George Berham Parr

For other people with the same name, see George Parr (disambiguation).

George Berham Parr (March 1, 1901 - April 1, 1975) was a member of the Parr political family, which controlled a Democratic Party political machine that dominated Duval County and, to a lesser extent, Jim Wells County, Texas. He was known as "The Duke of Duval."

Parr family machine

The Parr machine functioned on bribery, graft, and illegal donations. Political support came from the southern most counties in Texas. The Parr machine could produce large numbers of votes, both legal and illegal, from both the impoverished and uneducated, and the working class Mexican-American majority population. As a result, the county saw its largely marginalized but large numbers of native Texan yeoman farmers slowly disappear leaving the county commission to be controlled by the Parr family and its cronies. While the Parr Machine had always asserted undue influence over the county's affairs, it was not until Archer Parr that its leadership felt safely secure to overwhelm the remaining independent white farmers by appealing directly to county's new Mexican-American majority by offering them jobs (and in some cases cash directly from the county coffers) in exchange for political support.

The alliance between the Parr controlled commission and the Hispanic populace made the county a bastion of Democratic strength. By 1940, the white educated population had been reduced to a tiny minority amongst a large Mexican-American population. Parr garnered popular support with his charisma, his ability to speak Spanish, and Robin Hood tendencies with sharing the Duval County and Benavides School District coffers. After Archer's death, George inherited the Parr polictical machine, and the populace passed on the name, "El Patron", to him as they did his father.

The discovery of oil in Duval County also created ample opportunities for patronage, allowing Parr to amass a small fortune. To this day, the family's network has limited influence in Texas politics giving its patronage to both Democratic and Republican beneficiaries. James Albon Mattox, successfully relied on the old Parr network in his run as the Democratic Party nominee for Texas Attorney General, garnering a majority of the vote in the county despite running against a Mexican-American.

Parr political crimes

Parr engaged in the graft, bribery and fraud that are often associated with political machines. Along with other large landowners and managers of landed estates owned by prominent Eastern businessmen, Parr helped develop the practice of working illegal aliens and later using them for advancing political interests. More importantly, his own political career included serving as both the Duval County Judge and Sheriff. He also owned the San Diego State Bank, and the famous Dobie Ranch, including the Parr's Horcones Ranch. He was also a partner and silent partner of dozens of businesses in South Texas.

He was convicted of tax evasion in 1936, but was granted a pardon restoring his civil rights by President Harry S. Truman in 1946. He accomplished this through political manoeuvering by ousting his congressional obstacle, U.S. Congressman Richard M. Kleberg of the famous King Ranch, with Major John E. Lyle, Jr. while Lyle was serving in the European Theater during World War II. By this time Parr had total control of the county, soon acquiring the nickname "Duke of Duval County."

Illegally helped Lyndon Johnson win U.S. Senate seat

Parr's most infamous act of political corruption was browbeating election officials in nearby Jim Wells County into ensuring the primary victory of Lyndon B. Johnson in the U.S. senatorial election of 1948. The incident went down in Alice, Texas history as "Box 13." This is a reference to the precinct in which the Parr machine created 203 more votes for Johnson, many from allegedly dead Mexican voters.

Johnson received 99.1% of the votes. Before an official investigation was finished, the votes were accidentally burned. Johnson's plurality in the 1948 U.S. Senate election was eighty-seven out of a possible one million votes cast.

Struggles and demise of political machine

In 1950, Parr had become a thorn in the side of Governor Allan Shivers and Attorney General John Ben Shepperd. Federal officials began to investigate the machine. Some 650 indictments were brought forth against machine members, 300 of them at the state level. Parr, however, eluded indictment, and his conviction for fraud was later dismissed. Under the protection of Lyndon Johnson, Parr eluded all attempts to investigate and convict him for fraud, bribery, corruption, racketeering, and murder. Ironically, Shepperd was a political advisor to Johnson even as he attempted to bring indictments against Parr. The Parr Machine was challenged by the Freedom Party in Alice, Texas, led by Jake Floyd. The Parrs lost control of that district court, an important office the Parr Machine was used to controlling all over South Texas. The botched assassination of Buddy Floyd, Jake's son, mistakenly shot and killed by Mario Sapet, on September 8, 1952, also signaled turbulent times for the Parr Machine.

However, political candidates would time to time make him an object of their reforming campaigns. In 1954 Governor Allen Shrivers declared war on the Parr Faction and sent down a team of Texas Rangers and state investigators. He was charged with embezzlement but beat the case. The Parr Machine maintained control of Jim Wells and Duval Counties despite the legal and political backlash.

With the collapse of the Johnson Administration in 1968, Parr lost his primary political protector. Under advice from Johnson and other prominent figures, he relinquished control of his machine to his nephew Archer III, by the early 1970s. The law finally caught up with Parr in 1974 when he was convicted of income tax evasion and given a ten year prison term. He was found dead at his ranch on April 1, 1975, the apparent victim of suicide. When Parr's machine collapsed soon after his death, Duval County's small white large landowning minority attempted to retain control of the county politically but was unable to halt the Democratic take-over of the county by the now overwhelmingly large Mexican-American population. Nonetheless, the family and its network remains influential so that although the county has remained one of the strongest and most consistently Democrat localities in Texas, frequently giving both national and local candidates margins greater than 70 percent.

George's father was Archie Parr who began the Dynasty of Duval County, Archer Parr is the third Duke of the Duval County Dynasty.

External links

• George Berham Parr from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Duval County from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Boss Rule from the Handbook of Texas Online