Declaration of martial law in Russell County, Alabama


On July 22, 1954, a limited state of martial law was declared in Russell County, Alabama by governor Gordon Persons. The county, and particularly Phenix City, had become lawless and Persons lost faith in the local law enforcement who had been implicated in illegal gambling syndicates, political corruption and the murder of Albert Patterson, the Democratic Party's nominee for Attorney General of Alabama. Under the martial law proclamation, the city police department and county sheriff's office stood down and their duties were assumed by the Alabama National Guard.
The national guard, under Major General Walter J. Hanna, took steps to disarm the citizenry, close down gambling establishments and businesses serving alcohol. By November, the guard had restored order and helped to facilitate the first free elections in the city for decades. The state of martial law was lifted on January 17, 1955. After an investigation by the state's acting Attorney General, Russell County's chief deputy sheriff was convicted for the murder of Patterson. Patterson's son, John Malcolm Patterson, was later elected Attorney General and then governor.

Background

had for decades been reliant upon brothels, liquor shops and gambling houses which catered to the nearby Fort Benning. The government of the city's Russell County was closely associated with illegal gambling and other criminal enterprises. Lawlesssness and political corruption were widespread with the elections for sheriff, police commissioner and other offices being fixed. During World War II, the problem was so bad that the US Secretary of State for War, Henry L. Stimson, called Phenix "the wickedest city in America" and Major General George Patton, while stationed at Fort Benning, proposed using his tanks to raze the city to the ground.
1954 saw elections for the Attorney General of Alabama and Phenix City resident and lawyer Albert Patterson ran a campaign for the Democratic Party nomination on a platform of ridding the city of crime. Despite voting irregularities, he won the primary election but was assassinated by shooting shortly afterwards on June 18, 1954, near his offices in Phenix City. Patterson's murder caused unrest in Phenix with the Citizen's Betterment Association informing governor Gordon Persons that the city was on the verge of anarchy. Persons immediately ordered the state-controlled Alabama Highway Patrol into the city and requested federal assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the reasoning that the murderer could have crossed state lines into Georgia. Persons also ordered Major General Walter J. Hanna, Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard, to the city to assess whether troops were needed to keep the peace.
Hanna arrived in Phenix City in the early morning of June 19 with command over a number of local troops and those brought from elsewhere in the state. In theory there to assist the local law enforcement, he soon came to distrust them and suspect their involvement in illegal activities. Hanna issued orders that all gambling was to cease and two days later led a force of state highway patrolmen and national guard on raids that seized almost 100 illegal gambling devices. As they had no legal authority, the force was unable to access private clubs or rooms or make arrests.
Hanna organized a counterintelligence operation by his guardsmen, partly undercover, to investigate the gambling syndicates. This unit determined that city police and county deputies were watching the guard's movements and tipping off gangsters as to the raids. At the same time, a local grand jury had failed to make any progress with the Patterson murder investigation. Hanna recommended to Persons that the law enforcement agencies be stood down.
Hanna later said "It was a whole damn town of ill repute. We uncovered 28 murders that had taken place in the previous four years, without even an indictment, much less a conviction. Much of the time, it was cheaper - and safer - to kill people than to buy 'em, because dead people stay dead".

Declaration of martial law

On July 22, 1954, after liaising with President Dwight D Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the governor proclaimed limited martial law in the city, allowing the national guard to take over law enforcement duties in Russell County. Press reported that the national guard, armed with machine guns, shotguns and carbines, entered the sheriff's office and police department to disarm local law enforcement and confiscate their badges.
Hanna voided all weapons permits and by July 23 the troops had confiscated 40 pistols and a submachine gun from the citizenry. Also on July 23, guardsmen checked every beer and liquor licensed establishment in the city as they had been known to be frequently flouted. Some of the beer establishments were found compliant and permitted to continue but none of the liquor licenses were renewed. No new licenses were issued until at least 1955. Starting on July 24, Hanna ordered three days of raids on gambling establishments, gathering almost 500 indictments for a newly reformed grand jury. Hanna and his guardsmen virtually wiped out the local vice syndicate.
Two weeks after the implementation of martial law, the mayor was jailed for neglecting his duties and the city was administered by a group of military personnel chosen by Hanna. In November 1954, by which time order in the city had been restored, the first free elections in decades were held in Phenix City with armed guardsmen at each ballot box and supervising the count. Having stabilized the situation martial law was rescinded on 17 January 1955 and the city returned to civilian control.

Aftermath

The investigation into Patterson's murder and other crimes in the city was carried out by Alabama's acting Attorney General Bernard Sykes Jr. with a staff of civilian investigators and attorneys; the Attorney General Si Garrett having checked into a mental hospital. Under his direction, a grand jury issued more than 2,500 subpoenas and returned 759 indictments on more than 150 individuals, at that time a record for any grand jury in Alabama. All but two of those indicted were found guilty. Russel County's chief deputy sheriff, Albert Fuller, the Phenix City circuit solicitor Walter Jones, and convalescing attorney general Garrett were indicted for Patterson's murder. Fuller was found guilty and sentenced to a life term; Jones was acquitted and Garrett, who remained in hospital, was never brought to trial.
During his election campaign, Patterson had claimed it might take ten years to rid Phenix City of its lawlessness. Owing to his death and the subsequent imposition of martial law, it took just seven months. In 1974 the New York Times described the campaign as highly successful and stated that it had led to 20 years of relatively low crime in Phenix City. The incident was, at the time, the only instance of martial law being declared in a US city since the Reconstruction era that was not for reasons of civil unrest or natural disaster. John Malcolm Patterson, the son of Albert, was elected Alabama's Attorney General in his father's stead in 1955 and held the post until 1959 when he became governor.
General Hanna directed a national guard officer, Major Hershel Finney, to write a history of the guard's activities in Phenix City. Hanna intended this solely as a historic record, to be used as a reference should a similar situation happen again. However, it found its way into the public sphere as the basis for Edwin Strickland and Gene Wortsman's 1955 book Phenix City: The Wickedest City in America. A partly fictionalized account of the incident appeared in the 1955 Allied Artists movie The Phenix City Story.

Troops involved

The troops involved were under the command of Major General Walter J Hanna, Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard and numbered around 500 personnel at any given time. The troops were drawn mainly from the Alabama Army National Guard but some units of the Alabama Air National Guard were also used. As part of the operation, Phenix City was declared off-limits to US Army personnel stationed at Fort Benning and additional military police were stationed on the 14th Street and Dillingham bridges to prevent a breach of this order.
The Phenix City Civil Disturbance Medal was awarded to civilian and military personnel for service during the period of June 18, 1954 to January 17, 1955 and was awarded to approximately 600 national guardsmen. In all 1,000 medals were produced for the Alabama state government by the Medallic Art Company.
The troops deployed were drawn from the following units:
;Infantry
;Artillery
;Support units
;Air National Guard