The Following Is an Unrehearsed Interview with Edward F
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2003OH01.9 EDWARD F. PRICHARD, JR. ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Interview with Edward Fretwell Prichard, Jr. May 13, 1983 Conducted by Vic Hellard Frankfort, Kentucky ©Kentucky Oral History Commission 1 Kentucky Historical Society 2003OH01.9 Kentucky Oral History Commission 100 W. Broadway y Frankfort, KY 40601 502-564-1792 y (fax) 502-564-0475 y history.ky.gov Use and Quotation Policy Authorization must be granted by the Kentucky Historical Society (which includes the Kentucky Oral History Commission) to use or publish by any means any archival material to which the Society holds copyright. To obtain authorization, users will submit a completed Use Agreement to the Kentucky Historical Society Special Collections & Reference Services. Fees for all uses, excepting non‐profit or other use, with the intent to enhance understanding of or appreciation for Kentucky’s heritage will be assessed on a case‐by‐case basis and added to the cost of reproduction. 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The Society reserves the right to withhold permission for the reproduction of any material involving unusual difficulty or great risk to the original. This is an unedited transcript. Quotation of materials from this transcript should be corroborated with the original audio recording if possible. ©Kentucky Oral History Commission 2 Kentucky Historical Society 2003OH01.9 The following is an unrehearsed interview with Edward F. Prichard, Jr. for the Edward F. Prichard, Jr. Oral History Project. The interview was conducted by Vic Hellard in Frankfort, Kentucky, on May 13, 1983. Hellard: [microphone noise] This is tape eleven, side two, an interview with Edward F. Prichard on the thirteenth day of May 1983. Mr. Prichard let’s talk now about you, you’re back in Kentucky, we’ve been through the first legislative session of, of the Clements’ administration, and then you got into some difficulty. Why don’t you just start and tell us what kind of difficulty that was. Prichard: Well, I presume you’re talking about the election in 1948. Hellard: Yes sir. [microphone noise] Prichard: Well, [microphone noise] that occurred when the, on the morning of election day in 1948. There was a discovery of some two hundred and, I don’t remember exactly how many, but it was either 249 or 253 ballots which had been placed in various ballot boxes in Bourbon County, stamped for the Democratic candidates. And that resulted in a federal investigation of that election, and indictments, and I suppose that was the beginning of my troubles. The investigation continued for a number of months. There were two federal agents assigned to it, John, I believe it was Core, from Lexington, and another agent named Mooney, who I believed was stationed in Cynthiana. I’m sure they had others investigating some of the technical aspects of it, such as handwriting, finger prints, things of that sort. Hellard: Prich, hold it just a minute, I’m sorry, thank you. Prichard: That investigation continued for several months, and during that period I went abroad with a client on some business for a couple of weeks, and during the period when I was away, the grand jury returned a sealed indictment against me and my then law partner A. E. Funk Jr. for a conspiracy to violate the federal civil rights law. And that indictment was, as I recall it, returned in about March of 1949. Trial took place in July, I believe it was, June or July of 1949, here in Lexington. And after a lengthy trial, Mr. Funk was com-, acquitted and I was convicted. No one else was indicted, although the ©Kentucky Oral History Commission 3 Kentucky Historical Society 2003OH01.9 indictment charged that persons unknown were also parties to the conspiracy. And as a result of that conviction, which was affirmed on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sometime in 1950, I was sent to the federal correctional institution at Ashland, where I stayed from the summer of 1950 until Christmastime, when my sentence was commuted by President [Harry] Truman, and I returned to my home in Bourbon County. There were a good many dramatic overtones to that trial and that investigation. The decisive witness in that trial was Judge Ardery, Judge W. B. Ardery, then the circuit judge of the fourteenth judicial district, who testified that I had revealed to him my involvement in this matter. And I think that is what was the element in the trial that resulted in the conviction. Mr. Funk was charged with having written the signatures, the fake signatures, of the, some of the election officers on the back of the ballots. There was conflicting testimony from handwriting experts, and the jury found him innocent. The trial attracted a great deal of attention in the local press and elsewhere. I’m sure it was a, one of the major news stories of that year. And it obviously had a very profound effect on my life. Hellard: Now, how did those ballots get there? Prichard: How’d they get in the box? Hellard: Yes sir. Prichard: Well, I helped put them there. Hellard: Were there other people involved? Prichard: Yes, there were. Hellard: I know, of course, from your—from your—from your—your interview with Mr. [John Ed] Pearce which you had said some time ago that you, yes, had in fact been involved in this. Prichard: Certainly I was. Hellard: And— Prichard: No question about that. Hellard: Now, why, why? Prichard: Why? Hellard: Yeah. ©Kentucky Oral History Commission 4 Kentucky Historical Society 2003OH01.9 Prichard: Oh, I’d been, I suppose from the time I was a small boy I had lived in an atmosphere in that county where it was almost a sport or a game to monkey with elections. I can never remember the time when I didn’t hear from people close to me about that sort of thing taking place in elections. I can remember when I was a very tiny child my great-grandfather telling me about things that he had done as a young man, things of a similar nature. I think my father probably had done the same thing many times in the course of his political life. The first time I personally can recall anything of that sort taking place of which I had personal knowledge was in 1932, when I was seventeen years old, and Judge [William] Ardery was running for reelection as commonwealth’s attorney of the fourteenth judicial district. His opponent was my later and longtime friend Marion Rider. Judge Ardery was nominated on the face of the returns by a majority of twenty-seven. It is generally believed, and I think it’s the truth, that some a thousand to twelve hundred ballots were dropped in the boxes in Bourbon County in that race. My father, and most of the other prominent Democrats in the county, were involved in that episode. I can’t, I can hardly recall an election since I was able to remember where there weren’t credible rumors of similar activities. It was just considered a part of the political game, and more or less a sort of a sport. Of course I knew it wasn’t right, but it was just one of the things that people did. Hellard: Well, was this the first time you had done something like this? You’ve been active in politics for a long—well since childhood. Prichard: It was the second time. The only other time I personally participated in anything of that sort was in 1946 when we had a primary for the United States Senate race. And Phil Ardery was the candidate against John Y. Brown [Sr.] and, of course, I had tried to help Phil in every way that I could. Contributed substantially, financially to his campaign, worked hard for him, and we did that in Bourbon County that year. I don’t know to, on how massive a scale, but it wasn’t as big as the effort that was made for his father, but it was probably as big or bigger than the one we made in 1948. But I knew about it, and knew who was doing it, and knew how it was done. But I ©Kentucky Oral History Commission 5 Kentucky Historical Society 2003OH01.9 don’t recall any other times except those two when I actually took part in it myself. Hellard: Now, Phil obviously knew this was going, going on in his race. Prichard: I’m not sure whether he knew it was going on, but he knew that it had gone on within twenty-four hours afterwards. Now, I don’t know whether we told him ahead of time we were going to do it.