Oklahoma has always been bone dry. The Army enforced anti-firewater regulations in the Indian and Oklahoma Territories, and Sooners adopted prohibition along with statehood in 1907. Six repeal efforts failed, in part because bootleggers (estimated 1957 gross: $100 million) lavishly shared profits with any sheriffs and other officials who were of a mind to make trouble. Against this aged blend of piety and politics, James Howard Edmondson, red-haired (nicknamed "Nugget Head") young (32) county attorney from Tulsa, entered this year's Democratic primaries as an avowed Wet who proposed, if elected Governor,...
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