The son of Polish immigrants, Alan J. Pakula had no intentions of taking over the family printing business. Instead, the Yale graduate with higher aspirations, headed to Hollywood. He became the assistant to the head of Warner Brothers cartoon department, but he was still not satisfied.

In 1950, Alan moved on to MGM Studios as an assistant producer. Seven years later, he produced his first film Fear Strikes Out,  the tense biopic of troubled baseball player Jimmy Piersall. In 1962, he teamed up with director Robert Mulligan to produce the classic  To Kill a Mockingbird.

After several more successes as producer, including Love with the Proper Stranger  and Inside Daisy Clover,  Alan tried his hand at directing. He was behind the camera for 1969’s The Sterile Cuckoo  starring a quirky Liza Minnelli in her first Oscar-nominated role. He went on to direct seven more actors to Oscar nominations — Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Richard Farnsworth, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen and Meryl Streep — with Fonda, Robards and Streep taking home the coveted statue. He, himself, was nominated three times for an Academy Award.

In addition to producing and directing, Alan was a respected screenwriter, penning screen treatments for Sophie’s Choice  and The Pelican Brief.

In November 1998, Alan was driving on the Long Island Expressway when the car in front of him kicked up a metal pipe that was laying on the roadway. The pipe flew through the air and crashed through Alan’s car windshield, striking him in the head. He was killed instantly, sending his vehicle swerving off the road and into a retaining fence. He had just completed filming an alternate ending for what would be his last film, The Devil’s Own.  Alan was 70 years old.

Comments

comments

Former Pennsylvania state senator R. Budd Dwyer was elected Pennsylvania state treasurer in 1981. Around the time that Dwyer took office, a huge clerical error affecting state withholding tax (FICA, which contributes to Social Security and Medicare) was discovered by Pennsylvania auditors. The effects were enormous with records showing that state workers overpaid in the millions of dollars. The Pennsylvania State Treasury, with Dwyer at the helm, began to accept bids from accounting firms to sort out the mistake and determine the amount of refunds due to state employees.

The lucrative contract was awarded to Computer Technology Associates, a California firm owned by Harrisburg native John Torquato, Jr. A short time after, Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh received an anonymous tip detailing bribery allegations in securing the contract for Torquato’s company.

An investigation revealed an alleged agreement by Dwyer to receive $300,000 in kickbacks after Torquato’s firm was awarded the contract. In exchange for lighter sentences, Torquato and his attorney, William Smith, both pled guilty to bribery and testified against Dwyer and former Pennsylvania GOP chairman Bob Asher. Dwyer vehemently denied all charges and turned down a plea bargain, opting instead to go to a full trial. After a lengthy trail, in which alleged co-conspirator’s names were withheld or stricken from court records, R. Budd Dwyer, still professing his innocence, was found guilty and convicted of accepting a bribe. Under Pennsylvania law, he was permitted to serve as treasurer until his sentencing on January 23, 1987. He faced a $300,000 fine and up to 55 years in prison.

On January 22, 1987, 24 hours before U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Muir was to decide Dwyer’s fate, the disgraced, soon-to-be former treasurer called a press conference. Looking nervous before a roomful of reporters, journalists, staff and television cameras, he approached the podium and offered a rambling, at times incoherent, dissertation highlighting his career, the bribery charges and his innocence. With restrained anger in his voice, he berated and criticized the justice system and condemned his own condemnation. He announced his refusal to resign and handed manila envelopes to each of three members of his staff who were standing nearby.

From a fourth manila envelope, Dwyer withdrew a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver.

Above the collective gasp from the crowd, Dwyer waved his free hand and advised “those who might be affected, please leave the room.” While some ran from the cramped quarters, others tried to approach the gun-wielding Dwyer, to which he warned, “Don’t. Don’t. This will hurt someone.” Then, in one motion, Dwyer inserted the massive gun barrel into his open mouth, pulled the trigger and blew a hole through the back of his head — a hole through which Dwyer’s brain and skull fragments exited with great force, followed by a large splattering of blood. Dwyer crumpled to the floor as photographers snapped pictures and several news cameramen trained their unwavering recording devices on the event — live, as it unfolded.

Dwyer’s suicide was broadcast and rebroadcast throughout the next several hours. Some stations edited the scene heavily, while others opted to show it in all its horrific glory.

The envelopes that Dwyer distributed before ending his life contained copies of a carefully written suicide note, parts of which he read at the press conference. The note ended with: “Please make sure that the sacrifice of my life is not in vain.” Since her husband died while still in office, Dwyer’s widow was entitled to full survivor benefits, including a state-provided pension.

In 2010, William Smith, whose testimony almost single-handedly convicted Dwyer, admitted that he gave false statements under oath.

Comments

comments

As a child, Little Willie John performed in a gospel group with his siblings in his adopted hometown of Detroit. But it was his appearances on local talent shows that caught the attention of noted record producer Henry Glover. Glover signed Willie to a contract with King Records, a one-time country label now specializing in “race records.” Joining a roster that included Hank Ballard & The Midnighters and James Brown, Willie hit Number Five on the Billboard R & B chart with his first King recording of “All Around the World.” He went on to score hits on the Billboard Top 100 fourteen times over a period of five years. Along with “Leave My Kitten Alone” (later covered by The Beatles) and “I’m Shakin'” (later covered by The Blasters and, more recently, Jack White), Willie is best remembered for the original 1956 version of “Fever,” although the cover by Peggy Lee, recorded later the same year, was more popular.

Willie was influential and can be cited as an early purveyor of what came to be known as “soul music.”  Stevie Wonder, known early in his career as “Little Stevie Wonder,” said his mother told him if he was “gonna call himself ‘Little,’  he better be as good as Little Willie John.”

Willie was unceremoniously dropped by his record label in 1963, due to his violent temper and overindulgence in alcohol. In 1966, he was sentenced to prison for manslaughter after he stabbed and killed a man during an altercation following a Seattle concert.

Willie died in 1968 as an inmate of Washington State Penitentiary. The official cause was listed as “heart attack,” but conflicting accounts and mysterious circumstances surround his death. He was 30 years old.

Comments

comments