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Dramatic Deaths These People Did Not See Coming

Khalid Elhassan January 27, 2024 19 min

Eleazar Avaran's heroic exploit at the Battle of Beth Zechariah, 162 BC. Wikimedia

A Slimy Rebel Sympathizer’s Dramatic Courtroom Death

Clement Vallandigham. Library of Congress

Ohio politician Clement Vallandigham (1820 – 1871) served two terms in the US House of Representatives, and led a treasonous antiwar faction known as Copperheads during the Civil War. In 1863, a court-martial convicted him of sympathy for armed rebellion against the US, and exiled him to the Confederacy. He headed to Canada, ran for governor of Ohio from exile, lost the election, and returned a year later. Union authorities monitored his activities, but otherwise let him be. After the war, Vallandigham advocated against suffrage and equality for blacks, and made a living as a lawyer while at it. It was in that capacity as an attorney that a dramatic death caught up with him in an Ohio courtroom in 1871, when he accidentally shot himself in the stomach mid-trial.

Funny - Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and Ohio politician, was demonstrating how a victim may possibly have shot himself while drawing a weapon from a kneeling position when he shot himself in the process. Though the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was ultimately cleared, Vallandigham died from his wound. — Clement Vallandigham shot himself to death in a courtroom. Faces of Death

Vallandigham represented a defendant, Thomas McGehean, who was accused of shooting a certain Tom Myers to death in a barroom brawl. Vallandingham wanted to demonstrate to the jury that the deceased had accidentally shot himself as he tried to draw a pistol, only for it to snag on his clothes and accidentally discharge. So he picked a pistol, which he thought was unloaded, placed it in his pocket, then acted out the scenario in the courtroom. Unfortunately for Vallindigham, he did not pick an unloaded pistol, but a loaded one. When he mimicked the deceased’s drawing motion, the hammer fell on a live round, which discharged into his stomach. The demonstration convinced the jury, however, and McGehean was acquitted. Vallandigham shuffled off the mortal coil the next day, when the bullet wound grew infected.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.