A US Senator draws very personal consequences ...!


On the morning of January 22, 1987, the United States MP Robert Budd Dwyer, who has served in Congress since 1977 as a representative of the state of Pennsylvania and is a member of the Republicans, has invited to a press conference in the Capitol in Washington.



The journalists come in droves!

But this is not because Dwyer has a revolutionary political program or something similar to announce.

Rather, there is extensive criminal proceedings against the politician for accepting bribes, postal fraud, conspiracy and perjury.

The allegations all date from Dwyer's time as a former head of the Pennsylvania State Treasurer.



He had already been found guilty by a jury the year before ...:




The court has set the date for the judgment to be pronounced on the following day, January 23, 1987.

Dwyer faces up to 55 years in prison!

And so the journalists are very excited to see what the man has to say to them!

Will he again plead his innocence in a dramatic appeal? Will he resign? Is he about to make a confession?

Every imaginable variant promises big headlines and high editions!

And the pack gets its headlines! And what kind of!

Dwyer opens the press conference briefly, makes a brief statement in which he reaffirms his innocence - and when the journalists take a breath to ask their questions, the politician gets up and pulls a .357 Magnum pistol from the briefcase he had brought with him , also says:

"If this should bother you now, please leave the room!"

Then he puts the barrel in his mouth, pulls the trigger and shoots his skull off in front of the camera running!









Dwyer is dead instantly! End of the press conference.


It will later become absolutely clear that Robert Dwyer was innocent!

In their "zeal for hunting" a "big animal", the prosecutor had forced a co-defendant to make false statements about Dwyer's alleged involvement by threatening to prosecute his wife.

Not something I like..at all..but..things are not always pretty

There are few things I hate more than crooked people within the justice system. Thankfully they're few and far between. I wonder what happened to him?

I agree, altho the few and far between applies more to white guys and people of colour, indigenous around here and south of the border esp

Yeah, I recall this

I almost forgot about this. I was a couple of weeks out from Air Assault school when this took place. Meadville is 30 minute ride from me.

tom