Kentucky Scandal: William Goebel's Life and Death

Did you know that Kentucky had the only American politician who was assassinated and then became governor? William Goebel, master of machine politics and even greater master of making enemies, was in the throes of a disputed gubernatorial election that'd be decided by Kentucky's Senate when a shot rang out, mortally wounding him. He'd die within days, but not before a Democrat-controlled legislature had named him governor instead of his Republican opponent, who'd won the Commonwealth's popular vote. Civil war nearly broke out in the streets of Frankfort, Kentucky's capital (not Louisville, as Americans interviewed on the street like to tell you), before wise heads prevailed. In life, Goebel created for Kentucky a legacy of cutthroat politics; in death, he's left the Commonwealth an insoluble mystery: which of his countless enemies gunned him down on the capitol's grounds? Does Goebel's contentious life and outrageous death hold lessons for us today? Let's never forget the immortal Santayana's teaching: "Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."