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Duval County Democratic leader shot, opening door for Parr dynasty
On this day in 1907, Duval County tax assessor and Democratic leader
John Cleary was killed by a shotgun blast while sitting in a San Diego
restaurant. His assassin escaped as local lawmen were enjoying a fiesta,
which they claimed had drowned out the sound of the shooting. Texas
Rangers later arrested three men in connection with the assassination,
but they were never convicted. Cleary's assassination came shortly after
he had engineered a sweeping guarache triumph over the bota
faction in the county elections, and opened the Duval County Democratic
leadership to Archer Parr, thereby beginning perhaps the most remarkable
and notorious political dynasty in Texas. Under the firm control of
Archer Parr and his son George, the "Duke of Duval," the county gained a
reputation for political corruption that peaked with Lyndon B. Johnson's
election to the United States Senate in 1948, in which George Parr
almost certainly directed the manipulation of returns that gave Johnson
his eighty-seven-vote victory.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- SAN DIEGO, TX
- PARR, ARCHER
- DUVAL COUNTY
- BOTAS AND GUARACHES
- BOSS RULE
- PROGRESSIVE ERA
- PARR, GEORGE BERHAM
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Congress approves the Post Office Department of the Republic of Texas (1836)
- Garrison at Goliad declares independence (1835)
- Driskill Hotel opens in Austin (1886)
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