Photo by Justin Ennis

This post contains spoilers for people who are still catching up on either Boardwalk Empire or the history of the 1920s.

Among several exciting moments during last night’s episode of Boardwalk Empire was one that recreated a dark moment that played out in D.C.’s venerable Wardman Park Hotel, when a high-ranking Justice Department official died in an apparent suicide in May 1923.

The hotel, which opened in the Woodley Park neighborhood 1918, served as the Washington residence for many federal officials, including cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and future presidents. Among the residents in the early 1920s was Attorney General Harry Daugherty, President Warren G. Harding’s political majordomo.

Jess Smith (Library of Congress)

Daugherty was Harding’s campaign manager in 1920, and a leader of Harding’s so-called “Ohio Gang.” He was also flagrantly corrupt, engaging in bid-rigging for oil contracts, grifting programs for veterans and, as depicted on the HBO series, making deals with bootleggers.

Daugherty operated out of a sprawling apartment at the Wardman Park Hotel, which he shared with Jess Smith, a fellow Ohioan and assistant attorney general who was also part of the Harding administration’s corrupt inner circle. On recent episodes of Boardwalk Empire, Smith, played by Daniel Angus Cox, has been portrayed as a quivering mess on the verge of confessing his misdeeds.

Last night’s episode featured Daugherty, played by Christopher McDonald, and Nucky Thompson, the Atlantic City crime boss played by Steve Buscemi, conspire to dispatch Smith before he could spill his secrets. In the episode, they contract Gaston Bullock Means, a slippery operative played by Stephen Root, to do away with the crumbling Smith.

As Boardwalk Empire tells it, Means arrives at Smith’s hotel room, revolver in hand, only to be discovered by Smith, wielding a pistol of his own. After some back-and-forth, Smith shoots himself in the head.

Smith’s real-life death on May 30, 1923 was not that far from HBO’s depiction. Smith was found dead in his hotel room with Means as the primary witness, and though the death was ruled a suicide, it was investigated for several years by members of the U.S. Senate doubted Means’ veracity. (And perhaps for good measure, as Means was a lifelong con man who went to prison after attempting to scam Charles Lindbergh’s family after the aviator’s child was kidnapped.)

Means allegedly told Smith of his own plans to confess his crimes shortly before Smith killed himself. That’s the testimony Means gave the following year when he went on trial for partaking in a conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act, the law that empowered the federal government to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment.

Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter explained his recreation of the Smith’s death: