PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Politicians in Trouble or Disgrace

Politicians in Trouble: V


See the trouble and disgrace main page, as well as the FAQ and the Political Graveyard privacy policy, for important explanations and disclaimers.

  Eugene F. Vacheron — of Ozone Park, Queens, Queens County, N.Y. Lawyer; member of New York state assembly, 1894-95, 1901 (Queens County 3rd District 1894-95, Queens County 2nd District 1901); resigned 1895; charged with bribery in 1895; tried and acquitted, but resigned from the Assembly; convicted of grand larceny, February 28, 1912. Burial location unknown.
  Clement Laird Vallandigham (1820-1871) — also known as Clement L. Vallandigham — of Ohio. Born in New Lisbon (now Lisbon), Columbiana County, Ohio, July 29, 1820. Democrat. Lawyer; member of Ohio state house of representatives, 1845-46; delegate to Democratic National Convention from Ohio, 1856, 1864, 1868; U.S. Representative from Ohio 3rd District, 1858-63; defeated, 1852, 1854, 1862; candidate for Governor of Ohio, 1863. Leader of the pro-Southern "Copperheads" during the Civil War; arrested by the Union military authorities in 1863 for treasonable utterances, and banished to the Confederate States; returned to the North by way of Canada. Accidentally shot himself, while practicing a courtroom demonstration he planned as part of a defense in a murder trial (not actually in court at the time, contrary to legend), and died of his wound the next day, in the Lebanon House hotel, Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, June 17, 1871 (age 50 years, 323 days). Interment at Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.
  Relatives: Uncle of John A. McMahon.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page
  Washington Irving Vanderpoel (born c.1880) — also known as W. Irving Vanderpoel — of Brooklyn, Kings County, N.Y.; Freeport, Nassau County, Long Island, N.Y. Born in New York, about 1880. Son of Edwin Colburn Vanderpoel (1851-1932). Democrat. Newspaper reporter; insurance broker; village president of Freeport, New York, 1925-26; candidate for U.S. Representative from New York 1st District, 1926. Dutch ancestry. Indicted in December 1936, along with his brother Edwin and others, by a federal grand jury, over his involvement in a stock swindle; found not guilty, but his brother was convicted. Burial location unknown.
  Presumably named for: Washington Irving
  Eccles G. Van Riper (b. 1841) — of Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Ind. Born in New York, New York County, N.Y., October 4, 1841. Democrat. Mayor of Evansville, Ind., 1870. In 1862, while traveling on business in Arkansas, was captured by the Confederate Army and charged with being a spy; tried before a military court in Little Rock and sentenced to death; reprieved by the arrival of a new military commander, but imprisoned until the end of the war. Burial location unknown.
  Relatives: Son-in-law of James Garrard Jones.
  William Scott Vare (1867-1934) — also known as William S. Vare — of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pa. Born in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pa., December 24, 1867. Son of Augustus Vare and Abigail (Stites) Vare. Republican. Delegate to Republican National Convention from Pennsylvania, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932; candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, Pa., 1911; U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania 1st District, 1912-23, 1923-27; member of Pennsylvania state senate 1st District, 1923; U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1927-29. Political boss of Philadelphia in the 1920's; unseated as U.S. Senator in 1929 over charges of corruption and fraud in his election. Died in Atlantic City, Atlantic County, N.J., August 7, 1934 (age 66 years, 226 days). Interment at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
  Relatives: Son of Augustus Vare and Abigail (Stites) Vare; brother of George Augustus Vare and Edwin H. Vare; married, July 29, 1897, to Ida Morris; fourth cousin of Fletcher Wilbur Stites. See Vare-Stites family of Pennsylvania.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — NNDB dossier — Find-A-Grave memorial
  Irving Charles Velson (1913-1976) — also known as Irving C. Velson; Irving Charles Shavelson; Charles Wilson; "Nick"; "Shavey" — of Brooklyn, Kings County, N.Y.; San Francisco, Calif. Born in New York City (unknown county), N.Y., June 3, 1913. Son of Clara Shavelson. Machinist; boilermaker; shipfitter; president, Local 13, Shipbuilders Union; American Labor candidate for New York state senate 11th District, 1938; served in the U.S. Navy during World War II; in 1951 and 1953, he was brought to testify before Congressional committees about his Communist and Soviet activities, including efforts to infiltrate the U.S. military with Soviet spies; he repeatedly refused to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; as a result, he was "barred for life" by the Shipbuilders' union; later, served as international representative for the (West Coast) International Longshoreman's and Warehousemen's Union. Venona Project documents (decrypted Soviet messages from the World War II era), released in 1995, show that he was an agent for Soviet military intelligence under the code name "Nick". Died in 1976 (age about 63 years). Cremated; ashes scattered in San Francisco Bay.
  See also Wikipedia article
  Joseph E. Venuti (born c.1915) — of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, N.Y. Born about 1915. Son of Joseph Venuti and Pauline Venuti. Democrat. Plumber; candidate for U.S. Representative from New York 27th District, 1944. Italian ancestry. He and two others were indicted in July 1951, and charged with conspiring to violate gambling laws; the trial was delayed while he was hospitalized with a stomach ailment; arrested in his hospital bed and transferred to jail; the other two co-defendants were tried separately and convicted; later, the convictions were reversed, and the indictment of Mr. Venuti was dismissed. Still living as of 1951.
  William W. Voisine (1897-1959) — also known as Wilfred William Voisine — of Ecorse, Wayne County, Mich. Born in Michigan, November 20, 1897. Son of Abel Voisine (1859-1930) and Eugenia Jennie (Blais) Voisine (1870-1909). Steel executive; village president of Ecorse, Michigan, 1936-37; members of a steelworker terrorist group, the Black Legion, repeatedly attempted to kill him in 1936; Jesse Pettijohn and Lawrence Madden were later convicted of conspiracy to commit murder; mayor of Ecorse, Mich., 1948-49, 1954-57. French Canadian ancestry. Convicted in April, 1950, of falsely testifying to a Congressional committee in 1948 that he had received only the regular price for steel; sentenced to two years in federal prison. In October, 1956, a warrant was issued for his arrest, along with several members of the city council, for knowingly permitting illegal gambling in Ecorse, in return for bribes and gratuities; Gov. G. Mennen Williams initiated removal proceedings against the officials. Died in 1959 (age about 61 years). Burial location unknown.
  Relatives: Married, August 1, 1918, to Helen Pearl O'Brien.
  Charles Henry Voorhis (1833-1896) — also known as Charles H. Voorhis — of New Jersey. Born in Spring Valley (now Paramus), Bergen County, N.J., March 13, 1833. Republican. Lawyer; banker; delegate to Republican National Convention from New Jersey, 1864; U.S. Representative from New Jersey 5th District, 1879-81. Indicted in 1881 for bank fraud over his actions as president of two banks, which later became insolvent; tried and found not guilty. Fearing oncoming total blindness, he committed suicide by gunshot, in his office in the Davidson Building, Jersey City, Hudson County, N.J., April 15, 1896 (age 63 years, 33 days). Original interment at Bayview - New York Bay Cemetery, Jersey City, N.J.; reinterment at Hackensack Cemetery, Hackensack, N.J.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — Wikipedia article — Find-A-Grave memorial

 

 


 
   
"Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872
The Political Graveyard

The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 234,420 politicians, living and dead.
 
  The coverage of the site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, and members of major federal commissions; and (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions.  
  The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.  
  Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.  
  The official URL for this page is: http://politicalgraveyard.com/trouble/v.html.  
  Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.  
  If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.  
  More information: FAQ; privacy policy; cemetery links.  
  If you find any error or omission in The Political Graveyard, or if you have information to share, please see the biographical checklist and submission guidelines.  
Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDL. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on May 12, 2012.
Copyright notice: Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2011 Lawrence Kestenbaum. This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.

Creative 
Commons License Follow polgraveyard on Twitter Click to join political-graveyard [Amazon.com]