Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt

Rodger McDaniel

“Joe McCarthy’s Cold War witch-hunts targeted people with same-sex attractions as much, maybe more than those with Communist sympathies.”

This introduction to Rodger McDaniel’s book sets the stage for a story of the most wretched political blackmail in American history. Lester Hunt was the kind of person we’d all want to be a part of our national government. Kind and empathetic, honest and hardworking, he was as one of his eulogists said, “ill prepared for the cruel, brutal, rough aspect of national partisan politics.” Hunt committed suicide in his Senate office in 1954. His death was tragic enough. Yet readers will find even more about which to lament reading of his extraordinary life. Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins is not only Lester Hunt’s story. It’s the story of America during the virulent years of the early Cold War, of McCarthyism, and the way the voluntary death of a Wyoming senator helped to bring the curtain down on Joe McCarthy.

Recipient of Wyoming State Historical Society Lola Homsher Endowment Grant

Book Information

$15 Paperback
364 pages, 13 illustrations. b&w 9×6 in.
ISBN-13: 978-098302759
Subject: History, Wyoming, Politics

 

Order from an independent bookseller near you, or purchase your copy here.

Reviews

“Rodger writes with a keen sense of history and the lessons it can teach all of us. As Theodore Roosevelt would recognize, Rodger has been in the harsh arena of politics. His writing of Lester Hunt’s ordeal demonstrates empathy with an appreciation for the ironies of life.”

— former Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal

“This well-written book tells the story of Lester Hunt’s amazing life and agonizing death, a “must read,” for Wyoming folks and all Americans concerned about the lack of civility in politics today.”

— Bill Sniffin, long-time Wyoming journalist and author

“Rodger brings to this book the fine skills he learned in all of the paths of his own journey. Beyond the rare ability to research, investigate and write a gripping story, Rodger also brings a level of empathy to Lester Hunt’s life story that he richly deserves. The result is this book that finally offers Lester Hunt’s remaining family some form of justice — though belated.”

— former US Senator Alan K. Simpson