William John "Bill" Janklow (13 September 1939-12 January 2012) was Governor of South Dakota (R) from 1 January 1979 to 6 January 1987 (succeeding Harvey L. Wollman and preceding George S. Mickelson) and from 7 January 1995 to 3 January 2003 (succeeding Walter Dale Miller and preceding Mike Rounds). He also served as a member of the US House of Representatives (R-SD) from 3 January 2003 to 20 January 2004, succeeding John Thune and preceding Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
Biogrpahy[]
Bill Janklow was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939, and he moved with his mother to South Dakota at the age of 15. He served in the US Marine Corps from 1956 to 1959 and afterwards graduated from the University of South Dakota, becoming a lawyer and, later, Chief Prosecutor of South Dakota in 1973. From 1975 to 1979, he served as Attorney General of South Dakota, and he served as Governor from 1979 to 1987 and from 1995 to 2003. Janklow reinstated capital punishment in the state, removed South Dakota's limit on interest rates (attracting banks), increased accessibility for the disabled to public and private facilities in the state, cut property taxes for homeowners and farmers by 30%, and repealed the inheritance tax. His career survived rape allegations and pardoning his son-in-law for marijuana possession and drunk driving, and he went on to serve in the US Congress from 2003 to 2004. In 2003, he killed a motorcyclist after failing to stop his vehicle at a stop sign, and he was forced to resign from Congress in 2004 and to serve 100 days in jail. He died of brain cancer in 2012.