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Hofstadter Committee
The Hofstadter Committee, also known as the Seabury investigations, was a joint legislative committee formed by the New York State Legislature on behalf of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to probe into corruption in New York City, especially the magistrate's courts and police department in 1931. It led to major changes in the method of arrest, bail and litigation of suspects in New York City. It also coincided with the decline in Tammany Hall's political influence in New York State politics.
Roosevelt, although aided by Tammany's Al Smith into the Governorship in 1928, did not seek advice from Tammany Hall or Smith. The organized crime robbery of a New York City judge and leader of the Tepecano Democratic Club, Albert H. Vitale, during a dinner party on December 7, 1929, and the subsequent recovering of the stolen goods from gangsters following a few calls from Magistrate Vitale, prompted questions from the public and press regarding ties between organized crime, law enforcement, and the judicial system within the city. Vitale was accused of owing $19,600 to Arnold Rothstein, and was investigated by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court for failing to explain how he accrued $165,000 over four years while receiving a total judicial salary of $48,000 during that same period. Vitale was removed from the bench. A further investigation by U.S. district attorney Charles H. Tuttle in 1929 discovered that Brooklyn Judge Bernard Vause was paid $190,000 in return for obtaining pier leases for a shipping company, and that another city judge, George Ewald had paid Tammany Hall $10,000 for the replacement seat of Judge Vitale. Roosevelt responded by launching the first of three investigations between 1930 and 1932. Roosevelt prompted Ex-Judge of the Court of Appeals Samuel Seabury to investigate matters.
A key witness in the first of Seabury's investigations in 1930, Vivian Gordon, was found murdered in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Gordon was to testify on her incongruous arrest in 1923. This murder prompted the second of Seabury's investigations on behalf of Roosevelt. Gordon's murder also prompted the first time that the Pinkerton Agency was called in to help investigate a case in New York City. Additionally, a Tammany Hall associate and state Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Force Crater, disappeared in August 1930, in what would become an unsolved case. Crater was president of a Tammany Hall Club on the Upper West Side and was also a known acquaintance of Gordon. A third investigation followed, with several thousand interviews.
The commission was chaired by State Senator Samuel H. Hofstadter. The actual investigation was conducted by Seabury who was appointed legal counsel to the committee.
The commission heard testimony from a thousand citizens, policemen, judges, lawyers and defendants about unjust treatment before the law prompted by allegations of corruption in police and court systems.
The Seabury investigation into the Magistrate's Courts exposed the conspiracy of judges, attorneys, police and bail bondsmen to extort money from defendants facing trial.
The Magistrate's Court of the City of New York was the Court in which those people charged with certain crimes first encountered the justice system. Throughout the autumn of 1930, the Seabury Commission heard more than 1,000 witnesses — judges, lawyers, police officers and former defendants — describe a pattern of false arrests, fraudulent bail bonds, and imprisonment.
Many people — often women, always working class — who were charged with crimes in the Magistrate's Court were totally innocent of wrongdoing, "framed" in police parlance, by lying police officers and police-paid "witnesses." The victims usually knew no lawyers and could not afford private counsel. Victims were made to understand that conviction and a prison sentence were a foregone conclusion unless money was paid through certain attorneys to court personnel, police and others. An assistant district attorney was involved in these schemes. One of the police set-up men was Chile Mapocha Acuna, whose testimony inspired a song titled, "Chile Acuna, the human spittoona."
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Hofstadter Committee
The Hofstadter Committee, also known as the Seabury investigations, was a joint legislative committee formed by the New York State Legislature on behalf of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to probe into corruption in New York City, especially the magistrate's courts and police department in 1931. It led to major changes in the method of arrest, bail and litigation of suspects in New York City. It also coincided with the decline in Tammany Hall's political influence in New York State politics.
Roosevelt, although aided by Tammany's Al Smith into the Governorship in 1928, did not seek advice from Tammany Hall or Smith. The organized crime robbery of a New York City judge and leader of the Tepecano Democratic Club, Albert H. Vitale, during a dinner party on December 7, 1929, and the subsequent recovering of the stolen goods from gangsters following a few calls from Magistrate Vitale, prompted questions from the public and press regarding ties between organized crime, law enforcement, and the judicial system within the city. Vitale was accused of owing $19,600 to Arnold Rothstein, and was investigated by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court for failing to explain how he accrued $165,000 over four years while receiving a total judicial salary of $48,000 during that same period. Vitale was removed from the bench. A further investigation by U.S. district attorney Charles H. Tuttle in 1929 discovered that Brooklyn Judge Bernard Vause was paid $190,000 in return for obtaining pier leases for a shipping company, and that another city judge, George Ewald had paid Tammany Hall $10,000 for the replacement seat of Judge Vitale. Roosevelt responded by launching the first of three investigations between 1930 and 1932. Roosevelt prompted Ex-Judge of the Court of Appeals Samuel Seabury to investigate matters.
A key witness in the first of Seabury's investigations in 1930, Vivian Gordon, was found murdered in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Gordon was to testify on her incongruous arrest in 1923. This murder prompted the second of Seabury's investigations on behalf of Roosevelt. Gordon's murder also prompted the first time that the Pinkerton Agency was called in to help investigate a case in New York City. Additionally, a Tammany Hall associate and state Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Force Crater, disappeared in August 1930, in what would become an unsolved case. Crater was president of a Tammany Hall Club on the Upper West Side and was also a known acquaintance of Gordon. A third investigation followed, with several thousand interviews.
The commission was chaired by State Senator Samuel H. Hofstadter. The actual investigation was conducted by Seabury who was appointed legal counsel to the committee.
The commission heard testimony from a thousand citizens, policemen, judges, lawyers and defendants about unjust treatment before the law prompted by allegations of corruption in police and court systems.
The Seabury investigation into the Magistrate's Courts exposed the conspiracy of judges, attorneys, police and bail bondsmen to extort money from defendants facing trial.
The Magistrate's Court of the City of New York was the Court in which those people charged with certain crimes first encountered the justice system. Throughout the autumn of 1930, the Seabury Commission heard more than 1,000 witnesses — judges, lawyers, police officers and former defendants — describe a pattern of false arrests, fraudulent bail bonds, and imprisonment.
Many people — often women, always working class — who were charged with crimes in the Magistrate's Court were totally innocent of wrongdoing, "framed" in police parlance, by lying police officers and police-paid "witnesses." The victims usually knew no lawyers and could not afford private counsel. Victims were made to understand that conviction and a prison sentence were a foregone conclusion unless money was paid through certain attorneys to court personnel, police and others. An assistant district attorney was involved in these schemes. One of the police set-up men was Chile Mapocha Acuna, whose testimony inspired a song titled, "Chile Acuna, the human spittoona."
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