Gentry Crowell (December 10, 1932 – December 20, 1989) was a
Tennessee secretary of state
The Tennessee Secretary of State is an office created by the Tennessee State Constitution. The Secretary of State is responsible for many of the administrative aspects of the operation of state government of Tennessee. The current Secretary of ...
whose office was a target of investigation in
Operation Rocky Top Operation Rocky Top was an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into political corruption in the Tennessee state government in the late 1980s.Ronald SmothersTennessee Republicans See an Election Weapon in State's Bingo Scandal ''The ...
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
. A
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', January 28, 1990. He was first elected secretary of state by the state legislature in 1977, took office that year, and continued in that position until his death, having been re-elected by the legislature in 1981, 1985, and 1989.
In January 1979, while serving as secretary of state, Crowell witnessed Governor
Ray Blanton
Leonard Ray Blanton (April 10, 1930 – November 22, 1996)Fred Rolater"Leonard Ray Blanton" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: December 31, 2012.pardons and commutations of
prison sentence
In law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences for multip ...
s that Blanton notoriously issued shortly before leaving office. While signing the documents, Blanton stated, "this takes guts," to which Crowell responded, "some people have more guts than they've got brains."
Operation Rocky Top
In 1989, the Tennessee Secretary of State's office was a target of an FBI investigation called Operation Rocky Top, due to involvement in a
public corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
scandal involving
fund-raising
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** Bi ...
operations.
Crowell's administrative assistant was
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...
for embezzlement of thousands of dollars from the Democratic Caucus campaign fund, of which Crowell was treasurer. Crowell was called to testify before the federal grand jury in the Rocky Top investigation, but was not
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...