John Wesley Langley (January 14, 1868 – January 17, 1932) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, husband of Katherine Gudger Langley. Born in Floyd County, Kentucky, Langley attended the common schools and then taught school for three years. He attended the law department of the National, Georgetown, and Columbian (now

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

) Universities in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, for an aggregate period of eight years. He was Examiner in the Pension Office and a member of the Board of Pension Appeals, Law Clerk in the General Land Office, and from 1899 to 1907, he was Disbursing and Appointment Clerk of the Census Office. He served in the State House of Representatives from 1886 to 1890. Langley was elected on March 4, 1907, as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the Sixtieth and to the nine succeeding Congresses where he became known as "Pork Barrel John." He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds ( Sixty-sixth through Sixty-eighth Congresses). He resigned on January 11, 1926, after being convicted of illegally selling alcohol. Langley had deposited $115,000 in his bank account over a three-year period despite earning only $7,500 a year as a congressman. He had arranged for "medicinal" alcohol to be released to New York-based bootleggers during

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

. He also tried to bribe a Prohibition officer. His wife

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

, then ran for his seat and won in the next election, declaring that her husband had been the victim of a conspiracy and resolving to clear his name. She also won the next election. He was paroled from the Atlanta Penitentiary in 1929, and with Katherine's intervention, President Calvin Coolidge granted John Langley a pardon on December 20, 1928. He sent out a Christmas message to his wife's constituents and a week later declared his intention to run for office (even though the President had stipulated his clemency was predicated on never running for office again). He self-published a book ''They Tried to Crucify Me'' (1929) hoping to gain back his political clout. He resumed the practice of law in Pikeville, Kentucky, where he remained in good favor with his former constituents. Polly V. Hall, a Republican who was 98 years old in 1987 when she was interviewed, could remember his name (though not his wife's), and she stated emphatically that "... he was a good man ... never heard nothing bad said about him." John Langley died on January 17, 1932, from pneumonia. He was interred in Floyd County, Kentucky.

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* * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Langley, John Wesley 1868 births 1932 deaths Kentucky lawyers Kentucky politicians convicted of crimes Republican Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives People from Floyd County, Kentucky Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky Spouses of Kentucky politicians United States Department of the Interior officials

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