Marion A. Zioncheck

Colorful Congressman who committed suicide. Born in Poland, he came with his parents to Seattle at the age of four. While earning his law degree from the University of Washington, Zioncheck also made a name for himself as a left-wing leader in the Democratic Party. An elected Congressman since March 4, 1933, he championed Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies and was known to make headlines in Washington, but more for his drunken antics than for his work as a U.S. Representative. One example would be when he and his new bride, the lovely Rubeye Louise Nix, whom he married on April 28, 1936, took a late-night frolic in a Washington, D.C., fountain. He was also known to battle depression and hinted that he might not seek reelection. Upon hearing this, King County Prosecutor Warren G. Magnusen filed, on August 1, 1936, to run for his friend and fellow Seattleite's seat. The thought of his friend and ally taking his place may have pushed Zioncheck over the edge because six days later, while at his downtown Seattle office, located on the 5th floor of the Arctic Club Building on 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street, he jumped to his death, landing on the pavement directly in front of a car occupied by his bride of three months. The suicide note he left declared, "My only hope in life was to improve the conditions of an unfair economic system."