Styles Bridges was the U. S. Senator from New Hampshire back in the bad old days when homosexuality was a crime. He was an ally of Sen. Joe McCarthy who was behind the infamous Red Scare and Lavender Scare. The Lavender Scare is what Bridges employed in driving Sen. Lester Hunt to suicide.
In 1953, DC cops arrested Democratic Senator Lester Hunt’s son in the park across the White House on a moral charge – for being gay and looking for a hookup. The cops charged him with a misdemeanor and told his dad to help him straighten up. Sen. Lester Hunt was a Wyoming Democrat (back when Democrats could win in Wyoming.) Hunt openly challenged McCarthy and even introduced a bill allowing people to sue members of Congress for slander. So his son’s arrest was perfect material for extortion.
And so Bridges got together with Idaho Senator Welker and the two threatened to expose Hunt’s son if Hunt did not resign. The Dems had a 1 vote majority and Hunt’s replacement would be replaced by a Republican governor, giving Republicans the majority. Hunt told them no, so they followed through, pressuring the prosecutor to take the case to trial. They got Republican-aligned newspapers to write about Hunt’s homosexual son.
Hunt was broken and he announced he would not seek reelection. Then he killed himself and was replaced by a Republican, as Hunt and Welker planned. In 2016, a citizen’s jury convicted Bridges of blackmail.
- New Hampshire Historical Society: NH Senator Convicted of Blackmailing Lester Hunt
- The Blue Review of Boise State University: The Shocking Death of Sen. Lester Hunt
- Prescott Evening Courier 1954: Drew Pearson Washington Merry-Go-Round column
23 Dec 2012
June 22. 1954