A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Otis Bowen (1973 – 1981)

Otis R. “Doc” Bowen was born in Rochester, Indiana in 1918 and attended the local schools before getting his undergraduate and medical degrees at Indiana University. He served in the Medical Corps during World War II, stationed in the Pacific and accompanying troops ashore during the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. Bowen returned to Indiana and began practicing medicine in Bremen, Indiana as a general practitioner. In 1952, he was elected Marshall County Coroner, elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1956, lost by four votes in 1958, and re-elected in 1960. He rose to minority leader of the House by 1965 and helped engineer a Republican return to the majority in 1966 and became Speaker of the House.

In 1968, Bowen lost the primary race to Whitcomb, but in 1972, he won the Republican nomination. He would run against Matt Welsh who was attempting to return to the governor’s office. Bowen beat Welsh handily, with 1.2 million votes to Welsh’s 900,000. It’s probably worth mentioning a few statistics at this point. The election saw a turnout of 60.8% of the voting age population. The percentage had been dropping pretty steadily since 1960 when it had been 76.9%. According to the 1970 census, Indiana’s population was 5.2 million people — up 11.4% from 1960. The white population was 92.83%, the black population was 6.88%, the foreign-born population was 1.6%, 60.87% lived in urban areas versus 39.13% in rural areas. (Source: James Madison, The Indiana Way).

One area Bowen pursued in the House and again as governor was property tax reform. He believed that schools and local government needed a broader tax base but wanted to avoid big rate hikes on homeowners and businesses. Bowen imposed a property tax freeze but doubled sales taxes and permitted local government to impose income taxes, particularly where the income taxes would be used as a substitute for property taxes. So, in a sense, he shifted taxes from ownership to income and consumption. Obviously there is going to be a lot of overlap in taxpayers, but there are winners and losers when government makes that sort of shift. And, in fact, local government and schools were limited in their ability to impose taxes. School funding shifted away from the local governments and toward the state. Schools protested that the state was underfunding them. Bowen’s property tax freeze, sales tax raise, and limitations on local government would be echoed 30 years later during the Daniels administration.

For the most part, Bowen enjoyed Republican majorities in the General Assembly to assist him with his legislative agendas, though this was complicated for a time after the election of 1974 when Watergate and the national electoral mood sent Democrats to the Indiana House. Republicans regained control in the 1976 national bicentennial year. One of Bowen’s proudest accomplishments was upgrading the Indiana state park system, including creation of the White River State Park in Indianapolis and addition of Potato Creek and Wyandotte Woods and more than 40 nature preserves. “He also oversaw completion of Indiana’s interstate highway system, merged several road agencies into the Department of Transportation, [and] adopted 911 as the statewide emergency telephone number[.]”

As a doctor, Bowen  took some interest in the state’s medical education. He pushed for doctors to be trained at branch campuses of IU and put an emphasis on teaching general practitioners. He was also able to have legislation adopted that limited physician liability.   Bowen vetoed several gambling measures.

During Bowen’s term, on January 24, 1977, Indiana became the 35th and last state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Because the amendment did not receive the necessary 38 state ratification, it did not become part of the Constitution.  (Here is an interesting account written by Beth Van Voorst Gray about ratification in Indiana and her perspective as Principal Secretary of the Indiana Senate and an advocate for the ERA.)  The amendment itself was fairly simple, the meat of it reading, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Phyllis Schlafly is given a lot of credit for stopping the ERA’s momentum and preventing it from being passed into law. She and her supporters exploited fears “lurking in the minds of many people: girls/daughters going to war, unisex bathrooms, nullification of rape laws, and the like.” The proposed amendment had passed Congress with a deadline for ratification, failed to meet that deadline, and died.

Speaking of Constitutional amendments Bowen was able to take advantage of the recent state constitutional amendment and serve for two terms instead of the one term that had been the limit since the 1851 Constitution. He was re-elected easily — with about the same vote margin as he received against Matt Welsh in 1972, this time his Democratic opponent was Larry Conrad. At the end of his term, he considered running against Birch Bayh for the Senate seat that Dan Quayle ultimately captured. However, his wife was sick, and he declined the opportunity. His wife, Beth, died on New Year’s Day, 1981.

Bowen served on the faculty of the IU School of Medicine and then, in 1985, was chosen by President Reagan as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, he sounded the alarm on the AIDS epidemic — something the Reagan administration was criticized for being slow to address. Bowen said that, if progress was not made in dealing with the disease, within a decade, we might be dealing with a death toll in the tens of millions.

Bowen was also able to champion legislation that covered the costs of catastrophic illnesses for Medicare recipients, but the act was repealed when higher income seniors objected to paying a higher surtax to fund the program, and Congress repealed the act.

Governor Bowen lived until the age of 95, and passed away in 2013.

That brings us to the end of Indiana Bicentennial 11. Next time, we’ll head into the 80s and 90s with the 12th installment.

In the late 60s and 70s, the General Assembly did extensive research (h/t Indiana Law Blog) into amending Indiana’s constitution. (There was also a Judicial Committee that worked concurrently on revision to the judicial article of the Indiana Constitution. The working committee was headed by former governors Welsh and Handley. Handley would die in 1972 before the work was complete.

The Constitutional Revision Commission had considered the possibility of a constitutional convention but ultimately rejected that idea and decided to pursue a series of amendments instead. The Commission  endorsed, among other things, 1) an amendment that would allow a bill to address multiple subject matters when it was for the purpose of codifying Indiana law or revising the codifications; 2) an amendment that would have the governor and lieutenant governor run as a team — eliminating the possibility of a split ticket; 3) an amendment setting the voting age at 18 and setting the residency requirement at 30 days living in the precinct; 4) legislative (rather than Constitutional) policymaking in favor of home rule for local government; 5) an amendment that repealed the 61 day, biennial session limitation and allowed the General Assembly to set the length and frequency of its sessions by law; 6) an amendment that allowed the governor to serve two consecutive terms; 7) an amendment extending the terms of Secretary, Auditor, and Treasurer of State to four year terms;  8) providing for the method of selection and length of term of the Secretary of Public Instruction to be set by law; 9) revising the Militia article to account for changes in the time — for example the use of the federally funded National Guard as the state militia.

It was this period of reform, I believe, when the General Assembly created the Indiana Legislative Services Agency in the late 1960s. I worked for the agency from 1996 – 1999. While I’m obviously not shy about sharing my opinions these days, I took seriously — as I believe most who work there do — the charge that LSA was to be a nonpartisan arm of the General Assembly. We strove to identify problem spots with legislation and/or constitutional issues without imposing our views of what policy ought to be pursued or whether legislation was good or bad. This professionalization of legislative drafting, (in my very biased opinion) led to an improvement in the quality of the legislation (again — leaving aside the policies pursued.) The Indiana Code is, by and large, well written; particularly when compared against, say, the United States Code which is sloppy and unnecessarily confusing.

Additionally, there was a Judicial Commission that studied and advocated changes to the judicial article of the Constitution. Some of the changes were not adopted, but the appellate courts were altered to have the judges and justices selected by a judicial nominating commission that sent choices to the Governor for appointment. The Commission was also active in advocating legislation that would consolidate and expedite operation of the trial courts. It also addressed the transition away from justice-of-the-peace courts, replacing it with a system of small claims courts and traffic courts.

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In 1976, Whitcomb ran against Senator Lugar for the U.S. Senate seat but was defeated. He returned to the practice of law for a time, but in 1986, recently divorced and retired, Whitcomb took up sailing — in his 70s. He traveled from port to port, and just kept going. “In 1995, while attempting to sail around the world, his ship hit a reef in the Gulf of Suez and sank. He was rescued and returned to the United States.”  In 2000, Governor Whitcomb bought a secluded cabin in the Hoosier National Forest and continued to live there until he was 98 and passed away on February 4, 2016.

Edgar Whitcomb (1969 – 1973)

Governor Whitcomb was born in 1917, in Hayden, Indiana. He enrolled in IU Law School in 1939, but went to fight in World War II before his studies were complete. He was an aerial navigator in the Pacific and was captured by the Japanese. While a prisoner, he was tortured. He escaped once but was recaptured, then escaped again.

[H]e escaped a second time and was hunted for several more days but was able to evade his pursuers. He escaped by swimming all night through shark-infested waters to an island unoccupied by the Japanese army. He was eventually able to secure passage to China under an assumed name where he made contact with the United States Army and was repatriated in December 1943.

Whitcomb finished out the war doing bombing runs in a B-17 Flying Fortress. Whitcomb gave an account of his war experience in the best-selling 1958 book, “Escape from Corregidor.”

After the war, Governor Whitcomb returned to law school and graduated. In 1950, Whitcomb was elected to the state Senate where he served for three years. In 1954, he resigned to pursue his law career in North Vernon (later Seymour and Indianapolis). In 1966, Whitcomb was elected to the office of Secretary of State for Indiana.

In 1968, Whitcomb ran against future Governor Otis Bowen and future Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz. Bowen enjoyed the support of several large counties and was able to beat the other two candidates. The general election was fought on tax policy and national issues. Republicans were the beneficiaries in these issues and, after two down cycles, returned to power. During redistricting, the legislature had to honor the Warren Court Baker v. Carr court case which adopted the one-person, one-vote principle. As the population shifted from rural areas to urban areas, legislative districts hadn’t been shifting to keep pace. The result was that rural voters were over-represented. With the Baker v. Carr decision, the legislative Republicans had to redistrict in a way that shifted representation from rural areas to urban areas.

The situation created by the new development caused a split in the party between the urban and rural Republicans. Urban Republicans and their representatives tended to favor increasing government provided services and spending, while the rural Republicans tended to favor reduced spending and more limited government. Whitcomb found himself in party with the rural Republicans, while Bowen, who had become speaker of the house, grew to become a leader among the urban members.

Whitcomb was aligned with the rural Republicans while Bowen, who had become Speaker of the House, was aligned with the urban Republicans. Whitcomb vetoed a number of House spending bills which contributed to the rift. One consequence of the division was that Bowen was able to have one of his people take the state party chairman’s position which was seen as a snub of Whitcomb. In retaliation, Whitcomb directed political contributions to a fund he controlled which caused the state party financial hardship.

Governor Whitcomb sought to address the state’s budget problem without raising taxes in a way that had gotten his recent predecessors in trouble. He was able to adopt efficiency measures and auditing techniques that reduced expenses and increased revenues. His resistance to tax increases put him at odds with his fellow Republicans — so much so, apparently, that party leaders enlisted President Nixon to try to sideline Whitcomb with an offer to become Ambassador to Australia. Whitcomb declined and finished out his term.

I will take a point of personal privilege and devote an entry to the Richmond explosion that took place on April 6, 1968. This was about 3 years before I was born, but, my folks were living in Richmond, and dad had an office downtown. As I understand it, he went into work that day, but it was a weekend, and he ended up coming home early. After the explosion, they found his window blasted out. Hard telling what might have happened, but it’s not a huge stretch to think that I might not be writing this today if things had gone a little differently that day.

Here is how my mom put it a few years ago:

I remember it well. It was a Saturday. Your dad and I had gone to Civic Theatre with Dick and Cathy Brantner the night before and then out for some beer. It was a beautiful warm Sat., the day before Palm Sunday. We had lived in Richmond for 8 days and your dad went into the office for a short time on Sat. morning and then came home for lunch. Since we had been out late the night before your dad, Cindy and I all took a nap. We were still unpacking and getting settled and had dinner at home still unaware of what had happened.

Bert Keller called around 9:30 that night and told us what had happened, we were stunned. I still can’t believe that we didn’t see smoke from the downtown and didn’t hear the sirens, etc.

We did see the horrible result of the explosion the next day and lived with the reconstruction of the downtown as well as meeting many people whose lives were affected by this tragedy.

. . .

[T]he window in your dad’s office blew in and as I recall glass was on his desk where he had been sitting not too long before the explosion. He was fortunate that he came home when he did.

The explosion happened at 1:47 p.m. that Saturday. In part because the weather was so nice, the downtown was active. The blast killed 41 people and injured more than 127.

Ground zero was the Marting Arms Sporting Goods Store at corner of 6th Avenue and Main Street in the heart of downtown Richmond. Guns, ammunition, black powder and primers were among the goods. A gun firing range was in the basement of the store.

Witnesses described the first explosion as “muffled.” It caused a severe vibration of the walls of Marting Arms and lifted the building slightly off its foundation. An investigation into the cause of the explosions determined that a gas leak occurred in the Marting Arms building and the leaking gas was ignited by a gunshot in the firing range. The second explosion, the more powerful of the two, was touched off by the first, igniting gunpowder and primers stored in the basement.

The sporting goods store was nothing but a crater. Vigran’s Department store and Holthouse Furniture were also leveled Many others were damaged. Twenty buildings had to be condemned. I’m told that golf balls from the sporting goods store were found in the next county. “Hundreds of civilian volunteers joined police, firefighters and National Guard troops in searching through brick, glass and twisted metal for survivors and bodies. Ordinary citizens helped firefighters operate hoselines and perform other functions.”

Palladium-Item writer, Bill Engle, said that Richmond would not have another normal day for a long time. The explosion ripped out the part of the city’s heart, but it also brought out the best in the citizens whose heroic efforts saved many lives. The explosion did over $100 million worth of damage.

Main Street would close, and the downtown Promenade — a five block pedestrian mall.  In response to the disaster, the 1968 Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act was passed. In 1997, 29 years after the explosion, the pedestrian mall was converted to allow traffic again as part of an urban revitalization effort.

Palm Sunday Tornadoes

On April 11 and 12, 1965, there was an outbreak of tornadoes in the Midwest known as the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak in Indiana history with 137 dead and 1,200 injured. Numerous F4 tornadoes touched down in the state — Elkhart County was particularly hard hit.

Another tornado formed near the St. Joseph County–Elkhart County border. It tracked east-northeasterly, striking Wakarusa, Indiana, where it killed a child. The tornado moved toward Dunlap, and the Midway trailer park. Elkhart Truth reporter Paul Huffman captured a series of photographs as the twin-funneled, F4 tornado obliterated the trailer park, just south of Dunlap. This initial tornado killed 14 people. One half-hour later, a second F4 tornado directly struck Dunlap to the north and devastated the Sunnyside Housing addition and the unoccupied Sunnyside Mennonite Church. The death toll from the Sunnyside Housing Addition was 28 people, with another six killed at a truck stop at the intersection of Highways 15 and 20. The Palm Sunday Tornado Memorial Park now exists near this location, at the corner of County Road 45 and Cole Street in Dunlap. Most of the 36 people killed in the tornado had no warning because the high winds from the first tornado had knocked out telephone and power grids. For the first time in the U.S. Weather Bureau‘s history, all nine counties in the northern Indiana office’s jurisdiction were under a tornado warning. This is called a “blanket tornado warning.” Both tornadoes were officially rated as F4 according to the National Weather Service records. However, both the Midway and Dunlap tornadoes were previously rated F5.

Ninety miles to the south, the towns of Russiaville and Alto were destroyed. Nearby Kokomo was damaged, and the tornado continued east to Marion. One result of the outbreaks was a revision of the tornado procedures, including implementation of the “watch” (favorable conditions) and “warning” (imminent or occurring) procedures.

1965 also featured one of the more gruesome crimes in Indiana’s history — the torture of 16 year old Sylvia Likens by Gertrude Baniszewski and her family. Sylvia’s parents, traveling carnival workers, arranged to have Sylvia and her 15 year old sister board with the Baniszewskis for $20 per week. When that payment was late, things got ugly.

In August 1965, Baniszewski began to verbally and physically abuse Sylvia Likens, allowing her older children to beat her, and push her down stairs. Baniszewski also accused Likens of prostitution and delivered “sermons” about the filthiness of prostitutes and women in general. After the Likens sisters reportedly accused Baniszewski’s daughters Paula and Stephanie of being prostitutes, Stephanie’s boyfriend Coy Hubbard and several other classmates and local boys were brought in to assist Baniszewski in beating Sylvia. Baniszewski later forced Jenny to hit her sister.

In addition to the beatings, the abuse included being tied up, being vaginally violated by soda bottles, rubbing salt into wounds, being forced to eat her own feces, being burned with lit cigarettes, and being burned by scalding water. None of this is “normal,” but perhaps the most bizarre detail of the abuse was that Gertrude began carving “I am a prostitute and proud of it” on Sylvia’s abdomen with a heated sewing needle. Sylvia was forced to write a letter that Gertrude dictated, indicating that Sylvia had run away.  Eventually, Sylvia died from the abuse. The Baniszewskis called the police and, using the letter,  attempted to report that Sylvia had run away. However, while the police were at the house, Jenny Likens “approached them and said, “Get me out of here and I’ll tell you everything.””  There were a number of convictions that resulted from the subsequent trial. Gertrude was convicted of first degree murder but was paroled after serving 19 years.

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Finishing up with Governor Branigin, in 1968, Branigin was a Presidential candidate in Indiana – standing in for President Johnson. When Johnson decided not to run, Branigin stayed in the race. He lost to Robert Kennedy but beat Eugene McCarthy. After his term of governor, Branigin returned to practice in Lafayette where he died in 1975. “In later years he served as president of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, the Harrison Trails Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and a board member of Franklin College and Purdue University. During his lifetime Branigin amassed a large collection of books, which he later donated to the Franklin College library.” He also served on the board of the Indiana History Society until his death.