In the months preceding the apparent suicide of Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich, the Republican gubernatorial prospect believed that John Hancock, before he was elected chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, was leading an anti-Semitic whisper campaign against him that he was Jewish.

Schweich very clearly believed that: The issue “had been eating at him for months,” said one advisor, but the problem was he lacked substantiation.

In interviews following his death, his closest advisors – who would not speak on the record citing “respect for Tom’s family” – have said the problem was that Schweich had no substantial evidence of a whisper campaign to present to the press, and they refused to push his narrative.

Schweich believed that he could present a sworn affidavit proving his claim, but that document never materialized.

Two days before Schweich took his own life, he held a conference call with those he trusted the most about whether he should go before the press and present the allegations, on his own. One the line were people like former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, St. Louis billionaire Sam Fox, and Springfield lawyer Joseph Passanise, his campaign treasurer. Most of them urged him not to go forward with the allegations.

While Schweich did have a Jewish heritage stemming from his grandfather, he did not practice the faith. He was Episcopalian and open about his Christianity. Schweich believed that Hancock was telling Christian conservative donors that he was Jewish in an effort to feed off the anti-Semitism that still exists in parts of Missouri.

Schweich backed down from the initial news conference, but two days later, he moved forward on his own, scheduling interviews with reporters from the Associated Press and leaving a message with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was at that moment that Danforth’s office was on the phone with him, once again, urging him not to move forward, that Schweich took his own life.