Former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter dies

Nation & World News

Photos of the life and career of former U.S. senator Arlen Specter.

This November 1965 file photo shows Arlen Specter posing for a portrait. Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, longtime Senate moderate and architect of one-bullet theory in JFK death, died Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012. He was 82. Specter rose to prominence in the 1960s as an aggressive Philadelphia prosecutor and as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, developing the single-bullet theory that posited just one bullet struck both President Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally — an assumption critical to the argument that presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The theory remains controversial and was the focus of Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "JFK."

Specter, who had battled cancer, was Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator when Democrats picked then-U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak over him in the 2010 primary, despite Specter's endorsements by President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders. Sestak lost Specter's seat to conservative Republican Rep. Pat Toomey by 2 percentage points.

Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous bouts with Hodgkin lymphoma, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac arrest following bypass surgery.

In an Aug. 19, 1980 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan holds Specter's hand at a fundraising party for the late senator in Philadelphia.

In a Jan. 6, 1981 file photo, Vice President Walter F. Mondale re-enacts the swearing in of Specter (R-Pa.), at the Capitol in Washington.

In this Oct. 1, 1981 file photo, Dr. Everett Koop, left, who had been nominated to be the U.S. surgeon general, chats with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), right, prior to appearing before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee which held his confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., speaks at the Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as he campaigns across Pennsylvania for the Democratic nomination to run for re-election. Specter, a longtime moderate Republican, switched parties in 2009.

Specter, R-Pa., points to a reporter during a news conference in Philadelphia, where he announced that he was dropping out of the 1996 Presidential race.

In this Sept. 15, 2009 file photo, President Barack Obama arrives at a fundraising event for Specter at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

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This November 1965 file photo shows Arlen Specter posing for a portrait. Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, longtime Senate moderate and architect of one-bullet theory in JFK death, died Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012. He was 82. Specter rose to prominence in the 1960s as an aggressive Philadelphia prosecutor and as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, developing the single-bullet theory that posited just one bullet struck both President Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally — an assumption critical to the argument that presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The theory remains controversial and was the focus of Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "JFK."

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