#46745 John Ralph McDowell ( Margaret Eleanor "Budge" Allison • Henry Clay Allison • David Allison • Archibald Allison◊ • Mary Kennedy◊ • John Kennedy◊ • Alexander Kennedy◊ )

John was born 6 Nov 1902. He died 11 Dec 1957 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania from suicide.

The following is quoted from the Williamsport Sun, dated 12 December 1957.

"Former Congressman Shoots Self to Death" Pittsburgh, PA (AP)

John McDowell, former Republican congressman and editor of a weekly newspaper, shot himself to death last night outside his Wilkinsburg home, police said. It definitely was suicide, said Lt. Walter Edinger of Willkinsburg police. The officer said that the 55 year old McDowell had been brooding some time over poor health. The body was found on McDowell's front porch after members of his family heard a shot. Edinger said a .32 caliber bullet struck McDowell in the temple. McDowell was elected to Congress in 1938 and served 10 years. For a number of years he was a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was prominent in the Alger Hiss perjury case. At the time of his death he was Editor of the Wilkinsburg Gazette, a weekly newspaper. McDowell's wife, Virginia, and daughter, Patricia, 24, were home when he stepped outside the house about 11 P.M., presumably to get some logs for the fireplace. The shot followed within minutes.

The following is quoted from Time Magazine, dated 23 December 1957.

DIED--John McDowell, acid tongued flag waving some time Republican U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania (1939-1941)(1947-1949) among those credited by Whittaker Chambers (in witness) with hunting down the facts (while a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee) that led to the arrest and conviction of Alger Hiss; by his own hand (gunshot) at his home in Wilkinsburg, Pa.

∞ John (relationship status suppressed while one person possibly living) #47637 Sarah Virginia Cratty.

(Information suppressed while possibly living)

Children of this relationship:

Verna Allison Pierson & Marlowe G. Smith, The Allisons of Center County, Pennsylvania, History of the Family and Descendants of Archibald Allison and Mary Kennedy of Kirmaiden, Scotland and Monaghan, Ireland, (unpublished). Ref. as [Pierson/Smith]

Line Generation: 8

Relationship: Third Cousins Two Times Removed through Archibald Allison◊