The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer

by Curtis Wilkie

“Over the past four decades no reporter has critiqued the American South with such evocative sensitivity and bedrock honesty as Curtis Wilkie.”—Douglas Brinkley

The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against “Big Tobacco” and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter day Robin Hood, and portrayed in the movie, The Insider, as a dapper aviator-lawyer. Scruggs’ legal triumphs rewarded him lavishly, and his success emboldened both his career maneuvering and his influence in Southern politics--but at a terrible cost, culminating in his spectacular fall, when he was convicted for conspiring to bribe a Mississippi state judge.

Here Mississippi is emblematic of the modern South, with its influx of new money and its rising professional class, including lawyers such as Scruggs, whose interests became inextricably entwined with state and national politics.

Based on extensive interviews, transcripts, and FBI recordings never made public, The Fall of the House of Zeus exposes the dark side of Southern and Washington legal games and power politics: the swirl of fixed cases, blocked investigations, judicial tampering, and a zealous prosecution that would eventually ensnare not only Scruggs but his own son, Zach, in the midst of their struggle with insurance companies over Hurricane Katrina damages. In gripping detail, Curtis Wilkie crafts an authentic legal thriller propelled by a “welter of betrayals and personal hatreds,” providing large supporting parts for Trent Lott and Jim Biden, brother of then-Senator Joe, and cameos by John McCain, Al Gore, and other DC insiders and influence peddlers.

Above all, we get to see how and why the mighty fail and fall, a story as gripping and timeless as a Greek tragedy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Law, Legal, Politics, Business

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Curtis Wilkie is a Mississippi-born journalist, author, and professor who has chronicled the changing South since 1963. During his career, Wilkie also covered presidential campaigns, the White House, the Middle East, and major events of the twentieth century in both the United States and abroad.

Reviews

[Judith E · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
After reading this account, I have to suspect that Mississippi is not the only State in the Union to have a deeply entrenched and tightly knit “good ol boy, I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” mentality. “The convergence of politics and law” in this account will make your head spin.

Dickie Scruggs was the mastermind behind class action law suits against tobacco, asbestos injuries, and Hurricane Katrina insurance claims. Everyone wanted a piece of his billions and those billions led Dickie down a spiraling path of questionable actions and associations.

This is an excellent report of a manipulated and corrupted Justice system that should shame Mississippi citizens. I knocked off a half point because the cast of characters is HUGE and even though there was a page listing the principle characters, it would have been helpful to note what actions they took with or against Dickie Scruggs.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book with a built in dislike for the main character, attorney Dickie Scruggs. I have worked as an expert witness for defense attorneys and view trial lawyers negatively as greedy people who play the system claiming to help the litte guy but usually helping themselves finacially to a much greater extent. I was quite surprised that by the end of the book I actually was hoping to find out that Scruggs would be given a light sentence. I gave this rating because of the skill of the writer (who does disclose that he is friends with Scruggs and his partners) that could cause me to have sympathy for Scruggs and his cohorts even though what they where convicted of was a very serious matter. The book names people all the way to the top of the US government and gives a look at the process and motivations involving campaign donations and behind-the-scenes influence. It also details the connections made in college (Old Miss) that lasted a lifetime. I'm still not a fan of trial lawyers but this was a very good read and once I got into the story I couldn't put it down until I finished it.

[Leslie Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I read it in two days, because I simply could not put this book down. I love Mississippi for many reasons, but one thing that I do not love about Mississippi is how the men who run that state pride themselves only on serving themselves and not the people that need it the most there. Even Scruggs, who I believe was sincere in trying to help other people, couldn't avoid helping himself a little too much too. But while I believe that Scruggs had good motives, he couldn't avoid getting caught up in the tangled web of corrupt allegiences that destroy when you create enemies everywhere. What distresses me most about this book is that the official channels were just as corrupt as the unofficial ones in Mississippi (or even in Washington, D.C., as the book points out). By that, I mean that most of the political leaders (the people writing and enforcing the laws) are just as corrupt as the petty theives and inmates filling Parchman penitentiary. The prosecutors and judges in this book are consumed with their own kind of egoism in their arrogant desires to be a part of the team that brings Scruggs down. In the end, this book makes you wonder if justice, in our current system is even possible The ethical conundrums woven through this book are the precise reasons I found it too difficult to negotiate the practice of law anymore.

As a sidenote, this book also made you wonder where all the women in Mississippi are, when the central characters and power players are all men. Perhaps a few more women in power in that state would do some good.

The author is up front with the fact that he considers Dick Scruggs a friend. I don't think that he set out to write a book to vindicate Scruggs, and I do think that he seeks objectivity by his extensive research and thorough documentation of the subject. He definitely aims to give the most complete picture of all that occurred with all of the information that he has available. Because he is honest about his biases and also because he uses the information that he has obtained not to destroy people, but to tell the story honestly (people appear as how the facts of the events make them appear), I think that this is the exact way a journalist should tell a story.

[Sharman Egan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 100 pages were very tough reading for me. So many characters, such a complicated story. The author would suddenly throw in a character that hadn't appeared in 50 pages with no hint as to who this person is except for the name & context (and often not even the full name!). I kept having to go back to figure out who was who.

Once I slogged through all that (I wouldn't have bothered if it weren't a topic of high interest to me), the action picked up and I was hooked.

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Greek Tragedy? How about a Shakespearean tale of love between King Dickie and Himself, with Money as his mistress?

While Mr. Wilkie has depicted this true story as a Greek tragedy in the land of William Faulkner, a good argument can be made that this tale also has the elements of a Shakespearean love story between King Dickie Scruggs and Himself, with Money as his mistress. With the help of the ghosts of King Dickie's past enemies betrayed, the lot of fools surrounding him topple King Dickie's Kingdom of Torts, by acts of tomfoolery, greed and betrayal.

Curtis Wilkie is a great storyteller. I highly recommend this book.

[Syd Sawyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little difficult for me. It got into the nitty gritty of this case, which took a lot for me to be engaged. So I would recommend, but it’s not like a relaxing read. Like it’s educational and takes brainpower?? If that makes sense??

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it, made me sick to think people behave like that.

[Lloyd Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad, sad, sad. All parties looked bad: lawyers, politicians, and judges. Best line in book was a Roman proverb that money was like sea water -- the more you drank the thirstier you got.

[Skipr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible inside look at the wheeling and dealing by high stakes trial lawyers and politicians. Their pursuit of the almighty dollar and their arrogance that the end justifies the means --ethics be damned-- make Scruggs and his associates easy to despise. That was why I was surprised that by the end of the book, I had become sympathetic to the idea that, while not innocent of wrongdoing in the bribery cases that are at the center of this debacle, those convicted --with one notable exception -- were "less guilty" than the government prosecutors claimed, and one defendant may have truly been innocent.

There were two added bonuses for this Mississippi native. One was reading Wilkie's descriptions of so many places that I have lived or visited, especially the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Oxford. The second was the peek inside Mississippi politics in the 1980s through the early 2000s, including Trent Lott and his cronies, and the role of connections forged at Ole Miss where so many of these movers and shakers were students, fraternity brothers, and law students there.

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining and informative.

“What shall he profit, if his injustice be undetected and unpunished? He who is undetected only gets worse, whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his nature of silenced and humanized; the gentler element in him is liberated, and the whole soul is perfected in an album by requirement of justice and temperance and wisdom...” -Platos Republic. Also from page 332.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was kind of boring- too much detail about the main players without real context for who they were in relation to the crime. The second half was fascinating.

The author was brutally honest about Scruggs and his misdeeds while still seeming to believe that he was a good guy who just got caught up in greed and power. I saw very little that was redeemable about Scruggs, but maybe you'd just have to know the guy?

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a Mississippian who watched this play out in the news, this was a must-read for me. Unfortunately, it left me with as many questions as answers, and was, frankly, very unsettling. This is far from the black and white story portrayed in the media, of a crime uncovered and prosecuted and wrapped up neatly. There is no sense of justice served in the end. That being said, I absolutely do not condone any illegal actions taken by any of the participants and feel that they should be justly punished for any wrongdoing, but it's hard to believe that was accomplished. There were far more sinister characters than Scruggs who seemed to emerge from this debacle with no consequences, but even more troubling than that was the actions of the investigators and prosecutors in this case. But, perhaps most troubling of all is the good-old-boy network and backroom dealings that were going on long before this and still continue on without pause. I think this should be a must-read for everyone, if for no other reason than to gain insight into the way the world really works behind the scenes.

[Gerry Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a thorough look at Dickie Scruggs's masterful forays into the realms of the "unethical" and the illegal. I wound up ALMOST seeing Scruggs as a sympathetic character. He's the tragic hero of this story, certainly--the man with tremendous power and potential whose flaws ultimately bring him down (the lust for power and money, or call it greed, if you will; nothing, apparently, was ever enough for Dickie Scruggs or his cohorts).

I'm not a great fan of nonfiction, but I couldn't put this book down--maybe in part because I knew several of the main "characters" (and they are indeed that). The amount of money floating around in the name of justice for the "underserved" is absolutely staggering. Not that the lawsuits against the asbestos and tobacco industries shouldn't have happened; it's just that the take was so ridiculously huge, especially considering the plight of so many folks in Mississippi.

Great book.

[Toni Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned many things by reading this book, although it took me a really long time to read it. Most of the things left me feeling disappointed in many politicians, and skeptical and suspicious of the rest. I did not know that until 1981 a graduate of the University of MS law school did not have to pass the bar to practice law in MS-this is called Diploma Privilege. I did not know that there is a political network operating through an Ole Miss fraternity, and that Dickie Scruggs was so involved in securing “loans” for politicians. The author of this book tries to make you see Dickie Scruggs as a fallen hero who fell in with the wrong people-the “Dark Side.” After finishing this book, I saw Scruggs as a leader of a Dark Force who used his money and power to buy everything and everyone he possibly could-just because he could!

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lawyer friend recommended this book to me when I moved to Oxford. I didn't care for the writing style, but the story was interesting enough and I did enjoy the descriptions of Oxford and Ole Miss culture. That part appeared very accurate from what I have observed in my short time here. I also learned that Mississippi politics are just as corrupt as Louisiana!

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Ole Miss students and other Mississippi residents would enjoy this book more than I did. Simply shocking selfishness.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love what a lawyer friend said at one point: "it is a shame that 95% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name. "

[Peter Cohron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am usually reading two books at the same time, one fiction and the other, non-fiction. That claim is a little difficult to make when the non-fiction book was THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ZEUS. This is a great and fast read that would compare well with any thriller on the market.

It chronicles the rise and fall of Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, a Mississippi lawyer who became famous and fabulously rich when he first took on the tobacco companies and won billions of dollars. After Hurricane Katrina, he furthered his riches and fame by suing insurance companies who tried to get out of paying for damage from the storm.

Instead of enjoying his laurels and buying the entire Caribbean as a playground, Scruggs and partners keep at it. But the desire to win eventually trumps following the prescribed legal pathways. Scruggs ends up bribing one judge (probably two) and is caught. A plethora of characters fill out the narrative, from other famous lawyers to a US Senator to John Grisham (the Mississippi lawyer turned novelist is a peripheral character). If the current college bribing scandal has you stirred up, or you just want a story about how the "good ole boys" system is alive and doing just fine, thank you--this book is for you. Hard to put down.

[Sisa Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as an audiobook, my only complaint is the various names and backgrounds can be difficult to keep up with if you're listening on and off. The author's style, however, though dense at times, was enlightening, engrossing, and insightful into Mississippi law, politics, culture, and communities.

As a side note, I met the author and his wife on a trip to Oxford, in the catfish restaurant referenced towards the end of the Fall of the House of Zeus. He was speaking at a business meeting where copies of this same book were provided as a gift. I left with a cool cat, Mark Twain impression of him and a signed copy.

[R. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story of the rise and fall of a Mississippi lawyer, Dickie Scruggs. Richly detailed and splendidly-sourced. Author included a helpful cast of characters at the beginning of the book. That was important since there are so many important characters, often making the story hard to follow. It would have been even better if the author had included a timeline of the most important events. Even so, this is an eye-opening saga of the connections between politics, money and business -- and what can happen when people lose their moral compass.

[Ravi Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting - actually on the balcony of Square Books in Oxford, overlooking the very court house and office buildings where the events of the book took place. The combination of a great story, larger-than-life characters, suberb writing, and deep research makes this a classic. This book will not only entertain you, but will help you understand the politics of Mississippi -- especially the transition from the Eastland Democratic machine to the Lott Republican machine (and how it wasn't as much a transition as a continuation).

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cautionary tale. Choose your friends wisely. The best take I've heard on the matter was from a Georgia attorney who said the culture was that attorneys could get away with anything. Not surprising in Mississippi and the Deep South, where privileged white males have been getting away with murder (of blacks) for over a century. (I'm not saying that any of the protagonists were racist; just that there is a whole different culture in the South, and it has consequences.)

[Mrs. John W. Falls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tale of the Century

Amazing detail and vivid characterizations carries the reader through the legal, political, and social world of American jurisprudence. This story brings to life the degree of struggle in combating corruption within the government and our justice system, as well as the age old battle of human fallibility, and the damage that can ensue by the excessively self righteous in our midst.

[SheMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh ... A pretty thin story stretched out with lots of padding e.g. 2 or 3 page biographies of ALL the players. So much padding, in fact, that by the time you get to the case that the book purports to be about, you've forgotten why you're there. The bribery case seems thin as well and seemed more like a case of entrapment.

[John Uit de Flesch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was highly complex with many names and details to remember. It reveals what one could imagine--big money often corrupts, and easily. The main player did seem to be "removed" from the ultimate bribe, but that's often how big boys run. I couldn't believe they all ended up pleading--kind of a downer for a finisher. Not recommended for the average reader.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What shall he profit, if his injustice be undetected and unpunished? He who is undetected only gets worse, whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his nature silenced and humanized; the gentler element is liberated, and the whole soul is perfected in an album by requirement of justice and temperance and wisdom" ~ Plato.

[Nočnica · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the cover photo to the book's editing, a certain amateurishness affects this book, but it's a fascinating tale.

One of the last ways that the little guy could get leverage against corporations was destroyed in the years after this story, it's a bit like the story of 'Casino:' the last time some genuine chiselers would get away with making money that big.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audio book. It was compelling but might have been better read as a book. I needed to refresh my memory sometimes as to who someone was and I couldn't.

Will leave you with a very cynical view of both political parties.

[Mark Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, but the author has a very obvious affection for Dickie Scruggs. Dickie is a great, honorable, compassionate and charitable soul who just got caught up in something that was not of his making - and everyone else is just vermin. If you can get past that, it's a colorful story.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complicated cast of characters for anyone not from the area. Also, it's not told in a strict timeline sequence, so gets a little tough to follow in places. However, Wilkie did a good job of maintaining his reporter's objectivity.