Background
Born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, Key was the son of Francis Scott Key and the great-nephew of Philip Barton Key.
Born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, Key was the son of Francis Scott Key and the great-nephew of Philip Barton Key.
Allegedly the handsomest man in Washington and by 1859 a widower with four children, Key was known to be flirtatious with many women. Some time in the spring of 1858, Teresa Sickles began an affair with Key. Dan Sickles, though a serial adulterer himself, had accused his much-younger wife of adultery several times during their five-year marriage, but she had repeatedly denied it to his satisfaction.
But then Sickles received a poison pen letter informing him of his wife"s affair with Key.
Sickles saw Key sitting on a bench outside the Sickles home on February 27, 1859, signalling to Teresa, and confronted him. Sickles rushed outside into Lafayette Square, cried "Key, you scoundrel, you have dishonored my home.
You must die", and with a pistol repeatedly shot the unarmed Key. Key was taken into the nearby Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House, where he died some time later.
Sickles was acquitted on the basis of temporary insanity, a crime of passion, in one of the most controversial trials of the 19th century.
lieutenant was the first successful use of the defense in the United States. One of Sickles" attorneys, Edwin Stanton, later became the Secretary of War. Newspapers declared Sickles a hero for "saving" women from Key.
Years later, while attending the theater in New York City, Sickles became aware of the presence of Key"s son James Key in the audience.
Both men watched each other throughout the performance. Nothing happened.
Sickles defended himself by adopting a defense of temporary insanity, the first time the defense had been used in the United States.
