JEROME, WILLIAM TRAVERS 1859-1934

District attorney, civic reformer

Background

William Travers Jerome, New York's district attorney for much of the decade, was born in New York City. After attending a private preparatory school in Switzerland, he studied at Amherst College for three years before moving on to Columbia Law School, where he received his law degree in 1884. Three years after being admitted to the bar in New York, he was appointed an assistant district attorney. An appointment like this insured a steady income, but it depended on party loyalty: a political appointee had to be absolutely loyal to the party organization that appointed him. In this case, Jerome owed his position to the Democrats, and in return he was expected to be loyal to their organization, known as Tammany Hall. But in 1890 he joined the People's Municipal League, a reform organization, and returned to private practice.

Reformer

Jerome maintained his interest in political affairs. In 1894 he served as an assistant counsel to a legislative committee looking into corruption in city government, and he himself served as counsel to the anti-Tammany Hall Committee of 70. William L. Strong, who ran for mayor in 1894 and defeated the Democratic candidate, rewarded Jerome for his campaign assistance by making him a judge on the court of special sessions, where he served until 1901. In 1901 Jerome ran for district attorney of New York City.

Crusading Candidate

Jerome knew how to manage a campaign. Money from gambling, he knew, came from the poor and subsidized other criminal activities. Gambling and prostitution both flourished under Tammany Hall's control of New York City. Though Tammany and the police force maintained they could not uncover gambling dens, Jerome knew that in fact these vices were protected, if not encouraged, by the political machine. In a daring series of raids, Jerome, using a hatchet to break down doors, invaded gambling dens, accompanied by reporters and his own magistrates. Pulling a Bible from his pocket, he swore in witnesses and held trials on the spot. Jerome raided one popular gambling den next door to Tammany's headquarters, demonstrating that the Democratic machine protected vice. More important, the raids showed Jerome to be a man of action, and he was easily elected.

District Attorney

Jerome proved more than just an able candidate: as district attorney, he considerably improved the office's efficiency, hiring a dynamic staff, speeding up prosecution, and collecting more on forfeited bonds, thus increasing the office's income. To keep his office close to the city's poor, Jerome opened a branch office in the Lower East Side, where poor immigrants could come with their complaints about corrupt police, their worries about daughters forced into prostitution, or other problems. When he realized that witnesses caught in gambling raids would be reluctant to testify against the men who ran the rings if the witnesses later would have their own testimonies used against them, Jerome sponsored a state law giving them immunity. He also sponsored a new, tougher law against gambling, which the legislature passed in 1904. Nicknamed somewhat ironically "New York's Carry Nation"—though Jerome broke up gambling dens with the same moral fervor Carry Nation used on saloons, he was known as a drinker—and "Cigarette Willy," Jerome made for a good story.

Reelection and Loss of Power

In 1905, again demonstrating his independence, Jerome ran for reelection without the support of either political party. He won by an overwhelming margin. Yet in his second term he could not sustain the dynamic popularity or effectiveness of his first. In 1904 he had successfully prosecuted some corrupt labor leaders, yet he did not pursue the contractors who had bribed the union men. In his campaign in 1901 he had pledged to investigate the Metropolitan Street Railway, a huge corporate entity that not only ran the trolleys and streetcar lines but issued stocks and bonds that turned out in 1907 to be virtually worthless. When the Metropolitan went bust, thousands of shareholders lost their life savings. Jerome was attacked for not having investigated this corporation, for being less interested in the crimes of wealth, in the speculators who gambled with stocks and bonds and other people's fortunes, than in the men shaking dice in back rooms. Though an investigation in 1908 cleared Jerome of any impropriety, his political career was ruined. Much of the damage was done by the same newspapers that had helped propel him into the spotlight. He retired at the end of 1909. His distant cousin Winston Churchill thought Jerome might have become president of the United States "had he wished to pay the price." Instead Jerome left public life, having set the pattern of a tough, crusading district attorney, seeking out crime and putting criminals in jail. Investments in the technicolor process of making movies ensured a comfortable retirement. He died on 13 February 1934.

Source:

Richard O'Connor, Courtroom Warrior: The Combative Career of Willliam Travers Jerome (Boston: Little, Brown, 1963).

William Travers Jerome 1859–1934, American lawyer, b. New York City. Prominent in the cause of reform, he served (1894–95) on the Lexow commission to investigate political corruption and managed (1894) the successful campaign of William L. Strong for reform mayor of New York City. He helped frame the legislation that created the court of special sessions (1894) and became (1895) justice of that court. As district attorney (1901–9) of New York co., Jerome led a continuous and independent campaign against crime and political corruption. Frequently he led surprise raids in person, notably the one against the gambling house of Richard Canfield . Jerome was the prosecutor in the trial of Harry K. Thaw for the murder of Stanford White .

Bibliography: See biography by R. O'Connor (1963).