On this day, Jan. 22, in 1987, on the eve of his sentencing for a bribery conviction, Pennsylvania state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself at a news conference on live television.
Dwyer, who was facing up to 55 years in prison, called reporters to his office in Harrisburg. They assumed he was going to announce his resignation
Instead, Dwyer read a prepared statement for 20 minutes declaring his innocence.
Then, with television cameras rolling, he pulled a .357 Magnum revolver from a Manila envelope and said, “Please leave the room if this will offend you.”
Amid pleas from reporters and staff to put the gun down, the 47-year-old Republican put the gun barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
The suicide led to debates about the boundaries in journalism.
— Scott McCabe
