James Leslie, 38, a journalist and public relations executive, was fatally shot on the evening of July 9, 1976, in the parking lot of the Prince Murat Hotel in Baton Rouge. The killing occurred hours after a celebration for the passage of a right-to-work bill that Leslie had worked on.

Investigators quickly tied the murder into a wider corruption probe. Suspicion centered on George D’Artois, then Public Safety Commissioner of Shreveport and a former employer of Leslie, after allegations that D’Artois tried to pay Leslie with city funds for campaign work Leslie had done in 1974. A man with ties to D’Artois, identified as Rusty Griffith, was named as a potential triggerman; Griffith was killed several months after Leslie. D’Artois was arrested twice in connection with Leslie’s death but was released the first time for lack of evidence, and his second prosecution was delayed by declining health. D’Artois died during open-heart surgery in June 1977 and no one was ever convicted in Leslie’s murder.

Are there readers who remember Leslie’s work or the political climate around that 1976 legislative fight and can add details that might help the record?