This work, West Virginia Tough Boys, represents an intimate peek at mountain politics and the 1960 John F. Kennedy presidential primary campaign. Rich and straightforward stories of political tomfoolery, vote buying and the eventual victory for JFK in the Mountain State's primary, which is often sited as the most important and vital win for Senator Kennedy's run for the White House, is offered. The book features interviews and discussions with several Mountain State political kingpins from yesteryear. They disclose vivid memories of working directly with John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy and family, and with Hubert Humphrey and other politicos of the time. These influential Democratic factional commandoes-Claude Ellis, Raymond Chafin, Dan Dahill, Mel Cottone and others like them-tell interesting and sometimes humorous stories about growing up in poverty stricken southern West Virginia. They also discuss how they each grew in political power. It's mountain politics as it once was, and will never be again. West Virginia Tough Boys is chock full of exciting and startling tales of election money exchanging hands, fraud, half-pints of liquor traded for votes, and the buying of various elections.