Star Spangled Scandal: Sex, Murder and the Trial that Changed America
UnCovered review by Frank Tomasello, ACLS Mays Landing
Branch
As an amateur Civil War historian of over two decades, I thought I knew all there was to know about a pre- Civil War scandal involving Major General Daniel E. Sickles. Conventional history records that Sickles’ beautiful young wife Theresa had an affair with U.S. Attorney General, Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key of National Anthem fame, which led to then New York Congressman, Sickles shooting Key in broad day light, on a public street, in Washington, D.C. He was then acquitted at trial in one of the earliest successful insanity defenses, represented by future Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln, Edward Stanton.
In Star Spangled Scandal: Sex, Murder and The Trial That Changed America, author Chris DeRose has exhaustively reviewed newspaper accounts, personal diaries and letters, and trial testimony, to paint a truer picture of the events of the early spring of 1859. What emerges is a record that is so similar to today’s 24-hour news cycle that it begs belief. It had it all: a sex scandal involving high society elites/celebrities; homicide; press leaks; trial by media; anonymous letters; accusations of evidence tampering; show boating attorneys; political intrigue; and the list goes on.
The facts were never in dispute. The affair was admitted, as well as the shooting of Key by Sickles. The incident quickly evolved into a trial that would focus the attention of the world. In 1859, the telegraph was cutting edge technology. Newspapers at the time felt that its expense was not justified since there could never be any news that people would not be content in waiting a few days to learn. The Sickles trial shattered that notion, and the press became ravenous for news from the young Nation’s capital. Sordid details about the affair, the brazen way it was conducted, and the “roguish” character of Key filled columns of the newspapers of the day. Sickles was seen sympathetically as a victim and yet clearly culpable as a murderer. After a trial that lasted nearly two weeks, he was acquitted. His legal team, of which Edwin Stanton was but one member, had indeed argued “temporary insanity,” but the verdict would more accurately be labeled as “Justifiable Homicide” or what today is known as “Jury Nullification”.
DeRose is not wrong when he says
that the Sickles trial changed America. It single-handedly created what we now
call the aforementioned 24-hour news cycle, and also the “Unwritten Law” which
would acquit homicidal jealous lovers for decades thereafter. It is an
excellent work that sheds much light on a largely misunderstood event of much
historical importance.
