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

Politicians in Trouble or Disgrace: Washington

in chronological order

  Corliss P. Stone (1838-1906) — of Seattle, King County, Wash. Born in Franklin County, Vt., March 20, 1838. Mayor of Seattle, Wash., 1872-73. Caused a scandal in 1873, when he suddenly vacated his mayoralty; he fled to San Francisco with a married woman and $15,000 he had embezzled from his firm. Later returned to Seattle. Died in Seattle, King County, Wash., September 14, 1906 (age 68 years, 178 days). Interment at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Wash.
  See also Find-A-Grave memorial
  Hiram Charles Gill (1866-1919) — also known as Hiram C. Gill — of Seattle, King County, Wash. Born July 23, 1866. Republican. Mayor of Seattle, Wash., 1910-11, 1914-18; recalled 1911; defeated, 1912. Recalled from office as mayor in 1911 over his permissive attitude toward gambling and prostitution. Died January 7, 1919 (age 52 years, 168 days). Interment at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park, Seattle, Wash.
  See also Find-A-Grave memorial
  Cornelius Hanford (1849-1926) — of Seattle, King County, Wash. Born in Van Buren County, Iowa, April 21, 1849. Republican. Lawyer; member Washington territorial council, 1877; member of Washington territorial House of Representatives, 1889-90; U.S. District Judge for Washington, 1890-1905; U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington, 1905-12; resigned 1912. Member, Sons of the American Revolution. Resigned as judge under threat of impeachment, 1912. Died in 1926 (age about 77 years). Interment at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Wash.
  Relatives: Son of Edward Hanford and Abby J. (Holgate) Hanford; married, November 15, 1875, to Clara M. Baldwin.
  Emil M. Herman (1879-1928) — of Seattle, King County, Wash.; Everett, Snohomish County, Wash. Born in Kamnitz, Bohemia (now Kamienice, Czechia), August 22, 1879. Socialist. Socialist candidate for Seattle city council, 1904; candidate for U.S. Representative from Washington, 1906 (at-large), 1908 (2nd District), 1909 (2nd District); State Secretary, Socialist Party of Washington, 1916-18; arrested in 1918, and convicted under the Espionage Act; sentenced to ten years in prison; served three years and four months; candidate for Governor of Washington, 1924. German ancestry. Member, Industrial Workers of the World. Died October 10, 1928 (age 49 years, 49 days). Burial location unknown.
  Relatives: Married to Ruby Herman.
  See also Wikipedia article
  Frank E. Edwards — of Seattle, King County, Wash. Mayor of Seattle, Wash., 1928-31; recalled 1931; defeated, 1932. Recalled from office as mayor in 1931. Burial location unknown.
  William Montross Inglis (1875-1932) — also known as William M. Inglis — of Seattle, King County, Wash. Born in Clyde Township, St. Clair County, Mich., January 7, 1875. Republican. Colonel in the U.S. Army during World War I; delegate to Republican National Convention from Washington, 1924, 1928 (alternate). Killed by a single gunshot behind his ear, under mysterious circumstances, and posthumously accused of attempted murder, in Seattle, King County, Wash., October 22, 1932 (age 57 years, 289 days). The only witness, Mary Nash, who shared the apartment, said that he had been despondent and drinking heavily; that she had hidden his pistol, but he had found it; that without warning, he shot her twice (she was badly injured but survived), and then immediately killed himself; investigators questioned her story, and thought he might have been murdered, but she was not charged. Interment at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, Wash.
  Relatives: Son of John Jacob Inglis and Martha Ann (Montross) Inglis; married to Anne Hughes.
  See also Find-A-Grave memorial
  Brockman Adams (1927-2004) — also known as Brock Adams — of Seattle, King County, Wash.; Stevensville, Queen Anne's County, Md. Born in Atlanta, Fulton County, Ga., January 13, 1927. Democrat. Served in the U.S. Navy during World War II; lawyer; U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, 1961-64; U.S. Representative from Washington 7th District, 1965-77; U.S. Secretary of Transportation, 1977-79; resigned 1979; U.S. Senator from Washington, 1987-93; speaker, Democratic National Convention, 1988 ; in 1992, he was accused by eight women of sexual misconduct including sexual harassment and rape; he denied the allegations, and no charges were ever brought, but the scandal ended his political career. Episcopalian. Member, American Bar Association; Phi Beta Kappa; Federal Bar Association. Died, from Parkinson's disease, in Stevensville, Queen Anne's County, Md., September 10, 2004 (age 77 years, 241 days). Interment at Broad Creek Cemetery, Stevensville, Md.
  Relatives: Son of Charles Leslie Adams and Vera Eleanor (Beemer) Adams; married, August 16, 1952, to Mary Elizabeth Scott.
  See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — Wikipedia article — NNDB dossier — Find-A-Grave memorial — OurCampaigns candidate detail
  David E. Giles (born c.1950) — of Washington. Born about 1950. Democrat. Lawyer; candidate for U.S. Representative from Washington 8th District, 1986, 1990. Convicted in June 2000 of child rape. Still living as of 2000.
  Lena Swanson (born c.1938) — of Bremerton, Kitsap County, Wash. Born in Oklahoma, about 1938. Democrat. Member of Washington state senate 35th District, 1997. Female. Pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting unlawful payments from veterans and former prisoners of war. Still living as of 2001.
  Mary Carey (b. 1981) — also known as Mary Ellen Cook — of California. Born in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, June 15, 1981. Actress in pornographic movies; Independent candidate for Governor of California, 2003; arrested in April 2005 during a raid on a strip club in Lakewood, Wash.; charged with touching herself while dancing; pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence. Female. Still living as of 2013.
  See also Wikipedia article — Internet Movie Database profile
  James Elton West (1951-2006) — also known as James E. West; Jim West — of Spokane, Spokane County, Wash. Born in Salem, Marion County, Ore., March 28, 1951. Republican. Deputy sheriff; member of Washington state house of representatives, 1982-86; member of Washington state senate 6th District, 1986-2003; mayor of Spokane, Wash., 2004-05. Member, Rotary; Gay. Following a scandal involving use of his position to obtain sex with young men, and an FBI investigation, he was recalled from office as mayor in 2005. Died, from complications of colon cancer, in the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, King County, Wash., July 22, 2006 (age 55 years, 116 days). Burial location unknown.
  Relatives: Son of Jack West; married 1990 to Ginger Marshall.
  See also Wikipedia article — NNDB dossier
"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 338,260 politicians, living and dead.
 
  The coverage of this 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, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.  
  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: https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/WA/trouble.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.  
Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2025 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
What is a "political graveyard"? See Political Dictionary; Urban Dictionary.
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 HDLmi.com. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on February 17, 2025.