Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 103 - The Public Suicide of Budd Dwyer and the Tragic Events That Led Up To It
Episode Date: September 3, 2018On January 22nd, 1987, forty-seven year-old R. Budd Dwyer, Republican State Treasurer of Pennsylvania, held a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to address his recent conviction on eleven co...unts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, and interstate transportation in the aid of racketeering. The married father of two faced up to fifty-five years in prison and a $300,000 fine. He was scheduled to be sentenced the very next day, January 23rd, by a judge who he knew intended to make an example of him to deter other politicians from taking bribes in the future. The journalists gathered expected Budd to resign from his office. Instead, he took out a .357 magnum, put the gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and resigned from life. What very specific events led to this tragic decision? Find out, today, on Timesuck! National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 Call it if you need it! Timesuck is brought to you today by the fantastic hit true crime and paranormal podcast, And That's We Drink! Listen wherever you listen to podcasts or click HERE to visit their website! Timesuck is also brought to you by Leesa! Go to www.Leesa.com/timesuck to get $235 off a kick-ass mattress during their incredible Labor Day sale!!! Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna be a Space Lizard? We're over 3000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits. And, thank you for supporting the show by doing your Amazon shopping after clicking on my Amazon link at www.timesuckpodcast.com
Transcript
Discussion (0)
On January 22nd, 1987, 47 year old, R. Bud Dwyer, Republican State Treasurer of Pennsylvania,
held a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to address his recent conviction
on 11 counts of conspiracy, male fraud, perjury, and interstate transportation in the aid of
racketeering. The married father of two faced up to 55 years in prison and a $300,000 fine.
He was scheduled to be sentenced to very next
day, January 23rd, by a judge who he knew intended to make an example of him to deter other
politicians from taking bribes in the future. It was expected by everyone in attendance
and audience comprised mainly of the top journalists in the state that Bud Dwyer was going to
resign from his elected position after years of accusations,
a highly publicized trial in a nasty fall from grace.
No one expected what actually happened.
In a long rambling speech, Dwyer criticized the American justice system, the reporters
in the room who he felt had unfairly tainted the public's perception of him during the
events leading up to during after the trial. And he accused other Pennsylvania politicians
of being the ones who were truly corrupt. He thanked his family for their support and
thank God for a good life. And then on live television, he took a Manila envelope out of
his briefcase and pulled out of that envelope, a fully loaded Smith and Wesson Model 27 357
Magnum revolver. The reporters present gasped, screamed, and backed away from bud.
Voices rang out, pleaded with him not to do whatever he was planning to do.
Only Dwyer himself remained eerily calm. He quickly told his terrified and riveted audience,
please, please leave this room with this will, if this will affect you.
Moments later Dwyer pointed the gun at himself quickly placed the barrel into his mouth and immediately pulled the trigger firing a bullet up into and out of his skull killing him instantly.
Dwyer's body slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor blood flowing out of the exit wound, his nostrils and his mouth, and the cameras that were present continued to roll and captured it all. A number of television stations throughout Pennsylvania broadcast
the tape footage of Dwyer suicide
to their midday audiences.
Philadelphia station WPBI showed Dwyer pulling the trigger
and falling backwards before cutting.
Over the next several hours,
other news editors had to decide
how much of the graphic footage
to air to their audiences.
Many stations including WCAU
and Pennsylvania's group WStations KYW and KDKA froze the
action just prior to the gunshot.
However the latter two allowed the audio of the shooting to continue under a frozen
image of Dwyer with the gun in this mouth.
A handful of stations actually aired the unedited press conference WPVI and Philadelphia
rebroadcast the suicide footage in full during their 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
new slots. Action news broadcast the entire suicide and did so without a warning to viewers.
WPXI and Pittsburgh broadcast the footage uncensored during an early newscast then chose not
to re-air the footage during the evening news slot explaining that by then kids were probably
home from school. Unfortunately by that that evening, thousands of pencil-winged
kids had already seen Bud pull the trigger because a severe winter storm had closed schools
across the state that day. Seems pretty straightforward at first, doesn't it? A crooked politician
gets caught stealing from John Cue Public, doesn't want to face the music, and when he gets caught,
he takes in a sense the easy way out. He takes what some people refer to as a cowardly way out. Well, it's not that simple, not even close. It's tragic
and unexpected. And while certainly I'm not a fan of suicide, I will say that once I reach
the end of this tale, I had a hard time not at least being open to the possibility that
Bud Dwyer's suicide was not only far from a cowardly act, but perhaps an incredibly
heroic and selfless act.
Find out why I reached that conclusion and see if you reached as well today on TimeSuck.
Happy Monday Time suckers.
Hail Nimrod Lucifina.
Bojangles triple M, Pudy and Jiu-Jiu and maybe even chicken Joe.
Bob, Bob, le boi, Bob, Bob.
Probably shouldn't have held Chickatilo.
Definitely not.
I'm Dan Cllamman's aka Nimrods Meat Sack Puppet and you are listening to Time Stuff.
Welcome back to the Coat of the Curious. Recording in the Cordelaine Suck dungeon and Idaho today, love and you are listening to time stuff. Welcome back to the coast of the curious.
Recording in the cordolaine suck dungeon and Idaho today, love in the weather this week.
The heat's cooled off. Still sunny. Smoke is gone. So you can actually see the sun.
Reverend Dr Joe motherfucking pavesley working in a sound board. Queen of the suck Lindsey.
Doing stuff at home, working out of the working out at home, taking care of the kids.
Monroe hasn't started school quite yet,
rapidly firing out emails like the Polish band G, she is.
Today's time stock has brought to you
by the increasingly popular and fantastic podcasts,
and that's why we drink.
Have you ever found yourself wondering
when true crime and the paranormal are finally gonna meet?
If not, well, this is awkward.
You should have been wondered about that.
And if so, it's about time you start listening to and that's why we drink.
Join host M. Team Hockeshake and Christine team wine every week to discuss ghosts, murder, and everything else that makes them drink.
Just make sure to lock your doors first.
I wonder if I can join and be team whiskey. Team Rye whiskey. Lindsay could be team vodka.
And Joe Paisy could be team Zima team wine cooler
cheap shot unfair. He's not here to defend himself
but back to and that's why we drink featured in BuzzFeed's list of top 25 podcasts to listen to
in 2018 and that's why we drink his covered topics ranging from John Wayne Gacy to the Amityville
haunting just like we have here on timeSuck. Get another take on these stories.
Get another take on stories you haven't heard.
It's a new take.
Unsolved disappearances, Black Eyed Kids,
so much more new episodes released every Sunday,
along with monthly listener episodes that feature
your personal paranormal and true crime stories.
Listen on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts,
the world's a scary place, and that's why we drink.
Link to this podcast in today's episode, Descript Shown.
Okay, now for some time stock app and website update news.
Sider for this, Nimrod has been good to me.
There should be a new app update for both Apple and Android and a new time stock website
upgrade that fixes a number of bugs as variable speed playback to episodes half speed,
normal speed, one and a half speed, double speed, episode progress.
Now syncing across devices and between the website and the apps, that should be out now.
The contact me mofo feature is cleaner and easier to use.
The character bios scroll more effectively.
Thanks to space, those are the Patreon supporters.
We're upgrading to a dedicated server this week.
The most comprehensive package offered by GoDaddy, it's going to increase app and website
speed, responsiveness, which we can font size and color to make it easier to read.
We're adding a fact page.
That should be out right now with questions like, you know, I ordered the wrong product.
What do I do?
Having trouble access and space, those are the features after signing up on Patreon.
Please help.
How do I retrieve my password?
How do I vote on topics, et cetera.
Also, the app now sends crash info back to Bitlixer immediately
so they can fix bugs faster.
Yeah, here bugs, go on bugs, get, go on, go on, get.
Be gone, Lucifer, and your bugs.
Yeah, very excited that.
Initially, the fact page will just have text answers.
We are gonna add videos just as soon as we have the production time
to get some fun.
These are answering your question videos.
One of the podcasts does that.
Fucking nobody.
Excited for it.
Hope you love the improvements.
More come and hail, Nimrod.
Once we deem this new version of success
and in-app in website, Reddit style message board chatroom
is gonna be added.
It's looking very cool.
I've seen some of the beta tests of that already.
I just want to beta test that further, make sure this other stuff is working before we
add another thing, and adding a Patreon linking system that will be much more intuitive and
easier to use than the current one we have.
Thanks to all the spacers who have signed up despite it being a little bit of a hassle
to get people figured out, but you know, it's a little clunky.
We're, we're streamlining that over the next month.
So many thanks coming thanks to all the spaces for making these in future upgrades possible.
Donate and even more to charity this next month.
Very excited.
Looks like we're going to be throwing about 750 bucks to a charity in, in September.
So I'm excited.
Headed to the Silicon Valley this week.
A weekend, sunnyvale, California, right down the street from Cupertino, few Apple nerds. I'll be at
Rooster Teeth Feathers, little wonderful Mon Pau, intimate comedy club room, September
6th to the ninth, then Hollywood. September 12th, Melrose Improv, one of the most
historic clubs in the country. I always have a good time there. And maybe the president
of the show business show, maybe the CEO of entertainment will be there. And maybe the president of showbiz will show up. Maybe the CEO of entertainment
will be there. You never know. On to Oxnard and Leavety Live September 13th to the 15th.
Then after a sweet week off, to road trip down to Rickens Idaho for some family time. I'm
back in the Northwest doing stand-up shows at Helium Comedy Club where I recorded my
album, hear this and record where I recorded maybe on the problem and feel the heat. I love
that room.
So, September 27th to 29th, sticking around helium for a live podcast in September 30th,
talking about the matamoros cult killings of the late days.
Right across the border from Brownsville, Texas, a Santa Rhea, Palo Mayabe, dark priest, voodoo
shit, dude from Miami, Adolfo Castanzo, incorporated elements of Aztec Warrior sacrifice into
his little drug trafficking death cult, sacrificing human beings so that the devil would help protect
him and his cohorts from the authorities.
It's insanity.
I already told that story in Denver and it was so much fun.
I look forward to tweaking it and retelling it in Portland to come to other places, come
to that.
You can only hear this topic live.
Go to dncomas.tv for more tour dates
at Dan Cummins' comedy for info, further info.
Maybe I'm in the problem,
the vinyl is dropping soon, September 5th.
So many things.
September 15th, noon, Pacific time,
3 PM Eastern on Romantic Records.
Hot damn, that custom wax is looking good.
Link to Romantic Records in the episode description,
picks these albums at Dan Cullman's comedy
on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.
Space Listerers can get the record right now.
Exclusive Space Listerer preorder link
in the past episode description to the secret suck.
Labor Day sale is over thanks to everybody
who bought that stuff.
And if you have any merch related questions,
hit up, don't hit out of stuff.
Hit up, hit up, Kate at accessapparelco.com.
I'll have that link in the episode description, Kate at accessapparelco.com.
When you hit us up at Bojangles, we then just pass along the info.
When we get it, decayed, sometimes there's delay, obviously, you know, there's only a few
of us, and it just slows down response time.
So send it right to them.
They're the ones who handle all the merch stuff.
They know that we are instruction instructional to take care of you guys
to the best of our ability,
get you a replacement of something was wrong,
get you extra stuff.
If it was a big pain in the ass you just went through,
we do our best there.
Kate's email gonna be in that new fact page.
Okay, enough business.
Enough business.
Let's dig into today's tale,
the very public suicide of Bud Dwyer
and the events that led up to this tragic decision. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC. When I was maybe, I don't know, 13 or 14 years
old. I got in the hold of an early VHS-based form of viral video, one of the viral video
precursors. It was one of these faces of death videos. These were big when I was in
like junior high. I rented it from some no longer existent video store on Main Street
of Grange, Villalido.. The closest video store was like an hour
from where I lived as a kid and it would,
it was a video store that most people,
if they were to go and we're like,
well the fuck, how is this place even stay open?
But to me I was like,
oh, this is almost Hollywood.
They have so many, they have more than 10 videos.
I've never, in one building. Well, these spaces are death videos.
I think there are about four of them in total.
Uh, we're compilations of death scenes.
Supposedly real footage of people getting killed by animals, shot, hit by cars, planes, blunt
objects, shot, you know, with, uh, uh, for, for, you know, fucking arrows, whatever.
Exactly the kind of thing a young teen boy wants to watch.
I probably should not watch.
They were filmed suicides
and some of these grainy compilations of violent porn,
essentially, and not porn sexually,
but just like like the porn equivalent of violence.
And one was our Bud Dwyer suicide.
There is an original unedited,
a minute and 22nd worth of footage on YouTube
and other sites like liveleak.com, very disturbing to watch.
Holy shit.
This this 82nd video shows this 47 year old politician who honestly looks 57 and you know,
holding court.
How to press conference.
Looks like a general grandpa.
And then he asked somebody in the beginning of this video named Greg to approach him.
Then he asked a man named Don Johnson to approach him.
He hands each of them a sealed envelope.
Then he hands Greg to additional papers saying one is for his wife, Joanne.
And then he takes that gun out.
Pandemonium breaks out after saying, please, please, please, leave the room with this will
affect you.
He mostly just says, don't, don't, don't.
As people are, I guess, you know,
kind of approaching him. He's holding out his hand. It's not holding the gun indicating
he does not want anyone to come close to him. He says, listen, this will hurt someone.
And then 16 seconds after initially revealing the gun, he quickly shoots himself and you
hear somebody immediately scream, somebody else, holy shit. You can hear a woman begin
to wail and sob almost immediately. A man can be heard demanding, all right, settle down.
And then don't panic, please.
And then someone call an ambulance and a doctor in the police.
This is said with no urgency.
This last thing, I mean, it's painfully clear that he's already dead.
And you think like, why would Bud do this?
What would drive someone to do this?
The easiest and somewhat obvious answer is that, you know, he was a day
away from being sentenced to what would likely be a prison term long enough to ensure he'd probably
die in prison. But the truth is more complicated. This turns out to be a very, very interesting story.
Let's start with this story like we often do at the beginning with today's Time Subtimeline. time-sub timeline. Shrap on those boot soldiers.
We're marching down a time-sub timeline.
Alright, Robert Bud Dwyer, born on November 21, 1939, in St. Charles, Missouri, to middle-class
parents, Robert Malcolm Dwyer, and Alice Mary Bud Dwyer.
He was good academically, he's good student.
A county was one of his favorite subjects and he wanted to pursue a career in county as
a kid, you know, once he grew up.
His family lives on a small farm and a few years after he arrived in the world, his younger
sister was born, Diana Grundel Dwyer.
Similar to how Robert would later be known by his middle name, sometimes
adding the first letter of his first name in front of it, Deanna would be known as, it
was D Grundel Dwyer or just Grundel Dwyer. D Grundel Dwyer being the more formal version,
less formally, Deanna. The least formal version of her name was dirty, a Dwyer, Grundel, Dreyer.
It was dirty, Dwyer, Grundel, Dreyer.
It's hard to say.
And that's dirty, Dwyer, Grundel, Dreyer.
That's not true.
I have no idea what blood sister's name is.
No one in the documentary books I read
felt it worth mentioning.
Grundel, by the way, refers to the area
between your penis or vagina and your anus.
Your perineum, your taint, your gooch, your chus, your perineum, your tank, your
gooch, your chow, your penis, your fleshy, fun bridge.
Now, you know, more knowledge, you guys.
Bud's father worked a day job, so his family did not have to struggle the way the families
of other farmers did, and by all accounts, the doiers were a close, well-adjusted family
who probably never ever said the word, gruddle.
In 1957, Bud graduated from high school, attended Allegheny College
in Medeville, Pennsylvania. It's 40 miles south of Erie, Nine miles north of Pittsburgh,
little college town less than 15,000 people. In addition to studying accounting, Bud also
studied political science. Getting a bachelor's degree in political science. He was a member
of Beta Chi, the Beta Chi chapter of Theta chi, I was so close to pronouncing those as
beta chi and theta chi, by the way. I could only imagine what kind of emails would
have poured in. After getting his bachelor's, I stuck around to get his master's degree
in education, got a job teaching at Cambridge Springs High School in Crawford County, Pennsylvania,
just outside of Medville, a bud-todd of class called problems with democracy, kind of ironic
considering the massive problems he would encounter with his own democracy later.
Events that would send him spiraling towards his death.
While teaching at Cambridge Springs High School in 1962,
bud met his future wife and English teacher named Joanne Grundel.
No, Joanne Grappie.
Grappie not much better than Grundel though, to be fair.
The two quickly fell in love.
And the spring in 1963, bud received his master's degree and in the summer of 1963, he was selected for an educational exchange program that took him to Poland. Bud was shocked at life in Poland.
He couldn't believe that God would A. create Polish people in the first place. And then B.
Polish people in the first place. And then be, allow Polish people to continue to live, after seeing what vile, subhuman,
filthy, godless monsters they really are.
He spent much of his time in Poland weeping, in wailing, and thrashing, and just being furious
with God for allowing any of this to happen.
Sorry, that's clearly not true.
No, but he really was sent to Poland.
He really was shocked at life in Poland.
He was shocked by communism.
He hated it.
Poland had become a communist nation following Russia's invasion of Poland at the end of World
War II when they pushed the German Nazis out only to become just a different oppressor.
But could not believe the way the Polish government treated their own people, the rampant governmental
corruption disgusted him.
When Bud returned to the United States in the fall of 1963, he and Joanne were immediately
married, despite knowing each other for less than a year.
And then after the wedding, Bud quickly told Joanne that his time in Poland had inspired
him to get involved with US politics.
He wanted to do what he could do to help ensure that America would never become what he saw
overseas.
A 24-year-old decided to run as a Republican on the Republican ticket for a state government
seat on Pennsylvania's House of Representatives in 1964.
Even though Bud refused to solicit campaign donations himself, he refused to look, even
look at the list of contributions, he did get some fundraise and he left fundraising
to his former teaching mentor and current campaign manager at the time. He talked a lot
about Poland during his campaign, what he felt was wrong with Poland, you know, even had
a slideshow he presented to show what life was like over there and how terrible the average
lives that Polish citizens were and how he counted this happened and that kind of stuff.
Now he's very anti big red, former former friend, Stink Dispresentation actually won him that first election.
And he won even though he ran against an incumbent.
He won that first election.
And then now he had to work in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg, capital of Pennsylvania, only about 50,000 people in it.
The metro area has over 500,000, but still very,
very small state capital.
Just outside of Harrisburg sits Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Just outside of Hershey's sits the small town of Squirts.
So there's Hershey Squirts and that was the layman's dad joke.
I just threw it in there.
I just thought of it and I was like, don't say it.
Don't say it and I said it and I'm gonna keep it.
We're not editing that out.
I took the kids to Hershey once and they were little,
I recommended a, or I recommended two or the plant
if you have chocolate lovers in the family.
The three mile island nuclear incident occurred near Harrisburg, 1979.
Forbes rated Harrisburg is a second place,
a second best place in the US to raise a family in 2010.
So I guess nuclear incident didn't, couldn't have been that bad.
Didn't contaminate things too much.
And so Bud's not gonna be working there.
It took his first political office in Harrisburg on January 5th, 1965.
And it's a five hour drive from Harrisburg to Medville.
And rather than move his family and his now pregnant wife away from her parents, you
know, Bud would make the drive from Harrisburg to, to, to, or from Medville to Harrisburg.
And then back, uh, each week, like he would live in Harrisburg
during the week, and on the weekend, he would drive home five hours each way.
Yeah, and you also want to return to Medeville on a regular basis so he could properly kind
of, you know, monitor and serve the constituents of the district that voted him in.
And man, he would, he would make that weekly trek back and forth for 16 years.
Think about that commute. 16 years of doing a five hour fucking ride with Jesus.
I served in the state,
House of Representatives,
until 1971 and then he served in the state senate
for a full decade.
Raising a family, making that drive my God.
I saw my travel schedule's rough.
That day was on the road, almost every week,
five days a week, for over 15 years, so there's that.
So he's awake for home a lot,
starting just a year and a half into his marriage.
And then he was doing this before there was podcasts.
Think about that drive too.
Think about the five hour drive before podcasts,
no satellite radio, no Pandora, no Spotify,
no books on tape, no cell phones.
Man, I hope those 1960s and 70s DJs kept him entertained.
I can only imagine how sick you would get of certain songs.
No, that's not the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it.
Fuck Casey in the Sunshine Band, fuck him to hell.
You know, cut to Bud just quickly shutting off
his radio, just furious.
And then after a minute of just utter boredom just slowly raising the volume up again.
That's the way.
Uh-uh-uh, I like it.
That's the way.
Uh-uh-uh, I like it.
Uh-uh-uh, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- week after week. At the beginning, this ongoing 16 year cross date commute. BUDS sound
rob is born in the midvill area 1965. Three years later, BUDS daughter. Diane D.D. is born
in 1968. D.D. Grundel. I cannot get that word out of my head. Miss Grundel, party of one,
your table is ready. And it's clean. Please, please keep it that way. You've built the
animal. And then a 1980
Bud runs for state treasure largely because this position does not require him to keep in touch with voters in the Medviel area
And then now if he gets it he can move his entire family to Harrisburg where he's been working and they can all live there together
Still can't believe he made that commute for fucking 16 years my god
There was a scene in the documentary where his daughter, Dee Dee actually talked about
him.
What a good dad with this was.
Talked about him driving over again one week.
You know, he'd already done the weekend thing and he'd be doing it the next weekend thing.
And then he drove over midweek on a Wednesday when she was in grade school to watch her perform
a small part in some grade school play.
And then he drove home after the show that night, 10 hours that day in addition to the normal 20 hours of commuting that week.
That's the way.
Uh, like a similar to previous elections, but relies on a grassroots knocking on doors
approach to his campaign.
He spent only $50,000 on his entire campaign, far less than his opponents.
He spent almost nothing on television or radio ads.
His campaign manager said he focused primarily on county affairs, where he would introduce
himself to hundreds, if not thousands of potential voters a day, shaking hands and telling his
own, his own hands would literally be swollen from all of the hands, shaking. And he did
this because as, as many people said on a great Bud Dwyer documentary called Honest Man,
the life of our Bud Dwyer,
you can watch on Amazon Prime for free, if you remember,
they would say once you met Bud Dwyer, you'd vote for him.
He did appear to be very likable, very charismatic.
In November of 1980, he won his election,
and then the family moved to Harrisburg commute over.
And life would be great,
and Harrisburg for a couple of years,
and then Bud would find himself in the middle
of a political shit storm.
When Dwyer took over the treasury, he wanted to improve things and immediately wanted to
modernize it.
The operating system was was very outdated and he computerized the department, which was
a great move, starting off.
He also kept some of the staff from the previous treasurer, let them keep their jobs, most notably,
Vince Yakawitch, a Democrat who sounds like he may be
Polox Savage, and they became lifelong friends
as much as a human and a Polack can be friends.
If you're new listener, my wife is Polish,
that's why this is happening.
And who I love, who I love to tease.
This was not normal, most new officials cleaning officials cleaning out you know clean house when they
came in
uh... especially the previous staff members were not the same party he didn't care he
was able to work across party lines on a regular basis love hearing that
why can't more people do that
uh... doyer took a bit cause
which he called the waistline
uh... early in his tenure and in the office there
doyer's administration established a toll-free waistline for citizens to report abuse,
misuse or fraud involving state funds or to make money saving suggestions.
The waistline received nearly 4,000 calls, resulted in the savings of millions of tax dollars
and several arrests.
Again, the irony here, the guy who sets up the call line for a Citizens Report abuse and misuse of state
funds ends up being caught in a scandal involving taking funds. Yeah, taking a bribe.
It's crazy. Okay. And then in 1984, bud, just by doing his duty as treasurer, he falls
into a highly publicized fight with state governor, Richard Dick Thornberg. Oh, Dickie T.
Oh, Dick Grundel. Dickie Grundel. A governor, Dick, was also a Republican
who'd won the governor's job in 1979, defeating Republican incumbent Milton shop with the campaign
largely built on fighting government corruption. Lot of corruption in Pennsylvania government
in the 70s and 80s. I don't know how things are there today, but my, my, my God, the story was just
loaded with it. Shops time was plagued with corruption.
More than 60 people from his administration have been indicted on various criminal charges
during his tenure.
While shop himself was never indicted on anything, his administration was jokingly referred
to as the Crook of the Month Club.
Even four of his cabinet members were convicted of crimes while he was in office, including
fraud, line under oath and extortion.
Well, in 1994, Governor Dick, I am not a crook Thornberg.
I'm going to do a Nixon sucks someday, by the way.
Dick took a business trip to Germany to convince a West German bus manufacturer to open a
plant in Harrisburg, which they later did, and he took his wife, Ginny, which was fine
and totally within his legal rights to do so.
But the governor submitted his wife, $1,680 airline ticket for reimbursement
from the state treasurer's office, which was not kosher.
She didn't have to be there, you know, this is a business trip.
She wants to come, she can pay her own way.
The taxpayer not required to pay her way.
So when this bill comes across Bud Dwyer's desk, he refuses to sign it.
And here the first seed of buzz later demise is sown.
The press catch wind of buds refusal makes the papers.
We all know far too well right now how much the press loves to run stories regarding political
turmoil and conflict.
Can't get enough of that shit.
Feels like 90% of my news feed is that Democrats accuse Thornburg and his wife and some other Republican aides who went along
for the trip of basically just taking a big old vacation on the taxpayer's dime.
And just, you know, you go to Germany, you see the sites, you have lunch with the fucking
bus people one day, and then you write it all off.
Which in the private world, I will say does happen all the time.
And as a small business person, you'd love it.
I do it too. Sakad it, IRS. No, but anyway, Democrats, they accused them of this and the governor
then publicly accused this Dwyer of taking a cheap shot at him saying that he wasn't
trying to do anything shady. He just was, it was protocol to submit trip costs to the
treasurer's office so that they could then decide what he was responsible for,
what he was not responsible for,
what the state should cover, what they shouldn't cover.
You know, he's just following standard operating procedure
and then Bud Dwyer goes out of his way
to make him look like an asshole.
Dwyer claims that he did not go out of his way
to malign anyone, a reporter asking about the trip,
he told the truth and that's all there was to it.
And then they spun it, how they spun it.
What was he supposed to do, lie to the reporter? You know, the like a
fool risk looked like looking like he was part of some kind of government theft or, you
know, in front of the people, the constituents who voted him into office, they just do his
job. And then bud quickly find himself having to distance himself from the governor's
office again, shortly after this incident, a reporter asked Dwyer to alert
Dwyer, excuse me, to the fact that Governor Thornberg's sons have been being transported
back and forth between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, or their attending private school, and they've
been driven back and forth by state troopers.
Clearly also on the state's drive, dime, excuse me, when the reporter then asked Dwyer
to see financial records regarding school transport, Dwyer deferred to him to state police who then released the records.
The police complained that the governor is using them as showfurs, as taxi drivers, Dwyer's
people decided to take a closer look at these records.
Once they're released to the press and they decide that Governor Thornburg is again,
abuse his power and that he should pay for this transportation, not the police.
And then due to media inquiry,
a press conference is held,
but Dwyer reveals exactly how much his office thinks
that the governor should have to pay.
For all the time as a police took the governor's kids
to and from private school,
and they say that he owes the state $6,700 roughly.
And this does not, as you might imagine,
make the governor super duper happy.
This makes the first term governor,
the man who ran on an anti-corruption campaign, look, you know, corrupt. And like a huge
hypocritical asshat. Also, if I was someone who would voted for governor, uh, Dickie
Grundle, I would be pissed that the governor of Pennsylvania is sending his kids out of
state to go to school, like, what the fuck? Like, isn't it, isn't it basically your main
job to make sure that this is a state that people want to live in and want to like raise kids out of state to go to school. Like what the fuck? Like isn't it, isn't it basically your main job
to make sure that this is a state that people want to live in
and want to like raise their kids in
and have their kids go to school in?
Right?
I mean, doesn't that seem very straight?
I mean, can you imagine if like,
if any president of the United States
sent his kids to a foreign country to study?
Yes, my children are attending school and London.
What am I gonna,
I'm like, I haven't got to school in America
and this fucking shithole?
Get out of here!
Then why don't you do your job and fix them?
Fix the school, Mr. President.
Why don't you start asking easier questions before I have your press badge revoked?
Mr. Soon to be writing for a high school yearbook?
It's serious to that, that is kind of crazy to me that he would do that.
Well, people who work with Dwyer said it wasn't like Dwyer went after the government
maliciously in this incident or the previous one. The police complained to the press. The press asked the treasurer's office what the hell they were
going to do about the government's misuse of funds and Dwyer felt like his hands were tied.
He felt like again, like he didn't want to look like he was part of some kind of governmental
corruption. You know, this is also his first term. He would like to get reelected. You know,
the press are going to accuse him of covering things up for the governor of being in bed with the governor if he doesn't do this. But governor Thornberg
does not see the situation that way. He thinks that Dwyer is out to get him. That Dwyer
has some kind of vendetta against him. And if Thornberg didn't hate Bud Dwyer after the
airline ticket incident, they would call it Ginnygate, which I think is hilarious, he
for sure hates him now. The press is now running, you know, tails of Dwyer being in the gubernatorial doghouse
and about how if Dwyer was a member of Dix cabinet and didn't have an elected position,
he would for sure be fired.
Those who worked with the governor would later say that Thornburg thought Dwyer was a
country pumpkin and that he did start to crave revenge big time for these perceived slights
against him.
Supposedly, according to at least one source in the documentary I watch, he said, I'm
going to get that fat son of a bitch if it's the last thing I do.
And now the press is running stories and local papers about the obvious tension and discord
between Dick Thornberg and Bud Dwyer.
Why couldn't they work it out?
Why?
Maybe they're just tired.
Maybe if they would have just taken a night to snuggle up, play a game of buds, the big
spoon, and Dickey tea
is a little spoon.
Maybe if they'd have gone to Solid Night's Rest
and Alisa mattress, everything would have worked out.
Maybe, just maybe Buds few next year's,
or next few years would have turned out very differently.
Who knows?
Yes, today's time suck is brought to you by Alisa.
Alisa is having a big Labor Day sale
where you can get up to $235 off.
You're Alisa mattress.
This is the best you'll have seen. $235 off your Lisa mattress. This is the best deal I've seen.
$235 off your Lisa mattress.
You go to leesa.com slash time suck.
Sleep is important.
Your previous nights rest affects your mood
for the whole next day.
I know.
One of my nicknames at home is Moody Judy.
And Moody Judy is cranky pants as fuck
when I don't get the proper sleep I need.
Oh, Judy's a real pill. And my sleep is never better than when I snuggled up on a Lisa
mattress, especially when I convince fur babies, Penny Pooper and Ginger, why is she farting
so much lately? Like so much. She eats the same food. Why? To get off the bed so I can lay
down properly. Lisa mattress is a product of more than 30 years of experience in mattress
engineering, hundreds of hours of testing. It's comprised of three foam layers that provide Properly, Lisa mattress is a product of more than 30 years of experience in mattress engineering
hundreds of hours of testing.
It's comprised of three foam layers that provide cooling, pressure relief, body contouring,
support, telekinetic abilities, time travel, astral projection.
I made up those last few, but for real, the other stuff is legit, very, very comfortable.
Over 300,000 happy Lisa sleepers agree that Lisa mattresses give them the rest they need.
So order your Lisa mattress online at leesa.com.
Slash time suck.
Try it risk-free for a hundred nights
or I will hide out your house
and I will fucking yell at you in the middle of the night
until you do it.
I'm trying to help you.
So as the creepy guy in the bushes, I won't do that.
The thing ships direct to your door
and it can be in your box,
clearly packed by wizards and or sorcerers.
It ships for free, free shipping, free returns.
Find the right mattress for you at leesa.com slash time suck.
Don't miss leesa's limited time labor day sale
where you can get up to $235 off your leesa mattress
when you go to leesa.com slash time suck.
That's leesa, L-E-E go to leesa.com slash time suck. That's Lisa
L-E-E-S-A dot com slash time suck and that'll be in the episode description as well the link and now
Back to Dwyer's public battle with Dicky V
These incidents
Dicky V Dicky T you know I just did there. That was a weird Dick Fytel. I'm so used to like Dicky being followed by V.
T sounds like V. I swapped him.
Now we're talking about Dicky T.
We're talking about Governor Grundle.
Talk about Governor Thornberg.
I got so many names for you, Prairie.
Who the fuck is this guy?
These incidents weigh on buds mind enough for him to mention
all of these incidents with the governor
at the final press conference before he pulls the trigger.
One of the things he said before he pulls the trigger.
One of the things he said, he said, in February of 1924, another significant event occurred
in my life.
In conformity with Pennsylvania law, I refused to pay the travel voucher for Mrs. Dick Thornberg's
trip to Europe.
And Governor Thornberg told Bob Asher and others that he would get Dwyer.
Thanks to you, the media, Governor Thornberg has a very positive
image, but his staff, but if his staff had ever let you get close to him, you would have
found a short temper and a vicious vindictive personality. Governor Thornberg's resolve
to get me increased when Ginnygate was followed by Schofurgate. That's the obviously the
the police escort thing, the police taking his kids to school in March, April and May of
1994, which was properly brought to my attention by reporter, Wally Roche of the Philadelphia
and Choir.
Then our recent governor began referring to me as the fat fuck, which can be attested
to by several people.
That is when you really know that someone doesn't care for you, when they begin to refer
to you as the fat fuck.
You know that someone really doesn't like you when they start openly calling you the fat
fuck to your face, even the presence of others. Yeah, Roger, can you send in the fat fuck so we can
talk about the budget? No, certainly governor. Hello, governor Thornberg. Have a seat, you fat fuck.
Yeah, I really wish you'd call me butt, or at least Mr. Dwyer, Governor Thorneberg,
if you could. Ah, of course you'd say that you fat fuck. That's such a fat fuck thing
to say. When you agree, Roger, what a fat fuck thing to say. Also, have you been getting
fat or you fat fuck I hate you so much? That's when you know for sure someone hates you
and they talk to you like that. Then later, 1924, real trouble starts broon for for bud fat fucked wire
dickie grundle
will soon be the least of his problems
uh... doyer runs for reelection nineteen four is up against the democrat
named out benedict and the campaign gets ugly almost immediately there's a
smear campaign against wire allegedly taken bribes
benedict who is the auditor general alleges that doyer took a kickback
from computer technology associates
and corporate CTA while the allegations are serious, Dwyer denies everything and takes
it all pretty lightly initially.
Also this allegation just doesn't appear credible as three members of Benedict staffed are
then indicted for selling state jobs.
Michael Hanna, Nick Satis, John Kerr, Dwyer-Wirwen's election but the allegations uh... despite the uh... you know uh...
convictions are or the and people being indicted
uh... on the guy staff who make the the allegations
uh... despite all that happening the the allegations against but do not go
away there's just so many allegations this crazing the story there's so much
like rampant political corruption and pencil vayne at this time
uh... let's talk about the cta scandal this is is huge. This is the big scandal that led to,
to bud doing what he did at the press conference.
Pennsylvania officials discovered that some of its state workers
had overpaid millions of dollars
in federal insurance contributions act money,
or taxes, I guess, that's FICA.
FICA taxes due to errors in state withholding.
Several top accounting firms across the country
competed for the multi-million dollar contract
to determine the compensation to be paid to each employee.
So again, just to, you know, they were, they were being taxed on this fight attacks a few
years before it actually became official in Pennsylvania.
They don't catch up for some reason for like two years and they're like, oh, shit, the
federal government has taken millions of tax dollars they weren't supposed to.
Now Pennsylvania is hiring, you know, some firm to find out exactly who paid what when they shouldn't
so they can find out how much to be reimbursed.
And Dwyer is putting charge of choosing a firm to handle all this, this repayment of
over collected taxes.
Even though I guess that job would typically fall to the governor, for whatever reason he's
put in charge, the contract is eventually then awarded to the California based firm,
computer technology associates,
owned by a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Months after the contract is awarded, Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornberg receives an anonymous
memo detailing allegations of bribery that took place during the bidding process for the
contract.
And this anonymous source names are Bud Dwyer as one of the people receiving a kickback in the deal.
And you know that Dickey T got a massive revenge boner when that memo hit his desk.
When he read that name, his wing probably almost exploded.
Just, ah, oh, payback time, you fat fuck.
This will teach you for now, looking the other way when I brought my wife to Germany.
When I sent my kids to school in massachusetts. Ha ha ha ha.
You probably went full Mr. Burns when he got that memo.
Just, yes, meh this is excellent news.
I shall crush the fat fuck.
I shall squeeze him until there's nothing left.
And then I shall take another trip to Deutschland with Ginny.
First class on the public dime to celebrate, yes, meh this.
Excellent.
More about this contract. The contract calls for the company to recover up to 40 million
of Social Security taxes that had been improperly paid by Pennsylvania school districts and
200,000 school employees from 1979 to 1981. And again, the taxes mistakenly paid. And
mistakenly paid when employees run sick leave, although federal law did not require such
payments until 1902.
Treasure officials said that CTA would receive $4.8 million for compiling and filing all the
necessary data on behalf of all the employees to recover the money from the federal government.
So they can pay almost 5 million to recover this 40 million.
Mr. Dwyer said the company, which at the time, at the time the contract was awarded had
only three full time employees, was chosen over larger firms because it promised a prompt refund of
the overpaid taxes.
And then this CTA contract was rescinded July 11th shortly after Mr. Dwyer said he learned
that the federal Bureau of investigation was looking into allegations that CTA had paid
other public officials in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to obtain similar contracts.
So important to note this, important to note that before Dickey T revealed allegations
of corruption against Bud Bud had already canned this contract.
Now who is CTA?
CTA is a bunch of dirty birds.
That's who.
This is ads to the story.
One dirty bird in particular.
This is a bullshit company.
It is one dirty bird with a long history regarding corruption in Pennsylvania.
CTA, computer technology associate, is a firm based out of California, owned and operated
by one John Torquato, Jr.
A corrupt asshole who may have, from whatever I've read, probably did frame bud Dwyer
into the corruption case that would follow.
Torquato, the son of an alleged mafia member was strong ties to the Pennsylvania
Democratic Party.
Uh, Torquato, uh, had, had moved to California and started the business after getting
into legal trouble previously in Pennsylvania for extortion in the early 70s.
Uh, regarding that court document state, the evidence, uh, at the, at trial indicate
that from 1971 to 1976, Torquato, along with John
George and Harold Stevens, extorted funds from persons who leased heavy equipment to the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Torquato was the county chairman of the Dremacutic Party in Cambria County from 71 till 78.
He also held a position during the years relevant to the indictment of supervisor of county
audits in the Department of Aud auditor general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
So according to testimony trial meetings with Torquato,
in which they sought his approval to enter into leases with the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation.
And during these meetings, he would indicate that the quid pro quo, excuse me, for obtaining
the lease with the state would be, uh, a kickback, a kickback, quote unquote, to the party.
It was the understanding of the lessers as reflected in their testimony that the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation would lease their equipment only if they made such kickbacks.
1971 required payment was 5% of the contract amount or of the gross income they would
receive from the Department of Transportation and that amount was increased to 10% in 1972.
So he's fucking extorting these people.
Although the kickback payments made by the lecars often characterized at trial as political donations or contributions, evidence indicated that
these payments benefited Terquato personally. And a jury found him guilty of conspiring
to violate the Hobbs Act and a various substantive violations of that act. One of the lawyers involved
in the prosecution of Terquato was Dick Thornburg, Dicky T Dick
Rundle, old governor Grundle.
The Hobbes Act by the way, enacted in 1946 named after Sam Hobbes, Democratic Congressman
from Alabama, was enacted as a statute to combat racketeering and labor management disputes.
The statute is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption, commercial
disputes, and corruption directed at members of unions.
After pants and fines having his political career stomped out in Pennsylvania to acquire
a movie to California, heirs a lawyer named William Bill Smith.
Bill Smith, Bill is where he went by.
William Smith goes by Bill Smith to represent his new CTA firm back in Pennsylvania.
So he's going to try and sneak back around and steal more money from the Pennsylvania taxpayers. Smith is a personal friend of Dwyer in the documentary
and honest man about Dwyer, this documentary ledges that Terquato hired Smith to get to
Dwyer. He's trying to make inroads to the Republican Party in the state of Pennsylvania.
And in all likelihood, Terquato did offer Bud Dwire a bribe. The film alleges that Torquato would offer a bribe
to every single official he met in his first meeting.
And he did this for two reasons.
One was just kind of test the waters.
And then two, you know, he wanted to have some collateral
to hold over their head later.
Well, Torquato later claimed that he hired a attorney,
William Bill Smith to convince Dwyer
and the Republican chairman of the State Party Committee,
Bob Asher, to let Cyer and the Republican Chairman of the State Party Committee, Bob Asher,
to let CTA have the deal, offering them each $300,000.
And then Smith claimed that when he presented this contribution to Dwyer, the bud accepted
the bribe, right?
And this is the crux of the whole case against Dwyer.
Is this Smith's testimony?
At his own trial, Smith pleaded guilty to giving to our and asher
three hundred thousand dollars each in bribes
and he received three and a half years in federal prison for bid rigging
he admitted in court that to aquado junior
uh... it's i've been referring to mister quattro the same guy
uh... he has a dad also of the same name
uh... came from a democratic family used him to reach out to the republicans
and convince them to secure this bid for him
uh... to aquado with an also spent some time in prison after this.
And it was Smith's testimony that led directly to our Bud Dwyer's criminal convictions.
In the documentary, though, and on a man Smith, and this documentary was just, I think
back in 2010, if I remember, I didn't write it down on my notes, but it was within the
last decade.
It mits on camera that he lied about bud accepting
the bribe. He says that Haasim did this day. He feels guilt over it. I mean, this guy already went
to prison for this case. And once out of it, he's like, you know, feels terrible because of what
happened to bud Dwyer, and especially terrible because he says that he didn't actually take the bribe.
So yeah, so that's pretty huge. And he said that he lied because their Quattro told him that he had to lie.
The Smith had to lie to back up to our Quattro's lies because their Quattro's lies were what
were able to get him a plea bargain from the DA.
Basically, like the DA put pressure on him and he told the DA he could give them Bud Dwyer.
And if he gave them Bud Dwyer and and they want to get Bud Dwyer,
because as you'll find out, the prosecutor is tied directly to Governor Dickey T, Governor Dickey
T wants to fucking squash Dwyer for all the shit, you know, that, you know, in the public eye,
all the mess he caused them, you know, over the last few years. So they really want Bud Dwyer,
the prosecutors, you know, the DA's office devs, and they're like, oh, wow, you can give us Bud Dwyer, the prosecutor's, you know, the DA's office does. And they're like, oh, wow, you can give us Bud Dwyer.
Okay, well, then we'll give you a plea deal.
And then so, but to do that, he has to lie, and he has to have Smith lie.
And then he lied for all this to work.
And Smith said that Torquato told him, if he doesn't cooperate, when you come home, you'll
find Moose, and that was the nickname for Smith's son, floating face down in the swimming pool.
So Smith will later claim that these guys, these mobsters basically threatened him
that if he didn't lie in court to convict Bud Dwyer,
they were gonna kill his kid.
Okay, so that's big.
So months after this contract is awarded,
subsequently we subsequently revoked
Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornberg
receives this anonymous memo about the bribery,
gets the fucking boner about Bud Dwyer being listed.
And then he enlists his lawyer, Protojege Jimmy West, who is the acting US attorney to investigate
and take the case to a grand jury. You know, he's pursuing Bud with, you know, with a vengeance
now included in the original list of those suspected of taking bribes from CTA or Dwyer,
Bob Asher, the Republican chairman, attorney general, the Leroy Zimmerman and Senator
John Schumacher. By the time these indictments were handed out Zimmerman, and Senator John Schumaker.
By the time these indictments were handed out, however, Zimmerman and Schumaker were mysteriously
no longer on the list.
So you know, two of the four people, supposedly getting these bribes, they don't even make
the final indictment list.
And while attorney Jimmy West would admit that Bud Dwyer never actually received funds from
Torquada.
They never actually got the money.
He said that didn't even matter when it came to prosecuting him because supposedly agreeing
to accept a bribe was just as bad to accept it as accepting it.
And he wouldn't argue that intent is the key.
And this is insane to me.
So their whole case against this guy is not even that he took money, but that he supposedly
said based on the testimony of two people that he would take the money.
And then later definitely changes mine and cancel the contract.
So they're gonna, you know, they're gonna take his whole career away and put him in prison
for maybe thinking about taking a bribe.
Now I'm not saying when it comes to corruption that I disagree with Jimmy West, the prosecutor
in turn here as far as like intent, you know, like you shouldn't be, you should still
get in trouble for saying like, yes, I'm going to take bribe money.
If that's what you actually do, even if you don't actually get the money.
But I also think how convenient is this for his case?
Because now he doesn't have to actually provide any evidence of, you know, any financial
evidence, like bank account type evidence, but actually receiving any money.
They don't have to worry about a money trail at all.
There are many that there isn't one.
Usually the money trail pretty important when it comes to a bribery case. Now all he needs is
testimony from Torquado, a known crook, a fucking known convicted fraud, and that man's a lawyer,
a man who would later admit that he lied about Bud, and he just needs their testimony to convict Bud
Dwyer. Sadly, it really, really does look like Bud was innocent in this case. And Bill Smith,
Torquados attorney, says in the documentary, the Jimmy West, clearly
being pressured by Dickey T to pursue this case against wire relentlessly, came to him and
stated that they were going to indict Smith's wife, Judy, as well unless he could convince
Dwyer to resign from office.
Like they're really going after Dwyer.
You know, clearly Thornberg's main goal is to crush Dwyer in all of this.
He wants him out of Harrisburg.
That's going to fucking teach him for not signing off on whatever the hell he wanted Dwyer
to sign off on.
Now, this is totally conjecture on my part as far as assessing the governor's motivations
in this situation.
But God, just from what you gather, when you look into this story, it sure as hell looks
like this is the case.
Well, Bill Smith approaches Dwyer on behalf of the governor's attorney to resign and
Dwyer refuses. Federal prosecutors approach Bud, approach Bud Dwyer, they're
willing to cut him a deal at this point. Please guilty to one charge of bribe receiving,
resign from office, fully cooperate with the rest of the investigation, and you won't
get much trouble. The one charge we carry at most to five year prison sentence and all
likelihood, you're not going to spend a day there. But Dwyer turns down the deal. He is, he, he's, he's innocent. He's never back down from that.
And he wants his innocence to be proven in a trial. Okay. So in 1995, now the trial is scheduled
and moved out of the capital city relocated to Williamsport, Pennsylvania due to the publicity.
It's been receiving in Harrisburg. This does not help, but Williams port is a rural town with lower socioeconomic level,
a kind of population, lower overall education levels for the adults living there. And this
is a complex trial requiring complex thinking to properly assess. Basically what many
the documentary alleged is that the jury ended up being composed of people. We would refer
to as idiots of the internet and that they can't understand the trial well
enough to understand that but is actually innocent or that the evidence against it is not
strong.
Speaking of these idiots, by the way, let's take a break from the today's timeline before
we hop back into it and check in with those wacky doodles. Idiot. And be introvert. Introvert. All right.
For today's video, I went to, uh, to that one minute, 22nd YouTube video I referenced
earlier.
The one where you, where you can witness Bud's death, I don't recommend it.
I do not recommend it.
Uh, the top comment out of nearly 50,000 comments under the video of nearly 12 million views published in 2013 by Fabio Costa is
Matthew Centoro
not an idiot
Someone who is asking in all caps
Why are you watching this?
Fair question Matt fair question
more be curiosity, I guess to start with and
Since I'm doing this suck I had a hard time just to find not watching it if I I'm going to do an entire time suck leading to this one moment, I feel like I needed
to see the moment.
Thank you for asking.
Another clever fellow on YouTube, Dakota Colley, has the next top comment posting Logan
Paul was the cameraman.
Well played.
Well played to go to for those of you who didn't listen to or don't remember the Japanese
suicide for a suck.
This is a reference to very popular YouTuber Logan Paul receiving a lot of public backlash
for posting a video of him making light of seeing some poor suicide victim hanging from
a tree in the suicide forest.
He filmed the actual body laughter in the video and now Dakota is accusing him of filming
Budwara suicide as well.
Pretty dark and in my opinion, pretty clever, pretty clever reference.
The next comment proves how fucked up my sense of humor is,
because it made me laugh out loud.
While I was at Clipso's Coffee Shop in downtown Cordelaine,
while I was doing some of the research,
Lucy the Lamp Post in quotation marks, I'm a doctor.
Now this is referring to someone yelling just that
in the background of the end of the video,
someone who yells, you're like, I'm a doctor.
And then right after that, a towel size, Lucey writes, boy, it's too late.
I know that's really fucked up, but it was very funny to me.
Yes, way too late, holy shit, too late to that point.
Be gone, Luceyfina, stop making me laugh at tragedy.
You're gonna get me in trouble.
Then a few comments later, we get a virtue signaler. All right. Finally. We haven't had one of those in a while
User QRT one two three posts. I can't believe that so many guys are making jokes about this and then user Let's Con
Here's the virtue of singular user Let's Con replies with yes
exclamation point something like suicide is not funny period. It is sad exclamation point. Something like suicide is not funny, period.
It is sad exclamation point.
Oh, thank you, let's con.
You're right.
You're right.
Now that I think about it, suicide is sad.
Thank you for pointing that out.
You're a great person.
You just proved it.
No one doubts out now.
You're a stu-t empathetic observation
made that clear to everyone.
Man, if you wouldn't have jumped into this threat,
we would all just be left thinking
that suicide is inherently hilarious.
Let's come across to me like a wooden dialogue
from some kind of shitty 80s after school special.
It's too bad that kids don't watch those now.
I watched so many of those when I was a kid,
these really shitty after school specials,
where there was just the whole movie was based on
some, you know, painfully obvious moral message.
They felt kids needed to hear.
Like for this one, I feel like it would be like two, two twelve year olds, you know, playing basketball on some playground.
You know what's funny?
A cat chasing a laser pointer?
No! Suicide is funny!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Are you sure? Yep, that's what the internet says. Suicide is not funny.
It is in fact sad.
And then the two twivers,
like also get frowns in their face,
like they get sheepish,
they're stop, they stop laughing.
Sorry, Lescon.
We didn't know.
No one had told us that.
And then Lescon kind of starts to smile.
Well, now you do.
And knowing is half the battle.
And then both 12 rules. Wait a minute. You stole that line from GI Joe. starts to smile, well now you do, and knowing is half the battle.
And then both 12 years, wait a minute,
you stole that line from GI Joe.
And then let's kind of just, I know,
but at least I didn't joke about suicide.
And then all of them, ha ha ha ha ha.
Yeah, we fucking get it.
Let's calm, we do know.
We just choose to not let darkness and sadness
drag us down into a never ending tear parade.
Right, blah.
Right, blah.
I hope some of you at least listening
have seen those specials to understand
why I made the act that I did.
Right, blah, blah.
Let's con, one of the many, many religious sellets
of YouTube revealed themselves.
User Splatter EU posts, people who make jokes
about things like this and then all caps,
will go to hell
Thanks for letting us know exactly what God's up to splatter you appreciate it
And sure if God's up there. I'm sure God just fucking loves you spread in his word
Thanks for speaking for God
Have you made a suicide joke? Congratulations. He then you are for sure going to hell. Hope you like being burned alive forever, amen
are for sure going to hell. Hope you like being burned alive forever, amen.
User William Burke is for sure going to hell. Pack plenty of shorts and tank tops and your afterlife suitcase, Billy Burke is you're gonna roast. Billy Burke posted his wife told him
before the conference, give him a piece of your mind, bud, but don't go shoot in your mouth.
told him before the conference, give him a piece of your mind, bud, but don't go shoot your mouth off.
Now, again, sorry, maybe I made me laugh.
And you guys know that I've donated money to National Suicide Prevention Center.
We have as our organization here.
I know suicide is tragic.
The world is tragic.
As far as dark humor goes, you know, not bad Billy Burke, fucked up, but it did get me
laughed at Arctis.
As my editor Jesse Doughner pointed pointed out that was a total dad joke
But I did I did like it
User tofer Wayne also made me laugh posting get that man a band-aid
Now the absurdity there
Just cracks me up like because he was fucking way past the band-aid
It's just that's like a cartoon thing that I just picture like somebody running over with a band-aid
Patching up his head and then he's all of a sudden. He's like snaps out of it. Oh shit man, glad you were here
Incredibly, I just like the absurdity credibly user
User Ali Austin does not understand tofer's absurd humor and actually asked tofer Wayne. How will that help? Oh
Ali
You still get it user max power goes real dark posting
Not my proudest fap.
Oh Jesus Christ.
Now if you didn't get that joke,
don't think about it.
Oh God, anybody who's fapping it to that video,
he got some real issues.
My God, dark. User.
User, um, SSS Randy goes full cat and obvious posting,
being there in person would be a traumatic experience.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah, you fucking think why would you ever need to post that?
It's like, like watching a video of like a, like,
concentration camp and just posting like, this doesn't look fun. Yeah, fucking no. It's like watching a video of like a concentration camp and just posting like,
this doesn't look fun. Yeah, fucking no. It's not you dumb shit. We all know that.
User, Roxu Ranger King, post the best thing I've seen on YouTube in quite a while.
Not an idiot statement. He writes, I thought this was very so interesting. He writes, this video of a guy's face, gushing blood, has been on YouTube for five years.
But if there was a single female nipple visible, it would have been removed by now.
Makes sense.
God, no shit, Ranger King.
How ludicrous is that about our culture?
Video of a married father of two.
So worried about his future.
So desperate that he shoots himself in the head that he kills himself in front of a bunch
of people. Blood gushing out of his face. That's okay for you to put a small warning on it
that anybody can click. That's fine. But a woman's exposed breast. Get those filthy titties
out of here. Get your disgusting, sinful, filthy titties out of here!
Or I guess more accurately, uh, filthy nipples. Get your fipples out of here!
Get those fucking fipples out! Get those little circles of Satan out of here!
Get those little circles that literally allow each new generation of human to live long enough
to make it to solid food for almost the entirety of human history.
Get those life-giving milk dispenters away from our kids.
They might accidentally get a boner.
How dare they?
How dare they experience natural sexual inclinations?
Gross.
Shame.
Be gone, Lucifina.
Uh-uh.
Get away from those titties.
Get those kids some death.
Get them some death.
Get them some death and sadness.
Let them see a man die before their eyes.
What the fuck is wrong with us?
What the fuck is wrong with our culture's weird, shameful, you know, look at sexuality.
It's so fucking stupid.
Ah, if you're that worried, it makes no sense.
It makes no sense. It makes no sense.
Ah, we are not good at making logical decisions
as a species, not good.
Okay, Francisco Cisneros leads us out of this segment today,
posting, okay, all right, enough internet for today.
Good night, agreeded. Francisco. Agreed.
It is. I'll be into that.
Okay. Okay. All right. We're back into this scandal. Back into this crooked trial. All right.
For Bud Dwight, Republican chairman of the State Party Committee, Bob Asher, also on trial
with Bud due to being accused of taking a big bribe, is found guilty.
And he is given a five year sentence for his involvement.
Asher actually would just be sentenced to one day, one day in jail.
That's not time he's spent there.
A day in jail and be given a fine.
So I guess they were going after like a maximum of five years, is I read that wrong.
Maximum five years, he actually gets sentenced to one day in jail for doing supposedly the exact
same thing, like exactly the Bud Dwyer did.
And then his political career continues without too many problems.
Again, accused of the exact same thing.
To a Quattro also found guilty in exchange for his plea and cooperation in the investigation
and prosecution of the contract case, i.e. throwing bud to wire under the fucking bus.
Jimmy West asked the judge to drop 15 other charges against him.
The question is granted and then to her quatto, he faced a maximum of five years in prison.
He would serve less than two. Maximum of five and a fine of $10,000.
By district judge malcom where
uh... who would later say that like just publicly state that he would that he wanted
to go after the max penalty
for the wire the same judge
billed wire gets three and a half years in prison gets disbarred for broker in the
deal
think about that and the guy who allegedly offers the bribe
the guy who brokers is alleged bribe
and the other guy who allegedly accepted bribe none of those guys
uh... given more than few years in prison, you know, fucking crap.
And then there's our Bud Dwyer, the man who just wouldn't let governor Dickey take,
governor Grande, get reimbursed for fleecing the taxpayer.
What does he get?
Well, on December 18, 1986, Dwyer is convicted on his charges.
He continues to claim he's innocent.
As do his family and close friends, reaching the end of his rope, he writes, then president Ronald Reagan pleading for a presidential pardon to get
him out of this mess, but knew he would be punished disproportionately.
He knew he had made enemies.
And this was their time for payback.
And he was right.
While Dwyer was killing himself, prosecuting attorney Jim West's secretary was writing
a letter to judge more asking for the maximum penalty.
Fifty-five years in prison is what they wanted to give this guy.
55 years, no one else gets,
was gonna serve more than two,
and a fine of $300,000.
That's what they want for a bud.
How, how is that fair?
When you think about the other sense
that's handed out in the same fucking trial.
Also, they're gonna go out of their way
to take his pension away, all of it.
Going back to his teaching days,
before he got, all right, leaving his family with nothing.
All of that was gonna happen based on the words
of a known criminal and that dude, Shady Lawyer,
who admitted to lying about bud taking the bribe later.
And a guy who's in prison today,
as well as I'll let you know later,
a guy who's a found guilty of numerous other super shady shit.
Can you imagine how you'd feel if you're bud?
Imagine man, to know, you would essentially just been,
not essentially, that you had been completely framed.
To know that the political machinery,
you had devoted nearly your entire adult life to,
to making, you know, the country better,
the state better is now going to crush you
into fucking oblivion.
It's gonna take away your freedoms,
gonna take away your wife's retirement,
it's gonna take away your kids' inheritance.
You know, your kids' college funds, it's gonna associate your name forever in
that state with scandal, a state you serve for your entire adult life. You work so hard
to keep your name clean. And now you have one last chance to proclaim your innocence
to the world. One last chance to make a public statement as a public official. What do you
do? New friend of the show, well, this new friend would like to share his thoughts on the
matter with you. Got a little unexpected visit today.
Alright guys, welcome in, who just flew in here from Houston.
Bob Bob, play a world, Bob Bob.
Lemon Croned tube that the eagle don't always put it in the top of no tree, some time I'm
a little bit bothered, you feel it, not only good as a man who ride it, you dig, even
perfect loud fly, when a man got a lead down real well, doesn't know a lot of your talent,
does they know Disneyland, even making miles to get snails told from town to town, even even put a lot of flaw when a man got a leg down real well doesn't know a lot of your talent, doesn't know a Disneyland
even making miles gets snatched off from time to time
even goofy gets rocked off, buzz on em with chest
you got coming, you can't laugh, let boy
you got coming, you can, no no guarantee, for the next day
no day after that
bop bop, lick that biscuit, don't lose that sticky
you feel bop bop
oh shit
I was chicken Joe speak for unfortunately even in a democratic society with a pretty solid
and fair set of loss, human beings have to administer those laws.
And since we meet sacks are inherently imperfect and emotional, there will always be a certain
amount of injustice in the world.
So enjoy life to the fullest whenever you can, because someday you yourself might also
get unjustly railroaded by a corrupt system.
I'm not sure how that adds to today's discussion, but I do appreciate chicken Joe
stop and buy and share in his perspective. January 21st, 1987, two days before his
scheduled sentencing, Dwyer calls his team in and sets a press conference for the following day.
Despite his conviction, he was still the state treasurer,
and many people thought he was setting up this press conference
so he could publicly resign the day before sentencing.
He took his family out for dinner,
their favorite restaurant, the Conteis,
a decline dessert that night, told the waitress,
he was watching his figure.
Everything seemed normal, his family knew he was incredibly stressed
out about the upcoming sentencing they all were,
but no one thought he seemed suicidal.
He thought he was taking actually all of it pretty well.
The following morning there's a snowstorm in Harrisburg and school is canceled.
Bud's wife and daughter stay home.
His son has to go to his university for one test.
Dwyer goes ahead to work so that he can get to his press conference.
Kisses his wife and daughter goodbye.
The documentary is dotter states that she had written them a card with a poem telling
him how proud she was of him, how much she loved him, and she didn't give him the card
as she planned because it wasn't signed yet, and she was planning on giving it to him when
he came home that night.
That's terribly sad.
Big tear jerker portion of the documentary there.
Told his son to come right home after his son's test, and then he set out for the office.
Man, just with what he knew he was going to do, he had the suicide notes all written
out.
Oh my God, just the strength
to not just let anybody in on it,
to not wanna make anybody sad.
Whew, the office business is usual for bud.
Tells his friend and colleague Vince
not to attend the press conference.
No good will come from it.
All of the state's major newspapers and news channels
are gonna be there, appearing in hopes
of getting that first insight look into his resignation.
Dwyer begins the press conference by declaring his innocence and quoting a bunch of stuff
about the criminal justice system from a pre-written, prepared, texty written.
He spoke out against the death penalty, expressed great concern, regret for voting in favor
of it as a member of the Republican Pennsylvania Assembly for a full half an hour he protested
that he was innocent and he criticized some people who had been connected.
I understand man, actually that death penalty
is saying in his situation where it's like
if he's now been convicted wrongly,
he's gotta be thinking like, oh shit.
I sent other people who may have been convicted
wrongly to their death.
For a full half an hour he protested, he was innocent.
He criticized some people who had been connected
with his conviction, including some news organizations
and reporters who were present.
Moments before killing himself, treasurer Dwyer, implicated governor Thornberg
and the state's first elected attorney general, Lee Roy Zimmerman in a long-running bribery
conspiracy and in the cover-up of this bribery conspiracy.
Now that would be looked into after his death.
Nothing would be found from the investigation.
However, Governor Thornberg would get caught in some, you know, some corruption shortly
after this himself.
So I don't know.
Just again, there's no legal process, there's a conjecture in my part.
It feels to me like the dude was corrupt.
Republican treasurer Dwyer also accused fellow politicians of politically manipulating
his criminal case.
As he reached the final page of his speech, he spoke these words.
He said, I think the good Lord giving me 47 years of exciting challenges, stimulating experiences,
many happy occasions, and most of all, to find us, wife, and children any man could ever desire.
How he didn't break down in tears right there. I don't even understand. Now my life has changed
for no apparent reason. People who call and write are exasperated and feel helpless. They know
I'm innocent and want to help. But in this nation, the world's greatest democracy. Remember that whole thing about him teaching a, you know,
democracy class all those years ago? There is nothing that they can do to prevent me from being
punished for a crime. They know I did not commit. Some who have called have said that I am a modern day
joke. For those who don't know, that's a, you know, biblical reference to a guy, uh, character who was who was punished greatly in his life here on earth,
uh, on, you know, seemingly unfairly.
Judge Moore is noted for his medieval sentences, I face a maximum sense of 55 years in prison
and a $300,000 fine for being innocent.
Judge Moore has already told the press that he quote, felt invigorated when we were found guilty,
and that he plans to imprison me for a long time as a
deterrent to other public officials. But it wouldn't be a deterrent because every public official
who knows me knows that I am innocent. It wouldn't be a legitimate punishment because I've done
nothing wrong. Since I'm a victim of political persecution, my prison would simply be an American
gulac. Wow, yeah, he's got to be thinking about those old days and polling right there too.
I asked those that believe in me to continue to extend friendship and prayer to my family to work untiringly for the creation of a true justice system here in the United States,
and to press on with the efforts to vindicate me so that my family and their future families
are not tainted by this injustice that has been perpetrated on me. We were confident that right
and truth would prevail, and I would be acquitted. And we would devote the rest of our lives working to create a
justice system here in the United States. The guilty verdict has strengthened
that resolve. But as we've discussed our plans to expose the words of our
legal system, people have said, why bother? No one cares. You'll look foolish.
60 minutes, 2020, the ACLU, Jack Anderson and others have been publicizing
cases like yours for years. and it doesn't bother anyone
At that point, you quit reading
Perhaps why I just couldn't bring himself to read the final paragraph he'd written he refused to continue reading what he did write
You know he held that day and wasn't able to finish
reads as follows says I've repeatedly said that I'm not going to resign as state treasurer
After many hours of thought and meditation, I've made a decision that should not be an
example to anyone because it is unique to my situation.
I find this very interesting.
He says, I've made a decision that should not be, should not be an example to anyone because
it is unique to my situation.
Last May I told you that after the trial, I would give you the story of the decade.
To those of you who are shallow, the events of this morning will be that story.
But to those of you with depth and concern, the real story will be what I hope and pray results from
this morning. In the coming months and years, the development of a true justice system here in the
United States, I am going to die in office in an effort to see if the shameful facts spread
out in all their shame will not burn through our civic
shamelessness and set fire to American pride. Please tell my story on every radio and television
station and every newspaper and magazine in the United States. Please leave immediately if you
have a weak stomach or mind since I don't want to cause physical or mental distress. Joanne,
want to cause physical or mental distress. Joanne, Rob, D-D, I love you.
Thank you for making my life so happy.
Goodbye to you all on the count of three.
Please make sure that the sacrifice of my life is not in vain.
Woo, man.
Whew, instead of reading his final up prepared words, he called three members of a staff to
appear on the stage, given each the envelope. The first envelope contain a suicide note address to his wife the
second contain an organ donor card. He's thinking thinking of people still his eyes by the way would be
donated. Uh, there's that the third envelope contained letter addressed to new Pennsylvania
governor Bob Casey who had taken office two days prior to this press conference. Do I then produce
his own envelope that manila manila one with a Smith and Wesson, 357 revolver inside. He spoke to the gathered crowd,
brought the gun to everyone's attention, right? Please, please leave the room if this
will affect you. Despite the please shouted at him. He continues, he refuses to put the
gun down, advises everyone to stay back, says this will hurt someone. And then as the
few brave men around him continue to attempt to make him reconsidered wire turns the gun shot or excuse me the gun towards himself
He opens his mouth and inserts the gun. He pulls the trigger the bullet goes through his head killing him instantly and then he collapses to the floor.
And the finality of Bud's decision in that moment takes us out of today's time suck timeline.
Good job soldier.'ve made it back.
Barely.
Man, sad story today.
Sad that there's a good chance that the corruption of others is what got Bud Dwight convicted
of corruption himself.
Uh, tragic, he felt like he couldn't fight his way out of the situation he was in.
Man, early in the episode, at the beginning, I said that the Bud Dwyer's actions, that
press conference, could be viewed as brave and courageous. Here's some additional information
that leads to why I say that, right? This is why I say that. Dwyer knew that they wanted
to make an example of him. He was right. He knew that the governor, the court, others
wanted to take his pension also away from him, and he was right about that they did.
And he also knew that if he still died, or excuse me, if he died while he was still in
office, that they couldn't take away all of his money.
Right?
Since Dwyer died in office, his widow, Joanne, was able to collect full survivor benefits,
benefits that would, you know, only kick into effect if he died while being the treasure,
the total over 1.2 or 1.28 million dollars
So 1 million 280 thousand dollars a lot more than the 300 thousand dollars. He supposedly gained from bribes
But you know supposedly thought about accepting from bribes
Many believe that that part of why bud did what he did was was exactly this was a you know to provide some money for his family because
The family's
finances had been ruined by legal defense cost they had nothing their in debt. And they're
going to take away all of his pension. She is not she was the homemaker not the breadwinner.
So his family like he knows his family is fucked. He knows his kids are not going to build
a Ford college. His wife will never be able to retire, how she even going to pay her way through life, his family will be in ruins.
He does see this as the best option.
And again, I am not an advocate of suicide, but this is like he said earlier in his speech,
a very unique situation.
And I don't know that what he did wasn't brave and heroic, considering that.
Okay. did wasn't brave and heroic, you know, considering that. Okay, so yeah, just hard for me, not to see some heroism in his actions that day.
So now that we know how things worked out for our Bud Dwyer, how did things work out for
everyone else in the story?
Well, his widow Joanne passed away in Tempe, Arizona, July 12, 2009 at the age of 70.
She would move to Arizona shortly after Bud's death in 1988, cannot blame her.
She battled cancer in her mouth and threw it last year's of her life and also battled
alcoholism after his death.
Her son Rob said she was never the same, never recovered after his death.
She did open a bookstore in Tempe, Arizona called Acceptance Books, books that focused on
like recovery, addiction recovery.
So she did some good in the world herself before she passed.
D.D. tried to resume going to college in Pennsylvania, not long after her father's death, but
it couldn't remain focused. God, I get that as much as I can. And then, you know, she also
left Pennsylvania, moved Arizona to be with her mother. She still lives there. She's
married, has 19 year old son. Rob followed his mother to Arizona. He's married, has a 26
and a two year old, and works as a real estate agent in Phoenix.
Neither Rob nor D.D. or their mother, Joanne,
held in the lasting anger towards
but over what he did.
They talked about how he left them three beautiful letters,
asking them to do their best in the world
to make the world a better place,
to not let his death bring them down as well.
His daughter got all choked up,
it's so sad she said that her dad asked her,
you know, he said, at least like unlike your brother, you'll be able to take somebody else's name
and not carry the shame of the Dwyer name. And it just made her so sad that like her dad
died thinking that his name was going to bring the family shame. Rob would later claim that
he asked his father and one of their last conversations, look, did you do anything wrong? Did
you take the money because it doesn't matter to me? I just want to know. And he said his father
said, I absolutely did nothing wrong. Rob has never regained
his faith in the justice system. Speaking in a 2017 interview, he said that he's a registered
Republican identifying his fiscally conservative and socially moderate, but is not a fan of
the court system. And he just says, I really question whenever you see a news report and
whenever you see that someone has been indicted. try to dumb down juries to try to make it easier to win their argument
It is a flawed system
My dad used to say we don't have a justice system. We just have a legal system
It is just a system where legal things are just processed
Regardless of intent or outcome and people do it to further their careers
You know, I also do where I gotta say when I really think about the jury system
I've done that joke about wanting to get, you know, avoiding getting stuck in a jury.
And I think I've talked about on the show here before, but I did get stuck.
I know I have actually, uh, just for one day on a jury here in Corlein.
And I don't know how else to say this, but the other members of that jury were just fucking
morons.
Like it terrified me.
Like they really were like, what like what and like they had good jobs
are out there but I'm talking like critical thinking it was a case where the person was
blatantly guilty blatantly guilty of drunk driving like literally driving the wrong way
on the freeway not easy to do for an extended period of time. Swirving way off of the freeway
going down the ditch rolling rolling down the hill,
crawling out of the car,
beer scattered everywhere,
the police make it their hours later,
and he still is over the legal limit.
Like, he was fucking preposterously hammered drunk.
And there were some people in here, like, no,
and I just, just through talking to them,
this one person particular,
had a bad experience a few times with police.
And he would just start to shake
when I'm like, it doesn't fucking matter
what your experience was.
Like, I bully these people.
Openly, I'll admit that.
And to go with my logic,
because it infuriated me that they were being so fucking stupid.
And I'm like, dude, who gives a shit
how, what your experience was like?
Think about the facts of the fucking case.
That's all that matters.
And this guy would literally like shake. And as a grown man, look like he think about the facts of the fucking case, that's all that matters. And this guy would literally like shake
and as a grown man, look like he was about to fucking cry.
I wanted to fucking punch him out of his goddamn chair
and just rip his fucking beard off
to he didn't deserve it, to have one.
But like, I do understand what he's saying there
which is like, goddamn man, some people,
they just, it's, and I don't know how to not like
I'd say in this too, but a lot of the people that have time to be on a long jury, it's, and I don't know how to say I'm not gonna say this too, but a lot of the people
that have time to be on a long jury, it's like,
how fucking little is going on in your life?
You can hang out for four months.
Like you're not the kind of person I want to trust
with making an important decision.
Probably not in the upper fucking 5%
in the intelligence scale.
So, you know, this fucking, you know,
I will say this suck, I've always been pro-death penalty.
And I am pro-death, which is a weird thing to say,
I am very much pro-death.
I am pro-killing people who need to be off
of the fucking planet, who are predators.
However, only if we have a solid legal system
that can definitively find them guilty.
Ah, this one, this one, you know, this one caused my faith in the justice system to shake
for sure.
Um, but yeah, my, and then Rob says, my dad used to say that we don't have a justice system,
we have a legal system.
It is just a system where legal things are processed through regardless of intent or outcome
and people do it to further their careers.
It's interesting perspective.
Uh, while Rob believed his father's innocence from the start,
he doesn't agree with him taking his own life though.
And by the way, time-stuckers,
the National Suicide Prevention Line is,
as we've said before, 1-800-273-8255,
that's 1-800-273-8255,
that'll be in the episode description.
I hope you don't think I'm making a line of suicide.
I just, or that I'm in agreement that it's okay to kill yourself. I do find bud Dwyer's situation to be
fair, unique. Uh, uh, uh, another thing, uh, William Bill Smith, remember him. He's the attorney
who years later admitted to a line under oath to convict Dwyer. Well, after getting out of prison,
he served three and a half years for, uh, the, you know, his connection to the Dwyer's case,
or the Dwyer case, uh, Bill will return to prison just over 20 years later in 2012 when he admitted to setting fire to a guest house on his property
and to destroy evidence he was in bezzling that he was in bezzling, excuse me, from three elderly
clients he was supposed to be taken care of. And then while still in prison for our Senate
insurance fraud, he was then sentenced to additional time in 2004, excuse me, 2014, for conspiring to help
his son escape from prison in Peru.
The now 80 year old will almost certainly die in prison.
And his son, William Smith, Jr, sentenced to 35 years in prison in Peru in 2011 for murdering
his wife.
His son kills his wife, not the senior's wife, but his son kills his own wife.
This member, sir, puts her remains in a suitcase, throws in the ocean, and then a washers back up on the beach and he gets cat.
Tarkwado, that John Arck, Tarkwado Jr., the man who offered the bribe out of prison and back to
California less than two years, live in and beautiful, new port beach, California. Then he filed
bankruptcy and avoided paying the state of Pennsylvania, the fines he was supposed to pay,
an association with the CTA company. His current whereabouts, if he is still living or unknown from what I can find, and I imagine
he's probably just fucking living it up somewhere, probably swindling to someone else or living
off the money, he's swindled from others.
Prosecuting attorney Jim West ends up leaving the DA and becoming a defense attorney.
He still works in Harrisburg.
His practice listed it being at 105 North Front Street,. If you feel like higher name, I guess.
And what about the man who is more than happy to set Dwyer's trial and motion?
Former Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornberg, Dicky T governor, Grundle.
Well, he became the attorney general of the United States in 1988, serving under President
Ronald Reagan and then George H.W. Bush.
He resigned in 91 to run for the Senate.
For the U.S. Senate when his seat was left vacant, when a Pennsylvania Republican Senator
John Hines was killed in a plane crash.
And then in late 1991, while returning home from a short jog to the neighborhood, the then
59 year old was maltedats by both angles.
Yes, the hellhound of time suck.
First bit off governor, Grundel's balls.
Then pin the politician to the ground then
spit the governor's balls back into dicky tees open screaming mouth and then holding the
wannabe senator down with his one front paul bojangles screamed this is for blood wire
and they held a politician's mouth shut with that pop the ball is about to throw
in the church to death on his nuts and then when Dickie Grundle had passed, Bojangles looked to the sky, stood up on his hind legs
and screamed, hey, you'll never know.
And then he jumped into a space-time continuum wormhole and was sitting back by my side here
in the suck dungeon.
I feel good, but I didn't happen.
Now it really happened to, obviously, he, uh, he didn't win a Senator's race, he got
caught in a scandal himself.
There was a lot of speculation that he struck a deal the scandal didn't kick
you might as he he legitimately lost the race
then after the race was over uh... he got caught in a scandal there's a lot of
speculation that he struck a deal with other politicians to secure his senate
nomination
fellow pennsylvania politician house majority whip
william h gray
was a subject of an investigation to a ledge campaign finance irregularities
so much
Pennsylvania corruption.
There was an ongoing grand jury investigation into his church's financial dealings, and
it was reported that Gray would not run in this special election if in return Thornberg
would drop the investigation into him.
After a Senate law, Thornberg's campaign committee was then also sued in federal court by future
George W. Bush chief of staff, Carl Rove rove who won the case rove won the case against
Thorneberg and collected a hundred and thirty out a hundred and eighty thousand dollars
from the Thorneberg committee.
And then after serving a one-year appointment as under secretary general to United Nations
uh... for the United States in nineteen ninety three Thorneberg left politics behind returned
to practicing law.
Uh, he's still alive today at eighty six old, still consults as a lawyer, and I still believe
he is corrupt and vindictive as shit.
And now it is time for today's Top 5 takeaways.
Number one on January 22nd, 1987, Pennsylvania State Treasure, Robert Bud Dwyer shot himself
on live television.
Number two, I do not advocate for suicide in any way.
However, had Bud Dwyer not died in office, and he would have been kicked out of office
and taken to the prison the next day, the following day on the 23rd, his family would have
been left with nothing.
His literal sacrifice left him with over a million dollars making Bud Dwyer in my mind
a fucking hero, a tragic hero for sure, but sometimes a problem just does not have any
easy solutions and Bud found himself in the middle of a terrible.
What am I supposed to do now kind of problem?
Number three, Bud Dwyer was convicted on 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, interstate
transportation and the aid of racketeering.
Despite what people say on the web, these charges were not cleared after his death.
So I could be wrong.
Maybe he did take that bribe, but man, if he did, why would the man who testified
that he did this under oath, former attorney William Bill Smith,
why would he lie about it later when it benefited him absolutely zero?
Number four, if you are contemplating suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Hotline 1-800-273-8255.
And number five, new info.
I'm a big fan of the Industrial Metal Band filter.
And one of my favorite filter songs, song that came out back in 1995, I remember what
it came out, it was called Heyman Nice Shot.
And it's about the suicide of Bud Dwyer. For years, I thought it was about Kurt Cobain. Many
people thought it was about Kurt Cobain, another suck subject. Here's a sample of the lyrics,
you'd fight and you were right, but they were just too strong. They'd stick it in your face
and let you smell what they consider wrong.
That's why I say, hey man, nice shot. What a good shot man. Sounds like me and the lead
singer, the songwriter, a filter, share some similar views in this case.
Time, suck, tough, five takeaways.
Alright, suicide about Dwyer sucked.
Thanks to the Patreon space,
let's just revote that topic in.
I'll be honest, I was not happy about the vote initially.
I was not looking forward to this suck,
but then when I got into the story,
I found it fascinating.
Because at first I'm like,
well, there's no story.
I killed himself.
I'm like, okay, that happened sadly all the time,
but what's the story there?
But then I got into the story.
I found it fast-standing
as you can, as you already know now.
Good man, man, push into a corner.
Whew, makes the best choice.
He thinks that he can for his situation.
Wow.
And again, I don't have a case to aside,
but man, what, I've been rackin' myself
trying to think of like, well, what else could he've done?
You can say like, yeah, well, we could've argued it in court.
He could've, but his family has no money.
And when you've just been fucking railroaded,
that hard, do you really think there's gonna be any chance
or you're gonna be found innocent the next time?
Oh, I mean, you know, that could have continued
to fight that case, could have just ruined his family forever.
Man, rest in peace, our bud Dwyer,
I hope wherever you are, I hope life's better now.
I know I said in the past that suicide puts you
into Nimrod's butthole, but I do think Nimrod
makes exceptions.
I do believe in Nimrod's wisdom.
Hail Nimrod.
A big thanks to the time stock team,
the high priestess of the Suck Harmony Velocamp,
Jesse Guardian of Grammar Doberner,
Reverend Dr. Joe Paisley, time stock high priest, Alex Dugan,
the Biddle-Licks or team, danger
brain space lizards and merch wizards, Alexis, Alexis, Axis apparel, Axis apparel.
Queen of the Succumbossum, just pretty much everything.
Lindsey Cummins, big thanks to OG Bojangles research assistant Heather, knowledge ninja,
Rylinder for putting together a great outline for today's show.
Point me in the direction of that compelling documentary, Honest Man, the Life of our Bud Dwyer.
And by the way, I did pull from a lot of other sources.
If you're like, well, you just, you know,
you just took their opinion.
No, I looked into a lot of different things.
I just felt like they presented things the best way,
but I did fact check it as we always do.
Next week, we go cult again.
Woohoo!
Love sucking on some cults.
I mean, we are after all the cult and curious.
It's been a long time since we did a cult.
I mean, I know I'm doing one on the live show,
the Matamoros cult, for those who get to come
to the live time sucks, but we haven't done one
in the regular time-sake feed for what feels like a while.
Next week, we dive deep on the children of God cult.
The children of God originally called teens for Christ,
and then the children of God, and then the family love,
and then the family, and then the family and then now the family international
Not a good sign. We have to continually change your Colt name
Probably avoid in some legal situations
Avoiding a lot of stigma and they still exist still around David Berg who died in 1994 founded this Colt in 1968
David of course believed he was God's prophet naturally
These people always think God's talking through them. You know, I can't be wrong. I mean, sure, my mouth is moving, but God's voice is coming out.
So you can't argue with me. Now, it's stuck my dick. It seems like to be the angle these people
usually take. Then off to the wacky, doodle race as we go. By 1972, children of God had 130
different communities around the world. By 1976 six to then fifty seven year old burgl
encouraging female members to engage in what he called
flirty fishing
uh... well boy here we go
the a wants to do engage in what he called flirty fishing just go on some thirty fishing expeditions
uh... which was also quote showing god's love
through
sexual relationships with potential converts
yes seriously not creepy at all.
Hell of a way to entice new members.
I do, I gotta say, strong marketing program.
They got going there.
I imagine that was fairly effective.
Like if I was a young dude,
about some young single dude trying to decide,
having a spiritual crisis,
trying to pick between two churches,
which one I'm gonna spend my Sundays on, you know that?
One church is like, well, hey, man, if you come over we got some Saturday, pal, looks
You know you guys cast roles. Do you like cat? Do you like cream of mushrooms?
Do you like can corn?
Like burger. Yeah, we got cast roles and then some other churches like yeah, uh Linda and
Susan here are gonna blow you they're gonna blow you and then you can, and then Tracy, she'll do anything.
She'll do anything.
Tracy, she's nuts.
I'm gonna go with the blow job search.
I mean, hell is the fena.
That's how you cook out some church.
You wanna reach the younger generation?
You blow way better than a boring sermon.
But yeah, but one later researcher of the cult
would present finance between 1974 and 1987.
The practice of flirty fishing led to sexual contact with over 220,000 potential church members.
And then they did a bunch of other weird sex shit that we will get into next week.
Things get weirder from what I've already told you.
You're going to hear all about it.
If you tune into next week's suck.
And now it is time for time-sucker updates
Get your time sucker updates
First up time sucker DJ wrote into let us all know that time suck and LSD don't always mix well
I love this tail DJ says hey Dan just wanted to write in to let you know that you have put LSD don't always mix well. I love this tale. DJ says,
hey, Dan, just wanted to write in to let you know that you have put some real fear into
my head. I recently tripped acid for the second time of my life while on camping trip with
some friends. Well, it's a for starters, I'm jealous. I've been, I've been really thinking
about hallucinogens lately. It's probably not good. Unfortunately, we had some delicious
gut bus in Chile that had me running off in the dark by myself to the bathhouse.
After a while, exit the bathhouse and began my trek
back to camp, the acid had kicked in.
So by now of course, killers were watching me from the woods.
All I could think about was my bleached skull
being some aspiring, domer-like killers trophy.
I began to jog, finally making it back to camp safely.
I returned to the water where my friends were skinny dipping only to be faced with slender man.
Slender man like forms as the exited it reentered the water. That sounds terrible. I didn't mention
it to anyone so the fear wouldn't become even more real. It's funny now, but the fear
was real. I cursed your name at the time. I just love pictures. You've seen all these letters. Fucking
damn comments. Fuck damn comments. Anyway, I love the show. You make my boring work day,
funny and educational. I would recommend some merch. I go to Bonneroo Music Festival,
my home state of Tennessee. Oh, man, I'm going to go to Bonneroo. We usually fly a flag.
Do I identify our camp and see if tense I would love to be able to fly a time. So I
fly. That's a great idea. And so I could find home and maybe even find some fellow suckers,
long live botjangles.
Oh man, well thank you DJ, that's a great story, great suggestion.
I think we might get some time-side flags
in the before the years up.
I thought I saw that on the future merch docket.
So I can stay more focused on episode development,
Lindsey, Danger Brain, Access to Parallel.
They're kind of spearheading projects now.
I do have veto power, it's not like I'm hands off.
I do check everything out,
but I just don't have time to oversee
like kind of development,
and that's kind of more Lindsay's expertise anyway.
I like that though, I will mention it to her.
I like this idea, I like it.
Now we have a flat earth update from Time Sucker
and Space Liger in Rique Abierre,
or Abeta, probably Abéta.
And Rique writes, hailed the tempest loose to Fena.
I have a topic, a suggestion of Geronimo and the Apaches and I also have some flat earth
fuckery.
I think you and the other suckers and Space Luzard will get a kick out of you.
Man, Apaches, the whole Geronimo thing.
I think that's been on for a while, the list.
I know I've looked into it before.
Yes, I'm sure someday.
My friend's fiance works with a guy who's a flat author.
Apparently, this blithering naive dalt, nice.
I like that sense.
I like that little description.
Blithering naive dalt.
Ah, beautiful.
Mwah.
Actually, carries a half of a tennis ball with a string with him.
Ha ha ha ha. In case this subject should arise. Actually carries a half of a tennis ball with a string with him.
In case this subject should arise at my friend's party this Einstein, I wouldn't be surprised to be fucks his cousin pulled out that half ball
dangly from the string and proceeded to pour water on it.
Well, stating that if the earth were in fact round,
oceans would just drip off like the water on the tennis ball.
They just don't get gravity like they really don't get it at all.
They don't get a large mass attracting, you know,
like pulling in on itself.
Then the bigger the mass, the more powerful the pole,
like the denser of the mass kind of thing.
The only thing more infuriating than his ignorance
was his smugness, well oblivious to the fact
that everyone in the room was at a loss for words
because of how fucking stupid he is.
It's hilarious to me, but on the same token, I've never wanted to savagely beat
someone for being so well pleased to do it in my life. Savagely beat. I'm also a big fan
of that phrase. Anyway, I just wanted to share that story with you. Oh, King Spaces
or Cummins to you and my Federal Lizards, Hill Nimrod and keep on sucking sincerely the baby
eating space was earned in re-k. Thanks and re-k, man, I get it, man. I know what you're talking about, that smugness.
I will say, I met a very friendly
flat earther in Denver.
This past little, well, I guess it'll be
two weekends back now when you hear this.
Good reminder for me, at least the people
with terrible ideas like that can still be wonderful people.
I mean, holy shit is the flat earth belief done,
but I guess they can still be good people.
But I don't get about the flat earth, there's no motive.
And I know I said this before, but there's no motive.
There's no reason for the leadership of every country on earth to be in on this same conspiracy.
Like, even if there was a true one-world government, why would they fucking care what shape the earth is?
How does that matter for them controlling us? Right? Because that's always the part of the conspiracy that they can control us.
How does that affect control, the shape?
It's so dumb.
There's no motive for this conspiracy.
Next up, shout out request from Times Lucker Shelby Blackburn,
right, since I'm saying, hey, Master Sucker,
I know this may be a long shot,
but my boyfriend, Ian Jax, absolutely loves you.
Mmm, I love that.
Makes me love Ian.
He has turned so many people onto your podcast.
Yes.
And we actually saw you at Wise Guys last time,
you were in Salt Lake City.
Can you give him a shout out on an upcoming podcast?
No, I can't, I don't have time.
You would absolutely die if that happened.
Like I said, a total long shot,
but worth a shot to ask.
Thank you for your amazing work.
Well, I appreciate the message, I don't have time.
Let's get to the next message.
No, of course I have time.
Thank you Ian.
Just did it.
Appreciate you spreading the sweet suck.
Hope you and sweet Shelby have a wonderful week.
Now, Mara's shout out, first of all,
this is from, this is from, oh my gosh,
there's so many names on here,
and I didn't write down Mike,
and this is from Mike.
Mike or Max, one of the brothers,
who says, first off, I apologize for the aggressive subject line,
which I'm not gonna read, it's pretty aggressive,
but I liked it.
I really needed to get your attention.
I'm actually a huge fan of the show.
My brother who got me into time suck,
just got engaged today.
Thanks to him, me and my other brother
have been listening to your sucks in episode one.
Yes.
Him and his fiance are all about the suck.
He has multiple occasions talked about leaving her
for both jangles, both jangles.
Or chikotilo.
Well, you mad.
Well, it's called shim, cockles shim,
only take your husband.
We would be really fucking psyched
if you could make a shout out to Safran Kusnos.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Kusnetsov.
Kusnetsov, some kind of Russian bullshit.
Please butchered the last name.
He'll, oh, yeah.
I'm not trying to butchered the last name.
I just am.
I cannot, I don't know what kind of fucking
way too many constant name that is.
And his wife to be a leftina.
Kus, Kusnesov, Kusnesov.
I'll just say it fast.
So it makes it sound like I'm just saying it in the,
Kusnesov, Alex, Alfaltina Kusnesov.
Tell him his brother's Mike and Max are super excited for him.
And we don't care what he says.
We're singing karaoke, triple lamb,
and James Ingram at his wedding.
Yamal congratulations.
Congratulations, Safron.
Hope you and Alf Tina have a long happy life. Hope you change your name so like,
Bob or Jen, so I can say me,
you're in the future.
Keep on stockin'.
And guys, good luck with the rest of the info.
You mentioned your message.
Keep growing that commercial fishing business.
Love Alaska.
Thank you.
Okay, one more shout out.
Or actually, no, before we get to that, actually,
this is not a shout out to me.
This is for access.
Apparel.
Dear Suck Master,
wanted to let you know that I had a defect with my chicken teal jambag. The zipper pull came out. before we get to that, actually, this is not a shout out to me. This is for access.
Apparel.
Dear Suck Master, I wanted to let you know that I had a defect with my chicken teal
gym bag.
The zipper pull came off.
I contacted your merch vendor.
Let them know.
They were awesome.
Told me they're going to send me a new one.
After dealing with some of the shittiest customer service all week from Verizon, I wanted
to cry when K2 handles the returns.
Let me know they were going to take care of me.
It was awe inspiring.
Please, please, please have chicken show make a return.
Oh, yeah, you know, he did know.
It made me almost choke on my lunch here in that impression.
Sorry for the long message.
Hail Nimrod Dan Brown.
Well, thank you, Dan, and thank you, Kate.
Kate at accessapparelco.com.
That's who you email to get shit taken care of, and she will take care of everything.
We try to, you know, if there's a big problem, we try to give you extra stuff to make
up for it.
You know, that's a big problem. We try to give you extra stuff to make up for it.
You know, that's who you email.
If we haven't gotten back to one of your emails, email her again.
Email me if you don't hear back in a few days.
You know, email the Bojangles at TimesWork Podcast.com.
We're doing our best to give the best customers who can't because we want to make more people
like Dan happy.
Glad you're happy, Dan.
And now, now one last shout out.
And if you send in a shout out,
and it didn't make the show, please understand,
we get so many.
We do care about you, we hear about, we hear you.
But we get several hundred messes a week.
Ways too many to put them all in
or even close to all of them in.
It's never personal when yours doesn't make it.
And now let's get to Dustin, who says,
Hey man, please read.
I love what you're doing.
Time suck to minion, reckoning, education,
influence, and buck-buck play boi. Time suck to minion, reckoning, education, influencing, buck, buck, playboy, master, Michael, motherfucker,
McDonald, what, what, pop of air? Check it out, man, I messed you last year,
same time, mentioned my birthday, didn't request a birthday shout out.
This year I need one. I'm broke as shit, but I just want to shout out this year.
Too many birthdays, too little money. It's hard being the only one working in
a family for, I got a 24 month old girl named Mela six month old named Dallin
A three and a half month old wait, you have you wrote down a three hundred and twelve month old
So I'm gonna say what you meant was three and a half a three and a half year old name Ashley
Please give me a shout out love this podcast only the reason why I know what a podcast is hey
I'm proud of what you guys have accomplished.
I have a list of this episode seven.
Cool watching how y'all grow.
Told my wife I want to go to Spokane to see live.
Anyways, man, yes, a shout out for Dustin.
My birthday's on September 7th.
On the next episode would be the best.
Time, sucker forever, space,
that it assumes I can afford a Dustin Phil's
from nowhere, Oklahoma.
Well, happy Motherfucking birthday, Dustin.
Yeah, man, hope life moves in a great direction for you.
Your next trip around the song.
Yama happy birthday.
Whoa, happy birthday.
I didn't forget seeing you happy birthday.
I didn't forget to say, hey, you have a good birthday.
I don't know, that was improv.
So, so I'll give myself a C on that.
Last update, AXMAN update regarding surviving blunt trauma to the head.
Glad Stephen Morrison, time sucker still with us.
He writes in, hello, master sucker, Dan Cummins, your faithful space, Luzard Stephen.
Oh, a space Luzard.
MMMM.
Boner, full mast.
I want to start off by saying I really enjoyed
the drunkest fuck podcast, but I put it off,
put off listening to it for a while,
knowing that the ax man bashes in his victim's heads.
Kind of a touchy subject with me.
Only because on the 20th of July,
while smoking a cigarette outside of work,
I was approached by a guy asking for a cigarette.
It was 11.30 pm outside of a brewery for context.
I just smoked my last one, so I told him no,
and I didn't have another and turned the head back inside.
That's when I felt something hit me in the back of the head.
I'm not sure how many times he hit me,
for sure twice, but could have been more
based on the amount of wounds.
Multiple skull fractures.
Two ruptured eardrums, 20 staples in the back of my head.
Torn left ear had to have a chunk sewn back on,
bells palsy in the right side of my face,
which is temporary paralysis, never lost consciousness,
crawled my happy ass to the brewery side door,
put my hand on the door, and a customer leaving,
saw me crawling and put my hand on the door and called for help.
Long story short, I'm doing okay, healing fine,
police caught the guy, and found that the attack was random
and the weapon wasn't found.
All we know is that it was a blunt object.
Worst part about it is that there was no reason.
He didn't take my wallet or phone.
But thanks for keeping this company while I'm at stuck home for the foreseeable future.
Sorry for the long message.
Don't be sorry.
P.S. come back to Grand Rapids.
Michigan, we missed you.
Thanks for doing the Here Come The Spoons, motherfucker bit.
When you're here last time, one of my favorite, happy to see you live.
Next time you're in Grand Rapids, stop by the Mitten brewery for a free beer on me.
Heart.
Well, I will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Steven, man, I'm glad you're okay.
Jesus Christ.
I'm gonna be the Dr. Grins, November 15th through 17th.
We just haven't put it on the calendar yet because they haven't put the tickets up for
sale yet.
We're bugging them.
We're bugging Dr. Grins at the Bobdo. To put those tickets for sale.
And yeah, doing that live time suck.
Get better, man.
Sorry that happened to you.
There's some real pieces shit out there.
That is crazy, man.
That they were that mad over you not giving them a smoke.
Fuck them.
Hope they get sentenced to a nice long stint
for that kind of nonsense.
Glad you with this, man.
Glad you with us.
Hail Nimrod.
See you soon.
Thanks to everybody for sending in your messages.
Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did.
Thanks for listening to another Suck Time Sockers. Have a great week. Space Lizards.
Do your best not to get caught up in a political scandal.
Last scandal. More sucking. Always more sucking.
Keep up sucking!