William A. Allain (February 14, 1928 – December 2, 2013) was an American politician and lawyer who held office as the 59th governor of Mississippi as a Democrat from 1984 to 1988. Born in Adams County, Mississippi, he attended the University of Notre Dame and received a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1948.
He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and practiced law in Natchez until he was appointed Assistant Attorney General of Mississippi in 1962. In 1979 he was elected Attorney General of Mississippi. In that capacity he fought utility rate increases and sued to have members of the Mississippi State Legislature removed from executive boards in state government.
Allain ran for gubernatorial office in 1983. During the general election allegations emerged that Allain had engaged in sexual activity with transvestites. The veracity of the allegations were disputed and Allain won the election, but his credibility with the public was damaged and made it difficult for him to secure public support for his ideas as governor.
Taking office in January 1984, he blocked tax increases and unsuccessfully pushed for a constitutional convention. Leaving office in January 1988, he opened a law practice in Jackson. He died there after becoming stricken with pneumonia in 2013.
William Allain was born in Washington in Adams County, Mississippi, United States on February 14, 1928. He was educated in county public schools and graduated from Natchez High School. He studied pre-law at University of Notre Dame and enrolled at the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1948, graduating with a law degree in May 1950.
Allain opened a law office in Natchez later that year, though upon the outbreak of the Korean War he enlisted in the United States Army infantry. Honorably discharged in 1953, he returned to legal practice. He was a member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He married Dorus Johnson in 1964 and divorced her in 1970. He continued to practice law until he was appointed Assistant Attorney General of Mississippi in 1962. In that capacity he represented the state government in state courts, federal district and appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court. He helped to represent the state to the federal government during the integration of the University of Mississippi and in the Conner v. Johnson reapportionment cases. Leaving the post in 1975, he practiced law in Jackson until 1979.
In 1979 Allain sought election to the office of Attorney General of Mississippi. A Democrat, he faced Republican Charles W. Pickering in the general election. Opinion polls showed Pickering with a lead throughout most of the campaign. Two days before the election date, Pickering's campaign organization ran a series of radio ads in black-majority communities which accused Allain of opposing civil rights for blacks throughout his career and being a former member of a Citizens' Council. Allain's campaign publicized the ads further and denounced them as "gutter tactics", with the hopes of assuaging blacks' possible concerns while also garnering support from conservative whites. The following day both candidates scheduled press conferences in each major city in the state with a television media market. Allain's campaign scheduled him just before Pickering's appearances. In Jackson, Allain was slated to appear at the same hotel room as his opponent. His campaign team arranged for the room to be professionally lit, and Allain denounced Pickering for having "lied to the people of the state of Mississippi. He says one thing to the black community and another to the whites." Allain's team then removed their lights, leaving Pickering to deliver his press conference in a comparatively dim setting while overwhelmed with questions about his ads from reporters. Allain was elected state attorney general on November 6, with Pickering attributing his defeat to the fallout from his ads.
Allain earned a reputation as a consumer advocate. He fought utility rate increases and stopped the storage of nuclear waste in Mississippi. State labor president Claude Ramsay sought to broker an agreement between Democratic Party presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale and Allain when the latter sought a veto over the federal storage of nuclear waste in Mississippi as a condition for his political support of Mondale.
In December 1981 Allain advised 36 members of the Mississippi State Legislature that they should be removed from executive boards in state government, arguing that their participation on these bodies violated the separation of powers language in the Mississippi Constitution. After the legislature ignored the issue during its 1982 session, he warned them that he would pursue legal action against them. When final negotiations between the two parties failed, the legislators sued Allain on April 7, 1982 to secure a legal judgement in their favor. He filed his own lawsuit several hours later. The case was initially heard in the Hinds County Circuit Court in November, and the following February the circuit court judge ruled in Allain's favor. The legislators concerned appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Mississippi, which unanimously affirmed the previous decision in Alexander v. State of Mississippi by and Through Allain and ordered the legislators to vacate their executive positions.
In 1983 Allain ran for the office of governor, facing five other candidates in the Democratic primary, including businessman Mike Sturdivant and former lieutenant governor Evelyn Gandy. While Gandy was the most well-known of the three, Allain benefitted from press coverage throughout the year for his efforts to have convicted murderer Jimmy Lee Gray executed. He placed second in the Democratic primary and defeated Gandy in the primary runoff and faced Republican candidate Leon Bramlett in the general election. Allain ran a populist-style campaign, emphasizing his work as attorney to general to prevent utility rate increases. Early polls indicated that he had a large lead over Bramlett.
During the campaign Bramlett attacked Allain for being a "bachelor" and emphasized that he was "blessed" with a wife and children and thus more qualified to manage education and healthcare issues. Allain accused Bramlett making "smears and innuendo" and of rumor–mongering, and emphasized that he had once had three step-children through his previous marriage. Meanwhile, three Republican oil company executives, having heard rumors that Allain regularly solicited sex from black transvestites, decided to enlist attorney Bill Spell and a private detective agency to investigate the veracity of the claims. They obtained a copy of Allain's divorce decree, which reportedly included grievances from his former wife that he would "absent himself at night over long periods of time and failed to perform his husbandly duties." The attorney and detectives interviewed three black transvestites who testified that they had sex with Allain and repairmen from his former apartment complex who said they had seen gay pornography in his unit. The oil executives informed Bramlett of their findings, but he refused to support their efforts. State Democratic leaders were tipped off about the investigation and decided that they would rebuff any allegations and support Allain.
After failed attempts to get the media to report the story, Spell held a press conference on October 25 to publicly reveal the allegations, noting that the claims were supported by the three transvestites—who had undergone polygraph examinations—and by police officers who had reported witnessing Allain attempt to solicit transvestite prostitutes in the Farish Street District of Jackson. The allegations were printed on the front page of The Clarion-Ledger the following morning. Allain denounced the allegations as "malicious lies", denied knowing the three transvestites, and said, "I'm no sexual deviate and Leon Bramlett knows it." He also said he would sue his accusers for defamation. The oil executives and their detectives moved the transvestites around various motels to control their appearances. Bramlett distanced himself from them and maintained that he had no involvement in the investigation. Other Democratic statewide candidates rallied to Allain's defense, while most media outlets rebuffed attempts by Spell to purchase advertisements to further publicize his findings.