John W. Langley

John Wesley Langley (January 14, 1868 - January 17, 1932) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky, husband of Katherine Gudger Langley.

Born in Floyd County, Kentucky, Langley attended the common schools. He taught school for three years. He attended the law department of the National, Georgetown, and Columbian (now George Washington) Universities in Washington, D.C., for an aggregate period of eight years. He was Examiner in the Pension Office and a member of the Board of Pension Appeals, Law Clerk in the General Land Office, and, from 1899 to 1907, Disbursing and Appointment Clerk of the Census Office. He served in the State House of Representatives from 1886 to 1890. (Last Call - The Rise and Fall of Prohition by Daniel Okrent. Pg 275.)

Langley was elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth and to the nine succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1907, until January 11, 1926, when he resigned upon being convicted of illegally selling alcohol. Langley had deposited $115,000 in his bank account over a three-year period despite earning only $7,500 a year as a congressman. He had arranged for "medicinal" alcohol to be released to New York-based bootleggers during prohibition. His wife was twice elected to take his place in congress.

He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Sixty-sixth through Sixty-eighth Congresses). He resumed the practice of law in Pikeville, Kentucky, where he died on January 17, 1932. He was interred in the Langley Cemetery at Middle Creek, Kentucky.

References

• John W. Langley at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress