John Charles Linthicum (November 26, 1867–October 5, 1932) was a U.S. Congressman from the 4th Congressional district of Maryland, serving from 1911 to 1932. Biography Linthicum was born on 26 November 1867 near Baltimore, Maryland, in the locality now known as Linthicum Heights, Anne Arundel County, the son of Sweetser Linthicum Sr. (1824–1905) and Laura Ellen Smith (1829–1910). He and his many siblings attended the public schools of Anne Arundel County and Baltimore. He graduated from the Maryland State Normal School in Baltimore in 1886, and became principal of the Braddock School in Frederick County, Maryland, in 1887. He also taught in the schools of Anne Arundel County, and studied history and political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He graduated from the law school at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore in 1890, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Baltimore in 1890. In 1893 he married Eugenia May Biden but she died in 1897. In 1898, he married at Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church of Baltimore as his second wife Helen Aletta Perry (1868–1944), widow of wealthy jeweler Gilbert D. Clark (d. 8 Dec 1896) and daughter of a prominent medical doctor. By 1900, his younger brother Seth Hance Linthicum was the junior partner in their growing law firm, while both were partners with their younger brother Wade Hampton Linthicum in the Linthicum Realty Company, and with their brother Dr. George Milton Linthicum in the Linthicum Heights Company. Linthicum served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1904 and 1905, and in the Maryland State Senate from 1906 to 1909. He was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Baltimore in 1907, and was a judge advocate general on the staff of Maryland Governor Austin Lane Crothers from 1908 to 1912. He was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second and to the ten succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1911, until his death. Linthicum's most important role in Congress was that of the leader of the Wets (those who advocated the repeal of alcohol prohibition), succeeding John Philip Hill in 1927. Working with Republican James M. Beck of Pennsylvania, Linthicum co-wrote and in 1932 introduced the Beck-Linthicum Bill which was designed to repeal the 18th Amendment. Although the bill failed, it is highly significant in that it forced the wet and dry members to go on record as