Twenty years ago today, R. Budd Dwyer killed himself in front of television cameras at a press conference in Harrisburg, PA. At the time, Dwyer was the state treasurer of Pennsylvania.
And yes, I’ve laughed at the dumb cracks over the way the man left this earth, and that was really not a very bright thing for me to do (I never saw the actual footage, but only a series of photos – I was working at the time the event took place).
For the uninitiated, this Wikipedia article (containing information I’ve been able to corroborate from other sources) provides details on exactly what happened, noting the following…
In late 1986, Budd Dwyer was charged with receiving a kickback of $300,000. A plea bargain was made for (John) Torquato (a Harrisburg native who ran a California company implicated also) and Dauphin County Republican Party Chairman William Smith (who was also Torquato's attorney), as well as Smith's wife, which required them to testify against Dwyer. This, coupled with the government's refusal to name unindicted co-conspirators in the case, made it difficult for Dwyer to defend himself, though the unindicted co-conspirators are believed to have been staff members of the Dauphin County Republican Party. During this time, the district's United States Attorney offered Dwyer a plea bargain that carried a maximum of five-years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea on one count of accepting a bribe, resignation, and cooperation in the investigation.[1] Dwyer refused the offer, and was later convicted but continued to vehemently profess his innocence, as do others who were close to him. [2] Under state law, Dwyer could continue to serve as state treasurer until his sentencing. The maximum sentence Dwyer was facing was 55 years imprisonment and a $300,000 fine.The Wikipedia article goes on to quote Dwyer’s words before he pulled the trigger, including his accusation that Judge Malcolm Muir was seeking to make an example of Dwyer by imposing the maximum sentence. I guess the prevailing opinion is that Dwyer was an egomaniac who wanted to impart the maximum shock value as he made some kind of a statement about how he was being persecuted, though, by doing what he did while still holding office, his widow was able to collect about $1.28 million in survivor benefits.
Obviously, no one could have expected this, and from what I can recall reading from people who witnessed the gruesome event firsthand, some tried to flee the room, some pleaded with Dwyer not to shoot, and some froze in horror (I believe it was local TV station WPVI that filmed the entire sequence of events which went out over the air live, but I could be wrong, and again from what I recall, the camera person’s shock was such that they couldn’t move in time to turn off the camera – they would never have willingly filmed it otherwise, though I admit that that could be an “urban legend”).
The news conference was held in the early afternoon, and due to a snow holiday, more kids from school were home than usual to watch it either accidentally or on purpose, unfortunately. The Wikipedia article notes that fact as well as some of the journalistic practices that were changed as a result of the shooting (for example, the AP practice of having color-ready film available at all times instead of black and white for local stories and color film for national stories…the black-and-white photos were cheaper and easier to transmit, but color became universal as technological changes made the film cheaper, and the expectation was that it should be used for everything in case local stories suddenly achieved national importance somehow).
Also, I remember that the Inquirer handled the situation pretty well, with a front-page photo of Dwyer waving the gun around right after he took it out of the envelope, and another photo of grief-stricken aides and others standing nearby the podium after the shooting with only Dwyer’s feet visible that appeared inside the front section.
The Wikipedia article also notes the numerous pop culture references associated with the Dwyer shooting, brought to us by characters as diverse as Opie and Anthony (funny at times, but not enough for me to take the plunge into satellite), Bill Bryson (a talented writer unworthy of the bad joke he spawned from this), and the band Filter (not enough information to form an opinion). And I’ve often wondered about that (and as I said, I’m not completely innocent when it comes to that also).
I guess people who laugh at Budd Dwyer are people who want to use his death to feel good about themselves somehow. And I will admit that suicide is the most consummately stupid act someone could perform, especially for a politician who could’ve taken his lumps, served out a sentence in some Club Fed somewhere, then come back and written a book or become some kind of a consultant or something, in which case he never would have had to worry about money again in his life (and let’s face it: when talking about PA state government as a whole, the charges of which Dwyer was accused are completely credible). And given the Abramoff-type sums of money that have been thrown around to politicians recently convicted of selling themselves in this regard (paging Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham), $300K is chump change.
I don’t know what it says that more people probably remember the Budd Dwyer shooting than the names of their elected representatives or the names of all 50 states or the countries where our troops are stationed, but I’m sure it isn’t anything good.
And I feel a bit sorry for the man, who of course was as imperfect as all of us, because the eternal image most people will have of him is a gun barrel sticking in his mouth (the reason why no photo is included with this post is because that is the only picture of Dwyer I could find online).
So tonight, I’m going to go home and say a prayer for the happy repose of the soul of R. Budd Dwyer, as well as insight and empathy on all of our parts so that we aren’t so quick to try and manufacture a laugh out of all of this any more.
By the way, I meant to link to David Eisenthal's post on this here.
2 comments:
Good post, Doomsmeister.
I remember this, although I didn't see the unedited footage until many years later. At the time, I figured, "Oh well. Another sleazy pol down the drain" (although I was glad I didn't have to see the thing live).
But as you point out, Dwyer's 'crime' was chump change compared to those committed by the thugs who are now running our country.
If Shrub were to do this on TV, I would relish watching the whole thing live.
But of course, The Idiot King would never do such a thing because, as much as pop psychology can attribute Dwyer's act to 'grandiose megalomania' or some other egomaniacal motive, I've always figured there also had to be some large measure of SHAME which contributed to Dwyer's suicide -- something completely alien to the REAL sleazebags now in control of this country.
You could be right in the end about Dwyer having a sense of shame, and you're right...that is absolutely nowhere to be found with the Repugs.
I can't really say anything about your wish concerning Dubya, only that I agree with your reason why it won't happen.
Thanks for the comment and the good words.
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