Does anyone remember Budd Dwyer?
I was in my teens when the convicted PA State Treasurer committed suicide by gunshot on national TV.
Some things you just can’t erase.
I was a senior in High School in PA when Budd Dwyer killed himself. Later in college I dated a gal whose father was a speechwriter in the press conference where it happened. He was still suffering from some PTSD. Saddest thing of all is that Dwyer was pretty much later exonerated. From Wikipedia:
“Throughout Dwyer’s trial and after his conviction, he maintained that he was not guilty of the charges levied against him, and that he had been framed. Decades later, the prosecution’s primary witness, William T. Smith, whose testimony was largely used to obtain Dwyer’s conviction, admitted in a documentary about Dwyer that he had lied under oath regarding Dwyer’s acceptance of bribes in order to receive a reduced sentence.[5] Smith acknowledges, as he did at Dwyer’s trial, that he had lied in his own earlier trial when he testified that he had offered Dwyer a bribe. He admitted that he testified against Dwyer in hopes of receiving a reduced sentence and to spare his wife from being prosecuted for her role in the conspiracy, and expressed his regret for that decision and the role it played in Dwyer’s death.”
Yep, went out with a very public bang.
That’s all on video.
Yup...some time ago I did some reading about his case,including a suggestion that some time after his death evidence emerged that he may have,in fact,been innocent...wrongly accused.