[Ads-l] Smoking Gun (July 1974)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I’ve found an earlier article which uses “smoking gun” in a literal sense,
but puts it directly in the context of Nixon’s actions:

“To be sure, for each example [of White House wrongdoing], a defense could
be made. But when the pattern of stretching the law becomes far-reaching
enough, these arguments begin to ring hollow. A man found with a smoking
gun in his hand and a dead body at his feet can claim self-defense. But
after a number of such occasions the jury would have good reason not to
believe him anymore.”

That’s from an article called “Yes: Why We Should Impeach,” by Roger D.
Masters, in the Washington Post (Aug. 5, 1973), p. C1.

Considering its appearance in WaPo, it presumably imparted the idea of a
“smoking gun” in the context of Watergate.

On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 11:11 PM Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Smoking Gun (July 1974)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As evidence of a crime, not necessarily a political one, this was common
> when I started as a cop in 1969:  "How do you solve a domestic homicide?
> Go
> to the scene and arrest the one holding the smoking gun."  Not sure where
> the antedating source might be - police manuals, detective magazines, crime
> novels?
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Wilton" <dave at WILTON.NET>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 11:17 AM
> Subject: Smoking Gun (July 1974)
>
>
> OED2 has October 1974.
>
> A couple of cites from the New York Times that use the term. Besides
> antedating the OED by a few months, they are significant in that they show
> the term was in general use by the time Barber Conable, who is widely
> credited with first use, used the term on 5 August 1974.
>
> NYT, 14 July 1974, p. 169: The big question asked over the last few weeks
> in
> and around the House Judiciary Committee's hearing room by committee
> members
> who are uncertain about how they felt about impeachment was, "Where's the
> smoking gun?"
>
> NYT, 21 July 1974, p. 1: Representative Robert F. Drinan, a Massachusetts
> Democrat who is among the president's outspoken critics, said that the
> section of the summary that focused on alleged abuses of Presidential power
> contained "the smoking gun" tying Mr. Nixon directly to wrongdoing in the
> Ellsberg case.
>
>
> --Dave Wilton
>   dave at wilton.net
>
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