Allard Kenneth Lowenstein, a 51-year-old male, was a former Democratic congressman from New York with a passion for social justice. On March 14, 1980, his life was tragically cut short in his law office in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center. A man named Dennis Sweeney, a former student and once a protégé of Lowenstein's during the civil rights movement, walked into his office.
After a brief and seemingly calm interaction, Sweeney produced a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and shot Lowenstein multiple times. The sudden violence shattered the normal workday, with a telephone installer in a nearby office hearing screams followed by several 'pops.'
Following the shooting, Sweeney exhibited a strange and unnerving calm. He walked out of Lowenstein's office, placed the pistol on a secretary's desk, lit a cigarette, and sat down to await the arrival of the police. He surrendered without any resistance. Lowenstein, meanwhile, was grievously wounded. He was rushed to St. Clare's Hospital where a team of surgeons operated for over five hours in a desperate attempt to save his life. Despite their efforts, which included removing his left lung and repairing multiple wounds to his heart, Lowenstein succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after 11 p.m.
The investigation into the murder revealed a troubled history behind the seemingly senseless act of violence. Sweeney, who had once been a promising student leader at Stanford University, had developed severe mental health issues over the years. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and harbored delusions that Lowenstein was at the center of a conspiracy against him. Sweeney believed that Lowenstein was persecuting him and was even responsible for his father's recent fatal heart attack. These paranoid beliefs were the driving force behind the deadly attack.
Dennis Sweeney was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon. However, due to his evident mental illness, the legal proceedings took a different course. In February 1981, Sweeney was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was subsequently committed to the Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center, a maximum-security facility in New York, for treatment of his schizophrenia. After spending years in psychiatric care, a judge determined in 2000 that Sweeney was no longer a danger to society and granted him a conditional release.
