Probe Finds No Anti-Semitism in ‘Jewish Whisper’ Suicide
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Investigators found no evidence of an anti-Semitic smear campaign against a Missouri gubernatorial candidate who committed suicide.
Tom Schweich, the state auditor, shot himself in the head on Feb. 26 shortly after telling journalists that a fellow party member was leading a whisper campaign saying he was Jewish. Schweich, who attended an Episcopal church, reportedly had a Jewish grandfather.
Police Detective Lt. Don Bass told the St. Louis Dispatch on Wednesday that the case is now closed and that Schweich’s work computers in St. Louis and Jefferson City contained “nothing related to a suicide note, malfeasance in the Auditor’s office, or … anything of evidentiary value.”
Missouri GOP Chairman John Hancock has denied Schweich’s charges of anti-Semitism against him.
In March, at a memorial service for Schweich, former U.S. Senator John Danforth called the alleged anti-Semitism “worse than anything in my memory.”
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