List of United States Congress members killed or wounded in office
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This article is missing information about the many antebellum brawls in Congress detailed in the Freeman book. (May 2023) |
Since the United States Congress was established with the 1st Congress in 1789, fourteen of its members have been killed while in office, and fourteen have suffered serious injuries from attacks. The members of Congress were either injured or killed by someone intending serious harm, or there is evidence of lethal intent by an unknown assailant (such as the two congressmen who died of the National Hotel disease). The first member of Congress to be killed or wounded in office was Henry Wharton Conway who was killed in a duel in 1827. The most recent death occurred in 1983 when Korean Air Lines Flight 007, carrying Larry McDonald, was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. The most recent Congress member to be injured was Angie Craig who was assaulted in 2023.
All of the 14 Congressmen killed in office were male and 10 were Democrats, three were Republicans, and one was a Democratic-Republican. Four members died in duels, and a total of ten (three senators, six members of the House of Representatives, and one territory delegate to the House) died from gunshot wounds.
Fourteen Congress members have been wounded while in office. Six of the wounded were Republicans, six were Democrats, and one member each from the Anti-Jacksonian and Whig parties. Two were women, and four were senators. Five of those injured were wounded during the 1954 United States Capitol shooting incident.
Lists
editKilled
editParty colors: Democratic-Republican Democratic Republican
| Member | Chamber | State (district) |
Date of incident | Perpetrator(s) | Cause | Incident | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Wharton Conway | House | Arkansas Territory (At-large delegate) |
October 29, 1827 | Robert Crittenden | Duel | Died 11 days after being shot in the chest during a duel with Crittenden near the confluence of the White and Mississippi rivers[1] | ||
| Spencer Darwin Pettis | – | House | Missouri (1st at-large seat) |
August 28, 1831 | Thomas Biddle | Duel | Both Pettis and Biddle sustained fatal gunshot wounds during a duel on Bloody Island in Illinois.[2] | |
| Jonathan Cilley | House | Maine (3rd district) |
February 24, 1838 | William Graves | Duel | Shot by Graves, the Whig Congressman from Kentucky's 8th district, during a duel on the Marlboro Pike in Maryland[2] | ||
| John Gallagher Montgomery | – | House | Pennsylvania (12th district) |
April 24, 1857 | Unknown (disputed) | Poisoning
(disputed) |
Several people staying at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., died of National Hotel disease during this time period. It is disputed whether the "disease" was due to deliberate poisoning or accidental food poisoning.[2] | |
| John A. Quitman | House | Mississippi (5th district) |
July 17, 1858 | |||||
| David Colbreth Broderick | Senate | California (Senator) |
September 13, 1859 | David Terry | Duel | Broderick and Terry, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, took part in a duel in San Francisco. Broderick was shot and died three days later.[2] | ||
| Edward Dickinson Baker | Senate | Oregon (Senator) |
October 21, 1861 | 7th Brigade, 4th Division of the Confederate Army of the Potomac (under the command of Nathan Evans) | Battle | 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.[3][4] | ||
| Cornelius S. Hamilton | House | Ohio (8th district) |
December 22, 1867 | Thomas Hamilton | Murder | Killed by his insane 18-year-old son, Thomas, in Marysville, Ohio.[2][5] | ||
| James M. Hinds | House | Arkansas (2nd district) |
October 22, 1868 | George Clark | Assassination | 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[2][6][7] | ||
| John M. Pinckney | House | Texas (8th district) |
April 24, 1905 | Unknown (riot started by J. N. Brown) | Mass shooting | 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. Pinckney, his brother Tom, and Brown were all killed at the scene.[2][8] | ||
| Huey Long | Senate | Louisiana (Senator) |
September 8, 1935 | Carl Weiss (possibly) | Assassination | Died two days after Weiss fired a handgun at him at close range inside the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge[9] | ||
| Robert F. Kennedy | Senate | New York (Senator) |
June 5, 1968 | Sirhan Sirhan | Assassination | Shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after giving his victory speech in the California primary; he died about 25 hours later.[10] | ||
| Leo Ryan | House | California (11th district) |
November 18, 1978 | Peoples Temple (under the direction of Jim Jones) | Mass shooting | While on an official visit to Guyana to investigate the activities of the Peoples Temple group led by Jim Jones, Ryan was shot multiple times while boarding an airplane leaving Jonestown.[11] | ||
| Larry McDonald | House | Georgia (7th district) |
September 1, 1983 | Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces | Aircraft shootdown | McDonald was a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which was shot down over the Sea of Japan near Sakhalin island by Soviet interceptors piloted by Major Gennadiy Osipovich on the orders of General Anatoly Kornukov, Commander of Sokol Air Base.[12] | ||
Wounded
editParty colors: Anti-Jacksonian Democratic Republican Whig
| Member | State (district) |
Date of incident | Perpetrator(s) | Cause | Incident | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| William Stanbery | Ohio (8th district) |
April 13, 1832 | Sam Houston | Assault | After Stanbery accused Houston of profiteering off Andrew Jackson's forced relocation of Native Americans, Houston confronted Stanbery in Washington, D.C., and beat him repeatedly with a hickory walking stick. During the fight Stanbery pulled a gun, placed it on Houston's chest, and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired.[13] | ||
| Alexander H. Stephens | Georgia (8th district) |
September 4, 1848 | Francis H. Cone | Assault | Francis Cone, an Associate Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, called Stephens a "traitor to the South" due to Stephens's move to table the Clayton Compromise. When confronted about this in front of Atlanta's Thompson Hotel, Stephens struck Cone with his walking stick and Cone responded by stabbing Stephens six times in the hand and chest.[14] | ||
| Charles Sumner | Massachusetts (Senator) |
May 22, 1856 | Preston Brooks | Assault | 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 (including Brooks's relative, Senator Andrew Butler).[15] | ||
| Josiah Bushnell Grinnell | Iowa (4th district) |
June 14, 1866 | Lovell Rousseau | Assault | 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.[16] | ||
| Alvin Morell Bentley | Michigan (8th district) |
March 1, 1954 | Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, Irvin Flores, Lolita Lebrón |
Mass Shooting | 1954 Capitol shooting: Armed Puerto Rican nationalists shot the representatives from the Ladies Gallery of the House of Representatives in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.[17] | ||
| Clifford Davis | Tennessee (10th district) | ||||||
| George Hyde Fallon | Maryland (4th district) | ||||||
| Ben F. Jensen | Iowa (7th district) | ||||||
| Kenneth A. Roberts | Alabama (4th district) | ||||||
| John C. Stennis | Mississippi (Senator) |
January 29, 1973 | Tyrone Marshall, John Marshall, Derrick Holloway[18] | Mugging | Stennis was shot twice outside his home in Washington, D.C., during a mugging.[19] | ||
| Gabby Giffords | Arizona (8th district) |
January 8, 2011 | Jared Lee Loughner | Mass Shooting | Giffords was shot in the head during the 2011 Tucson mass shooting, an assassination attempt on Giffords which occurred at a constituency meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona.[20] | ||
| Steve Scalise | Louisiana (1st district) |
June 14, 2017 | James T. Hodgkinson III | Mass Shooting | Scalise was shot in the hip by a gunman targeting and firing indescriminately upon the Republican congressional delegation, during a practice session for the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game at the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia.[21] | ||
| Rand Paul | Kentucky (Senator) |
November 3, 2017 | Rene Boucher | Assault | Paul was tackled from behind by his neighbor, Rene Boucher, during an altercation. Paul sustained five fractured ribs, including three displaced fractures, as well as "cuts around his mouth".[22][23] | ||
| Angie Craig | Minnesota (2nd district) |
February 9, 2023 | Kendrick Hamline | Assault | Craig was punched and grabbed by the neck by Hamline in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment. Craig defended herself from Hamline and sustained cuts and bruising.[24] | ||
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Bowks de la Rosa, M.V. (March 5, 2013). "Conway-Crittenden Duel". Central Arkansas Library System. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Amer, Mildred (March 14, 2002). "Members of the U.S. Congress Who Have Died of Other Than Natural Causes While in Office" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 10, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ "BAKER, Edward Dickinson, (1811 - 1861)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ "Brig. Gen. Nathan George "Shanks" Evans". Marion County, SC in the War Between the States. Archived from the original on January 12, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ "The Murder of Mr. Hamilton". The New York Times. December 26, 1867. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ Foner, Eric (March 1989). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877. New York City: Harper & Row. p. 342. ISBN 978-0-06-093716-4. OCLC 48074168.
- ^ Stanton, Amanda. "James Hinds (1833–1868)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Central Arkansas Library System. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ "Congressman Pickney Shot in a Texas Riot". The New York Times. April 25, 1905. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ "Huey Long's Assassination". Huey Long: The Man, His Mission, and Legacy. Long Legacy Project. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ "KENNEDY, Robert Francis, (1925 - 1968)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Staff Investigative Group (1979) "The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana, Tragedy. Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives", U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ^ Wilkes, Donald E. Jr. (September 3, 2003). "The Death Flight of Larry McDonald". Flagpole Magazine. pp. 7, 9. Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
- ^ Bennett, Kevin (September 14, 2016). "Newark Congressman once tried to shoot Sam Houston". Newark Advocate. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^ Mitchell, Jennifer V. (2014) Civil War Treasures: Most Unfortunate Difficulty: Political Conflict in the Pre-Civil War Era Archived 2020-03-06 at the Wayback Machine. Civil War Book Review: Vol. 16 : Iss. 2. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^ "SUMNER, Charles, (1811 - 1874)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ "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. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
- ^ Barone, Michael & Ujifusa, Grant (1993). The Almanac of American Politics 1994. Washington, D.C.: National Journal Group. p. 749. ISBN 0-89234-057-6. OCLC 32984467.
- ^ "One of 3 Suspects Pleads Guilty In Stennis Robbery and Shooting". The New York Times. April 20, 1972. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
- ^ "Senator From Mississippi Reported As Very Serious". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Associated Press. February 1, 1973. Archived from the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
- ^ Halloran, Liz (January 8, 2011). "'Vitriol' Cited As Possible Factor In Arizona Tragedy". NPR. Archived from the original on January 12, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ Hermann, Peter; Kane, Paul; Sullivan, Patricia (June 14, 2017). "Lawmaker Steve Scalise is critically injured in GOP baseball shooting; gunman James T. Hodgkinson is killed by police". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 14, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
- ^ Chappell, Bill (November 6, 2017). "Sen. Rand Paul Recovering From 5 Broken Ribs After Assault". NPR. Archived from the original on November 6, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
- ^ Griffiths, Brent D. (November 4, 2017). "Neighbor charged with assault after altercation with Rand Paul". Politico. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
- ^ Shortal, Jana (February 13, 2023). "Rep. Angie Craig talks about assault at DC apartment". KARE. Burnsville, Minnesota. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
Further reading
edit- Freeman, Joanne B. (2018). The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374154776.
- Nancy Marion; Willard Oliver (July 22, 2014). Killing Congress: Assassinations, Attempted Assassinations and Other Violence against Members of Congress. Lexington Books. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-7391-8360-1.
- R. Eric Petersen; Jennifer E. Manning (17 August 2017). Violence Against Members of Congress and Their Staff: Selected Examples and Congressional Responses. Congressional Research Service.