The Sickles Murder Scandal
Daniel Sickles was a congressman from New York State. In 1859, he shot and killed Philip Barton Key II, the son of Francis Scott Key (who wrote the Star Spangled Banner). For the longest time prior to the murder, the worst kept secret in Washington was that Sickles’ wife was having an affair with Key. Almost everyone knew, except for Daniel Sickles, who remained oblivious until the spring of 1859.
He received an anonymous letter that told him all bout his wife’s infidelity. On February 27, 1859, in Lafayette Square (right across from the White House), Sickles murdered Philip Barton Key II by shooting him in the chest.
As you can imagine, the media and the country went crazy. This was a congressman who was apparently a murderer. The trial ran from April 4-26 1859. By the end of it, despite a confession, Daniel Sickles was found not guilty. The reason was that he pleaded “temporary insanity”. This was the first time in American legal history that someone was allowed to plead such in a murder trial.
Sickles is a very interesting person to study, even beyond the fact that he was a congressman who murdered another man and got away with it. He was a serial philanderer, and he was no stranger to sex scandals, even while married to his wife (who was around 15 when he married her in 1952). During his time in the New York State Senate, he was censured for spending time with a prostitute.
The media went mad during the trial. Articles appeared in most national magazines and newspapers, and reporters filled the seats at the courthouse.
The trial was itself a spectacle. The Associate Defense Attorney’s opening statement went on for two days, and was eventually published as a book. It contained quotes from Othello, Roman Law, and Judaic history. One of his attorneys was associated with the famous Tammany Hall, a political organization that was made infamous for being the source of a lot of corrupt politicians. Sickles himself was associated with that organization as well.
Sickles defense worked, and he went on to serve in the US Congress until 1861 when he joined the Union Army where he fought in many famous battles including Gettysburg. His wife died in 1867. For the remainder of his life, Sickles remained a ladies’ man.