Controversial former mayor of Washington Barry dies
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MARION Barry, the scandal-plagued former mayor of Washington, DC, who was jailed for smoking crack cocaine before making a surprising return to office, died early yesterday aged 78.
Before his fall from grace, Barry had been one of the nation’s most promising black politicians. Years later, many Washingtonians would consider him a scoundrel but he remained a hero to many others in impoverished parts of the city, even as his continuing battles with substance abuse went public.
Barry, who was serving as a city councilman, was hospitalized briefly last week and collapsed hours after being released on Saturday night, reports said. He died at the United Medical Center in Washington, spokeswoman Natalie Williams said. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Barry served three terms from 1979 until 1991 when he went to prison for six months. He reclaimed the job in 1995.
Gregarious and charismatic, he came to be known as Washington’s “mayor for life,” a label he said he disliked but still used in the title of his autobiography “Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr.”
Barry’s third term was sullied by open talk of womanizing, drinking and drug use, making him an easy target for comedians and drawing media disdain. Several top aides were convicted of corruption.
On January 18, 1990, the married Barry met an ex-girlfriend, former model Rasheeda Moore, in Washington’s Vista Hotel. Hidden cameras captured him asking Moore about the possibility of having sex and then smoking a crack pipe before FBI agents and police rushed in to arrest him.
Following a six-week trial, the jury convicted him on only a misdemeanor count of cocaine possession. Jurors acquitted him of another possession charge and were deadlocked on 12 other charges. He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Prison could have meant the end of politics for the son of a sharecropper from Itta Bena, Mississippi. But the humiliation did not kill his political career.
Barry was married four times and had one son.
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