Payoffs in the Cloakroom: The Greening of the Michigan Legislature, 1938-1946

Payoffs in the Cloakroom is a spellbinding follow-up to Rubenstein and Ziewacz's critically acclaimed Three Bullets Sealed His Lips. While Three Bullets brought to light new evidence on the 1945 murder of Michigan Senator Warren Hooper, Payoffs in the Cloakroom examines the events and circumstances surrounding this crime. The authors unravel a complex web of political corruption, dirty state politics, and self promotion that led to Hooper's murder and facilitated subsequent cover-ups, which successfully obscured the trail of guilt until the 1987 publication of Three Bullets shed new light on the case. In the process, Rubenstein and Ziewacz demonstrate that Senator Hooper was murdered to prevent his grand jury testimony against Republican boss Frank McKay, who was facing bribery charges, and in the end they finger the "hit-man." Making use of court proceedings, personal interviews, newspaper accounts, and even a re-evaluation of police evidence, Rubenstein and Ziewacz tell a story that contains all the ingredients of first-class detective fiction - only in this instance the story is based on fact. Chapter titles such as "Charlie and His Little Black Book," "I Never Dreamed Murder," and "Them Bones, Them Bones" aptly capture the atmosphere of this extraordinary time and place. The authors have, once again, delved deeper into this subject than anyone before them and provided a stimulating and absorbing account of one of the darker chapters of Michigan's political history.