R. Budd Dwyer

Robert Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 – January 22, 1987) was an American politician and fraudster. He served as the 70th treasurer of Pennsylvania from 1981 until his suicide in 1987. He had previously served from 1965 to 1971 as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district. Dwyer committed suicide by gunshot during a press conference following his conviction for accepting a bribe in the CTA scandal.

During the early 1980s, Pennsylvania tax revenue accountants discovered that its state workers had overpaid federal taxes due to errors in state withholding before Dwyer's administration. A multimillion-dollar recovery contract was required to determine the compensation to be given to each employee. In 1986, Dwyer was convicted of accepting a bribe from Computer Technology Associates, a small California-based data processing company, to award them the contract over more experienced and less expensive competitors. Pennsylvania would have lost $6,000,000 had the scheme been successful. He was found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering, and was scheduled to be sentenced on January 23, 1987. On January 22, Dwyer arranged a press conference in his office in the Pennsylvania Finance Building, during which he fatally shot himself with a .357 Magnum revolver in the presence of reporters. Dwyer's suicide was broadcast to many television viewers throughout Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley.

Dwyer's lawyers made posthumous appeals on his behalf, but all were denied, and his convictions were sustained. Along with Barbara Hafer and Rob McCord, Dwyer is one of three former Pennsylvania State treasurers to be convicted of corruption since the 1980s.

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