26William Barksdale
In 1858, a massive brawl between more than 50 US Representatives ended when a missed punch between two Representatives knocked the wig off of Representative William Barksdale's head. The embarrassed Barksdale accidentally replaced the wig backward, causing both sides to erupt in spontaneous laughter.
27. In 1855 the mayor of Los Angeles, Stephen Foster, convinced a mob to not kill an accused murderer, but to try him in a court of law. When the accused man was acquitted, the mayor resigned and led a lynch mob to kill the man. He was re-elected a year later.
28. A U.S. senator named Larry Pressler was called a hero for refusing a bribe from the FBI, to which the senator responded - "I do not consider myself a hero... what have we come to if turning down a bribe is 'heroic'?"
29. Boris Nemtsov, a former physicist, and liberal Russian politician who was instrumental in the introduction of capitalism following the collapse of the USSR was shot four times in the back and died on a Moscow bridge in 2015.
30. In 1988, a US Senator invoked an obscure rule to allow the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest absent Senators and bring them into the chamber for a vote. One Senator named Robert Packwood attempted to escape but was caught and carried feet-first into the Senate chamber by three officers.
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31Clement L. Vallandigham
Clement L. Vallandigham, a defense lawyer (who was also a congressman) in a murder trial accidentally shot himself and died while reenacting the possibility of a victim accidentally shooting and killing themselves instead of his client. The defendant was then set free.
32. Eugene Whelan, a Canadian politician, late to his own dinner party, may have inadvertently initiated the fall of the USSR.
33. Politician Boss Tweed was brought down by Thomas Nast's cartoons, which painted him as the embodiment of corruption. Tweed said to aides, “Let's stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers write about—my constituents can't read—but damn it, they can see pictures.”
34. British politician John Stonehouse faked his death in November 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on a beach in Miami. It was presumed he had gone swimming and drowned. But Stonehouse was actually en route to Australia to set up a new life with his mistress and secretary, Sheila Buckley.
35. In 1974, an American newspaper reported that the US Senator from Virginia William L. Scott was the “Dumbest Member of Congress.” Once while being briefed by members of the military about missile silos in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he reportedly said “Wait a minute! I'm not interested in agriculture. I want the military stuff.”
