Missouri gubernatorial candidate dead from 'apparent suicide' after alleging anti-Semitic 'whisper campaign'

On Thursday, minutes after setting up a meeting with reporters from The Associated Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich fatally shot himself in what police are calling an "apparent suicide." Schweich, 54, had recently announced his campaign for the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination, and he told the AP reporter that he planned to go public Thursday afternoon with allegations that the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party had started an anti-Semitic "whisper campaign" to sink his campaign.

Schweich is Episcopalian; his grandfather was Jewish. In his conversations with AP, he said that Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock — a political consultant elected last Saturday — had casually mentioned in phone calls that Schweich was Jewish. He wanted Hancock to step down.

Hancock denied that he was being anti-Semitic. "I don't have a specific recollection of having said that, but it's plausible that I would have told somebody that Tom was Jewish because I thought he was," he told AP, "but I wouldn't have said it in a derogatory or demeaning fashion." Schweich was also already the subject of attack ads on the radio. Post-Dispatch editorial page editor Tony Messenger, who knew Schweich, explained why the Jewish whispers disturbed the auditor so much:

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Schweich is being remembered by his colleagues as a brilliant and devoted public servant.