Fit For An Autopsy Thank Budd Dwyer
Fit For An Autopsy have released a new song called “Thank You, Budd Dwyer” (stream below), and if you’re wondering who Budd Dwyer is (was), well, please allow FFFAA to explain:
“This song is our homage to Budd Dwyer, a PA politician who committed suicide on national television back in 1987, one day before he was to be wrongfully sentenced for accepting a bribe.
In 2010 William Smith, another accused and convicted party revealed that he had given false testimony to incriminate Dwyer, who had spent his years in office combatting corruption on a state and federal level, and had professed his innocence throughout the trial.
Here’s a section of Budd Dwyer’s last words in a letter he had passed out the day of his suicide:
‘To those of you with depth and concern the real story will be what I hope and pray results from this morning–in the coming months and years, the development of a true Justice System here in the United States. I am going to die in office in an effort to …see if the shame[-ful] facts, spread out in all their shame, will not burn through our civic shamelessness and set fire to American pride.
Please tell my story on every radio and television station and in every newspaper and magazine in the U.S. Please leave immediately if you have a weak stomach or mind since I don’t want to cause physical or mental distress. Joanne, Rob, DeeDee – I love you! Thank you for making my life so happy. Good bye to you all on the count of 3. Please make sure that the sacrifice of my life is not in vain.’
We felt an obligation to share this story as it’s a powerful example of how truly skewed our political and justice system can become. If anyone’s interested in learning more about Budd Dwyer and his life check out the movie Honest Man.”
You can watch video (which, it should go without saying, is NSFW) of Dwyer’s suicide here if you have the stomach for it. The photo at the top of this post was taken moments before he stuck the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. I’ve always found the look on Dwyer’s face to be paradoxically haunting and mundane — or perhaps haunting due to its mundanity. Without context and the gun, Dwyer looks as though he could just as easily be explaining to someone how they get back to the highway from here.
The fact that Fit For An Autopsy wrote a pro-Dwyer death metal song just makes me like them all the more. And I was already way, way into them.
“Thank You, Budd Dwyer” will be on FFAA’s Hellbound, which comes out September 10 on eOne/Good Fight. FFAA are currently on a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Acacia Strain, Xibalba, and American Me; get remaining dates here.
[via The PRP]
