Jim Wright - Aide Controversy

Aide Controversy

In 1989, controversy arose from media reports that Jim Wright's main aide, John Mack, had violently attacked Pamela Small sixteen years earlier. Small was attempting to replace blinds in a store Mack managed, and he took her to the storeroom where he then asked her to lie down. When she refused, he repeatedly hit her in the head with a hammer, stabbed her with a steak knife, and slashed her throat, before putting her body in his car and going to see a movie.

Pamela Small survived the attack, and reported it to the police. John Mack pled guilty to malicious wounding "with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable and kill" and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. However, after repeated correspondence with Rep. Wright, whose daughter was married to his brother, Mack was paroled after serving less than 27 months and given a job working for Wright on Capitol Hill. Critics, including feminist activist Andrea Dworkin, alleged that Wright manipulated the legal system to get Mack off and, subsequently, protected him from media scrutiny. The story later broke in 1989, when Pamela Small gave an interview about her ordeal with the Washington Post. Amid media criticism, John Mack resigned from his post.