121- The Sad Tale of Marion Zioncheck

The History Of The Evergreen State

Marion Zioncheck was born in Poland in 1901 and moved to Seattle with his parents four years later. While earning a law degree from the University of Washington, he became a left-wing Democratic Party leader and the Washington Commonwealth Federation (WCF), which supported his 1932 and 1934 congressional campaigns.
In his final seven months as a congressman, Zioncheck garnered headlines for his extracurricular activities and drunken antics with his new wife, Rubeye Louise Nix, including a mid-morning swim in Rockefeller Center's reflecting pool. He experienced elation and depression, according to newspaper stories after his death. In the month before his death, he fled a Maryland psychiatric institution by climbing a seven-and-a-half-foot wire fence.
He was plagued by the press and critics of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which he championed. Zioncheck refiled after saying he would not run again in 1936. His friend and ally, King County Prosecutor Warren G. Magnuson, accepted his offer and ran for Zioncheck's seat on August 1. It may have been the last straw for the besieged Congressman.
A newspaper report after his death described his mental illness: "His doctor recommended him to relax, away from politics, and heal fully. His mental illness was manic depression."
Zioncheck wrote, "My only hope in life was to improve the conditions of an unfair economic system." in his will and farewell note on August 7, 1936. He then jumped from his fifth-floor Arctic Club Building office window at 3rd Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle. His body hit the pavement in front of his wife's automobile.
Listen now to learn more about the sad life of one of the Evergreen State's most fascinating political figures!
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