We are excited to have her here today was a here all you were in sweden last week so we are thrilled that you would reach out to us to confirm the appearance but even the New York Times the starspangled scandal on scandal that we are talking about. Formerly senior litigation capital to the attorney general constitutional and International Law and for the fourth largest county sitting on the board of directors in the board of scholarly advisors he and his wife anna reside in indiana. [applause] thank you for that introduction. Thank you for having us and for being here. And also cspan book tv this will be my fifth appearance thank you for all you do to promote books and authors. Who here has heard the one about the congressman who killed his wifes lover . When i came across a story i knew it was too extraordinary not to share. While working on my last book about the five former president to live to see the civil war. They are appropriately focused as the country teeters toward civil war. Now all the want to talk about is this a fair so i had to go down the rabbit hole to do this research said it is pretty good story. The victim was no ordinary victim United States attorney that she federal prosecutor for the Nations Capital and a member of one of the prestigious royalties and this is just where it starts. So i do want to read what set all of this in motion the congressman from new york and James Buchanan, he is considered one of the most forceful and persuasive speakers in the house of representatives, talked about for the future and they sit on top of the washington social seat until one night thursday after the parlors of his house had cleared out he comes home after a party at the hotel to get some work done before going to bed and he remembers as the party was winding down a messenger had come to him with a letter he reads the following dear sir, with deep regret and indispensable duty compels me to do so to see you are greatly imposed upon there is a fellow he is not a gentleman by the name of Philip Barton key and i believe the District Attorney who rents a house by the name of john gray situated on 15th street for no other purpose than to meet your wife he hangs a string out the window to signal he is in and leave the door unfastened and she walks in answer, i do assure you he has as much use to your wife as you have i leave the rest for you to imagine most respectfully her friend. I think the point was made was shocking clarity. No stranger to washington understands that gossip you can waste lifetime with every bit of gossip that was very specific so he realized he will have to verify one way or another he will either be greatly relieved or this entire life will be completely upended. So he goes to the house of representatives to find his friend george and says if you look up henchmen you will see somebody like george with a black bowler hat and a mustache and a huge upper body and walks on crutches because his infantile paralysis a massive chest big mustache and bowler hat. He met sickles when he was doorkeeper at the assembly he goes up to manage a brothel and has all kinds of great information and decides the real money is the stories and rumors of the press. And then realizes as a newspaper editor its one thing to sell advertising but if you could blackmail people so this gets him into trouble he ends up in prison he goes to europe for ten years and then reappears in albany make a connection with dan sickles. Then brings walt wooldridge gives him a job in the house of representatives to his old friend with this awful letter he has received so they began a stakeout in the neighborhood and the house where barton and his wife are supposed to be meeting everybody wants to talk what is going on in the house everyone agrees but also the woman wears a veil. So they try to catch these two going into the house to catch them in the act. What happens they could match a clothing description to an outfit owned by teresa. So Daniel Sickles will say often i was the last person to know what was happening and he tries to deny it for as long as he can then he cannot ignore the evidence any further. And then gets her to sign a confession what happened at the house for the specific purpose to carry on an affair along with the man he thought was his friend and then he has to figure out what he will do about this. So he sends for his friend butterworth who is a tammany man who had a variety of various democratic administrations now the head in new York City Office he took his job from the Buchanan Administration and Samuel Butterworth was in the room with him sent teresa back to new york get a divorce nobody will know what happened that is pretty good advice but everybody already knows so he tries to figure out what to do enter barton keys. He shows up in Lafayette Square as sickles is in his house he lives in his home on the west side of Lafayette Square and what may be of particular interest it was built and owned by the father those who came to the Nations Capital and had big dreams fell into alcoholism and mismanagement and had to sell the house. So living on the left side of Lafayette Square key walks into Lafayette Park so that is a prearranged signal with the string to go meet him at the rendezvous house. So while he is losing his mind everything he has built his aspirations and perhaps a future president its all going up in smoke this beautiful wife most popular woman in washington and the mother of his child. There he is waving the handkerchief. So butterworth actually leads to go visit a sick friend on the east side of Lafayette Square known as the clubhouse. This is the home that would be occupied by William Seward when he is attacked and nearly fatally killed during the civil war now its a private members club so butterworth encounters him and they have a conversation and then sickles shows that. He tells key you have dishonored my home. Prepared to die and brings three guns to the fight in a trenchcoat are you gonna turn yourself in dc cracks so wordofmouth spreads that key has been killed. Sickles is the killer. People leave their home and their boarding houses the bar and the restaurants so you have over 100 people show up with the body on the ground another has to testify with what happened. People going into sickles house waiting for him to get arrested hes allowed to say goodbye to his wife with a promise that he will not hurt her even though he just killed from dc so this is just the beginning it gets crazier from here and that kindling had a Media Firestorm unlike anything anyone had seen so up until this point i found articles in hawaii and in bermuda with daily coverage with the most regular coverage in france and in german the entire world was paying attention and it is the first story that we as americans load together so people are finding out about this story and as close to real time as had ever happened up to this point. So people find out about it that evening so you have newspaper correspondence so we could hit the morning newspapers on the wires. So originally the concept of news the very expensive commercial news Agency Business intelligence was expensive and then political newspapers to promote a candidate or politicize one and then starting with the new york sun was talk about fires, animal stories, tragedies and true crime. And they made money by selling advertising. Also the length of the broadsheet the number of newspapers to be printed any given day hours after this happened out on the street and all over the country of course you have fake news people said things like butterworth was arrested teresa was pregnant with barnes baby and all kinds of false information but Accurate Information including the first report that this is not a surprise that he really was the last to know what was happening so there was a media frenzy we are blurring the lines between news and entertainment so sickles to have any hope to survive after killing the prosecutor in broad daylight with witnesses with the best possible legal team. And then also deliberately that by the end of the first day even those lawyers most famously that is a short time away from the secretary of four during the american civil war. As a prominent lawyer in washington dc and then came to represent Daniel Sickles you have James Carlisle one of the first choice he happens to be a very close friend and has no interest to help his murder and then the assistant secretary that was in charge of prisoner for for the confederacy also Jefferson Davis lawyer for gettysburg. But at the time as the deputy us attorney key actually wasnt the best hes there because of his family name and political connections and he also is sick so i thought it was interesting he puts all the work off on him and now by dying he gives him the hardest case with the biggest microscope in the history of the world. The actually will be appointed by president buchanan to be replaced as the us attorney this a single phenomenon you have to wait for the us attorney to be appointed in a murder case because the other one has been killed. So you half this case in front of george cross judge crawford has presided over almost every major trial in washington dc up to that point. One of the things that struck me are all the fascinating people that were witnesses or those that participated in the life of sickles he meets his wife when she is very young hes a border in the house of her grandfather and they are preparing it for entry to university of new york his name is lorenzo and aponte but he starts off as a young man in venice finds out the priest life is not for him and then is expelled from the city of venice because its possible he was in a brothel in charge with the concubine so to find his way to the court of members and performances and operas we have all seen enough or heard of and then starting the first Opera Company on the island. Event has the adopted daughter but it is biological who is a liaison in his sixties as the mother of theresa. So she is just a little girl when sickles moves in. And then becomes a new york assemblyman and then as teresa grows up he grows in love with her the family was opposed to the marriage because of the age difference. So they mary is the secret with the mayor of new york performing the ceremony. Eventually the family will be reconciled when they are married a second time in the public ceremony a pretty good start to your marriage the blessing of the mayor of new york city that should portend good things so sickles will go off to the United KingdomJames Buchanan is picked by president pierce. The only real figure of stature is buchanan and the former secretary of state of longtime senator and then to need this appointment but then pierce makes every concession in every demand so he needs a really good aid to go with him. So sickles is with a guy who was in the chapter of public service. But where teresa really shines with music and culture shes really in her element in victorias court they probably should have stayed there because he will come back to pave the way for James Buchanan campaign for president and then came to put an end to his career but in fact with the missouri compromise leading to violence in Election Fraud in kansas so the only democrat with the hope is someone that is untainted in any way. So then they end up being the thing that ensures hes the president of the United States. So then people speculated. He is not interested he is his own man so let me read something that is illustrative. So think of him at gettysburg. To see if this doesnt fit. I cannot play courier to the multitude much less individuals i know the consequences. Even at the price must be paid its not a wise court nor recommended to any friend but i have adopted it and it is mine and i will follow it come what may. That is sickles at gettysburg and at home at Lafayette Square wanting to kill the chief federal prosecutor in front of a crowd on sunday afternoon washington dc. So sickles run for congress. So he steps out from buchanans shadow known as an expert of foreign affairs, military polic policy, the speaker that he was a much more capable member. Everything is going well. But then to throw the best parties its also the best way to court other journalists or ambassadors of members of the cabinet. So the salary is 3000 a year. So for him to maintain his law practice and new york city he was so glad to entrust his wife to barton to escort her to events but they are introduced by a mutual friend and key hopes to hold on to his job and then you can and will be well within his right so he hopes to hang on to his job and marshall makes that connection and then says please leave on behalf of my friends and sickles is happy to do it so a friendship was launched but he was the last to know that teresa has a stocker by the name of Stephen Beekman a new yorker hanging around in dc dc she goes out riding alone with barton keys and then they disappear into a hotel and then come out together and he starts telling people and then he finds himself summoned to sickles home i would not want to be summoned and he demands that he tells them what he has been saying and he folds and denies it and thats enough that that is enough to go back to being oblivious. And less you think that key and teresa were appropriately concerned about nearly being discovered, two weeks later they are dancing together the most popular ball in washington as a masquerade ball it becomes notable in retrospect not for the opulence but for the fact many people present the last time they meet on friendly terms. Everyone is there described as a stimulus for the cost of makers and tailors of washington sickles does not go his wife shows up as little Red Riding Hood and he barton shows up as the huntsman so where discretion was called for weeks after their close call none could be found. At first he denied it and said no i have nothing but fatherly feelings she is like my daughter and eventually he said sickles is a damn yankee and wont do a thing about it and then indicating where his firearm was that is the subject of a lot of speculation on the day of the shooting during the trial. But he was wrong of what sickles was willing to do for of course leading to the most incredible 20 day trial where cases are usually resolved in an afternoon the former prosecutor for criminal lawyer had the most extraordinary case i have ever come across not every that followed but every scandal that followed that it is a line between a race between entertainment and news and what is sensational and exciting so thats where we find ourselves today so i was delighted to find these characters and to tell the story which of course would be sickles momentous decision so i will open the floor to questions thank you for being here and your attention. Its an honor to be speaking here in gettysburg. [applause] temporary insanity quick. So this is pulled over from the United Kingdom so the rule you dont know what you are doing is wrong you dont understand what it is you are doing its a relatively new defense really it was the only opening they had to claim insanity because hes having conversations with people right before the incident and then after to go to the attorney generals house and encounters a former us senator he has forgotten to wipe the blood off of his boots if he knew that sickles was packing a hot pistol to kill the chief federal prosecutor he may have had less regard for his carpets but he asked about pennsylvania politics. So really the avenue to plead insanity he is temporarily insane at some point before putting on the trenchcoat with three firearms before he hits the ground and then he fires the final shot and the distal misfires that is a brutal killing with shots fired so that was the avenue that was a temporary insanity plea but the argument with a straight justification so he has an affair with his wife that he is justified to gun him down so they make that case contrary to the law and the justification its okay if you dont buy that that didnt match the ball so how do you know cracks a health one with a halfhearted selfdefense and then Daniel Sickles is temporarily insane so really what you have is the jury to be bamboozled by pseudoscience that you are entitled you are justified to kill the seducer of your wife. This will start a trend in the United States the unwritten law so for century the most rigidly adhered to law that you would never find in any statute book or any case but it was followed regardless of circumstance or where it happened and juries even if it got there those who commit murder with the honor of a female representative they could success that more often than men. Thousands of cases never charged those that were dismisse dismissed, judges that would issue directive verdicts and throw out cases and jurors was simply a quit if they found that they were persuaded that they were killed to avenge the honor or their families honor if they were convicted the judge would issue a nominal sentence. If you seriously got to this point and the judge issued a serious sentence the governor was expected to pardon you. So in kentucky the classic unwritten law of man catches his wife in bed he kills the man the governor announces preemptively if you charge a man and convict him i will pardon him dont even bother. That is revocable by itself but even more the victim was the governors son as an elected official you are expected to pardon the killer of your own son. One other is South Carolina 1890 post reconstruction workplace of the confederacy a black man finds his wife in bed with a white man. And kills him the governor of South Carolina pardoned the black man because that is