Dwyer’s Final Statement
I’ve received several emails and a message or two (via our Facebook group) asking for copies of Dwyer’s final speech. I’m happy to announce that it’s ready for download! If you recall seeing the Press Kit for Honest Man, you know that we have an original copy of the speech that was handed out at the press conference. I made exact copies for the press kit and the same goes for this PDF release, it’s completely unedited and unaltered. The PDF includes:
- Dwyer’s letter to (then) Senator Joe Biden
- Dwyer’s notes on how to “Reform the Justice System”
- His final speech.
- Several newspaper clipping of interest regarding his trial.
UPDATE: I’ve added the unreleased final page from our Flickr page and increased the resolution for better printing results. Hope this helps!
Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
Honest Man Preview
We recently uploaded a 3 minute scene from Honest Man to our Facebook group, check it out! The clips features Dwyer’s family, friends and co-workers describing events leading up to his suicide. Very emotional stuff. We’d love to know what you think once you’ve seen the clip. Feel free to drop us a line via Facebook or the comments below.
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Join our Facebook group to view clips from the film and get special info on screenings and release dates! If you have any photos, videos or stories about Budd you can add them too. Feel free to invite others and help us spread the word about the film. Thanks!
A Tribute
When I began doing research for Honest Man I came across this website: A Tribute to R.Budd Dwyer. It was, and still is, one of the few places on the internet that tries shed some light on the CTA scandal and Budd’s life. While having access to this information is exciting, to me, the most interesting part is the guestbook. Containing entries from 1999-2008 it offers great incite into how people perceive Budd’s suicide. The comments range from condolences to condemnation. Here are some excerpts:
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Matt Hill 03/13/1999
Yeah man… nice “tribute” page. Some tribute… if you want to have a page showing how “innocent” or “great” a man was to the country, why in god’s name have a page which revolves around him blowing his brains out on national television? Where is the logic in that, if I may ask. Hell, I watched the video just becuase it’s fun to see a moron do a moronic thing. I, quite honestly, know that the judicial system is messed up, but should we all blow our brains out on television becuase of it? What the hell does that do to improve our situation? Whatever… keep your page up as a “tribute” if that’s what they’re calling it these days. I’ll just keep watching the blood pour and not learn a @#%$! thing about anything at all.
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Keith 10/20/1999
I must admit that my interest in this subject was purely morbid at first. I heard Howard Stern mention “Bud” and his suicide on the radio, so I decided to look for the video.
Upon viewing the clip and reading your site, however, I was left with a far different impression. I find it very sad indeed that someone would feel that desperate and out of control to act out in this way. However, I’m not sure that you’re doing his memory full justice, Bobby. If you believe that he was wrongly accused and convicted, you’ve fallen short in your defense of him.
The story is very compelling, and I know first-hand that good people can and do go to prison. A friend’s brother, a prominent physician, is currently incarcerated in Ohio for insurance fraud. He was convicted at a trial which smelled of conspiracy and political grandstanding from the very beginning.
When reading the information you’ve presented here, however, I feel that I would probably believe Mr. Dwyer to be guilty of these crimes. If you wish to persuade your visitors of his innocence, you would do well to provide some of the defense evidence that Mr. Dwyer presented at trial. This may tip the balance more in his favor. As it stands now, it just seems like an extremely sad case of a guilty man taking the easy way out. And I don’t believe that was your intention.
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Uncle Sam is Watching 01/12/2000
I admit, too, that it was morbid curiosity after hearing someone tell of the “Budd Dwyer on-air suicide” that I decided to look up more information about it, and that’s how I came to your site. After seeing the video and reading the reasons for this desperate action, I’m left with the impression that this was a suicide by a man who wanted to avoid imprisonment, with selfish motives for suicide - OR, it was the last act of a man who wanted to avoid imprisonment for the rest of his life and yet still make a statement. If he’d acquiesced, and went to prison simply to fight within the legal system, he would have lost. It would make the government look very bad for a career politician to prove the justice system wrong - and Budd was right to point out that we execute the innocent on a fairly regular basis. It’s a subject that’s been covered in films many times, and yet somehow it’s a non-issue to citizens of the United States… UNTIL THEY are the falsely accused, who stand confronted with a public that whole-heartedly believes them guilty and is willing to kill them for this presumed guilt. If our judgement as human beings is not without error, how can we stand in mortal judgement over anyone? Whether he was guilty or innocent, Dwyer DID give people pause to think about the judicial system, and how - if even an employee of Uncle Sam can be falsely accused and imprisoned without cause, it’s ever so much easier to erase US. The public has a short attention span; today’s falsely accused is tomorrow’s forgotten prisoner/execution victim. Heaven help us all.
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More posts to come…
Honest Man DVD!
I recently received the final version of the Honest Man press packet and I was so pleased with the results that I thought I’d share it.
These photos represent what most festivals, reviewers and potential distributors will receive when I send them Honest Man. While this version of the DVD isn’t for sale I’d love to see these design elements carry over to the retail DVD.
The concept was simple: recreate the envelop Budd Dwyer used during his final press conference. I not only wanted to recreate the visual elements but also the actual process of revealing the gun and Budd’s words. It is my hope that by opening the envelope people may finally release the truth about a husband, father, friend and political who is so very misunderstood. The facts and stories included in the film and the press packet are presented to the recipient in an effort to “see if the shameful facts, spread out in all their shame, will not burn through our civic shamelessness and set fire to American pride.”
Thanks to the hard work of the graphic designer, Mark Kaiser of Omnibus Design, I think we totally nailed it.
The Envelope.
Inside…
The contents of the envelope include the DVD case/press packet and a replica of the press release Budd handed out during the press conference.
Since I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the original packets Budd handed out, I was able to duplicate it to a tee. The packet includes his full speech, a letter to Senator Joe Biden and Congressman Peter Rodino and a few news paper clippings that Budd felt were relevant to his claims.
The actual DVD case is a printed on thick cardboard folder with the image of a .357 magnum (the same gun Budd used) on the front and back cover.
Front cover.
Back cover.
Inside.
The inside contains the press release, my contact information and some technical information that most of the festival/reviewers require.
These should start circulating this week. Hopefully I’ll have some reviews and release info to share soon! I can’t wait to bring this film to all of you who have supported the project from the beginning as well as all of the truth seekers who have recently discovered the film! Your support and emails have made it totally worth it! Stay tuned…
Interview with the Director: Part 1
Interview by Andreas Trolf
Director James Dirschberger has spent the better part of four years putting together his first feature, Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer, from countless hours of original interviews and archival news footage. This undertaking was made possible only by his passion to tell a story that has been so sadly left untold, and in watching R. Budd Dwyer’s tale unfold we see the extent not only of Dirschberger’s commitment to the story and his subjects, but we also see Dwyer finally get his due.
Many of us, no doubt, are familiar with Budd Dwyer—if not the name, then at least the shocking video footage of his public 1987 suicide. Like many others, Dirschberger first happened upon Dwyer by chance. “Trying to download a movie,” he said, “…I ended up downloading the Budd Dwyer suicide [accidentally]. So when I opened it up, I had no idea what I was looking at.” But perhaps unlike most people who’ve come across the scene, after the initial shock his curiosity got the better of him.
“For me,” he says, “the most shocking thing was all the questions that I was left with. After the video ends—you know, it’s a relatively short video—I just sat there with my jaw on the floor, like ‘What the hell did I just see?’” Using the footage as his jumping-off point Dirschberger began to look into Dwyer’s story more deeply, and Honest Man was the natural result of his research into the events—most notably Dwyer’s conviction on corruption charges—that precipitated his suicide.
The question at the heart of the film, which Dirschberger feels lies at the heart of Dwyer’s unfortunate end, is how a man so convinced of the essential rightness of American democracy and of the American judicial system become their tragic victim.
“He felt cheated by the system,” Dirschberger says, “this was a system that he had worked his entire life preserving as a state legislator, as the treasurer, as a school teacher…he loved the way of life. To have that turn on him…was the ultimate betrayal. There was no greater loss than the loss of pride and confidence in your country.”
Dwyer’s story, however, according to the director, is not just about misplaced trust in a system vulnerable to corruption; it is also the story of the rapid and complete fall of the golden boy—a man who seemed to succeed at anything he put his hand to. Ultimately, though, whatever the facts of the case suggest, we’re left to draw our own conclusions, and Honest Man is nothing quite so much as an indictment of an imperfect system and a warning to the rest of us that we ought to be heedful and, perhaps, a bit more cynical.
The film comes full-circle when we hear Dwyer’s final words of warning, eerily mirroring his Alger-esque acceptance speech upon being elected State Treasurer. “Look,” Dirschberger paraphrases, “if it can happen to me, and I think I’m a model citizen, I’ve devoted my entire life to this, if it can happen to me, then no one is safe. No one at all.”
Watching Those Who Watch…
A curious trend has been emerging over the past few months. It seem that several individuals have turned the cameras on themselves as they view Budd’s final press conference. They then upload the video and, well, we watch them watch Budd Dwyer die. Their reactions (laughing, awe and shock) are varied and somewhat interesting (if you’re into that sort of voyeur experience) but ultimately have no greater purpose then to add to the mountain of throwaway YouTube dreck that will forever pollute the Internet. It makes me wonder, when will someone film themselves watching a Budd Dwyer reaction?
How long will the chain grow and ultimately how far removed will we become from the original content and the intended message?
Article Highlight: USA vs Dwyer
The following document contains the official indictment for Budd and Robert Asher, as well as two articles commenting on the charges. Whether or not you believe the charges is up you, but regardless it’s a very interesting read and it details the scandal very well.
I believe the indictment, not the conviction, was the tipping point for Budd as it represented the ultimate betrayal of the system. Going to trial meant the end of his clean record and forever changed his relationship with the people of Pennsylvania. Even if he was found innocent he would never be able to erase this blemish, he would never truly be exonerated. It was the first set down a dark path from which he would never return…
“I thank the good Lord for giving me 47 years of invigorating challenges, stimulating experiences, many happy occasions, and, most of all, the finest wife and children a man could ever desire. Now my life has changed, for no apparent reason. People who call and write are exasperated and feel helpless. They know I’m innocent and want to help. But in this nation, the world’s greatest democracy, there is nothing they can do to prevent me from being punished for a crime they know I did not commit.” - RBD
