He wasn’t a Ted Bundy, but close.
Byron Looper (1964 – 2013) was a unique sort of politician.
In 1988, he ran for Georgia legislature as a Democrat and lost to an incumbent.
In 1994, he tried his luck running for the Tennessee legislature as a Republican and lost to an incumbent.
In 1996, he changed his name to Low Tax Looper, ran for county tax assessor against an incumbent, and won.
In 1998, he was indicted for theft, misuse of county property, and misuse of county employees. He was removed from office. An ex-girlfriend he’d featured in campaign ads as his “wife” sued him for getting her pregnant by forced sex and stealing her house.
In the 1998 primary, he ran for Congress and state senate. He was unopposed for state senate, and planned to run unopposed in the fall campaign, too. This was complicated by the fact there was an incumbent. However, the election law didn’t allow replacing candidates who died less than 30 days before an election, so Looper murdered his opponent 29 days before the election.
This didn’t work out as Looper planned for two reasons. One, there was a witness. Two, the victim’s widow ran as a write-in and got 96% of the vote. Once again, he lost, this time as the only candidate whose name was on the ballot, which surely stands alone as a unique electoral achievement in the annals of American politics.
Looper’s trial also took strange turns. He went through half a dozen attorneys, one of whom told the court he couldn’t ethically represent Looper for unspecified reasons. (Use your imagination here.) In addition to the witness of the murder, and the childhood friend Looper had enlisted to train him in firearms use, two political consultants also testified against him. He’d told them he wanted to run for office and believed the surest way to win was by murdering his opponent. Not at all strangely, he was convicted, and sentenced to life without parole.
Thirteen years later, in prison, Looper assaulted a pregnant female counselor and was restrained by guards. Two hours later, he was found dead in his cell from an overdose of antidepressants.
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