Merrell Williams Jr.

{{Short description|Tobacco industry whistleblower}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use American English|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Merrell Williams Jr.  | honorific_suffix = | image = Merrell_Williams,_Jr.jpg | image_upright = | image_size =  | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | other_names = Mr. Butts | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1941|01|26}} | birth_place = Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US | baptised =  | disappeared_date =  | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|11|18|1941|01|26}} | death_place = Ocean Springs, Mississippi, US | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | monuments = | nationality = | citizenship = | education = Ph.D. in Theater Arts | alma_mater = Baylor University and University of Denver | occupation = paralegal | years_active = 1988–1994 | era = | employer = Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs | organization = | agent =  | known_for = Leaking secret tobacco company documents | notable_works =  | style = | net_worth =  | television = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charge =  | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | family = | callsign = | awards = Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage<hr /> Gleitsman Foundation's Citizen Activist Award | website =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | module6 = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}

'''Merrell Williams Jr.''' (January 26, 1941 – November 18, 2013) was a whistleblower in the tobacco industry, revealing secret papers of tobacco companies showing that the companies had been lying to the public. It eventually resulted in a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the US states.

== Early life == Merrill Williams Jr., was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana January 26, 1941, to a family of heavy cigarette smokers.<ref name="Syd">{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=December 4, 2013 |title=Merrell Williams jnr obituary: Whistleblower who exposed the three big lies of America's tobacco giants |language=en |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |agency=New York Times |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/merrell-williams-jnr-obituary-whistleblower-who-exposed-the-three-big-lies-of-americas-tobacco-giants-20131204-2yqje.html |access-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820055950/https://www.smh.com.au/national/merrell-williams-jnr-obituary-whistleblower-who-exposed-the-three-big-lies-of-americas-tobacco-giants-20131204-2yqje.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The family later moved to West Texas for most of his childhood,<ref name="LATO" /> then briefly to Mississippi. He attended Baylor University, obtained a master's degree from University of Mississippi, and, in 1971, a Ph.D. in theatre arts at University of Denver.<ref name="LATO">{{Cite news |last=Chawkins |first=Steve |date=November 28, 2013 |title=Merrell Williams Jr. dies at 72; former paralegal fought Big Tobacco |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-merrell-williams-20131128-story.html |access-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820062817/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-merrell-williams-20131128-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After obtaining his Ph.D., he taught at junior colleges.<ref name=NYTO /> By 1981, he was a heavy Kool menthol cigarette smoker, an alcoholic, and couldn't find work as a teacher. He began training as a paralegal at Sullivan Junior College of Business. Then his wife of 10 years moved to divorce him. Mr. Williams was left with little other than a bicycle. He took odd jobs to make do.<ref name="NYT hiding" />

== Career == By the time Williams joined Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs in 1988 as a $9/hr (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|9|1988}}/hr in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) paralegal, he had declared bankruptcy four times, was behind in child support, and in the middle of his third divorce. His task was to assist the group reviewing documents from tobacco giant Brown & Williamson, preparing defenses for court cases against tobacco companies and legislation restricting tobacco use and marketing.<ref name="NYTO">{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Douglas |title=Merrell Williams Jr., Paralegal Who Bared Big Tobacco, Dies at 72 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/business/merrell-williams-jr-paralegal-who-bared-big-tobacco-dies-at-72.html |access-date=20 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=27 November 2013 |page=B17 |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035319/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/business/merrell-williams-jr-paralegal-who-bared-big-tobacco-dies-at-72.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

He began to recognize that some of the papers contained valuable information exposing tobacco company malfeasance. By Christmas of 1988, he began stealing selected documents that he felt were the most important. In 1990 he sent a cache of the documents to his friend, Nina Selz, who lived in Orlando, Florida.

Between 1990 and 1992, he tried to get tobacco industry opponents interested in the documents. In September 1990, he met up with Richard Daynard, an anti-tobacco crusader, at Nina Selz's Orlando home. Daynard referred Williams to Morton Mintz, a retired investigative reporter from the Washington Post. Mintz reviewed the information, but felt that the legal liability was too high to publish it.<ref name="TTW" /> In March 1992, Williams was fired from his job at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. That same month, he had a quintuple bypass operation.<ref name="NYTO" /> June 1992, Williams attempted to interest the U.S. Attorney's office in the issue, after learning that they were looking into allegations of fraud at the Council for Tobacco Research.<ref name="LAT gun" /> That attempt failed as well.

The next year, he sued the company for damages, claiming that the contents of the tobacco documents caused him great stress, eventually asking for $2.5 million, equivalent to ${{inflation|US|2.5|1993}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}.{{Inflation/fn|US}}<ref name="TTW"/> The company quickly ascertained who was behind the lawsuit, and served him with a restraining order that essentially prevented him from discussing the case with his attorney, but the order was later altered to permit him to speak to his lawyer.<ref name="NYT eases">{{Cite news |last=Hilts |first=Philip J. |date=12 November 1994 |title=Court Eases Restraining Order in Tobacco Document Case |page=9 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/12/us/court-eases-restraining-order-in-tobacco-document-case.html |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526103743/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/12/us/court-eases-restraining-order-in-tobacco-document-case.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The accusations against Williams were later dropped.<ref name="LATO" />

In 1994, Williams met with Don Barrett, a Mississippi attorney representing cancer patients suing tobacco firms. Barrett referred Williams to Richard Scruggs, another lawyer, who had made his fortune from asbestos litigation.<ref name="TTW" /> At the time of the meeting, Williams was "obviously very ill, very nervous, had been drinking."<ref name="Frontline" /> Scruggs noted the significance of the documents Williams had selected. As summarized by Mike Moore (at that time Mississippi's Attorney General), the files refuted "the three big lies" of the tobacco industry: that "cigarettes don’t cause cancer, nicotine is not addictive, and we don’t market to kids."<ref name="NYTO" /> Scruggs began financially supporting Williams, who bought a house and a 30-foot sailboat. Williams also began receiving $3,000/month (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{inflation|US|3,000|1994|r=-2}}}}/month in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) from Scruggs for a paralegal job that didn't require any work.

Scruggs, along with Mike Moore, on May 6, 1994, brought 4,000 pages of Williams' purloined documents to Representative Henry Waxman, who began using them in hearings in Washington.<ref name="LAT gun">{{cite news |last1=Levin |first1=Myron |title=Smoking Gun : The Unlikely Figure Who Rocked the U.S. Tobacco Industry |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-23-fi-17774-story.html |access-date=22 August 2021 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=23 June 1996}}</ref><ref name="NYT hiding">{{Cite news |last=Hilts |first=Philip J. |date=8 August 1994 |title=A Life of Hiding for a Tobacco Critic Bound to Silence |page=A11 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/08/us/a-life-of-hiding-for-a-tobacco-critic-bound-to-silence.html |access-date=20 August 2021 |archive-date=May 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526102717/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/08/us/a-life-of-hiding-for-a-tobacco-critic-bound-to-silence.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="WT" /><ref name="Frontline">{{cite web |title=Interviews - Richard Scruggs {{!}} Inside The Tobacco Deal |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/interviews/scruggs.html |website=Frontline |publisher=PBS |access-date=20 August 2021 |date=1998 |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035206/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/interviews/scruggs.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Later that same month, a large box containing the 4,000 pages of documents obtained by Williams, with no return address other than the name "Mr. Butts",<ref name="Frontline" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cummings |first1=K M |last2=Pollay |first2=R W |title=Exposing Mr Butts' tricks of the trade |journal=Tobacco Control |date=March 2002 |volume=11 |issue=suppl 1 |pages=i1–i4 |doi=10.1136/tc.11.suppl_1.i1|pmc=1766064 }}</ref> was shipped Federal Express to UCSF Professor Stanton Glantz, who quickly recognized their importance and began publicizing the documents and publishing analyses based upon them.<ref name="TTW">{{Cite news |last=Barstow |first=David |date=September 30, 2005 |title=The Thief and the Third Wave |language=en |work=Tampa Bay Times |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/04/06/the-thief-and-the-third-wave/ |access-date=August 20, 2021}}</ref><ref name="papers">{{cite book |editor1-last=Glantz |editor1-first=Stanton A. |editor2-last=Slade |editor2-first=John |editor3-last=Bero |editor3-first=Lisa A. |editor4-last=Hanauer |editor4-first=Peter |editor5-last=Barnes |editor5-first=Deborah E. |title=The cigarette papers |date=1996 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520213722 |pages=560 |url=http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft8489p25j/ |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |access-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035316/https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8489p25j&brand=ucpress |url-status=live }}</ref>

The ensuing series of revelations led to a 1998 settlement against US tobacco companies for over $206 billion, equivalent to over ${{inflation|US|206|1998}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}.{{Inflation/fn|US}} Scruggs, who had personally received $300 million in the settlement,<ref>{{cite news |title=Who's Afraid Of Dickie Scruggs? |url=https://www.newsweek.com/whos-afraid-dickie-scruggs-163108 |access-date=20 August 2021 |work=Newsweek |date=5 December 1999 |language=en |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035235/https://www.newsweek.com/whos-afraid-dickie-scruggs-163108 |url-status=live }}</ref> gave Williams $1.5 million.

== Late life == Afterwards, he quickly faded from what limited public view there was. He resided in various locations in Florida, Mississippi, and the Virgin Islands.<ref name="LATO"/> He died November 18, 2013, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi from heart disease, probably brought on by heavy smoking.<ref name="Barrett">{{Cite web |date=February 14, 2014 |title=Well-Known Tobacco Whistleblower, Merrell Williams Jr., Recently Dies |url=https://barrettlawpllc.com/well-known-tobacco-whistleblower-merrell-williams-jr-recently-dies/ |access-date=August 20, 2021 |website=Barrett Law PLLC |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035209/https://barrettlawpllc.com/well-known-tobacco-whistleblower-merrell-williams-jr-recently-dies/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Awards == * Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage (1997)<ref name="WT">{{Cite web |last=Lewis |first=Linda |date=December 4, 2013 |title=Whistleblower described as "tobacco industry's worst nightmare" dies {{!}} Whistleblowing Today |url=http://whistleblowingtoday.org/2013/12/whistleblower-described-as-tobacco-industrys-worst-nightmare-dies/ |access-date=August 20, 2021 |website=Whistleblowing Today |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035210/https://static.addtoany.com/buttons/favicon.png |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Past Winners of The Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage |url=http://callawayawards.org/past-winners/ |website=Callaway Awards |access-date=August 20, 2021}}</ref> * Gleitsman Foundation's Citizen Activist Award (1998)<ref>{{cite web |title=Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award |url=https://cpl.hks.harvard.edu/gleitsman-citizen-activist-award |website=Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership |access-date=August 20, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=August 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821035210/https://cpl.hks.harvard.edu/gleitsman-citizen-activist-award |url-status=live }} (listed as {{sic|Merrill|expected=Merrell}} Williams)</ref> * Proposed for Congressional Medal of Appreciation of Public Spirit (1994) (Joint Resolution died in committee)<ref>{{USBill|103|hjres|367|which=103}}</ref>

== References == <references />

== Further reading == * {{cite book | last=Hilts | first=Philip | title=Smokescreen : the truth behind the tobacco industry cover-up | publisher=Addison-Wesley Pub. Co | publication-place=Reading, Mass | year=1996 | isbn=0-201-48836-1 }} * {{cite book | last=Orey | first=Michael | title=Assuming the risk : the mavericks, the lawyers, and the whistle-blowers who beat big tobacco | publisher=Little, Brown, and Co | publication-place=Boston | year=1999 | isbn=0-316-66489-8 | oclc=40862169 }}

== External links ==

* {{cite web |title=Industry Documents Library |url=https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco |website=Truth Tobacco Industry Documents |publisher=UC San Francisco |access-date=August 20, 2021}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Merrell Jr.}} Category:Smoking in the United States Category:1941 births Category:2013 deaths Category:American whistleblowers Category:Anti-smoking activists Category:People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Category:Baylor University alumni Category:University of Mississippi alumni Category:University of Denver alumni