7]

12. i actually find it more believeable because it is him

[physioex]

10. How interesting, reading this reminds me of a song.....

[hamsterjill]

15. Ah, but Vickie Lawrence did it first!!! LOL

(Sorry for the bad audio.)

[GoCubsGo]

13. They don't call him "Sperm Thurmond" around here for nothing.

I'm surprised I haven't heard about this one.

[Angry Dragon]

14. Onion material

[LeftInTX]

18. I thought so at first......

But it looks credible. Just because it's "unauthorized" doesn't mean it isn't true.

[Freddie]

16. Don't forget his biracial daughter

When he was on college he had an affair with one of his parents' maids. The girl was raised by relatives out of town. She wrote her autobiography--fascinating story. Strom never really acknowledged that he was her father but he paid for her college and sent money to her family.

[kestrel91316]

17. That plus the African-American mistress.........he was ALL conservative.

If he were alive today he'd be a teabagger.

[MinM]

19. Eleanor Beardsley: Paris correspondant for NPR

Apropos of nothing but an interesting tidbit...

Eleanor Beardsley
Correspondent, Paris

Eleanor Beardsley began reporting from France for NPR in June 2004, following all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy.

Beardsley has covered both 2007 and 2012 French presidential elections as well as the Arab Spring in Tunisia, where she witnessed the overthrow of the autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. She reported on the riots in French suburbs in 2005 and the massive student demonstrations in 2006. Beardsley has followed the Tour de France cycling race and been back to her old stomping ground — Kosovo — to report for NPR on three separate occasions.

Prior to moving to Paris, Beardsley worked for three years with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. She also worked as a television producer for French broadcaster TF1 in Washington, DC and as a staff assistant to Senator Strom Thurmond...

http://www.npr.org/people/17796129/eleanor-beardsley

[Beacool]

20. I had never heard that story, but it's not surprising as Strom was a known womanizer.

Even in his old age he would grope any woman. I remember reading at the time that Hillary became a senator that her fellow women senators initiated her in the ritual of how to greet Thurmond. When you greeted him you shook hands and at the same time placed your left hand on his shoulder, otherwise he would give them a bear hug. The old guy was always trying to cop a feel.