Philip Barton Key II
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Philip Barton Key (April 5, 1818 – February 27, 1859) was a United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
[edit] Biography
Born in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., Key was the son of Francis Scott Key and the great-nephew of Philip Barton Key. A handsome man, Key was known to be flirtatious with many women.
In 1859, Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed Phillip Barton Key, for having conducted a public affair with his wife Teresa Bagioli Sickles.[1] Sickles, who had several extra-marital affairs of his own, received an anonymous note informing him of his wife's liaison with Key. Not waiting Sickles saw Key passing his home on February 27, 1859. He confronted him outside. Key was unarmed when attacked. The murder took place on Lafayette Square, just north of the White House. Sickles was acquitted, on the basis of temporary insanity, a crime of passion, in one of the most controversial trials of the 19th century. Sickles' attorney later became a powerful rival Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Years later, according to Sickles' biographer Nat Brandt, while attending the theater in New York City, Sickles was aware of the presence of Key's son James Key in the audience, and both men kept watching each other throughout the performance. But nothing happened. [2]
At the time of his death Key was the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington and is also memorialized in a cenotaph in his son-in-law's family plot in Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland.
His great-granddaughter Pauline de Rothschild was a well-known American fashion designer.
[edit] Sources
- ^ Tagg, Larry, The Generals of Gettysburg, Savas Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-882810-30-9. p. 62
- ^ Brandt, Nat, The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder, University of Syracuse Press, c1991, ISBN 0-8156-0251-0. p. 213
- Brandt, Nat The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder, (Syracuse, NY: SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS, c1991), 261p., illus. ISBN. 0-8156-0251-0
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