Maurice E . Crumpacker Maurice Edgar Crumpacker ( December 19 , 1886 – July 24 , 1927 ) was a Republican U . S . congressman from Oregon . Early life . Crumpacker was born in Valparaiso , Indiana in 1886 , where he attended the public schools until his father , Edgar D . Crumpacker , was elected to the United States House of Representatives when Maurice was 10 years old . ( Crumpacker ' s cousin , Shepard J . Crumpacker , Jr . , would also serve in the House of Representatives representing Indiana . ) The younger Crumpacker completed his primary education in Washington , D . C . , then returned to Indiana , where he graduated from the Culver Military Academy in 1905 . Crumpacker attended the University of Michigan , where he was a starting right tackle for Fielding H . Yost ' s 1908 Michigan Wolverines football team in his senior year . After graduating from Michigan in 1909 , Crumpacker studied law at Harvard University School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1912 . Move to Oregon . Crumpacker set up his law practice in Portland , Oregon in 1912 . As the United States moved towards participation in World War I , he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U . S . Army ' s Aviation Section , U . S . Signal Corps , and in 1917 , was put in charge of Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen , the company union for the Army ' s Spruce Production Division which supplied lumber for military aircraft and ships . He was eventually promoted to captain of the division and was honorably discharged in 1918 . Political career . In 1921 , Crumpacker was appointed special deputy district attorney for Multnomah County , and ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for U . S . Congress in 1922 . In 1924 , he won the nomination , and was elected representative for Oregon ' s 3rd congressional district . He was re - elected in 1926 . Mysterious death . In July 1927 , Crumpacker was invited by House speaker Nicholas Longworth to journey down the west coast from Seattle in a special train car as the guest of a Northern Pacific Railroad director . Crumpacker , who was 6 ' 2 " tall and weighed 200 pounds ( 1 . 88 m , 91 kg ) , was uncomfortable during the travel through California ' s hot Central Valley . The train arrived in San Francisco on July 22 , with plans to travel on to Salinas and then to California Senator James D . Phelan ' s ranch the next day . But when it was time to depart , Crumpacker could not be found , and the party left without him . He was found later that day on a curb , acting strangely and claiming he had been poisoned . He was eventually subdued , handcuffed , and taken to the hospital , where the evaluating physician noted that he appeared to be " under a great nervous strain " and showing " symptoms of a paranoiac . " Crumpacker eventually persuaded hospital officials to release him the next morning . Word of Crumpacker ' s strange behavior had reached Thomas Smart , a Seattle newsman on vacation , and he agreed to accompany Crumpacker back home to Portland that night . But as Smart went for a walk with Crumpacker along San Francisco Bay , Crumpacker suddenly ran and jumped into the Bay . By the time Smart and others pulled him from the water , he was dead . Crumpacker left several notes indicating that he believed he had been murdered by his friends . Legacy . Crumpacker ' s body was returned to Portland amid effusive praise for his service . He was buried in River View Cemetery in Portland . He left a wife , Cully Cook Crumpacker , and three sons , James , Edgar , and Peter . His Portland home , the Maurice Crumpacker House , was built by acclaimed Portland architect Wade Hampton Pipes and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 .