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Rufus Earl Young | Oklahoma FBI helper, 71

Rufus Earl Young, 71, who helped federal authorities uncover an Oklahoma statewide county commissioner kickback scheme, one of the largest scandals in U.S. history, has died died Wednesday at a Tulsa hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer, said his wife, Pamela Young. Mr. Young had just been elected Wagoner County commissioner in 1978 when he agreed to help the FBI in its probe. He worked with the agency for 10 months, wearing a secret recording device as he posed as a corrupt politician in dealings with vendors and officials. He collected $6,700 in bribes, which he turned over to the FBI. More than 240 current or former county commissioners across the state were then convicted in the 1980s of taking bribes. The scandal was lampooned in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury . In 1982, the FBI gave him its highest honor, the Louis E. Peters Memorial Award. - AP

Rufus Earl Young, 71, who helped federal authorities uncover an Oklahoma statewide county commissioner kickback scheme, one of the largest scandals in U.S. history, has died died Wednesday at a Tulsa hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer, said his wife, Pamela Young.

Mr. Young had just been elected Wagoner County commissioner in 1978 when he agreed to help the FBI in its probe. He worked with the agency for 10 months, wearing a secret recording device as he posed as a corrupt politician in dealings with vendors and officials. He collected $6,700 in bribes, which he turned over to the FBI.

More than 240 current or former county commissioners across the state were then convicted in the 1980s of taking bribes. The scandal was lampooned in Garry Trudeau's comic strip

Doonesbury

. In 1982, the FBI gave him its highest honor, the Louis E. Peters Memorial Award.

- AP