Falls of justice: what happens when a biographer attacks his subject—and gets his facts wrong?

Washington Monthly, April, 2003 by Charles Lane

Douglas was, and still is, known as a man of the West, a poor kid who raised himself by his own bootstraps, rode the rails East, made himself a brilliant lawyer and then took on the powerful Wall Street interests. (These themes were sounded in his 1950 memoir, Of Men and Mountains, and repeated in Douglas's 1974 follow-up, Go East, Young Man.)

But according to Murphy, Douglas didn't overcome childhood polio, never served as an Army private in World War I, and didn't graduate second in his class at Columbia Law School. No, the justice's self-told story "was a lie--a secret until now," according to a press release from Murphy's publisher, Random House. It's a sensational claim, but can Murphy back it all up? After slogging through the book's 518 pages of text and its 195 pages of bibliography, footnotes, and index--and making a few phone calls to check some of his facts--I have my doubts.

Take Murphy's assertion that Douglas concocted his record of military service in World War I, and, in his later years, urged his family to use his phony status as a veteran to get him interred at Arlington National Cemetery after his death. This is a serious charge, as Murphy is aware. He draws a parallel between what he calls "the exaggeration of claims" by Douglas and the case of former U.S. ambassador M. Larry Lawrence, who was disinterred from Arlington in 1997 because his service record had been embellished.

Murphy writes that, at the time of Douglas's death in January 1980, burial at Arlington was reserved for those ex-servicemen who had received a Silver Star or higher medal, died on active duty, or served at least 20 years. Almost everyone else needed a presidential waiver. But Douglas's military service, Murphy writes, consisted of 10 weeks as a private in the now-defunct Student Army Training Corps (SATC) at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.--and that "did not qualify one for burial in Arlington as a military figure" The Whitman SATC, Murphy writes, marched around campus without guns, boots, or uniforms, and Douglas was sidelined by influenza for much of the time. When uniforms finally arrived after the November 1918 armistice, Douglas suited up for a photo, but his military record, Murphy writes, shows that he was never actually inducted into the Army or honorably discharged.

Nevertheless, according to Murphy, Douglas schemed to gain access to Arlington. On June 28, 1977, Douglas wrote his wife Cathy, telling her "I've remembered that I would qualify for burial in the Arlington National Cemetery because I was in World War I" This letter, Murphy writes, shows that Douglas "wanted to be buried as a soldier"--and, furthermore, Douglas "knew he had an ace to be played." The letter urged Cathy to consult Douglas's friend, Democratic Party consiglieri Clark Clifford, about the matter, since "he knows all the ropes" Murphy explains: "If the king of the Democrats could not get this done during the administration of Democratic president Jimmy Carter, Douglas knew, then he was unworthy of the title."