WEBVTT - [FIXED] A Star-Spangled Murder 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.639 Lafayette Square in Washington, d C. Is an elegant public 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.200 park located across the street from the White House. It 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.520 has big, beautiful trees and several large statues. It's popular 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:24.200 with tourists and protesters, who often gather on the park 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.319 south edge, the one nearest the White House. This was 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.319 a quite different scene back in eighteen hundred. The park 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:33.559 was used as the staging ground for the construction of 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.760 the White House. They called it President's Park, and at 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.680 various times it was a zoo, a graveyard, a race track, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:46.920 a slave market, even an encampment for soldiers. And on 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.400 one sunny winter day in eighteen fifty nine, Lafayette Park 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.519 was the site of one of the most significant murders 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.120 in American history. A sitting US congressman walks up to 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.320 a U S attorney in broad daylight. He fires several 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.360 shots at blank range. The prosecution later argued that the 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.680 shocking murder turned the idyllic square into a carnival of blood. 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.280 I mean literally, if it was an episode of House 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.800 of Guards, you wouldn't believe it, right, but it really happened, 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.400 you know, There's really nothing like it in American political history. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.080 The author of the Star Spangled Banner, the nation's national anthem, 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.600 was a lawyer and amateur poet named Francis scott Key. 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:32.839 We all learned in school that he penned the poem 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.920 after he watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.039 the War of eighteen twelve. He saw the American flag 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.880 still flying over the fort at dawned the next morning. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.240 Francis scott Key's son was Barton Key, and he was 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.840 the attorney shot dead in Lafayette Square. His killer was 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.840 a crazed congressman from New York named Daniel Sickles. Sickles 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.160 lawyers employed a bold legal defense strategy. They argued he 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.000 was not guilty by reason of temporary and samity. This 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.640 season of The Thread unravels the complicated history of the 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:27.480 insanity defense to recap our threads so far. Episode one 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:29.959 was the story of James Holmes, the young man who 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.840 opened fire on a Colorado movie theater. In Holmes has 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.640 pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Doctors diagnosed Homes 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.919 with a mental illness, but the jury decided he was 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.840 legally sane and therefore guilty of his crimes. That verdict 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.680 was in part the product of growing public skepticism about 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.440 the insanity defense, a skepticism fueled by the acquittal of 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.160 earlier defendants like Lorraino Bobbitt. From episode two. It was 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.600 a story about a woman who said that her husband 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.560 had been abusing her in terrible, horrific ways for a 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.359 year is and she did something horrible. Bobby admitted to 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.880 cutting off her husband's penis, but a jury found her 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.560 not guilty by reason of insanity. John Hinckley Jr. Tried 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.919 to kill the President of the United States in he 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.960 was acquitted on similar grounds, an outcome that shocked the 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:20.640 public and changed the law. And there were congressional hearings 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.960 about the insanity defense and then uh reconsiderations around the country. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.800 And that short of it was that in the half 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:33.040 decade after the Hinckley trial uh the insanity defense was 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.320 reformed in and thirty eight states. The American public and 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.480 the legal system were more open to insanity please prior 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.920 to Hinckley. One of the best examples of that was 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.480 the landmark trial of Harry kay Thaw, the Pittsburgh millionaire 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.560 who murdered the wealthy architect Stanford White in a fit 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.360 of rage back in nineteen o six, Harry Thaw's high 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.120 paid lawyers had a plan. They came up with the 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.200 term of a brainstorm, that Harry was suffering from a 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.720 temporary brainstorm. The temporary brainstorm defense worked in part because 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.040 of another case almost half a century earlier, the first 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.960 in America to invoke the temporary insanity defense, the case 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.320 of Congressman Dan Sickles and his horrific Act in Lafayette 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.480 Park in eighteen fifty nine. I've often referred to Dan 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.039 Sickles as kind of a combination of Donald Trump, Anthony Weener, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.719 and O. J. Simpson. James Hessler is a historian, a 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.599 battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park, and the author 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.119 of Sickles at Gettysburg. I use that analogy for many years, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.120 and people used to laugh. But now with the political 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.200 aspects of it, they kind of got uncomfortable with the 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.560 Trump comparison. But the idea was, you know, Dan Sickles 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:49.240 was a larger than life, brash New Yorker. Like Donald Trump, 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.279 Sickles came from a well heeled New York family. He 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.200 was born in eighteen nineteen in New York City, uh 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.240 to fairly prosperous parents, and I think it's kind of 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.880 an only cho old. He was spoiled, he was rebellious, 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.080 and you know, he never really grew up. The young 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.679 Sickles tried his hand at the printing trade, but eventually 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.919 settled on a career as a lawyer and then as 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.080 a politician. Sickles was elected to the New York State 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.600 Assembly in eighteen forty seven. At the age of thirty three, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.080 Sickles fell in love with a woman less than half 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:24.320 his age, a fifteen year old named Teresa Baggioli. Teresa 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.400 was young, but she was mature beyond her years, precocious, refined, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.080 she spoke five languages. They married and settled down in 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.360 New York. Sickles ran for Congress a few years later, 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.320 so in eighteen fifty six he's elected to Congress. Dan 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:44.080 and Teresa and their young daughter moved to uh to Washington, 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.600 d C. And they end up setting up household on 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.560 fashionable Lafayette Square, which was and still is immediately behind 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.560 the White House. It was in Washington the Dan and 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.719 Theresa met the handsome man who would change their lives forever. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:05.920 Francis Scott Key was nominated to be the U S 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.120 attorney for the District of Columbia, twenty years after he 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.320 wrote The Star Spangled Banner. His son, Philip barton Key, 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.800 also known as Barton Key, later served in that same position. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:20.000 Philip barton Key seems to have differed from his father 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:24.600 in a couple of ways, uh significantly. Philip barton Key 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.040 was a more of a shall we say, a ladies 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.600 man and less studious than his father was. By the 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.520 time Dan and Theresa Sickles arrived in Washington in eighteen 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.320 fifty seven, Barton Key was a thirty eight year old 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.120 widower with four children with a well established reputation. While 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.160 he was a district attorney in Washington, he seemed to 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.760 be quite a favorite on the Washington social circuit. Would 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.680 often attend parties again, a great favorite of all of 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.400 the single women in in society, and uh just considered 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.919 an all around player. Key was a tall lawyer with 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.560 a mustache. He looked like a sandy haired version of 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.440 the actor Kevin Klein. One prominent DC hostess described him 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.559 as the handsomest man in all of Washington society and 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.640 uh it was said that he once reportedly bragged that 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.160 he only needed thirty six hours with any woman to 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.120 get her to do whatever he wanted. So, you know, 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.920 I kind of think, is is the guys really a professional? 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.720 Rake the Dapper Key attended an inaugural ball for President 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.080 James Buchanan in eighteen fifty seven. That's where he met 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.320 the beautiful wife of New York's newest congressman. It was 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.160 the beginning of the end for Barton Key. You know, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.840 people off in portrait Ky as a victim, but yeah, 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.920 you know Key, you could kind of argue was a 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.240 little bit of a scumbag too, And I think, uh, 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.920 just sort of getting his his scoundrel le personality out 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.040 in the open um, you know, kind of helps people, uh, 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.520 you know, get a better understanding that this might be 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.560 one of those stories where there really are no good guys. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.320 Barton Key got to no Congressman Sickles first, and the 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.920 congressman helped him. Key was worried that President Buchanan would 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.120 appoint someone else to his position as DC's top prosecutor. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.160 Sickles and Keys seemed to have kind of gotten together 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.000 through some card games and social circles, and the two 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.480 men took a liking to each other. Sickles helped Key 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:29.280 retain his position as as district attorney. Teresa Sickles maintained 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.319 a very busy social calendar as the wife of a congressman. 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.880 She hosted weekly dinners for guests at their Lafayette Square home. 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.800 She was invited to countless social gatherings and parties, ones 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.320 that her husband often could not attend, And it was 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:51.560 not uncommon for eligible bachelor's to somewhat platonically escort married women, 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.800 you know, wives of friends and that sort of thing, 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.280 to these parties. Perhaps no bachelor was more eligible than 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.319 Barton Key. So at some point, while Nickles is away, 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:06.280 he starts escorting Teresa to parties. Uh. It quickly seems 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:11.080 to develop into some romantic escapades between Key and Teresa. 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.600 The two of them, they're they're meeting at parties, They're 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.640 often seen leaving together. Uh. And more and more people 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.880 start to say these two around Washington, d C. At 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.800 all hours of the day in the night. The Torrent 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.360 affair raged throughout eighteen fifty eight in rented apartments, on 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:34.160 parlor sofas, even in secluded portions of the old Congressional Cemetery. 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.719 After one fancy costume ball, Teresa dressed his little red 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.400 riding Hood was seen entering a carriage at two am 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.200 with Key clad as an English huntsman. Their coach driver 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.400 was instructed to drive around Washington. As the affair continued, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.280 the two levers started to get reckless. Key decides he's 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.960 going to rent a house a few blocks away from 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.680 Laffiette Square, and this is where Key and Teresa's start 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:04.080 having rendezvous in this, in this rented sort of love shack, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.440 he usually turned up first at the love nest. He 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.599 placed a white ribbon or towel in the shutters of 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.520 the upstairs window as a signal to Teresa, who could 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.960 see the window from her own across the square. Teresa 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.559 arrived and entered at the back door. People started to notice. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:25.000 On the evening of February eighteen fifty nine, it all 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.280 comes crashing down on Key. After dinner that night, Sickles 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.880 retires to his study and he opens up the evening mail, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.720 and one of the things he's received in the mail 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:42.400 is an anonymous letter, Dear sir. The letter began with 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.240 deep regret, I enclose your address a few lines, but 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.960 an indispensable duty compels me so to do, seeing that 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.760 you are greatly imposed upon. It's pretty graphics stuff for 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.400 the eighteen fifties. Um. It talks about how you know 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.680 your wife and key, who is no gentleman. You know 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.520 that two of them have been spotted going into this 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:10.160 rented house, and uh, you know, Mr Sickles, I assure 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.199 you that he has more use of your wife than 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.800 you have. Those are tough words for any husband to read, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.000 even one with a mild manner in a gentle disposition. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.280 Dan Sickles had neither, but he was an experienced lawyer. 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.080 Sickles probe into his wife, Theresa's affair with Barton Key 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.760 was both prompt and thorough. Sickles spends the next day 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.079 or so kind of investigating, sends some friends around to 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.040 the neighborhood where the love shack is, and pretty much 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:44.600 confirms that, yes, you know, the rumors are true. Sickles 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.880 confronted Teresa about the affair. He even extracted a written 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.760 confession from her on the spot. She pretty much spells 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.480 it all out. You know, she says, I did what 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.080 is normal for a wicked woman to do. But of 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.280 course her lover, Barton Key, had no idea that the 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.280 game was up, and as it turned out, Keith's fate 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.640 like his poet father's fame, hinged on a cloth, waving 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:13.560 in the breeze. Up next, How an American Congressman Got 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:30.360 Away with Murder. Don't miss the CBS All Access original 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.360 series that will make you ask yourself, what dimension are you? 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.760 Even in stream The Twilight Zone. Hosted and narrated by 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.880 Academy Award winner Jordan Peel and a role made famous 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.960 by the classic show's creator Rod Serling, The mind bending 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.520 reimagining will take you through the genres of sci fi, horror, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:52.280 and fantasy to explore humanities, hopes, fears, prides, and prejudices 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.400 in ways you've never thought possible until now. Not only 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.280 does The Twilight Zone offer a new take on a 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.120 television classic, it also features an all star cast including 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:07.040 Seth Rogan, Adam Scott, John cho Greg Kneer, Alison Toleman, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.040 Jacob Tremblay and Moore into a new dimension not only 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.240 of sight and sound, but of mind. The Twilight Zone 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.520 is now streaming exclusively on CBS all Access, new episodes 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.880 every Thursday. Cross over into another dimension. Visit CBS dot 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.400 com slash thread t z to redeem your free trial 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.400 today that CBS dot com slash thread t z to 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:35.800 redeem your free trial of CBS All Access. Dan Sickles 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.280 was tough, but he could get quite emotional at times. Once, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.520 when a friend of his passed away, Sickles wept uncontrollably 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.440 at the funeral. One witness said that the future congressman 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.160 raved tore up and down the graveyard, shrieking his grief 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.559 so aggravating that the other mourners worried his mind would 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.480 entirely give way. Sickles ten minute outburst led to his 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.640 removal from the cemetery. One of Sickles's friends put it, 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.880 mild lee. Dan was subject to very sudden emotions. Sickles 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.000 was inconsolable after Theresa confessed her affair with Barton Key 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:13.719 James Hessler again. People who see him over that one 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.360 to two day period just say that Sickles looks like 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.360 a wild man. One person said, you know, I saw 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.800 him on the streets and he looked like he was 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.720 gonna kill every man, woman and child that he came across. 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.040 Another friends said, you know that he saw Sickles in 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.440 the you know, in one of the offices in Congress, 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.400 and Sickles emotionally flung himself onto his sofa and you know, 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.480 buried his head in the pillow and and started crying. 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.280 That weekend, Sickles retreated to the sanctuary of his home 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:50.400 on Lafayette Square. Sunday, February seven is a beautiful spring day. Uh, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.200 temperatures are about fifty four degrees, you know, the kind 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.240 of spring day that uh, you know, you see in 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:01.920 Washington sometimes, and Sickles is still very emotionally distraught. Again. 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.120 The household servants would later say that they could, you know, 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:09.920 they could hear him crying, groaning, moaning, you know, just 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.720 as sobs are kind of carrying throughout the house. Some 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.720 of Sickle's closest friends came by the house to console him. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:18.800 One of them was an old New York friend named 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.320 Sam Butterworth. Sickles ranted to his friend, I am a 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.720 dishonored and ruined man. He was worried that once word 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.840 of the affair got around town, his reputation and his 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.600 political career would be destroyed. Finally, at some point, Sickles 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.520 looks out the window, sees Key out there, and Sickles 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.960 kind of just exclaims, you know, my god, that villain, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.560 that bastard has just past my house. Uh, this is horrible. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.040 The whole town is going to know about this. You know, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.160 I'm gonna be disgraced. I'm going to be humiliated. Barton 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.680 Key started that Sunday morning with a shave and a 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.600 hair trim and a d C barbershop. He then walked 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:58.600 up Pennsylvania Avenue towards Lafayette Square. Key too received an 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.120 anonymous letter arning him that Dan Sickles knew about the affair. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.840 It didn't keep him from Lafayette Square. The anxious DC 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.320 attorney proud the park for two hours, hoping to catch 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.960 a glimpse of his beloved or a signal from her 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.239 that she could meet him. While Walt Sickles and Butterworth 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.560 are you know, thinking about what they're gonna do. Key meanwhile, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.640 is strolling through Lafayette Park waiting for Teresa to come 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.200 out and play, and so he's kind of going. Key 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.760 is kind of going back and forth in front of 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:35.080 the Sickles house. Then the Sickles dog, an Italian greyhound 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.480 named Dandy, catches side of his favorite gentleman caller and 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.120 rushes into the square to greet him. Barton Key pulls 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.280 out a white handkerchief and whirls it at the dog. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.040 Maybe it's meant to be a signal to Teresa as well. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.040 Whatever the reason, keys waving white banner gave proof through 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.960 the afternoon that the adulterer was still there. You can 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.200 imagine the fireworks display that follows when Sickles sees the 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:02.120 handsomest man in Washington society outside his The enraged congressman 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.280 heads for the door, but before Sickles leaves the house, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.879 he throws on an overcoat and he puts a a 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:15.280 revolver into Derringer's in his code pocket and follows behind 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.800 Butterworth As they go into a offi at square, Sickles 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.720 charges towards key. He calls out a phrase that sounds 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.800 ripped from a theatrical drama. He says, your scoundrel, you've 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.000 dishonored my house and you must die. Uh. Sickles pulls 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.000 out one of his guns and the first shot only 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.840 graze his key, but he realizes that he's in trouble 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.160 at this point, shouts murder, tries to get the attention 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.440 of you know again, probably at least six or seven 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.080 people who are who are nearby and watching all of 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.240 this um and there's a struggle, and while they're struggling, 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.920 maybe puts Sickles in some kind of bear hug. But 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.679 Sickles breaks free from the bear hug and then pulls 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.720 out another gun. Key at this point again shouts, you know, 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.840 don't murder me. Then Key reaches into his pocket. Is 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.400 he gonna pull out a gun? No, all he's got 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.199 is a pair of opera glasses, So he throws the 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:08.280 opera glasses harmlessly at Sickles, all the time kind of 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.640 shouting you know, don't murder me, don't shoot, But Dan 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.919 Sickles shows no mercy for the man who has dishonored him. 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.000 Sickles gets off a second shot, uh, and this one 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.720 basically hits Key around the groin. He gasps, He staggers, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.439 you know, I'm shot, and he starts to starts to 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.199 slump down to the ground. Sickles puts the gun up 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:34.600 the key point blank, It misfires, puts it the keys 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.080 chest and basically fires point blank in the keys chest 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:46.000 near his heart. That's the fatal shot. Sickle stands over 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.320 his wounded prey. The congressman mutters over and over, he 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.640 has violated my bed, He has violated my bed as 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.040 the blood runs out of the dying Barton Key. Obviously 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:01.639 immediately this is the talk of Washington. A young page 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.400 goes into the White House and says, the President of Buchanan, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.439 you know you're not gonna believe what happened. Sickles just 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.159 shock Key. Souvenir hunters cut pieces of wood from the 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.719 tree close to where Key fell in Lafayette Square. Artists 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.000 from the newspapers set up their easels to paint the 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.160 scene of the crime. Dan Sickles was placed in a cold, 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.159 damp cell in the city jail. He reportedly asked the 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.800 warden if there was a chance of getting better accommodations. 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.080 The warden replied, this is the best place you members 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.080 of Congress have afforded us. Meanwhile, news of the murder 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.560 continued to spread. Once that gets out, public opinion and 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:44.000 the newspapers are almost unanimously in sickles favor. Uh you know, 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.640 the idea is that, uh, you know, you just don't 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.719 do that in eighteen fifties society. I mean, you just 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.399 didn't sleep with another guy's wife and and expect to 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.639 get away with it. But the bigger question, of course, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.119 was could you kill your wife's lover and get away 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.520 with it. 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That's 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.040 light Stream dot com slash thread for an additional discount. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.000 L I G H T S T R E a 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.560 M dot com slash thread subject to credit approval rate 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.960 includes a zero point five percent auto pay discount. Terms 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.200 and conditions apply and offers her subject to change without notice. 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.000 Visit light stream dot com slash thread for more information. 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.720 Congressman Dan Sickles was charged with the murder of Barton Key. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:44.000 A trial was set for April eighteen fifty nine. There's 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.840 a lot of parallels between what happens to UH Sickles 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.400 in the eighteen fifties and you know O. J. Simpson 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.840 during our time, like the importance of a big time lawyer, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:59.080 ideally many big time lawyers. The first thing the Congressman 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:04.200 Sickles is he assembles a legal dream team. Um. Now, 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.800 the dream team today is best known for the presence 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:12.600 of future Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, but Stanton actually 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.359 was not the lead attorney for that. Sickles engaged a 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.720 brilliant lawyer from his hometown of New York, James T. Brady. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.480 Brady at one time had been the city's district attorney. 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:24.440 At age eight, he had been offered the position of 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:28.159 U S Attorney General. Brady was beyond proficient and almost 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.320 any area of the law. He had supposedly won fifty 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.840 one out of fifty two murder trials. So with with 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.879 Brady and the lead and then Edwin Stanton Uh and 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.080 some other New York attorneys, Sickles comes into court. Uh, 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.159 you know, ready for action. Sickle's all star group of 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:47.840 lawyers knew that their client was in great legal peril. 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:52.000 Sickles shot an unarmed man multiple times in broad daylight 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.800 in front of dozens of bystanders. He ignored his victims 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.960 repeated pleas for mercy. The congressman would hang unless sickle 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.479 legal team could come up with a stellar defense. Sickles 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.520 lead attorney, James Brady, was fascinated by issues of insanity 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.960 and invoked the defense at permanent insanity and other trials. 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:15.400 But no lawyer in America, including Brady, had ever attempted 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:20.040 a plea of temporary insanity. The much anticipated trial was 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:22.879 held at City Hall, where Barton Key had worked just 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.680 a few months before. The courtroom was packed. The accused 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:30.280 Congressman Dan Sickles was placed in the dock, a cage 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:33.399 like area that one observer described as a chicken coop 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.960 with a chair placed inside it. Sickles pled not guilty. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.240 His arsenal of top attorneys was opposed by a single 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:47.800 government lawyer. Prosecution is one man, basically a man by 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:51.359 an attorney by the name of Robert Old, who was uh, 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:55.720 Philip Barton Key's assistant. Uh. He basically gets a battlefield 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:59.080 promotion when his boss is killed. Uh. And now Old 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.200 is going to have to pro secued his his boss's killer. 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:04.480 So right off the bat, you get, you get the 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:10.320 sense of the prosecution is badly outmatched. The prosecution argued 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.760 Sickles was quote moved and seduced by the instigation of 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:17.440 the devil to murder his helpless victim on the Sabbath. Key, 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.080 they claimed, was unarmed, whereas his assailant was a walking 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:26.920 magazine who wore a convenient overcoat on an inconveniently warm day. Meanwhile, 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:30.679 Sickle's dream team went on the offensive. They focused on 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:35.359 barton Keys conduct. The defense immediately trots out forty three 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:39.080 witnesses who knew about the affair, and so they just 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:42.359 start pointing one person on the stand after the other. 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:44.840 Did you know they were sleeping together? Did you see it? 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:49.160 Stanton talks about Keys supposedly dragging Teresa day by day 0:24:49.200 --> 0:24:53.000 through the streets, you know, to gratify his lost um, 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:56.119 and that she's one step above prostitution at this point, 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.560 so they're really laying it on thick The result was 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:02.120 that when Pickles learned about his wife's affair and saw 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:06.320 her lover outside his window, his mind became diseased. According 0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:09.240