Texas Tale

Monday, Sep. 07, 1981

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A shotgun approach to p.r.

Mike Martin is a piece of work. He was rated one of the ten worst legislators in the state by Texas Monthly magazine—in his first term. His mania for publicity alarmed even close associates. Says Leslie Smith, Martin's former public relations spokesman: "He was always intent on staging something to show himself as the clean-cut Christian battling the forces of evil." But Martin's earlier stunts were trifling compared with what happened at 2 a.m. on July 31.

Returning to his mobile home in Austin, the Republican representative was struck in the left arm by three buckshot pellets from a twelve-gauge shotgun, and his car was riddled with dime-sized holes. At various times since then, Martin, 29, has said his arm was raised to protect himself, to yawn and to check the time. Wayne House, then a legislative aide to Martin, took him to a hospital. But even then, House started to wonder: Had Martin staged his own shooting?

As time passed, evidence mounted that he had. Martin, a conservative Baptist, had set his sights on a state senate seat, and the assassination try sounded suspiciously like a p.r. gambit. Before the shooting, he had composed an "emergency list" of people to contact should anything happen to him; at the top, above his family, was his public relations man. Associates also noticed tiny discrepancies every time Martin recounted the shooting.

Martin ignored a subpoena to appear before a grand jury on Aug. 11, and then hatched a more outlandish version of what had happened: a black-masked member of "the Guardian Angels of the Underworld" had carried out the ambush to prevent him from exposing the satanic cult. On Aug. 17, Martin ducked another grand jury appearance—for his own safety, he said.

A few days later Martin's cousin, Charles Goff, 29, swore to police that he not only fired the shots, but also made three threatening telephone calls to a Martin aide to bolster the satanic cult story. The next day Texas Rangers found Martin hiding in a stereo cabinet in his mother's house and arrested him on an old assault charge. Free on bail, Martin denies everything. The grand jury will hear more evidence this week. If Martin is charged, it will probably be with a misdemeanor. Two possibilities: reckless conduct and making a false statement to police.

"This is a ridiculous saga," Martin concedes. "I can hardly believe it myself. If the court says I am guilty, then I don't want them to put me in jail. I want them to put me in the nuthouse." Major Don Doyle of the Austin police department agrees: "Nobody wants to send the dumb s.o.b. to the penitentiary."