re: Which historical figures deserve a biopic?

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There are very few Alabamians left who remember the 1950s story of Phenix City. After World War II, a good many of the military soldiers, enlisted men, stayed on for a while. A host of them were stationed at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia. As many of you know, Columbus and Phenix City are essentially the same city. They are separated only by a bridge and the Chattahoochee River.

Phenix City figured that these soldiers needed some entertainment. Well, they got it in Phenix City. Our border city became the poor man’s Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico, rolled into one. Phenix City became known as the most sinful place in America. It was openly run by a tough redneck mafia that made the New York mafia look like choir boys.


At least the New York mafia tried to conceal their illegal activities. Phenix City was wide-open. Every public official and law enforcement officer in town was on the local mafia’s payroll. The entire town, including Main Street had casinos and brothels. There were so many illegal slot machines in operation that they outnumbered Las Vegas. These slot machines and prostitutes lured the soldiers across the bridge to be preyed upon.

The entire state was embarrassed by the Phenix City lawlessness. One of the few honest attorneys in Russell and Tallapoosa counties, Albert Patterson, ran for state attorney general in 1954 on a platform of cleaning up Phenix City. Patterson won the Democratic primary due to his stance. Three days later, the Phenix City mafia gunned him down, openly assassinating the newly elected attorney general of Alabama.


This bold, brazen murder by the Phenix City crowd was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The governor and president declared martial law and clamped down on the whole town. They put all of the public officials in the city jail. A few escaped to Texas and others were found floating in the Chattahoochee River. Federal officials dredged the river and found more than 200 skeletons of victims who had tried to cross the Phenix City mafia. Three people were indicted for the murder of Albert Patterson, but only a deputy sheriff named Albert Fuller was convicted.

Patterson’s son, John Patterson, was appointed to fill his father’s term as attorney general, serving from 1955-1959. Patterson was elected governor of Alabama in 1958 and served in that office from 1959-1963.

The man John Patterson beat in that race for governor was none other than George C. Wallace. Both Wallace and Patterson were making their first bid for governor. But the sympathy Alabamians had for Patterson because of his father’s assassination was too much for Wallace to overcome and Patterson handed Wallace his only gubernatorial defeat.

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There actually was a movie made in 1955 called "The Phenix City Story"

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I would love for a modern movie to be made

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 think a biopic on Dorothy Kilgallen would be interesting. She was a polarizing household name in the mid-20th century between What's My Line, her syndicated newspaper column, and her coverage of the Sam Sheppard trial and JFK assassination, yet she's largely forgotten today. The circumstances surrounding her death are also suspicious. There'd be a lot of material to work with

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Claire Chennault would be a good one.

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"The Phenix City Story"

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Sheriff Noah Cross & The Morville Lounge

The Morville Lounge, a brothel and illegal gambling operation in Concordia Parish during the 1960s, was the eventual downfall of Sheriff Noah Cross. The lounge was in a small building that had once been a country store. As the operation grew, a new wing was added with extra rooms.

J. D. Richardson owned the lounge and made a deal with Curt Hewitt to manage the operation. Hewitt, along with pimps and prostitutes, was part of a network connected to the Carlos Marcello mob in New Orleans.

Cross was paid kickbacks every week for protection. His most notorious deputy, Frank DeLaughter, collected the payoffs for the sheriff. Both law officers were Klan members.

FBI agents John Pfeiffer and Ted Gardner helped launch the first federal investigation into the lounge in 1966. Pfeiffer would see the investigation through to the end when Cross, DeLaughter, Richardson and numerous pimps and prostitutes were convicted. As a result, both Cross and DeLaughter served time in federal prison in the 1970s. Both were forbidden to return to work in law enforcement and neither as convicted felons could carry a weapon.

Hundreds were interviewed by the FBI during the investigation, including bankers, dignitaries, prostitutes, cab drivers, hunters, politicians and local residents.

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