William Penn Patrick, March 31, 1930 (Washington County, NC) – June 9, 1973 (Clearlake Oaks, Calif.)
VP candidate for Patriotic Party (1968)
Running mate with nominee: George C. Wallace (1919-1998)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Robert Bolivar DePugh (1923-2009) who may or may not have been the 1960 National States' Rights Party substitute nominee for President after Orval Faubus declined, started the Patriotic Party as the public face of his under-the-radar Right-wing paramilitiary organization. He was a Missouri veterinary drug manufacturer, survivalist, and John Birch Society member who in June 1960 founded the Minutemen anti-communist militia movement. In the 1960s-1970s he was charged and convicted of firearms violations (for which he did some hard time), charged but acquitted of bank robbery, and pornography and morals accusations involving underage girls. During much of the 1968 campaign season he was in serious legal trouble and something of fugitive from justice, living underground and taunting authorities for not finding him. DePugh eventually joined the Christian Identity Movement.
At the Patriotic Party convention in July 1967, DePugh nominated George Wallace for President and William Penn Patrick as his running mate. Wallace politely declined the nomination but there is conflicting information if Patrick accepted or withdrew.
Patrick was a wealthy businessman involved with multilevel marketing in cosmetics and was one of the early pioneers in for-profit large group awareness training. His methods of operation led him to being investigated for pyramid schemes and fraud. He ran to the Right of Ronald Reagan in the 1966 Republican primary for Governor of California.
The oft-repeated and totally just plain wrong claim (including on Wikipedia) that Patrick was nominated for VP by the "California Theocratic Party" is the result of a misreading of several reference works where the Patriotic Party is listed above the Theocratic Party. In truth the Theocratic Party Presidential nominee William R. Rogers never had a running mate. When Rogers dropped out of the race in May 1968, he was quickly replaced by Homer Tomlinson who then selected W. Buford McKenzie as the VP.
In Aug. 1967 Patrick was quoted as saying, "I disagree with those who want to impeach Earl Warren. I think they should hang him."
It was hoped that Patrick would invest some of his wealth into the Patriotic Party just as he had shortly before his nomination in a bizarre effort to recall US Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho). When Patrick's financial support for the Patriotic Party failed to materialize by Sept. 1967 DePugh was urging the Party to drop Patrick. DePugh also had some harsh words for George Wallace, who he felt was not zealous enough in condemning the political establishment. If the Party ever acted on DePugh's suggestion concerning Patrick, I can locate no record of it.
Around this same time in Sept. 1967 Patrick told the press Wallace had approached him about being his VP in the American Independent Party. Although they had indeed met face to face, Wallace had to deny in public that such an offer was ever made.
Whether Patrick was officially dropped from the Patriotic Party ticket or not, he definitely faded from any electioneering by the time voters started paying attention.
Patrick later expressed regret over having been associated with Wallace, who he viewed as unqualified for the Presidency as well as his circle of advisors. "I never changed my mind, however," Patrick told an interviewer in Dec. 1968, "that Richard Nixon was the best man."
In the midst of lawsuits and investigations Patrick and a passenger died when the plane he was flying near his home crashed June 9, 1973. He was 43.
Election history:
1966 - Governor of California (Republican) - primary - defeated
Other occupations: door-to-door salesman, multi-level marketer of cosmetics, for-profit large group awareness trainings
Buried: Mount Tamalpais Cemetery (San Rafael, Calif.)
Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as June Pointer and Diane Varsi.
