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R. Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 - January 22, 1987) was
an American politician born in St. Charles, Missouri. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from
1965 to 1970, the state Senate from 1970 to 1980, and state
treasurer from 1980 to his death in
1987. He is best known for the spectacular way in which he died -- he arranged for the
broadcast of his suicide to a nationwide audience.
During the early 1980s, employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania overpaid millions of dollars in FICA taxes. As a result, the Commonwealth began requesting bids for the task of calculating refunds to each employee. One firm,
California-based Computer
Technology Associates, was owned by a Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania native named John
Torquato. Torquato used his Harrisburg-area connections and a series of bribes that totalled approximately $4,700,000 to
obtain the contract, worth $12-15 million. An anonymous memo then reached the governor's office, describing the bribes that had taken place. In late 1986,
Dwyer was charged as having accepted a related kickback of $300,000.
Dwyer was convicted, but continued to maintain his innocence. If sentenced, he would have been removed from office and spent
up to 55 years in prison. On January
22, 1987, the day before the sentencing, Dwyer called a press conference to "provide an update on the situation". At the
conference, a visibly agitated and nervous Dwyer stated that he would not resign his position as state treasurer.
He then handed out a series of envelopes (which contained copies of a suicide note), then pulled a .357 Magnum from another envelope.
"Please leave the room, if this will...if this will offend you," he asked. Chaos broke out as those in attendance pleaded with
Dwyer to put the gun down. "Stay away....this will hurt someone," he warned. He then put the barrel of the firearm into his mouth
and pulled the trigger, paying little regard to the still-rolling television
cameras. He died instantly.
Much to the chagrin of Dwyer's family, fascination with the suicide continued long
after his death. Copies of the suicide footage continue to circulate on the Internet to this day and have also appeared in many Faces of Death-type movies. In 1995, the rock band Filter had a hit with the song "Hey Man, Nice Shot", which, although not explicitly mentioning Dwyer, was "inspired" by Dwyer's suicide
according to members of the band. It should be noted that Steve Albini's
band Rapeman released an EP in 1988 called "Budd." Unlike Filter's oblique reference
to the event, Rapeman addressed it directly.
The case of the Dwyer suicide has long been a favorite of professors of journalistic ethics. The suicide is often used to demonstrate that news editors, especially in the
medium of television, must be prepared to make near-instant decisions, weighing both
the psychological impact on viewers and the need to compete with other outlets.
In the Dwyer case, news editors had to decide whether or not to air the graphic images live, in the middle of the afternoon, or to delay broadcast of the tape (or
portions thereof) until the evening news. Of the six Pennsylvania TV news
stations covering the "press conference," only one elected not to cut away; five others aired the footage, in drastically edited
form, on the evening news; and one used no footage at all.
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