Award-winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers, best-selling author of Murder at the Pencil Factory, delivers again in the gripping historical true-crime audio short, Murder of the U.S. Attorney: Congressman Sickles' Crime of Passion in 1859.
On February 27, 1859, Philip Barton Key II, the 40-year-old US attorney for the District of Columbia, was gunned down while standing in Lafayette Square, a public park across from the White House. His killer was Rep. Daniel Sickles, a 39-year-old New York congressman and lawyer who had a striking young wife, Teresa Sickles, with whom Key had been having an affair.
Upon discovering his wife's infidelity, Sickles became enraged and had the deadly encounter with her suitor. Afterward, he surrendered to authorities, confessed, was charged with murder, and went to trial.
In spite of the cold-blooded and premeditated nature of the attack, Sickles used a defense of temporary insanity for his actions, the first such time this type of legal defense was employed in the US. He was acquitted as a result and the "temporarily insane" justification for homicide or other serious intimate-involved offenses became a common defense for so-called crimes of passion.
Sickles, who was no stranger to public scandals and controversy, was able to effectively get away with murder. He would reconcile with his wife for a short time, continue a career in politics, and become a decorated soldier for the Union Army during the Civil War and a diplomat before dying in his 90s.
His long life aside, taking the life of his wife's lover, Philip Key, in a fit of jealousy would forever remain a major part of Daniel Sickles' legacy, as chronicled in this compelling trip back in time of more than 150 years.
Bonus material includes a complete historical true-crime short, Dead at the Saddleworth Moor, and excerpts from the author's best-selling true-crime anthologies, The Dreadful Acts of Jack the Ripper and Murder and Menace: Riveting True Crime Tales, Vol. Three.
On February 27, 1859, Philip Barton Key II, the 40-year-old US attorney for the District of Columbia, was gunned down while standing in Lafayette Square, a public park across from the White House. His killer was Rep. Daniel Sickles, a 39-year-old New York congressman and lawyer who had a striking young wife, Teresa Sickles, with whom Key had been having an affair.
Upon discovering his wife's infidelity, Sickles became enraged and had the deadly encounter with her suitor. Afterward, he surrendered to authorities, confessed, was charged with murder, and went to trial.
In spite of the cold-blooded and premeditated nature of the attack, Sickles used a defense of temporary insanity for his actions, the first such time this type of legal defense was employed in the US. He was acquitted as a result and the "temporarily insane" justification for homicide or other serious intimate-involved offenses became a common defense for so-called crimes of passion.
Sickles, who was no stranger to public scandals and controversy, was able to effectively get away with murder. He would reconcile with his wife for a short time, continue a career in politics, and become a decorated soldier for the Union Army during the Civil War and a diplomat before dying in his 90s.
His long life aside, taking the life of his wife's lover, Philip Key, in a fit of jealousy would forever remain a major part of Daniel Sickles' legacy, as chronicled in this compelling trip back in time of more than 150 years.
Bonus material includes a complete historical true-crime short, Dead at the Saddleworth Moor, and excerpts from the author's best-selling true-crime anthologies, The Dreadful Acts of Jack the Ripper and Murder and Menace: Riveting True Crime Tales, Vol. Three.
Used availability for R Barri Flowers's Murder of the U.S. Attorney