The Budd Dwyer anniversary: A public suicide

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the most surreal scene I ever encountered -- the public suicide of Budd Dwyer, the convicted Pennsylvania state treasurer who shot himself at the end of a news conference.

R. Budd Dwyer - Wikipedia

One of our local television stations showed the unedited footage with almost no warning at 11:30 a.m. on a snow day when many children were at home. It took a long time for the public to let that one die. And I know of more than one newsperson in that room who was never quite the same after that moment.

YouTube has the raw footage if anyone has the stomach for it.

 

Were you at that news conference?

I've seen the footage, and it is surreal. Opening the envelope, to people pleaing with him, to the aftermath.

 

I was home and ushered my 3-year-old out of the room a split-second before the shot was shown on TV. Unbelievably, WHTM was showing an episode of "Webster," cut into it and went straight to the footage after about five seconds of warning.

Worked that evening and was in on some very intriguing budget meetings where the editors tried to make the decision of what shot to use on the cover. They went with something pretty much like what was depicted above, although Paul Vathis had everything, including a numbing shot of impact where Budd's eyes shot up toward his forehead.

Incidentally, the Dwyer tragedy directly led to The Associated Press requiring its photographers to shoot color film only.

 

I remember the coverage on my local news stations. One of them showed a picture of Dwyer, but played the entire audio, including the shot, while the other showed the tape, and showed him pulling the gun out, before stopping the tape.

I also have seen the unfiltered footage. Very sad, to say the least.

 

When I stop and think about it, I don't know if I'd ever seen a man die other than that. Or if I had, certainly nothing that graphic or close-up.

 

The owner of a barber shop in Clarksville, TN killed himself years ago at a city council meeting after the city rezoned his property.

 

I was a kid in Philly at the time, and the only lasting memory I have of it is the tasteless jokes that were circulating about it not too long afterward, even among the fourth-grader set.

 

Well, now I have to google that.

 

I googled it. I could see how it would be disturbing for a kid, but I didn't think it was too shocking.

 

Did you see the video, tbf? The buckets of blood gushing out of his head gave me nightmares, let alone a kid.

 

That's where I remember seeing it.
Some things, you just can't unsee.