Daniel Sickles, a U.S. Congressman, shoots Philip…

Daniel Sickles, a U.S. Congressman, shoots Philip Barton Key (U.S. District Attorney) on February 27, 1859, for having an affair with his wife.

Sickles was born in New York City in 1819 to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles, a patent lawyer and politician. (His year of birth is sometimes given as 1825, and Sickles is known to have claimed as such. Historians speculate that Sickles chose to appear younger when he married a woman half his age.)

He had learned the printer's trade and studied at the University of the City of New York (now New York University).

He studied law in the office of Benjamin Butler, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co.) in 1847.

On September 27, 1852, Sickles had married Teresa Bagioli against the wishes of both families—he was thirty-two, she about fifteen or sixteen.

She was reported as sophisticated for her age, speaking five languages.

In 1853 Sickles became corporation counsel of New York City, but resigned soon afterward when appointed as secretary of the U.S. legation in London, under James Buchanan, by appointment of President Franklin Pierce.

He returned to the United States in 1855, when he was elected as a member of the New York State Senate (3rd D.) in 1856.

He was re-elected to the seat 1857. In 1856 he was elected as a Democrat to the 35th Congress, and held office from March 4, 1857.

Sickles was censured by the New York State Assembly for escorting a known prostitute, Fanny White, into its chambers.

He also reportedly took her to England, while leaving his pregnant wife at home.

He presented White to Queen Victoria, using as her alias the surname of a New York political opponent.

In 1859, in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, Sickles shoots and kills Philip Barton Key II, the district attorney of the District of Columbia and the son of Francis Scott Key.

Sickles had discovered that Philip Key was having an affair with his young wife.

Sickles surrenders at Attorney General Jeremiah Black's house, a few blocks away on Franklin Square, and confesses to the murder.

After a visit to his home, accompanied by a constable, Sickles is taken to jail.