THE DAY HUEY LONG WAS SHOT

The imitative title is perhaps a disservice (this is not a tick-tocking documentary of the day) to a book which will be further handicapped by the just previously published The Huey Long Murder Case by Hermann Deutsch (Doubleday- p. 1187). In spite of the inevitable duplication of material in both, and the ultimate concluding disagreement (actually Deutsch reached no conclusion in this motiveless assassination), this is the better book. Zinman has had access to more direct source material- the Weiss family in particular- has used far more interesting detail on both the before and after of the Huey Long story, and handled it all in a more spirited manner. The well known facts need not be reewed; but this book has been written with the intention of presenting Zinman's ew that Long was not killed by Weiss, but only after a scuffle with him was hit, as was Weiss, by the bullet of one of the bodyguards. Frankly it is not proof positive by a long shot (or any other kind- there was no ballistic evidence) but it does review the case and renew the enigma. There will be regional interest in particular if Huey Long is, as Zinman says, a ""modern legend"". Deutsch disclaimed this in his book.