Barnicle resigns on eve of publication of new allegations

RELATED COVERAGE The Phoenix story from bostonphoenix.com THE COLUMN IN QUESTION "Politics in the Bayou" - 01/20/86

BOSTON (AP) - Globe Columnist Mike Barnicle's resignation was announced Wednesday, the day before the Boston Phoenix was about to publish new allegations he had lifted material from a 1961 book about a legendary Louisiana politician.

In a Jan. 20, 1986 column, Barnicle attributed stories about Gov. Earl Long to a distant cousin of the politician, Gillis Long.

The column and the book by New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling, ''The Earl of Louisiana,'' shared several quirky spellings and identical quotes.

Not only that, Gillis Long died a year before Barnicle published the column.

The story in the Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper, pointed out that words Barnicle attributed to Gillis Long had the same idiosyncratic spellings as those Liebling attributed to Earl Long.

Liebling, for example, wrote that Earl Long said, ''Da voting machines won't hold me up. If I have da raight commissioners, I can make dem machines play 'Home Sweet Home'.''

Barnicle, claiming to quote Gillis Long, wrote that Earl Long said, ''If I have da raight commissioners I can make dem machines play 'Home Sweet Home'.''

Barnicle resigned Wednesday from the Globe amid suspicions he fabricated a 1995 column about two children hospitalized with cancer.

Barnicle did not immediately return several messages left at his home.