BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- Harrison Williams Jr., once referred to as a 'Senator for life' who broke the Republican tradition in his conservative district, was to begin serving a three-year sentence Monday for his 1981 Abscam conviction.
Once the 12th most senior U.S. senator who had 28 years experience on Capitol Hill, Williams, 64, is scheduled to begin the sentence at the Federal Correction Institute in Danbury, Conn.
The Bedminster native was convicted May 1, 1981 in the FBI's Abscam investigation and lost his bid for a new trial Friday when a federal judge in Uniondale, N.Y., denied his claims his rights had been violated by the Justice Department.
The decision cleared the way for Williams to begin serving his sentence Monday at a minimum security section of the prison known as Danbury Camp.
Williams must serve a minimum of one year before a federal parole board in New York will consider a bid to leave prison.
Williams, known to friends and political foes alike as 'Pete,' became the first Democratic congressman elected from his staunchly conservative district in 1953, was re-elected in 1954, and won his Senate seat four years later.
He subsequently served 24 years in the Senate, some of them as chairman of the Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee of the Banking and Urban Affairs committee.
His name was frequently linked to legislation on labor, transportation and the aged.
Williams was a durable candidate. Even a drinking problem, which surfaced when Williams appeared drunk at public functions in 1970, and a broken first marriage did not hurt his electoral stock.
'I drank too much,' he confessed to constituents two weeks before the 1970 election. 'I don't drink anymore.'
He won the election by a sizable margin.
His persuasive style of speaking and electoral success impressed Republicans as well as members of his own party.
'He didn't rouse the ire of the Republicans,' a Republican opponent said at the time of Williams' sentencing. 'He was the Senator for life.'
Williams was convicted of selling his influence to gain government contracts for a proposed titanium mine in which he had accepted a hidden interest. He made the deal with FBI undercover agents posing as wealthy Arabs.
He was sentenced in February 1982, and resigned his office a month later, hours before the Senate was set to expel him.
The Abscam investigation also resulted in convictions of six members of the House of Representatives and more than a dozen lawyers and public officials, including former Camden, N.J., Mayor Angelo Erichetti, now serving a six-year sentence.
Cherry Hill lawyer Alexander Feinberg, 75, a longtime friend of Williams', had joined him in his appeal. He was also scheduled to surrender to authorities Monday at a federal prison in Lexington, Ky., where Rep. Frank Thompson Jr. of Trenton, N.J., is serving time for another Abscam conviction.
