[Hanze]

R. Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania State Treasurer, tragically ended his life in a shocking and public manner. On January 22, 1987, during a live televised press conference, Dwyer, who was convicted of bribery in 1986 but maintained his innocence, committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a revolver. This event, occurring just a day before his scheduled sentencing, was broadcast on several television stations, marking it as a notorious and deeply disturbing incident in American political and media history​​.

The reaction to this might be negative, but I think it should be put out there. I found a video that appears to be as much of the speech Budd Dwyer gave before his famous suicide available on video in the public domain, and cut it with video of said suicide so that one can see the press conference from the beginning of his long-winded speech to the end of his life.

He was reading from a prepared speech he had written. The last paragraph, which he did not read out load, is as follows:

I've repeatedly said that I'm not going to resign as State Treasurer. After many hours of thought and meditation I've made a decision that should not be an example to anyone because it is unique to my situation. Last May I told you that after the trial, I would give you the story of the decade. To those of you who are shallow, the events of this morning will be that story. But to those of you with depth and concern the real story will be what I hope and pray results from this morning--in the coming months and years, the development of a true Justice System here in the United States. I am going to die in office in an effort to ...see if the shame[-ful] facts, spread out in all their shame, will not burn through our civic shamelessness and set fire to American pride. Please tell my story on every radio and television station and in every newspaper and magazine in the U.S. Please leave immediately if you have a weak stomach or mind since I don't want to cause physical or mental distress. Joanne, Rob, DeeDee - I love you! Thank you for making my life so happy. Good bye to you all on the count of 3. Please make sure that the sacrifice of my life is not in vain.

The three envelopes he hands out to his staff before he retrieves his revolver [a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 27] from a manilla envelope are as follows:
-A suicide note addressed to his wife [I have been unable to find any copies or transcriptions of this]
-His Organ Donor Card
-A letter to Governor Robert P. Casey

Notes:
-There is apparently a conspiracy theory about the Dwyer suicide, something about how there was no blood on his hand. Sounds like a crock of shit to me.
-The speech apparently lasted 25 minutes and the transcript was 20 pages long. I haven't found either the full video of the entire 25 minutes or the 20 page transcript.
-There is now a Documentary about Dwyer. I have never seen it personally.

[Hanze]

I made a serious editing fuck-up- this is NOT the full video. Apparently the full video is 25 minutes long, assuming it was filmed from beginning to end.

[joak]

i never paid attention to the whole story, but i've seen the video probably a dozen times.

didn't some guy recently admit to giving false testimony or some shit?

that's fucked up.

[OhJstFkOffAlrdy]

I've seen the documentary about him. It's called "Honest Man," and it really does endear Dwyer to the viewer. I, for one, believe he was innocent. The governor of Pennsylvania at the time pretty much railroaded him when he refused to sign off on the release of state taxpayers' funds to cover a variety of the governor's personal expenses and dalliances. Dwyer was accused of accepting a bribe in exchange for awarding a state contract to a company that was designing a computer program designed to calculate the amount of overpayment that state employees had made on their federal taxes.

The evidence against him was highly questionable. He never received the bribe he was accused of accepting (so no paper trail) and at least one of the people that testified against him did so after being intimidated by third parties. They also moved the trial from the state capitol -- where a more learned jury would have been available -- out to the sticks for the purpose of seating a jury that was largely ignorant of the ins-and-outs of the charges and the evidence at hand.

The main reason he chose suicide was to protect his family financially. He had been a state employee for most of his life, had racked up a sizable pension (something around $1.5M, if I remember correctly) as a result, and was exploiting a loophole in Pennsylvania state law that stated that the pensions of state officials convicted of felonies was forfeit only after the sentencing phase had been concluded. He held this press conference on the day he was scheduled to be sentenced, prior to the proceeding itself. His family received the full pension.

It's a sad story, really. Even though he was a politician, Dwyer was a good guy. He got fucked over for refusing to play ball with the cronyism and good-ol'-boy culture so prevalent in American politics. He never would have had to serve his full sentence, but his family would have wound up financially ruined. So he did what he thought was best by them, and I can respect him for it.

Also, I'd like to see the full speech should you ever get around to posting it. I've searched high and low for it to no avail.

[Hanze]

Originally Posted by Metal Mike ↗

Also, I'd like to see the full speech should you ever get around to posting it. I've searched high and low for it to no avail.

That was my mistake- I assumed that I had found the full speech, and while finding links for further writing I discovered that the full speech is 25 minutes long. I only have this much so far.

My bad.

[OhJstFkOffAlrdy]

Originally Posted by joak ↗

i never paid attention to the whole story, but i've seen the video probably a dozen times.

didn't some guy recently admit to giving false testimony or some shit?

that's fucked up.

And yes, there was an admission of that sort during one of the interviews in the documentary (at least if I remember correctly; it's been a while since I watched it). One of the people who testified against Dwyer did so to get himself a lighter sentence; by the time he was released from prison, his wife had left him for another man and won full custody of their son. Karma.

Another thing most people don't know about Dwyer: he decided to enter into politics after spending time in communist Poland. Sounds like a patriot to me.

[Bclancy95]

Why don't my iPad work

[bando21]

a classic

[Hanze]

I found the full transcript of Dwyer's last script [it's near the end of the document]. It's 21 pages long.
Link

[ocrage]

i think this was the first suicide/death video i ever saw, either this or that dude that shoots himself in the head in the holding cell