Yesterday was the 21 year anniversary.
22 Jan 1987 The State Treasurer of Pennsylvania, R. Budd Dwyer, proclaims his innocence to fraud charges at a crowded press conference and then pulls a gun out of an envelope and blows his brains out.
I admittedly didn’t do a search on this, but is the current presumption still that he was guilty?
He’d already been convicted. He was awaiting sentencing.
I didn’t know anything about this, so I Googled it, and, unfortunately, found numerous links to the video of the press conference, one of which I watched, of course.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
I can’t imagine the inner torment that man was going through to think that blowing his brains out in public was the best solution to the situation he was in.
I know the case, an effing coward and drama queen, IMHO.
Instead of facing the concequences of his actions pulls out the ultimate victim card, traumatizing his friends and everyone in that room.
Well heading into IMHO territory he felt he was innocent and was being railroaded. He felt stuck in the situation and being that the judge IIRC pretty much said he was going to make an example of Mr.Dwyer he may have felt it was hopeless and this was for the best for his family. Once again IIRC his family was able to collect his pension because he killed himself before he was forced to resign.
Sure you can. Imagine if you were innocent but publicly ruined with no hope of ever having a good reputation ever again, with massive debt from trying to defend yourself and your good name, facing the further ruin of your family when they get crushed with the bills you couldn’t pay from jail.
He killed himself in order to retain his pension and benefits for his family (he hadn’t resigned his office, so he died while still Treasurer). Rarely do you see a suicide for selfless reasons. This was one of them.
Sorry, I just don’t see it that way. I’ve never heard of this story, and just now watched the video of the press conference.
He may have felt railroaded, he may have felt there was no way except suicide, but the way he did it was reprehensible. The sheer audacity of him pulling that gun in a crowded room and exposing that nightmare to everyone in it…one of the most conceited, vainglorious things I’ve ever seen.
I suppose it can be seen that way, too. But in essence it was little different from getting up in front of a microphone and making a speech which nobody believes. His willingness to go all the way gave people pause and caused them to cast a more critical eye on what happened to him.
That’s my take.
This one made the rounds briefly in 1987:
Q. What’s the difference between Budd Dwyer and Bud Light?
A. Bud Light has a head on it.
That was my take as well. I’ll have to go read a bit more to refresh my memory but my memory seems to recall some fishy back door dealing going on with his supposed cohorts. I never made up my mind on his guilt/innocence I was a young’un then but I remember reading quite a bit about it and even having discussions in school based on it. Yes this had an effect on me as I was one of the unlucky kids who watched a repeat with all the footage unaware what it was about. My mom flipped out needless to say.
I just watched it and found it to be a bit more disturbing than I thought it would be. Had I been in the room, I would have almost literally been stunned (once I realized it wasn’t a joke). That kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen.
Perhaps. But to do so in public? He could have accomplished all those ends by running a hose from his exhaust pipe into the car.
Lionne, I understand what you’re saying. Perhaps “tormented” conveyed too much sympathy or a sense that I felt that he was victimized by others. It was indeed a horribly conceited and selfish and vainglorious thing to do. But HE didn’t think it was those things. He thought it was the solution. One has to be seriously fucked up (i.e., tormented by one’s own thoughts) to do that.
My mom attempted suicide after my dad died, and once my sibs and I got past the initial scare and panic, I was pissed off as hell at her grandstanding. At the same time, I knew she had to be going through something so warped and painful that she thought a handful of pills and a lot of Scotch was the answer. (Mom was 76 when this happened.)
Also, the supposed inspiration for the song “Hey Man, Nice Shot.”
What has this to do with a question in General Questions?
What does this have to do with answering the OP?
Torquoto was the one alleged to have gave Mr. Dwyer the kickback. So my fuzzy recollection didn’t fail me, something seemed fishy.
Search me. I read the header, most of the OP and a bunch of the posts. I missed the forum name and the OP’s question.
Please excise the joke if you feel it’s out of place.
So did I, I could have sworn this was in MPSIMS; I got wiser when I couldn`t find the thread over there.
Sorry for the un-GQ friendly reply.
What do any of the jokes in GQ have to do with their respective threads?