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.

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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.

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17-year old Steve Took answered an ad in the music newspaper Melody Maker.  Guitarist Marc Bolan was looking for a drummer to join his band and Steve fit the bill. The band, Tyrannosaurus Rex, performed one disastrous show and Bolan fired everyone but Steve. They remained a duo, busking in subways with Steve accompanying Bolan’s acoustic guitar with bongos.

Once in the studio, Steve arranged Bolan’s straightforward rock compositions into a swirly mix of many styles with the addition of African drums, kazoo, pixiphone, and Chinese gong. Their sound was a hit among the hippie crowds that frequented their shows, but Bolan had contempt for Steve’s lifestyle. Bolan, a relatively quiet guy offstage, was awaiting the birth of his first child. Steve, on the other hand, was a heavy drug user hanging with underground bands like The Deviants and The Pretty Things. Steve’s relationship with Bolan deteriorated quickly. After a show, during which Steve spiked the refreshments with hallucinogens, a furious Marc Bolan gave Steve his walking papers and renamed the band T. Rex.

Now on his own, Steve teamed up with his friend Syd Barrett, himself recently canned from Pink Floyd. Steve and Barrett collaborated on a slew of tracks that were never released. Steve then moved on to form the band Shagrat. Shagrat recorded a song called “Syd’s Wine” in which Steve was mysteriously credited as Crazy Diamond , a reference to the Pink Floyd tribute song to Syd Barrett. Steve assembled a few more bands,  but with his drug use steadily increasing, all were short-lived.

Soon, he hooked up with former T. Rex manager Tony Secunda, who promised to fight for unpaid royalties he felt were due to Steve. In 1980, now receiving royalty checks on a regular basis, Steve purchased a stash of morphine and hallucinogenic mushrooms for his live-in girlfriend and himself. After injecting morphine, Steve accidentally inhaled a maraschino cherry from a cocktail and choked to death. He was 31.

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Young Billy Haines ran away from his Virginia home, with his boyfriend, at age 14. They worked in a dance hall (that was most likely a brothel), until Billy was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout and offered a $40 a week contract with MGM Pictures. In March 1922, Billy was off to Hollywood.

Billy started off in bit parts until critical acclaim rocketed him to larger and more prominent roles. MGM lent their contracted player to Columbia Pictures for a five-picture deal. With his popularity increasing, Columbia offered to buy out Billy’s contract. MGM refused, taking back to star and demoting him again to smaller parts. After a rare starring role in Brown of Harvard  in 1926, Billy was on his way to real stardom.

He appeared in a string of box-office hits for MGM, acting alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Mary Pickford and Marion Davies. At this time, he met Jimmie Shields, and the two became constant companions. This relationship did not sit well with MGM, specifically studio head Louis B. Mayer. Despite Billy being the top box-office draw for 1930, Mayer demanded that Billy commit to a “lavender” marriage to hide his homosexuality. Billy flatly refused. MGM immediately terminated his contract. They re-cast actor Robert Montgomery (future father of Elizabeth Montgomery) in all of the roles originally lined up for Billy. Billy got some work at lesser, low-budget studios, but soon found himself blackballed and added to censor Will Hays’ dreaded Doom Book, a sure career-killer.

Disgusted with the unfair treatment from MGM, Billy and Jimmie began a career as interior designers and antique dealers. They catered to the tastes of Hollywood elite like Joan Crawford (who described them as “the happiest married couple in Hollywood”), Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and George Cukor. Their business and success grew and their design services became very much in demand. But their troubles didn’t end . In 1939, Billy and Jimmie were dragged from their Los Angeles home by Ku Klux Klan members and severely beaten – all on the false accusation of a sexual proposition as reported by a neighbor. Friends and supporters, like George Burns and Gracie Allen, Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert, urged the couple to report the incident to police. They refused.

Billy and Jimmie eventually moved to a home in the Hollywood community in Brentwood. Their design business continued to prosper until they retired in the 1970s. Billy passed away from lung cancer just shy of his 74th birthday. Four months later, a distraught Jimmie lay down in the bed he shared with his beloved companion for nearly fifty years and took a deliberate and deadly overdose of sleeping pills.

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Jack Kerouac carried a notebook with him wherever he went. He chronicled his life, his actions, his feelings… everything. He traveled across the United States and Mexico — meeting people, observing their lives and writing about what he saw. His journeys and scribblings became the basis for his most famous book, On the Road.  Viking Press, the publishing company that finally accepted Jack’s novel, demanded extensive editing to the piece before publication. Jack complied but this led to heavy criticism of his spontaneous writing style.

Suddenly, Jack was a celebrity. On the Road  was an instant hit and other publishing firms fought for Jack’s stockpile of previously rejected works. Jack was hailed as the voice of a new generation. Jack dubbed it ‘The Beat Generation,” describing a person with no money and no prospects — as in “I’m beat down to my socks!” This new found fame didn’t sit well with Jack. As a way to deal with his unwelcomed notoriety, his drug and alcohol use increased.

CBS premiered the television series Route 66  in 1960. The program followed the adventures of two characters that bore a striking resemblance to the two protagonists in On the Road.  Despite the obvious sanitizing for television, the similarities in the characters and the depiction of the stories were too close for Jack’s comfort. Jack threatened to sue series creator Stirling Silliphant, CBS, the Screen Gems TV production company, and sponsor Chevrolet, but was inexplicably talked out of pursuing the lawsuit.

In 1968, Jack appeared on William Buckley’s Firing Line  to discuss 60s counterculture. The visibly drunk Jack did his best to field questions from the famously acerbic Buckley. It was Jack’s last television appearance.

Early in the morning of October 20, 1969, Jack began to feel ill after downing a shot of whiskey and glass of malt liquor. His wife was awakened by calls of “Stella, I’m bleeding.” She discovered Jack on the bathroom floor, throwing up large amounts of blood. Rushed by ambulance to St. Anthony’s hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jack continued to vomit blood and was immediately sent for transfusions and surgery. Doctors had a difficult time cauterizing burst blood vessels and Jack’s blood wouldn’t clot due to his alcohol-damaged liver. Never regaining consciousnesses after surgery, Jack died the next morning. He was 47.

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