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Budd Dwyer
From FamousPicturesMagazine
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| Picture Taken On: January 22, 1987 |
Place: Press room in the Pennsylvania government building |
Behind the Camera: Local Philadelphia media |
Picture Summary: Budd Dwyer committing suicide while giving a press conference |
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| Last Updated on 2010-2-07 by Dean Lucas |
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Robert Budd Dwyer
Robert Budd Dwyer or Budd was born on Nov 21, 1939 in St. Charles, Missouri. He later moved near a little town called Meadville, Pennsylvania graduating from its Allegheny College. He went on to finish his Master's Degree in Education and taught and coached at Cambridge Springs High School. Inspired by a trip to Communist Poland, Dwyer decided to enter politics. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1965 to 1970, the Pennsylvania Senate from 1970 to 1980. In 1980 he served as the state treasurer, a position he would hold until his death. His hometown of Meadville, population 15,500, supported him throughout his criminal proceeding and was shocked at his suicide. Days after the tragic event Meadville City Councilman Robert J. Rozell remembered Dywer for his sense of humor. Rozell said, "He was someone you could count on … If you needed something done, you knew who to call, and you always got a straight answer to your question."
Why
Dwyer’s life started to crumble when he was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and racketeering in regards to the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) scandal. In the early 80’s officials discovered that Pennsylvania public employees had over the course of several years been overpaying millions in FICA taxes. The State looked to tech firms to develop a system to calculate the amount that should be paid back to employees. John Torquato Jr., the owner of Computer Technology Associates (CTA) allegedly offered bribes to a number of State officials in an attempt to secure the contract. On May 10, 1984 the CTA was granted the contract, without any other bids considered. Four days later an anonymous memo ended up the in the governors office. The memo, without naming names declared that the FICA recovery project had been improperly awarded to CTA.
Governor "Dick" Thornburgh started an investigation that eventually led to list of officials who Torquato had bribed. Dwyer’s name was on the list along with a number of others. In a plea bargain with Torquato, it was revealed that although the bribes hadn’t been paid yet, Dwyer was to receive $300,000. Only two were charged in the case, Dwyer and Robert Asher who were to receive $100,000. Some would charge that others on the Torquato’s list of those who were to accept bribes were removed from prosecution because of their connections to those in power. The trial did not go well for Dwyer and his lawyer didn’t help by running a poor case, not even calling any witnesses to the stand. On Dec 18, 1986 Dwyer was found guilty. Sentencing was set for January 23, 1987. Dwyer had earlier turned down a plea bargain in exchange for cooperation in the trial and a one-count guilt plea. With the guilty conviction, Dwyer faced 55 years in prison and a possible $300,000 fine. Dwyer was shocked at the verdict and viewed it as a crime against justice. He felt he was a victim of a conspiracy and that ex-governor Thornburgh had set him up because Dwyer had exposed travel abuses made by the governor and his family.
One day before sentencing, he called a press conference. Media and staff thought that it would be an announcement of Dwyer’s resignation from office. Dwyer paid special attention to the setup of the press conference arranging furniture like the table so people would keep their distance. He started a rambling 20-page, 25min, speech about the failure of justice in his case and the failure of local government in general. Those present at the conference said he appeared to be very emotional almost on the verge of tears. When some of the press started packing up their gear Budd asked them to stay, "Those of you who are putting your cameras away, I think you ought to stay because we're not, we're not finished yet,"
Continuing his speech, he stated his worry that the judge had a history of imposing "medieval sentences" and he added, "…being punished for a crime I did not commit." He urged that capital punishment be repealed because he now knew that the system could find an innocent man guilty and apologized for voting several times as a state legislator for the death penalty. "This has been like a nightmare, like a life in the twilight zone, It wouldn't surprise me to wake up this minute to find out I was home in my bed and had just had a terrible nightmare. That's how unbelievable this has been. I mean, I've never done anything wrong and yet all this horrible nightmare has occurred to me,"
As the media started to get restless, he begin to skip parts of his speech, and when he came to the last page he stopped reading. (At his press conference Dwyer had a 20 page speech given out but he had an extra page) Dwyer never read the last page, page 21, of his statement. It repeated that he would not resign. It asked that his story be told and it warned that those with weak stomachs might want to leave the room. It also contained some quotes from the book The Shame of the Cities by Lincoln Steffens. Stopping his speech he started handing out envelopes to his staff saying, "Don, there are some things for you to do [hands over the envelopes] and some other things for Joanne." He then picks up another large manila envelope and takes out a .357 Magnum revolver and continues with gun in hand, “When I… and I…” At which point the stunned media and people in the room start shouting at Dwyer to put the gun down. Dwyer responds by saying "Please leave the room if this will... if this will offend you..." The crowd pleaded with him and some tried to get approach him. Dwyer perhaps afraid that someone would take the gun responds, "...no, no, don't, don't, don't... this will hurt someone..." quickly he put the gun in his mouth, fired and slumped to the floor, dead. With blood flooding out of Budd Dwyer’s now lifeless body, one of his aides takes charge coming to the front of the room and saying,
| All right... settle down. Don't panic, please... don't panic... don't panic. Someone call... someone call the ambulance and a doctor and the police... don't panic, please... show a little decorum, please... dear god in heaven... You've got your footage....now will you kindly wrap up your footage...get your cameras out..please get out of the room.....You've gotten all that can be gotten at this point .... Paul please .... Paul please [talking to journalist Paul Vathis who was still taking pictures] ... please wrap up your cameras and get out of the room......Oh my god in heaven! [Looks at Dwyer's body] Dear god in heaven! Now that's enough! That's enough! Please leave the room now! | 
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Airing the Clip
News producers who had footage of the suicide debated over whether or not to air the clip. In the end, some decided to not show any footage, while most showed the video but stopped before he pulled the trigger. WPVI-TV in Philadelphia showed the whole footage, including the gun shot, along with WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh but WPXI only showed it on their early news edition. Mr. Williams, the WPXI news operations manager, explained at the time about the later edit, "Everyone knows by then that he did it … There are children out of school."
This story also had an impact on the Associated Press photo policies. The AP at the time, due to cost, had its photographers shoot in black and white. Only top stories that were expected to get national coverage got color film. Since the Dwyer scandal was only expected to get local coverage, black and white film was issued. The suicide, of course changed that, and AP was caught with their pants down as requests for color photos started to come in from all over the world. Since then AP issued color film for all stories until photographers switched over to digital.
Envelopes
Before taking his own life, Budd passed out three envelopes to his aides. One was instructions for his funeral arrangements. One was Dwyer's organ donor card and the last was a letter to Governor Casey. Gregory Penny got the packet with the organ donor card. He remembered thinking something was wrong but he was powerless because everything happened so fast, "I said to myself 'an organ donor card,' and the next thing I know he's pulled the trigger,” Of Dywer’s body parts only his corneas were made available for transplants because to much passed before Dwyer’s body made it to the hospital.
The letter to the new Governor Robert P. Casey, who had just been sworn into office 2 days earlier, expressed how Dwyer felt Casey would be a great governor. He wrote Governor Casey, “will be the great Governor that Pennsylvania needs at this time in our history.” He then went on to stress that he wasn’t resigning office, “By the time you receive this letter the office of State Treasurer of Pennsylvania will be vacant. I stress to you that I did not resign but was State Treasurer of Pennsylvania to the end." If Dwyer had waited for sentencing the next day, by law he would have been forced to resign from office forfeiting his job and pension. By committing suicide while still a state employee, his family, Mrs Dwyer and their two children, Rob and Deedee, were still able to collect full benefits totalling around $1.3 million. Bud Dwyer’s letter also included a suggestion to Governor Casey on who to fill the job of State Treasurer, his wife. Recounting that there had been precedent for a spouse replacing a spouse, Dwyer suggested his wife of 23 years for the post, calling her, "very talented, personable, organized and hard-working." Governor Casey ignored the suggestion.
Taking the other path
The other man to be convicted with Dwyer was the former state Republican Party chairman, Robert Asher. He too was facing the same Federal Judge Muir who could, like Dwyer feared, impose the maximum sentence of 55 years in jail with a hefty fine. On January 28, 1987 Asher was fined $205,000, sentenced to a year and a day on each count. Judge Muir ruled that the sentences be served concurrently. Asher served seven months in prison before returning to civilian life working at his family run candy store, Asher's Chocolates. In a few years, he even returned to politics. After working on a number of campaigns on Nov of 1999, he was elected as a Republican National Committee member in Pennsylvania.
