Stories about one of the most noted politicians in Louisiana’s history, former Gov. Edwin Edwards, likely will live on in the state for generations to come.

But few have witnessed the now convicted and aging Louisiana legend like Leo Honeycutt has — through a holding room at the federal prison in Oakdale.

Honeycutt, an award-winning broadcast journalist and Baton Rouge resident, is the author of Edwards’ highly popular authorized biography, “Edwin Edwards: Governor of Louisiana.” Honeycutt addressed a crowd of New Iberia Kiwanis, Rotary and Optimist club members and guests Thursday at the Ramada Inn to discuss Edwards’ life and his experience in writing the book.

Leo Honeycutt tells civic club members, others about Gov. Edwin Edwards here Thursday. LEE BALL / THE DAILY IBERIAN Advertisement

Edwards, serving a 10-year prison sentence for 17 federal convictions including racketeering, fraud and embezzlement, will be freed from prison and a six-month stay at a half-way house by July 2011, Honeycutt said. Two weeks later, Edwards will turn 84.

“It’s not exactly the best place to be in your latter years, but I have to tell you he makes a good time of it all,” Honeycutt said. 

Edwards, known throughout the state for his charisma as much as his controversies, spent up to three hours at each sitting with Honeycutt for a few years giving interviews in the Oakdale prison holding room. The holding room, which Honeycutt said was no “country club,” typically held about 50 to 60 inmates with their wives or significant others and “about 200 kids who are usually trying their best to scream at the top of their lungs.”

“It’s interesting to see that when he walks in, he starts to work the room immediately,” Honeycutt said. “He begins to kiss the babies and the ladies and joke with the guys and finally after about 20 minutes of this, I’ll say, ‘Hey, writing a biography over here.’ ”

Long before rumors and charges of corruption began to surface, Edwards got his start in Louisiana politics by serving on the Crowley City Council, then advancing to the state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

His first run for governor was in 1971, a win that would eventually mean four terms as governor over the next 25 years.

“Those were fun times,” Honeycutt said. “Who else could get away with saying ‘Dave Treen is so slow it takes him an hour-and-a-half to watch 60 minutes.’ There are people who paid millions in New York and Los Angeles for coming out with one-liners like that. ‘The only way I can be defeated now is if I’m caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.’ How many people get away with that? In the David Duke race, he says, ‘We’re both wizards under the sheets.’ You can’t beat stuff like that.”

In his earlier terms as governor, Edwards was remembered for his overhaul of the original Louisiana charter, expanding oil and gas revenues and using the money on multiple new social programs, and the streamlining of more than 80 state agencies into the Cabinet structure that remains today.

Questionable ethics came to light during his first two terms, but it was not until 1985 that Edwards stood trial for the first time for fraud and obstruction of justice charges.

When Edwards had to sit out of the 1979 gubernatorial race because of term limits, he encountered a political nemesis in the form of Gov. David Treen, a Republican who served as governor from 1980 to 1983.

But the two mended their once rocky relationship, and Treen not only worked for three years to try and have Edwards’ sentence commuted, he also wrote the foreword to Edwards’ biography.

New Iberia City Attorney Ted Haik, a former state lawmaker, noted during the presentation that despite their political conflicts, Treen’s foreword states, “I believe the federal government, and by that I mean Judge Frank Polozola and U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, doubled his sentence from the prescribed five years purely out of vindictiveness.” Honeycutt worked with Treen the summer before he died last year. The experience was “amazing,” he said, noting Treen and Edwards had become pen pals after Edwards went to prison.

As a biographer, Honeycutt said he knew he had to maintain a safe distance between he and Edwards, knowing that Edwards is a “charmer.” Honeycutt is quoted in multiple media outlets as saying he was not a fan of Edwards before first visiting the prison. Now, he said, “I don’t judge as quickly anymore.”

Honeycutt admitted the relationship between he and Edwards was not always easy while writing the book — sometimes consisting of many “blowouts” and “heated arguments.”

He spent two years in the basement of a library researching Edwards through what he called “the original Internet,” microfilm.

“I didn’t know I was going to spend this much time on it,” he said. “I wanted to know for myself. I wanted to see Edwin Edwards evolve over time, as well as the state evolve over time.

“Edwin Edwards is different from the rest of us. He’s brilliant. He’s extremely intelligent, very quick. But he still guards his life very close to the chest, and trying to chip through that mask ... it took the first year for me to realize that this is a guy who had been governor for 16 years, and some say de facto governor for about 30, and his whole identity got tied up in that role.”

Upon his release, Honeycutt said Edwards plans to travel the Western U.S. in his RV, where he can “breathe free and sit down and enjoy an anonymous meal.”

“There are things he would like to do for Louisiana to help his reputation and help his legacy, part of which was writing this book,” he said.