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

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, husband of Katherine Gudger Langley. Born in

Floyd County, Kentucky Floyd County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 35,942. Its county seat is Prestonsburg, Kentucky, Prestonsburg. The county, founded in ...

, 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 (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

) Universities in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, 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 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 New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

–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 alcoholic b ...

. He also tried to bribe a Prohibition officer. For these crimes, Langley was sentenced to two years in prison. His wife

Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in countries where large Christian populations exist, because of its associations with one of the earliest Ch ...

, 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 Pikeville () is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in and the county seat of Pike County, Kentucky, United States. Its population was 7,754 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census. Pikeville serves as a regional eco ...

, 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

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* * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Langley, John Wesley 1868 births 1932 deaths American prisoners and detainees 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 Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly

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