User:Found5dollar/Revision history of List of members of the United States Congress killed or wounded in office

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John L. Magee's lithography demonstrates Northern outrage over Brooks's attack on Sumner.

In American history, there has been a relatively small number of members of Congress who have been killed or wounded while in office. Not all members included in the list were the targets of assassins. Some died in duels or were not intentionally targeted. This list does not include instances when members died in accidents or suicides. Fourteen members have been killed and eight have been seriously wounded by assailants. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding the deaths of at least three members are disputed and they may have died as a result of natural causes or accidents.

Killed[edit]

Party colors:   Democratic   Republican

M
Politician
 M State
(district) 		Date of incident Perpetrator(s) Incident
Spencer Pettis   Missouri
(1st at-large seat) 		August 28, 1831 Thomas Biddle Both Pettis and Biddle sustained fatal gunshot wounds during a duel on Bloody Island in Illinois.[1]
Jonathan Cilley   Maine
(3rd district) 		February 24, 1838 William Graves Cilley was shot by Graves, the Whig Congressman from Kentucky's 8th district, during a duel on the Marlboro Pike in Maryland.[1]
John MontgomeryJohn Quitman   Pennsylvania
(12th district) 		April 24, 1857 Unknown (disputed) Multiple people staying at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C. died of National Hotel Disease during this time period. It is disputed if the "disease" was an attempt to poison hotel boarders, or a case of accidental food poisoning.[1]
John MontgomeryJohn Quitman   Mississippi
(5th district) 		July 17, 1858
David Broderick   California
(senator) 		September 13, 1859 David Terry Broderick and Terry, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, took part in a a duel in San Francisco. Broderick was shot and died three days later.[1]
Edward Baker   Oregon
(senator) 		October 21, 1861 Confederate States Army (under the command of Nathan Evans) Baker died during the Battle of Ball's Bluff, while assigned command of a brigade in Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone's division, guarding fords along the Potomac River in Virginia. The Confederate soldiers were commanded by Brigadier General Nathan George Evans.[2][3]
Cornelius Hamilton   Ohio
(8th district) 		December 22, 1867 Thomas Hamilton Hamilton was killed by his mentally ill 18-year-old son, Thomas, in Marysville, Ohio.[1][4]
James Hinds   Arkansas
(2nd district) 		October 22, 1868 George Clark Hinds was killed in Indian Bays in Monroe County, Arkansas after being shot in the back by George A. Clark, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the secretary of the Democratic committee of the county.[1][5][6]
John Pinckney   Texas
(8th district) 		April 24, 1905 Unknown (riot started by J. N. Brown) A political event in Hempstead, Texas turned violent when one of the participants, J. N. Brown, began shooting. Other attendees began to shoot as well and a riot broke out. Pickney, his brother Tom, and Brown were all killed at the scene.[1][7]
Paul Husting   Wisconsin
(senator) 		October 21, 1917 Gustave Husting Husting was accidentally shot in the back by his brother, Gustave, while duck hunting on Rush Lake just outside Pickett, Wisconsin.[1][8]
Huey Long   Louisiana
(senator) 		September 8, 1935 Carl Weiss (disputed) Long died two days after Weiss fired a handgun at him at close range inside the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. More recent evidence suggests that Long's bodyguards may have accidentally shot and killed Long when they open fire on Weiss, who was killed at the scene.[9][10]
Thomas Schall   Minnesota
(10th district) 		December 19, 1935 Lester Humphries Schall was killed during a hit and run accident by Lester G. Humphries, as he was walking across the Baltimore–Washington Parkway in Cottage City, Maryland; he died three days later. Humphries was arrested for reckless driving.[11][12]
Robert Kennedy   New York
(senator) 		June 5, 1968 Sirhan Sirhan Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after giving a speech for his presidential campaigning; he died about 25 hours later.[13]
Leo Ryan   California
(11th district) 		November 18, 1978 Peoples Temple (under the direction of Jim Jones) While on an official visit to Guyana to investigate the the activities of the Peoples Temple cult led by Jim Jones, Ryan was shot multiple times while boarding an airplane leaving Jonestown.[14]
Larry McDonald   Georgia
(7th district) 		September 1, 1983 Soviet Air Forces (under the command of Anatoly Kornukov) McDonald was a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which was shot over the Sea of Japan near Sakhalin island by Soviet interceptors under the command of General Kornukov.[15]

Wounded[edit]

Party colors:   Democratic   Republican

M
Politician
 M State
(district) 		Date of incident Perpetrator(s) Incident
Charles Sumner   Massachusetts
(senator) 		May 22, 1856 Preston Brooks Representative Preston Brooks, a Democrat from South Carolina's 4th district, assaulted Sumner with a cane on the floor of the Senate in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The attack followed Sumner's verbal attacks on pro-slavery politicians.[16]
Josiah Grinnell   Iowa
(4th district) 		June 14, 1866 Lovell Rousseau Grinnell was assaulted with an iron-tipped cane by Rousseau, an Unconditional Unionist Congressman from Kentucky's 7th district, on the east portico of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., in retaliation for derogatory statements he made earlier. Grinnell was pummeled on the "head and face until the cane broke," and was heavily bruised.[17]
Alvin Bentley   Michigan
(8th district) 		March 1, 1954 Rafael Cancel Miranda,
Andres Figueroa Cordero,
Irving Flores Rodríguez,
Lolita Lebrón 		In an event known as 1954 United States Capitol shooting incident, armed Puerto Rican nationalists shot and wounded five representatives from the Ladies Gallery of the House of Representatives in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.[18]
Clifford Davis   Tennessee
(10th district)
George Fallon   Maryland
(4th district)
Ben Jensen   Iowa
(7th district)
Kenneth Roberts   Alabama
(4th district)
Gabrielle Giffords   Arizona
(8th district) 		January 8, 2011 Jared Lee Loughner (alleged) Giffords was the shot in the head during the 2011 Tucson shooting, which occurred at a constituency meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona.[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Amer, Mildred (2002-03-14). "Members of the U.S. Congress Who Have Died of Other Than Natural Causes While in Office" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  2. ^ "BAKER, Edward Dickinson, (1811 - 1861)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  3. ^ "Brig. Gen. Nathan George "Shanks" Evans". Marion County, SC in the War Between the States. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  4. ^ "The Murder of Mr. Hamilton". The New York Times. 1867-12-26. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  5. ^ Foner, Eric (March 1989). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. New York City: Harper & Row. p. 342. ISBN 9780060937164. OCLC 48074168.
  6. ^ Stanton, Amanda. "James Hinds (1833–1868)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  7. ^ "Congressman Pickney Shot in a Texas Riot". The New York Times. 1905-04-25. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  8. ^ "Husting Is Killed by Brother in Hunt". The New York Times. 1917-10-22. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  9. ^ "Huey Long's Assassination". Huey Long: The Man, His Mission, and Legacy. Long Legacy Project. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  10. ^ Unsolved Mysteries: Who Shot Huey Long? (Television production). 1993.
  11. ^ "National Affairs: Death of Schall". Time. 1925-12-30. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  12. ^ Woodbury, Marda (1998). Stopping the Presses: The Murder of Walter W. Liggett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 168. ISBN 0816629293. OCLC 38112541.
  13. ^ "KENNEDY, Robert Francis, (1925 - 1968)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  14. ^ United States House of Representatives (1979-05-15). "Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee report on Ryan's assassination". Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. United States Congress. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Wilkes Jr., Donald E. (2003-09-03). "The Death Flight of Larry McDonald". Flagpole Magazine. p. 7. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
  16. ^ "SUMNER, Charles, (1811 - 1874)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  17. ^ "Historical Highlights: Representative Lovell H. Rousseau assaults Representative Josiah B. Grinnell". Office of History and Preservation of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  18. ^ Barone, Michael and Ujifusa, Grant (1993). The Almanac of American Politics 1994. Washington, D.C.: National Journal Group. p. 749. ISBN 0892340576. OCLC 32984467.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Halloran, Liz (2011-01-08). "'Vitriol' Cited As Possible Factor In Arizona Tragedy". NPR. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
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