Seventy years ago, Phenix City, Ala., lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general Albert Patterson, 60, was assassinated. On Friday, June 18, 1954, Patterson was in his car near his office when he was fatally shot. Patterson had worked to rid Phenix City of organized crime.
The day after Patterson’s assassination, the Associated Press headline read: “Assassin Shoots ‘Crime Fighter.’” Beneath a black-and-white photo of Patterson was the caption: “Slain in gangster style.”
At the time of Patterson’s assassination, Phenix City was Sin City USA because of mob control of the city government. The mob profited from troops at nearby Fort Benning, Ga., now Fort Moore. Prostitution, gambling and illegal drugs were abundant in Phenix City any day, any time. Local politicians and police reportedly were paid by the mob.
Patterson knew the mob wanted him dead. “I have only a 100-to-1 chance of ever being sworn in,” the courageous Patterson, a Purple Heart recipient from World War I, reportedly said less than 24 hours before his assassination. He bravely continued to fight the mob.
Patterson’s assassination made national and international headlines. Great Britain’s Liverpool Echo, in a six-paragraph news story, carried the headline: “Gangster Revenge.” It gruesomely described Patterson’s assassination: “An unknown assailant fired two bullets into his mouth.”
The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, in a June 20, 1954, editorial, said: “The immediate reaction of average Alabamians was that Patterson was slain because he was the next Attorney General of Alabama.” The paper said that assassination was “something we think of as happening in some Balkan principality, or Latin dictatorship, not in a free American commonwealth.”
Albert Patterson made the ultimate sacrifice for law and order. He campaigned tirelessly to end mob control of Phenix City. It took time and Pattersons’s assassination, but the government was returned to the people of Phenix City. The mob lost.
I grew up in Alabama. I learned about Patterson’s courage from educators, ministers and adults who had firsthand knowledge about mob control of Phenix City. In the 1950s, my father was stationed at Fort Benning. Patterson’s courage is remembered with his statue on the capitol grounds in Montgomery.
The 1955 film “The Phenix City Story” was a low-budget black-and-white production that has gained a cult following. John McIntire and Richard Kiley were cast as Albert and John Patterson, respectively. After Albert’s assassination, son John continued to fight the mob.
“Torrid! Taut! True!’ appeared in a Los Angeles Times print ad for the film. “America’s wickedest city!” said another popular attention-getting print ad. The film was advertised for “Adults Only.”
On September 3, 1955, the New York Daily News reviewed the film. “‘The Phenix City Story’ is an amazing tale about the smashing of a vice syndicate by a few indignant citizens who cleaned up a Southern town that had become known throughout the land as Sin City, the wickedest town in the USA,” the critic wrote in the spirit of the sensational advertisements for the film.
Richard Kiley enjoyed his work on the film. In a 1966 interview, Kiley talked about being largely overlooked by Hollywood for major film roles. “I hated myself in every movie I’ve played in … (except) ‘The Phenix City Story,’” he said.
In 2019, “The Phenix City Story” was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. The Library of Congress determined that the film about “Sin City U.S.A.” was “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.”
Robert Wittington, a 15th-century English grammarian, called British statesman Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) “a man for all seasons.” Wittington meant that More was the ultimate man of conscience. More was executed for his Catholic faith.
Albert Patterson is also that rare man for all seasons. He thought that the government belonged to the people, not mobsters. Seventy years after Patterson’s death, his courage has never gone out of season.
In 2024, let us recall the courage of one man to make America great again.
