All for Love

"By God," Frank Boykin proclaimed indefatigably, "everything's made for love." And during his 28 years as U.S. Representative from Alabama, omnia vicit amor. Wrapped perennially in a white linen suit, his huge (250 lbs.) frame topped by a theatrical thatch of silver hair, he looked like a cartoonist's Claghorn--and spent money like a Dixie Gatsby. At one celebrated Boykinalia in 1949, nearly every VIP in Washington came to Frank's house to sample a potpourri from his favorite huntin' and fishin' spots. There was salmon from Quebec, pheasant from the Dakotas, antelope from Wyoming, elk from Montana, bear from Georgia--not to mention coon, possum, squirrel and deer from his own 100,000-acre preserve in Alabama.

The voters' love for Boykin ran out in the 1962 Democratic primary. Five months after his defeat, he was charged with accepting a bribe in an attempt, as a Congressman, to persuade the Justice Department to go easy on a convicted savings-and-loan swindler.*He was found guilty, given a $40,000 fine and a six-month jail sentence, which was suspended because of his age.

Last week, on the entreaties of three Senators and 34 Congressmen, all from the South--but none from Alabama--President Johnson gave a full pardon to Boykin. He is now 80, and after all those lovin' years has an ailing heart.

-The case of Boykin's codefendant, former Maryland Congressman Thomas F. Johnson, is now before the Supreme Court, which will decide if a speech that Johnson was convicted of being bribed to make on the floor of the House is covered by the constitutional guarantee that Congressmen cannot be held accountable for statements made during debate.

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