John Dowdy

John Vernard Dowdy ( born February 11, 1912 in Waco, Texas, † 12 April 1995 in Athens, Texas ) was an American politician. He represented the state of Texas as a deputy in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

John Dowdy graduated in 1928 from high school in Henderson. He attended from 1929 to 1931, the College of Marshall (now East Texas Baptist University ). He then studied law and worked from 1931 to 1944 as a clerk. Subsequently he was a lawyer in his practice and later from 1945 to 1952 served as district attorney of the third judicial district of Texas.

Dowdy was elected in a special election as a Democrat to the 82nd Congress to fill the free space, which was created by the resignation of Mr Tom Pickett. First, he was a member of the seventh election district of Texas and entered after this district was taken over by George Bush in 1967 for the second constituency, on. Dowdy was still re-elected ten more times. His term lasted from September 23, 1952 to January 3, 1973. Afterwards Dowdy decided in 1972, also because of the accusations of bribery, not to stand again for re- election to the 93rd Congress. During his time in Congress, he was involved in the constitution of the Southern Manifesto, which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions.

Bribery incident

According to the prosecutor Dowdy took $ 25,000 bribe to intervene in the federal investigation of Monarch Construction Company from Silver Spring, Maryland. 1971 Dowdy was charged with eight points, two counts of conspiracy, a case of the transport of bribes across the state line and five cases of perjury. After Dowdy had resigned Congress in 1973 and his office had resigned, revoked the fourth U.S. federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, the judgments of bribery and conspiracy. At the sentencing Dowdy still sitting in jail for perjury.

Right wing groups rallied to his defense, including the Washington Observer and the Liberty Lobby, which championed the thesis also that Dowdy was a victim of a "bad case by the Justice Department in collaboration with a group of real estate mafia." According to the newspaper whose ulterior motive was to bring Dowdys subcommittee investigation into fraud in the U.S. Ministry of Construction to set.

Committee

• 83rd Congress - Post Office and Civil Service
• 84th Congress - Post Office and Civil Service, House Administration
• 85th to 92nd Congress - Judiciary, District of Columbia Subcommittee