Back in 1979, Ray Blanton, the Democratic governor of Tennessee, got busted for selling pardons. Three of his aides went to prison. Marie Ragghianti, an employee of the parole board, blew the whistle and got portrayed by Sissy Spacek in a 1985 movie. It was a fairly typical state political scandal but a huge one. And, this week, 42 years later, with most of the principals dead and buried, it flared up into a complete supernova. From the Charlotte Observer:

In the early morning on Feb. 1, 1979, Sam Pettyjohn was in the beer shop he owned in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a cigar tucked between his fingers when a man in a trench coat shot him four times—twice in the head, once in the chest and once in the neck…On Tuesday, investigators linked Pettyjohn’s killing to the Blanton investigation. District Attorney General Neal Pinkston with the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office told reporters during a news conference that Pettyjohn was killed by notorious bank robber William Edward Alley in a murder-for-hire plot paid for in-part by a third party on behalf of Blanton’s administration. Alley died in federal prison in 2005, Pinkston said. But a grand jury said they would indict him on charges of first-degree premeditated murder if he were alive today.

And if the circumstances of the crime weren’t 1970’s enough, there’s this.

Pettyjohn was a well-connected businessman in Chattanooga, prosecutors said. He previously owned several nightclubs and had ties to the Teamsters Union, a massive and powerful labor union led by Jimmy Hoffa, who was a personal friend of Pettyjohn’s. He also had his hands in local and state politics with the Democratic party.

And also:

Pettyjohn’s nightclubs exploded in a bomb on Aug. 8, 1974—five years before his death. Investigators later linked Pettyjohn and other local business owners to the bombing after discovering they received sizable insurance payouts from the blast. He faced charges of murder, arson and insurance fraud but died before the case went to trial, according the Hamilton County Cold Case Unit.

The Blanton pardons scandal was not healthy for bagmen and other living things.

Blanton was never indicted in what became known as the Pardons and Parole scheme, but Rountree and several members of his administration were. Rountree would later agree to cooperate with the authorities as long as the FBI didn’t ask him about Pettyjohn’s killing. By the end of their investigation, prosecutors said at least five witnesses had been killed or committed suicide. Blanton was ousted from office a few days before his term ended. He was later charged with extortion and conspiracy in a separate case involving the sale of a liquor license for $23,000 to a friend while he was in office, the Associated Press reported.

American politics is a tough room. I think it’s time for another movie myself.

Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.