Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche dies at 96

LEESBURG, Va. – Lyndon LaRouche, the political extremist who ran for president in every election from 1976 to 2004, including a campaign waged from prison, has died at 96.

His organization, LaRouche PAC, confirmed Wednesday on its website that LaRouche died a day earlier.

LaRouche grew up in Massachusetts. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He ran first as the U. S. Labor Party nominee and later, after an apparent shift to the right, as a Democratic or independent candidate.

He ran his 1992 campaign from a prison cell after he was convicted in 1988 of mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the IRS by defaulting on more than $30 million in loans from campaign supporters.