The Seabury Investigation and Municipal Corruption

THE SEABURY INVESTIGATION AND MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION

From Small Acorns …

Aside from the evidence provided by occasional appearances of anticrime crusaders or the statements by legislative committees of investigation, Americans in the 1930s lacked the means to ferret out collusive arrangements among their elected representatives, organized criminals, and corrupt police. They did not have available to them the legal framework with which these forms of criminal conspiracy could be more vigorously prosecuted, nor the enforcement machinery for detecting and investigating this type of criminal activity. Throughout the nation's history, however, it had been proven time and again that even the most corrupt politicians could not withstand the pressure of an aroused and interested public. While attempts to reform government and to right wrongs involving the public trust often achieved no more than limited goals, they did serve the far more important function of reaffirming community values and protecting the public. Such was the case in New York with the Seabury Commission.

Arnold Rothstein

In 1928 the gambler and loan shark Arnold Rothstein was shot dead, presumably for failing to pay his gambling debts. Rothstein had gained national attention in 1919 in connection with the bribing of eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team to throw the World Series. Pressured by New York mayor Jimmy Walker to bring the killers to justice, the police arrested two of the gambler's associates. In the absence of any evidence of their involvement in Rothstein's murder, however, the charges were dismissed. Nothing more came of the matter until the following year when Walker found himself running against Fiorello La Guardia, a Republican congressman, for the office of mayor. La Guardia claimed that the police knew who had killed Rothstein but had decided not to pursue the investigation for fear of the scandal that might result if news of the payments the gambler had made to one of the city's judges became known. Walker was reelected and again the matter was dropped.

Judge Crater

On 6 August 1930 New York Supreme Court judge Joseph Crater disappeared amid rumors that he had been accepting bribes and was involved in a series of shady financial manipulations. The scandal that resulted forced New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt to ask the appellate division of the state court to conduct an investigation of New York City's magistrate courts. The appellate division, with the governor's blessing, asked Samuel Seabury to conduct the official inquiry.

Judge Seabury

Samuel Seabury was a lawyer who had been elected a city court judge at the age of twenty-eight. He eventually rose to the office of a state supreme (district) court judge before resigning in 1916 to launch an unsuccessful bid for the governorship. A serious man with a courtly demeanor, Seabury was a devoted progressive and a firm believer in the integrity of public office. Following his appointment by the appellate division in 1930, Seabury received two additional commissions: the first, assigned to him by the governor, was to investigate charges of corruption and malfeasance made against the city's district attorney; the second, under the authority granted him by the state legislature in his newly assigned role as counsel for the Hofstadter Joint Legislative Committee, was to undertake an investigation of the city's government. Seabury's probe continued for two years and resulted in disclosures that were widely reported in the press.

Police Corruption

The investigation got off to a rocky start. Rumors and tips were plentiful enough, but hard evidence of wrongdoing, particularly among the members of the police vice squad, was more difficult to come by. Seabury knew that many of the lower court magistrates had been placed in their positions through an elaborate system of graft and payoffs. Judges appointed under the system returned the favor to those responsible for their appointment by dismissing the cases of criminals who in turn paid for the consideration they received. Such schemes involved the police, the courts, bondsmen, lawyers, and members of organized crime. The mobsters paid enormous sums of money for the privilege of engaging in their many criminal activities without fear of police interference. With the help of informants Seabury subpoenaed the records of some two thousand banks and brokerage houses in New York. From the information he was able to obtain, cases against several police officers and others who had been involved with them in the taking of graft were easily made. The prosecutions that followed resulted in numerous convictions, and even more resignations, among officers and police officials, including the sheriff of Manhattan. The commission's work was not without an element of danger; in the course of its investigation, two of the investigation's witnesses were murdered, and another disappeared.

Tammany Hall

Nor did the political machine that had controlled the city's administration for decades escape Seabury's scrutiny. Day after day, witnesses, eventually some twenty-four hundred in number, appeared before the legislative investigating committee for which Seabury served as directing counsel and were subjected to an aggressive and often accusatory examination. The committee learned that the bribery of public officials was so rampant as to be an essential part of doing business in the city—without payoffs one could not obtain basic services or franchises or necessary permits. Special consideration was given to known gamblers, bootleggers, and leaders of organized crime, including the heads of the Luciano-Costello crime empire. As Seabury's investigation continued to expand, his staff discovered evidence of suspicious deposits suggesting a pattern of bribery implicating the mayor of New York himself.

Jimmy Walker

Unable to develop any concrete evidence against the city's district attorney, Seabury turned his attention to the mayor. Jimmy Walker was perhaps one of the most popular mayors in the city's long history. Tammany Hall's choice for mayor in 1925 seemed to personify the carefree and debonair spirit of the city. Mixing easily with politicians, businessmen, gangsters, and his adoring public, the mayor rarely felt pressured by the responsibilities of his office and seemed to be more concerned with maintaining and enjoying an active social life. Walker's humor and quick wit initially distracted the legislators on the investigating committee, but when examination resumed the following day, it was Seabury who asked the questions, leading the mayor through a history of his personal finances and into making some shocking disclosures. Cash, bonds, checks, and dividends—almost three-quarters of a million dollars all told—had poured into an account that Walker shared jointly with an acquaintance. Walker first denied that the money was his but finally admitted to having withdrawn more than half of it for his own use. This proved to be one of two such accounts in which the mayor was a joint account holder. Walker could no more explain why he had been entitled to the moneys he had withdrawn than he could relate how he had earned the twenty-six thousand dollars he had received from the owner of a fleet of city cabs. In 1932 the mayor resigned, and the Seabury investigation was concluded.

Citizen Seabury

Seabury chose not to capitalize on his fame or reputation as an honest reformer, but this did not prevent him from forming a fusion ticket with Fiorello La Guardia as its candidate for mayor (the Democratic machine, Tammany Hall, had been discredited, but New York City remained a Democratic stronghold. A fusion candidate could appeal to both Democrats and Republicans for support). Once La Guardia had been elected, Seabury withdrew from politics and returned to his private practice. He died in 1958.

RACE CONSCIOUSNESS

"Race consciousness is developing in all parts of the world. Consider Italy, consider Germany. It is beginning to be recognized by the thoughtful minds of our age that the conservation of racial values is the only hope for future civilization.… The Germans appreciate the importance of race values."

—Theodore Bilbo, U.S. senator from Mississippi, 1938.

Source:

Steven R. Fox, Blood and Power: Organized Crime In the Twentieth Century (New York: Morrow, 1989).