Fanne Foxe's Plunge was the night in 1974 that began the end of the reign of Wilbur Mills, the Arkansas congressman who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the nation's tax laws. At about 2 a.m. on Monday 7 October 1974, U.S. Park Police stopped a speeding car with its lights off near the Jefferson Memorial. Mills, 65, was a passenger. Also inside were the driver, Albert Gapacini; Annabell Battistella, 38, a striptease dancer billed as Fanne Foxe, the Argentine Firecracker; her cousin; and another woman. Battistella left the car and went into the Tidal Basin, and police pulled her out. They said she and Mills had both been drinking; Mills had a bloody nose and scratches on his face.
Mills's office at first denied that he had been there, and he admitted it three days later. He was re-elected in November all the same, with about 59 percent of the vote. Then, on 30 November, he appeared on stage with her at the Pilgrim Theatre in Boston. On 10 December 1974 he gave up the chairmanship of Ways and Means, and he was treated for alcoholism.
Mills did not run again and left the House in January 1977 after 38 years. He went on to campaign for alcoholism treatment, and a treatment centre in Searcy, Arkansas, bears his name. Battistella, who had danced at the Silver Slipper on 13th Street NW, died in Florida in 2021.
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38.8824, -77.0364
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