Tennessee Secretary of State Gentry Crowell, a political kingpin known as "The Godfather" whose office has been one target of a corruption investigation, shot and critically wounded himself Tuesday in a suicide attempt, authorities said.
Crowell is the second Tennessee politician to shoot himself this year as a federal-state investigation of corruption has unfolded.Crowell, 57, put a .38 caliber handgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger in the back yard of his home in nearby Lebanon, Tenn., at around 7 a.m., authorities said.
He was taken into surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center two hours later, officials said. The surgery was expected to last several hours.
Crowell's office has been one focus of a state and federal investigation of public corruption in Tennessee that has led to 23 indictments this year. Crowell, secretary of state for 12 years, testified twice before grand juries and said this month that prosecutors had informed him he was not a target for possible indictment.
"To me, he seemed in great spirits," said Mark Herbison, Crowell's spokesman. "I saw him yesterday in the afternoon. He was just his normal self. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary."
On July 17, state Rep. Ted Ray Miller, another influential Tennessee Democrat, committed suicide with a shotgun blast to his head at his home in Knoxville while he was the focus of an extortion investigation.
"It's just a terrible tragedy," Gov. Ned McWherter, also a Democrat, said as Crowell entered surgery. "It just shocked me so. I was paralyzed."