HELENA (AP)
Robert Woodahl, who used his post as state attorney general to crack down on gambling and prostitution, died Friday at Missouri River Manor in Great Falls at the age of 75. He died of natural causes, Gorder Funeral Home said. Woodahl, a Republican, served as attorney general from 1968-1976 but was unsuccessful in unseating Gov. Tom Judge in 1976. In an interview with The Associated Press just before he left office, Woodahl listed his first-term crackdown on illegal gambling as a major accomplishment. “When I came into office, gambling was pretty much prevalent in certain areas of the state,” he told the AP in December 1976. “I had run on a platform of enforcing the law, including gambling. “We conducted several raids and had quite a time getting it across to law enforcement people that gambling was illegal,” he said. “The fact that we got that accomplished,” he told the AP, was proven when voters in 1972 decided to remove the antigambling provision from the state constitution. Woodahl said he and one of his special prosecutors were the target of a 1975 assassination plot allegedly hatched by two men who were sentenced to prison for defrauding the Workmen’s Compensation Division. However, the two men were acquitted. Three prosecutors in the workmen’s compensation case were suspended a year later, after being tied to alleged illegal betting in Helena. Mike Greely, who succeeded Woodahl as attorney general, said he remembers crossing paths on the campaign trail when Woodahl unsuccessfully ran for governor. When everyone else was in suits, Woodahl was wearing Hawaiian shirts. “He was always very colorful and stood out,” said Greely, a Democrat who held the attorney general’s post until 1989. Greely also worked for Woodahl for one year, in 1969, and recalled that a crackdown on gambling was controversial. “I really like him a lot,” Greely said. “He was a little controversial sometimes.” Woodahl was born June 28, 1931, in Great Falls. He attended Great Falls schools and Montana State University and the University of Montana. He served in the Air Force during the Korean conflict. Woodahl graduated from UM’s law school and established a private law practice in Choteau. He married Arlene Depner in 1963. Woodahl served as Teton County attorney from 1961 through 1968. He returned to Choteau in 1978 and established a private law practice, retiring in 1999. He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter. A memorial service was held Wednesday at the Choteau United Methodist Church, Gorder Funeral Home said.
