Corporate Clients

One day I received a phone call from a gentleman who worked for a large Bank in New York City.   He told me that he had a case against a Mafia controlled corporate client and wanted to know if I would take the case.  He further told me that I was the twelfth lawyer he had called and that Boyce Holleman, former District Attorney on the Gulf coast, had recommended me.  I accepted employment.   It was a hell of a case.   After the Bank had got a judgment, it wanted to conduct a judgment debtor examination.

The purpose of the judgment debtor examination is to try and find assets subject to an execution on the judgment.  In other words, to find property that can be seized and sold with the proceeds being applied to the judgment. I got the matter set for hearing at Gulfport, Mississippi.  

The afternoon before the hearing I got a phone call from one of the men in charge of the Mafia Corporation.  He proceeded to tell me that he was getting a hit man to kill me if I didn’t get out of the case.  I told him I wasn’t getting out of the case and let me make it easier for your hit man to find me.  I said that my office was at 103 Main Avenue in Lumberton and that I would leave my Office at 5 o’clock p.m. and go to my house giving him the street address.  I then said, “You tell your hit man, you  son of a bitch, that he better make good on his first shot as I was in the Air Force three years and was an expert with a 45 pistol and  can still shoot a cigarette out of a man’s mouth at 75 paces.  I will see you in Court in the morning.”   When I got to Court the next morning a lawyer from New York apologized for his client’s conduct and we proceeded with the examination.

Actually, I had lied to the Mafia man, I had never shot a 45 nor did I own one.  

The Banker then told me that would not be the last case for his Bank and I would hear from him later on when they had additional business in Mississippi.  Not long thereafter, He called and wanted to know if I would represent his Bank for the entire State of Mississippi at $125 per hour plus expenses which I accepted.  Later the Bank was sued for several million dollars and the fee in that one case was in the six figures. This proves that a little courage doesn’t hurt every now and then.  Also, it shows the best defense is a strong offense.

It also gave me the opportunity to visit New York on business.  Sometimes I stayed at the Plaza Hotel.  On one evening while I was registering I met Ed Sullivan who had a Sunday night show on TV. At that time Dave Garraway had just gone off the Today Show. I asked Ed if he knew how I could contact Dave Garraway.  I was interested in the family genealogy.  Ed said he didn’t know.  After I got my room I returned downstairs to the restaurant and as I sat down Ed said came over to my table and invited me to come to his table and introduced me to Zsa Zsa Gabor.  He then told me how I could probably get in touch with Dave but I never did.  I guess I was too google eyed from looking at Zsa Zsa.

I enjoyed Manhatten and the shows.   New York also has some good restaurants. I liked the Algonquin.   On one occasion I was getting ready to pay my bill and was waiting for a priest to pay his bill.  The priest discovered that he didn’t have enough money.  I told him that I didn’t go to church that Sunday as I was flying from Mississippi to New York. I paid his bill.  He thanked me and then told me to go to church.

At one time I represented a New Hampshire paper mill that was contemplating building  a mill in Mississippi.  I attended Board meetings on Park Avenue in New York. On these occasions I always stayed on Manhatten at the Plaza.  It was my favorite hotel.   The people who worked for the Paper Company were some of the most intelligent and nice people I ever represented.  They kept me on a retainer for several years after they decided to concentrate on Canada rather than Mississippi.

 I was Mayor of Lumberton, Mississippi for 16 years.  During that time I was successful in enticing Wagner Electric Corporation of Newark New Jersey in building a multi- million dollar transformer plant in Lumberton.  I went to New York on several occasions and closed their bond issue in the office of Goldman and Sachs.

While there on one business trip I toured the Twin Towers and the United Nations Building.  Never did I dream the Towers would be destroyed and kill so many innocent people and cause us one day to be at War.