Manslaughterer.



One of the biggest scoops... was discovering that [Frank] Perdue, an incorrigibly reckless driver, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in 1974 when he “ignored or overlooked warning signs and red lights” on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and collided with two cars, killing one person. But Perdue’s expensive lawyer got the charges dropped and the court records expunged; as one court official told Southern Exposure, “There was a lot of grease on the wheel of this one.”

Perdue’s lawyer? None other than Arlen Specter, now U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. During Specter’s first senatorial campaign in 1986, Perdue contributed the maximum $2,000; a heavy contributor for many years to Republicans such as Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth (along with some Democrats), Perdue also gave $20,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee between 1985 and 1987.