Nelson G. Gross: regular contributor

Image from the Evening News

Nelson G. Gross was the type of politician who, though deeply influential in government, worked more out of the public eye than as an official. The closest he came to being an elected member of the national government was a failed Senate bid, and he undertook that effort with experience limited mostly to campaigns and party positions. Though he drew some controversy during his work in politics, the incident which would garner more attention was the senseless manner in which his life ended. 

Born in Saddle River, New Jersey in 1932, Gross went from being a lawyer to a close involvement with the state's Republican Party. He was a member of the state house of assembly in 1962, but his major breakthrough came six years later as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Among the New Jersey Republicans, the hope was that the presidential nod could go to "favorite son" candidate Clifford P. Case, who had been in the Senate since 1955. 

To the chagrin of some party members, however, Gross led an effort to support former Vice President Richard Nixon and persuaded 18 of the state's 40 delegates to change their vote. When Nixon captured the nomination, Gross led his campaign in New Jersey, where Nixon triumphed by about 60,000 votes on his way to the White House in the 1968 election. Despite the breakaway from Case, Gross's relationship with the state Republicans were still strong enough that he chaired the state party in 1969. 

In April of the next year, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Frederick Lacey announced that Gross was under investigation for ties to a labor union allegedly dominated by the Mafia. No charges came out of the matter, and only a week after the announcement Gross announced that he was resigning as chairman to enter the 1970 Senate race. He easily won the GOP primary against two opponents. 

A month before the election, he was pummeled by political columnist Jack Anderson. "Nelson Gross, the Republican candidate for the Senate in New Jersey, has made a big show of opening up his records for public inspection. But apparently we are the only ones who have bothered to inspect them. What we found may make Gross wish he had kept his records hidden." Anderson claimed that Gross had charged numerous personal expenses to failing companies he controlled, including bouquets for his wife, vacations, and tickets to the Moscow Circus visit to Madison Square Garden. 

Anderson said that when confronted with the charges, Gross claimed that the court had thrown the suit out. Anderson countered that a $25,000 settlement had been involved in the resolution. Gross failed to dislodge the incumbent Democratic, Senator Harrison A. Williams, in the general election. Williams, who had served in the Senate since 1959, earned about 250,000 more votes than Gross. Case got in a dig at Gross, commenting that his close ties to the Nixon Administration may have hurt him. "Nelson had some excellent position papers. It is a real tragedy that he and his media people did not choose to emphasize them--that his media campaign chose to emphasize the negative side." 

The ties to the President did help him to secure employment after the loss, however. In August of 1971, he began working for the State Department as a senior adviser and coordinator on international narcotics matters. Then in May of 1973, Gross was indicted on fraud charges. The charges said Gross issued false invoices to the Stop and Save Stamp Corporation, a subsidiary of Grand Union Co., in order to make a $5,000 contribution to the 1969 campaign of New Jersey Governor William T. Cahill and make it appear to be tax deductible. Gross was also accused of encouraging William H. Preis, president of the Stop and Save Stamp Corporation, to make false statements to the grand jury; Preis pleaded guilty the same month to perjury. 

U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern said there was no evidence to suggest that Cahill knew about the illegality of the contribution, but the damage was done. The scandal was one factor playing into Cahill's defeat in the 1973 Republican primary, where the gubernatorial nomination went to Representative Charles Sandman. To the charges, Gross said, "I am astounded that anyone could conceivably believe that I would be in a position to counsel or did counsel one of the largest retailing supermarket chains in the country as to the manner in which it should complete and file federal income tax returns." 

 The trial happened in March of 1974. Among the 28 witnesses to testify over the course of five weeks was Bernard Striar, owner of a Maine textile company. Striar said Gross arranged for him to make a $2,000 contribution to Gross's Senate campaign and illegally deduct it. Gross took the stand in his own defense, not only claiming innocence but accusing the U.S. Attorney's Office of trying to topple his law firm. Gross's father also took the stand, testifying that Gross actually advised Preis to tell the truth to the grand jury rather than lie. When the jury returned a verdict, it found Gross guilty of tax evasion and perjury. 

Gross's lawyers made a curious argument for a new trial, arguing that wealthy people were excluded from the jury. In June of 1974, Gross was sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine; a week later, Preis received the same sentence, but with the jail term suspended. Gross remained a free man while he ground his way through the appeals process. In December of 1974, he asked the three-judge Federal Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to overturn his conviction; they upheld the verdict in February of 1975. In November of that year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction as well. Finally, in June of 1976, Gross began serving his sentence after first trying to turn himself in at the federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He ended up serving six months. 

 In a surprising turn of events, it was revealed a couple of years later that the marshals at the trial had taken a far more active role at the trial than was allowed. Leon Harvey Stacey said he and his fellow officers seduced some of the female jurors, persuading them that the prosecution's case was sound and capitalizing on the increasing dissatisfaction with Nixon. "We all knew Nelson Gross was part of the Nixon administration. It was therefore easy to allude to a general disenchantment with politicians," Stacey said. "In other words, as part of the romancing of the jurors, my reference to politicians was always in a negative attitude." 

With this revelation, Gross tried to reopen the case and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in New York granted a hearing in November of 1978. It is unclear how this turned out, but if subsequent developments are any indication it was not very successful. In June of 1981, he was disbarred from practicing law in federal courts due to his conviction and his failure to show up at a hearing. An ethical board later disbarred him from the state courts for three years after finding that he had committed "unethical conduct." 

Despite his legal troubles, Gross was still financially successful through his investments in real estate development and restaurants. He was a millionaire in September of 1997, stopping in at a floating restaurant he owned in Edgewater, New Jersey every day for a meal. Then he disappeared. Gross was last seen taking $20,000 from a bank near the restaurant, a transaction not unusual due to his frequent large withdrawals. His wife and son reportedly saw him getting into his BMW with two men, and his son called his cell phone to see if everything was all right. "It's business. It's just business," Gross replied before hanging up. 

A search for Gross began, and first found his car abandoned about 15 blocks south of the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan. His family offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to his return. Gross's body was finally found on the wooded bank of the Hudson River; he had been stabbed to death. 

It didn't take long for police to implicate three youths in the crime. Arrested were 18-year-old Anthony "Alex" Esteves and 17-year-olds Christian Velez and Miguel "Papo" Grullon. They had used the money to buy two used cars, a motorcycle, and jewelry and a bystander reported them to the authorities after overhearing them openly talking about the murder. Velez, who had worked as a busboy at the floating restaurant, was arrested and implicated his two friends. It seemed they had conspired to rob the wealthy businessman, but had not thought the plan through; when they realized that Gross would report the robbery to the police, they took his life as well. 

A death notice taken out by Gross's family in the New York Times did not mince words. It said Gross had died after "succumbing to an unprovoked vicious attack by three thugs who inflicted multiple stab wounds to his chest and back." 

Ultimately, Estevez entered an agreement to testify against his co-defendants if the cases went to trial and Velez and Grullon pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder. Describing the crime as "cruel and heinous" and a "truly senseless thing," Estevez was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years in prison without parole. His two co-defendants received 30 years in prison, also without parole. 

Sources: The Political Graveyard, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Lacey Says Ties of Gross to Union Are Under Inquiry" in the New York Times on Apr. 2 1970, "Gross Quits as GOP Chairman in Jersey to Run for the Senate" in the New York Times Apr. 9 1970, "Wallace Triumphs in Alabama Run-Off" in the Schenectady Gazette on Jun. 3 1970, "Williams Recovering From Bad Start in N.J." in the Park City Daily News on Oct. 25 1970, "Gross Squeezes Companies" in the Free Lance Star on Oct. 24 1970, "Says Nixon Campaign Wrong" in the Virgin Island Daily News on Nov. 7 1970, "Coordinator" in the Evening News on Aug. 13 1971, "N.J. Republican Pleads Innocent In Funds Case" in The Journal on May 23 1973, "Gov. Cahill Defeated in N.J. GOP Primary" in the Los Angeles Times on Jun. 6 1973, "Illegally Deducted Gift, Magnate Says" in the Bangor Daily News on Mar. 3 1974, "Father Supports Gross Testimony" in the New York Times on Mar. 21 1974, "Gross Accuses U.S. of Harrying Firm" in the New York Times on Mar. 23 1974, "Federal Jury Begins Its Deliberations in Campaign Fraud Case Against Gross" in the New York Times on Mar. 29 1974, "Gross, Citing Jury, Seeks a New Trial" in the New York Times on Apr. 20 1974, "Gross is Sentenced to 2 Years in Jail" in the New York Times on Jun. 15 1974, "Preis is Fined, Term Suspended" in the New York Times on Jun. 22 1974, "New Jersey Briefs" in the New York Times on Dec. 11 1974, "New Jersey Briefs" in the New York Times on Feb. 20 1975, "Supreme Court Upholds 2 Convictions of Gross" in the New York Times on Nov. 4 1975, "Gross Wins Stay of Sentence" in the Argus-Press on Dec. 5 1975, "Nelson Gross Off To Prison" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Jun. 3 1976, "Candidate's Husband to Try to Reopen Old Case" in the Lakeland Ledger on Feb. 3 1978, "Marshals, Jurors May Have Tainted N.J. Verdict" in the Deseret News on Feb. 10 1978, "New Hearing OK'd in Tax Fraud Case" in the Milwaukee Journal on Nov. 10 1978, "Ex-Jersey GOP Chief is Barred by U.S. Judge" in the New York Times on Jun. 28 1981, "Car of Missing New Jersey Developer is Found" in the New York Times on Sep. 21 1997, "Youths Accused of Killing New Jersey Millionaire" in the New York Times on Sep. 25 1997, "Police: Slain Millionaire Victim of Botched Plot" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sep. 26 1997, "Gross, Nelson Gerard" in the New York Times on Sept. 27 1997, "Prison For Tycoon Slay" in the New York Daily News on Oct. 8 1998, "2 Are Given up to 30 Years in Murder of Millionaire" in the New York Times on Oct. 8 1998.

Harold G. Hoffman: laughing all the way to the bank

Hoffman leaves the funeral of Ellis Parker in 1940. Image from pro.corbis.com.

Late in the evening on October 17, 1935, Bruno Hauptmann received a surprise visit in his prison cell. Eight days before, the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals had affirmed the conviction of the Bronx carpenter and German immigrant in the "Crime of the Century." Sentenced to die, Hauptmann must have been reassured to see that his visitor was someone who could help save him: Harold Giles Hoffman, the Republican Governor of New Jersey. For over an hour, Hauptmann talked with the Governor and maintained his innocence in the crime: the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, from his East Amwell home in 1932 and the child's subsequent murder.

Hoffman's belated involvement in the case has gained more attention than the indisputably criminal actions he admitted to later in his life. Hoffman had won the 1934 gubernatorial election, becoming the youngest governor of the state at 38 years old, and arrived in the office in the midst of Hauptmann's trial. As governor, he did not have the sole authority to grant clemency to condemned prisoners. Rather, the state had an eight-member court of pardons consisting of the governor and seven judges; a majority vote was needed to approve a pardon, and the governor had to be included in that bloc for it to go forward. When his meeting with Hauptmann became public in December of 1935, Hoffman said he was seeking to encourage the other members of the court to visit Hauptmann as well as part of their considerations regarding further action in the matter.

Hoffman also announced that Ellis Parker, a Burlington County detective who had been put on the case by the previous governor, Democrat A. Harry Moore, would be taking another look at the evidence. Parker was of the opinion that Hauptmann was innocent, but Hoffman claimed to have a different opinion. He said that while the courts had already determined that Hauptmann was guilty of the kidnap-murder, he did not believe the crime could have been carried out by only one person. At the same time, Hoffman levied criticism against key figures in the case. He charged that police superintendent H. Norman Schwarzkopf had mishandled the original investigation, while attorney general David T. Wilentz conducted a biased prosecution. On December 22 of 1935, the same day Hauptmann appealed for clemency to the court of pardons, Lindbergh and his family secretly left the country to make a home in England. The decision was probably motivated mostly by threats made against Lindbergh's other son, but the Associated Press reported that friends of the family were also dismayed by Hoffman's visit to Hauptmann and statements suggesting that the entire drama had not been unraveled. As far as Lindbergh was concerned, Hauptmann's conviction should have closed the case.

While the Lindbergh case has spurred plenty of arguments and theories about whether justice was done and Hauptmann was the person to blame, Hoffman's actions on behalf of such a notorious character soon made him extremely unpopular. When he granted Hauptmann a 30-day reprieve from the electric chair in January of 1936, there were cries for his impeachment. Hoffman defended the action, saying he "share[d] with hundreds of our people the doubt as to the value of the evidence that placed [Hauptmann] in the Lindbergh nursery on the night of the crime." At the end of month, he ordered the state police to reopen investigation, saying there was "abundant evidence that other persons participated in the crime."

An even stranger twist occurred when the pardons court received copies of a confession signed by Paul H. Wendel, a disbarred Trenton lawyer. Wendel later denied confessing to the kidnap-murder, saying it had been extracted by torture. In addition, he claimed Parker had encouraged him to sign the document because it would lead to a financial windfall and Hoffman would ensure that he would escape punishment. Hoffman denied having any knowledge of Wendel's confession, but later admitted that he'd been informed about it. Time reported that Hoffman also fought to reduce Hauptmann's sentence to life imprisonment during a closed session, but by spring of 1936 Hoffman had said no more help would be forthcoming. On April 3, Hauptmann was executed.

The governor's actions raised questions as to whether he was simply playing politics with the infamous case. It was suggested that his criticism of Schwartzkopf aimed to replace the Republican police commissioner with one of his own appointees, while also trying to discredit the Democratic attorney general. In doing so, critics posited, Hoffman would have been able to elevate his own standing in the Republican Party and make a strong bid for Vice President at the 1936 Republican National Convention. If his actions had led to Hauptmann being found innocent or another perpetrator being arrested, he may well have been hailed as a hero.

Instead, Hoffman was blasted in the press and by members of the state government. A normally mundane selection process for four New Jersey delegates-at-large to the Republican National Convention was followed closely when former congressman Franklin William Fort challenged Hoffman for one of the spaces. With the selection process taking place not long after Hauptmann's execution, Fort charged that Hoffman was receiving support from Jersey City mayor and Democratic boss Frank Hague. However, Fort focused most of his attention on Hoffman's handling of the Hauptmann matter. "No man has done more in my memory to attempt to break down the fundamental American respect for the power and dignity of our courts of justice," he declared.

Hoffman was able to defeat Fort to become a delegate, but received the lowest number of votes of the four people selected, dashing any hopes of getting onto a national ticket. The whole affair had a few notable epilogues. Attending a formal dinner opening for the National Exhibition of American Art in New York City, Hoffman didn't much like whatever Hearst reporter Lou Wedemar was saying about the governor's political future; Hoffman responded by cold-clocking the man, whom he outweighed by 80 pounds. Hoffman later wrote a series of articles on the case for Liberty magazine; among the assertions he made was that the corpse that was found was not positively identified as Lindbergh's son. In 1985, a total of 23,633 documents related to the case, including the Lindberghs' original statements to police, were found in the garage of Hoffman's former home; Hoffman had taken them for review in his own investigation and never brought them back. The discovery prompted Hauptmann's widow to sue the state for wrongful death, arguing that the documents revealed such miscarriages of justice as handwriting experts changing their opinion on whether Hauptmann had written a ransom note after talking to police and an autopsy performed by an intoxicated coroner. State officials denied the claim, saying that the documents actually reinforced Hauptmann's conviction.

Born in South Amboy, New Jersey in February of 1896, Hoffman began working as a sports reporter when he was only 12 years old. He kept up the job through his graduation from the South Amboy High School in 1913, eventually becoming sports editor for the Perth Amboy Evening Times and freelancer for the New York Times. After serving with the Army in World War I and attaining the rank of captain, Hoffman returned to his home state to become the treasurer of the South Amboy Trust Company. He later became vice-president of the bank and remained active with the organization until 1942. Hoffman also dabbled in real estate, helping found the Hoffman-Lehrer Real Estate Corporation and serving as director of the Investor Building and Loan Association.

Hoffman's first entry into politics came in 1920, only one year after he began working with the South Amboy Trust Company, when he was chosen to be the city's treasurer. He left the post five years and two terms in the New Jersey house of assembly later, when he was chosen to be mayor of South Amboy. Hoffman also worked as a secretary to Morgan F. Larson, future governor of the state, when Larson was president of the state senate. After being elected to the House of Representatives in 1926 and 1928, Hoffman was appointed motor vehicle commissioner of New Jersey in a 59-16 vote of the state legislature. The decision came in February of 1930, and Hoffman did double duty as a congressman and commissioner until his term in the national office expired in 1931.

As motor vehicle commissioner, Hoffman became an early opponent of drunk driving. In August of 1930, he told the magistrate judges in the state to end the practices of suspending sentences for driving while intoxicated cases and allowing such offenders to pay their fines on an installment plan. Hoffman held the post until he was elected governor of New Jersey in 1934. In this race, he easily won the Republican nomination, gathering more votes than the other three contestants combined, and defeated Democrat William L. Dill (the former motor vehicle commissioner) in the general election. As governor, Hoffman remained concerned about traffic safety. In December of 1935, in the midst of the controversy over his involvement in the Hauptmann case, Hoffman wrote an article entitled "Death After Dark." He said 20,000 of the 36,000 motor vehicle accidents in the prior year had occurred at night, with drivers going too fast and having too slow of a reaction time. "As a nation, we have failed to grasp the fact that as the sun goes down, so must our speed," he said. "We are simply driving too fast for our eyes."

Hoffman was a large, jovial man who loved to play the clown. He was not above dressing up in comically oversize pants or rigging up office telephones to spray unsuspecting callers with water. Over the course of his career, he put together a collection of hundreds of lucky elephant statues. Hoffman's temper could sometimes get the better of him, though. In addition to the reporter he punched out, he once tussled with a former prizefighter in Trenton.

Hoffman's intervention in the Hauptmann case largely overshadowed his other actions during his four years in office, but his other major initiative also proved unpopular. With the Great Depression still hitting the country hard, half a million residents were putting a heavy stress on the state relief program. In order to keep the program funded, Hoffman proposed a two percent tax increase on retail sales. The tax was pushed through the legislature, but proved unpopular with the majority of the Republican Party. The conservative Clean Government Group charged that support for the bill had been purchased, with 20 Hague Democrats in the legislature voting in favor of the measure after the governor promised Hague hundreds of patronage jobs. After only 117 days, the tax was overturned. The only other instance in which Hoffman received major attention during his time as governor was a near-death experience on the Fourth of July in 1937. While reviewing a deep-sea fishing fleet, an explosion in the engine room set fire to his yacht. Hoffman and the other 27 passengers were rescued by the Coast Guard.

New Jersey law prevented Hoffman from running for a second term, so in the waning days of his administration he created the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Commission, whose friendly commissioners ushered him in as executive director. He tried again for the GOP nomination for governor in 1940, without success. He continued to serve as the unemployment commissioner until June of 1942, when he was granted military leave to return to the Army. He served overseas as a major in the Transportation Corps, and was discharged four years later as a colonel. Even during the war, Hoffman couldn't escape some of the old charges against him. In 1943, while in Trenton, he admitted that he had recommended friends for state jobs while governor, but did not consider that there had been any wrongdoing because he had not broken any laws to do so.

After returning from his service, Hoffman tried unsuccessfully for the 1946 gubernatorial nomination and resumed his post as executive director of the unemployment commission. He was later appointed by Republican Governor Alfred E. Driscoll to be director of the newly established Division of Employment Services. In the first hint of Hoffman's future troubles, there were suspicions in 1949 that a brokerage firm Hoffman had recommended had profited unfairly from bond sales to the state. He also admitted to seeking the political support of racketeer Longie Zwillman during the 1946 primaries.

In March of 1954, Democratic Governor Robert Meyner suspended Hoffman due to the discovery of financial irregularities within his department. As the investigation proceeded, it found that Hoffman had rigged bids to benefit friends, signed illegal contracts overpaying for state office space, and other errors suggesting embezzlement. In May, Hoffman gave a letter to his daughter, Ada, containing instructions to not open it until after his death. The timing was fortuitous; Hoffman passed away the next month after suffering a heart attack while in New York City.

When Ada opened the letter, she was so upset about its contents that she ended up destroying it. Before doing so, however, she had shown it to two of her father's friends, including attorney Harry Green, who urged her to reconstruct it and make it public. Ada did so, giving as a reason the assertion that Meyner and the Democratic administration had broken their promise to treat the case quietly after Hoffman's death and were "dancing on his grave." While Ada's entire recollection is only as accurate as her memory, she fired back that Hoffman had accused Meyner of complicity in the same rental-purchasing agreement with which her father had been associated.

More serious, however, was Hoffman's deathbed admission that he had stolen state funds throughout his career. He wrote that he went into debt after his 1926 congressional campaign when future Senator Hamilton Fish Kean reneged on a promise to pay off $17,000 in expenses and only gave him $2,500. With other costs mounting from keeping houses in New Jersey and the capital (and, as some have suggested, maintaining a lifestyle including lavish parties and bootleg liquor), Hoffman began drawing on inactive accounts at the South Amboy Trust Company. To cover those shortages, he had stolen $300,000 in state funds. Further investigation determined that Hoffman had elaborately juggled $15,801,197 between different state funds to make sure that theft wasn't noticeable. Hoffman said that a state official, deceased by that time, had discovered the wrongdoing and extorted $150,000 in exchange for keeping quiet; he maintained that but for the blackmail, he would have been able to repay the debt.

Hoffman declared, rather falsely, that no one had been hurt as a result of his theft of taxpayer money. He also said the awarding of jobs to friends was the result of "an almost uncontrollable urge to help other people." He urged Ada not to let her son enter the field of politics. "It is a lousy game," Hoffman complained. "In order to be elected, you must necessarily accept favors from a large number of people. If you attempt to repay them after being elected to office, it becomes wrongdoing. If you don't, you are an ingrate." Ada also recalled that the letter had a personal apology to his family. "It is a sad heritage I leave to Mother, to Hope, and to you," he said, "but I pray it may somewhat be softened by the knowledge that I do love you all so much."

Investigators confirmed the theft and also revealed lesser instances of misconduct. Hoffman was accused of depositing $3,427,000 without interest into the Trenton Trust Company, a bank run by a friend, an action that allowed the bank to earn $300,000 in five years; the bank returned the favor by putting $150,000 into a non-interest account for Hoffman at the South Amboy Trust Company. It was also alleged that Hoffman awarded one state employee $1,000 for overtime he never performed and unfairly gave 50 companies favorably low unemployment insurance rates.

Hoffman was beyond the reach of the law, but the scandal resulted in four of his aides being suspended and a fifth one resigning. His family promised to repay the stolen money, though it is unclear how successful they were in this venture. One year after the scandal, the state sued the South Amboy Trust Company for the stolen $300,000 plus interest; the suit was settled in 1958 for $176,000. As a more lasting result, the embezzlement resulted in stricter audits on state agencies to prevent such a crime from happening again.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, The New Jersey State Library, "Hoffman Elected To Succeed Dill" in the New York Times on Feb. 5 1930, "Hoffman Will Hold Two Public Posts" in the New York Times on Mar. 29 1930, "Asks Drastic Curb On Drunk Driving" in the New York Times on Aug. 27 1930, "Governor Signs Repeal Soon After Passage By Legislature" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Oct. 26 1935, "Noted Sleuth Says Bruno Is Innocent" in the Evening Independent on Dec. 6 1935, "Death After Dark" in the Brownsville Times on Dec. 12 1935, "Hauptmann Denies 'Doubt Of Guilt'" in the New York Times on Dec. 19 1935, "Kidnap Threats Make Lindbergh Go To England" in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Dec. 23 1935, "Jersey Court Unique Body" in the Bend Bulletin on Dec. 23 1935, "Reprieve Hint False, Bruno Told In Cell" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dec. 27 1935, "Crime: Hoffman To Hauptmann" in Time on Jan. 27 1936, "Gov. Hoffman Orders Police To Resume Probe Of Evidence In Lindbergh Kidnaping Case" in the Daily Illini on Jan. 31 1936, "Kidnaping Probe Meets Turndown By Legislature" in the Evening Independent on Apr. 7 1936, "Political Notes: The Hoffman Case" in Time on Apr. 13 1936, "New Jersey: Hoffman v. Fort" in Time on Jun. 1 1936, "People" in Time on Jul. 12 1937, "Hoffman Defends Patronage Action" in the New York Times on Dec. 22 1943, "Hoffman To Direct UCC" in the New York Times on Jun. 8 1946, "Hoffman Defends Record In Office" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Jun. 25 1954, "A Death Divulges A Life Of Deception" in Life on Jun. 28 1954, "Joker's Heritage" in Time on Jun. 28 1954, "Millions Juggled In Hoffman Theft" in the New York Times on Jul. 30 1954, "Jersey Sues Bank On Hoffman Fund" in the New York Times on Feb. 11 1955, "Jersey Settles Hoffman Claim" in the New York Times on Jul. 3 1958, "Wife Says Man 'Framed' In Lindbergh Case" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Oct. 23 1985, Encyclopedia of New Jersey edited by Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen, Notorious New Jersey: 100 True Tales of Murders and Mobsters, Scandals and Scoundrels by Jon Blackwell, The Lindbergh Case by Jim Fisher, New Jersey: A History by Thomas J. Fleming

J. Parnell Thomas: former HUAC chair fails to set a good example

Photo from bioguide.congress.gov

Born in New Jersey in 1895, John Parnell Thomas served overseas with the United States Army both during and after World War I. Returning to the Garden State and a career in the insurance business, Thomas gradually rose through the political spectrum. Starting as a member of the borough council of Allendale, New Jersey, he became mayor of the city in 1926 and served until 1930. He was also elected to the State House in 1935, but soon left those chambers when he was elected in 1936 as the Republican congressman to represent New Jersey's Seventh District.

Though Thomas was brought back to Congress in the six contests following his initial election, he has not aged well in historical retrospect. This opinion is due largely to Thomas's time with the House Un-American Activities Committee, which he chaired from 1947 to 1949. It was under Thomas's chairmanship, in the fervent anti-Communist period following World War II, that the committee launched an investigation into supposed subversive activities in the Hollywood film industry in May of 1947. The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, which included such prominent members as Walt Disney, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan (future President of the United States), cooperated with the investigation. The Committee for the First Amendment, whose members included Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, and Katharine Hepburn, was formed to oppose the Alliance. Hepburn personally excoriated Thomas as well as the Alliance at a political rally for Henry Wallace's 1948 presidential bid, saying, "Today J. Parnell Thomas is engaged in a personally conducted smear campaign of the motion picture industry. He is aided and abetted in this effort by a group of super-patriots who call themselves the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. For myself, I want no part of their ideals or those of Mr. Thomas."

Nineteen people in the movie business were subpoenaed to appear before the committee in October. Of those, ten refused to testify under the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. The "Hollywood Ten" were charged with contempt and ordered to serve time in prison. A group of studio executives and producers agreed not to employ the Ten or other suspected Communists, and the blacklist was on.

In 1948, the Justice Department began an investigation into allegations, publicized by columnist Drew Pearson, that Thomas had been receiving kickbacks from office employees. Thomas denounced the investigation, calling it "cheap Pendergast politics." Attorney General Tom C. Clark said politics played no part in the matter, noting that the office had been involved in the prosecutions of Democratic congressmen James Curley and Andrew May on unrelated activity. Thomas demanded the right to appear before the grand jury after Election Day (when voters returned him to office) but, citing the Fifth Amendment, refused to testify when he did so.

In November, Thomas and his former secretary, Helen Campbell, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government. Thomas was charged with padding his payroll with employees that did no actual work so that the additional funds could go directly to his bank account. Campbell's attorney said she had arranged the scheme under coercion from Thomas, and charges against her were later dropped due to her role in breaking the criminal activity and providing evidence.

Thomas pleaded not guilty. By the third day of his December trial, he had been accused of putting five women on the payroll as ghost employees. At that point, he changed his plea to no contest, ending the trial and sending it to sentencing. Time, referring to Thomas as a "pudgy, petulant man," said he was expected to resign from Congress "to let a better American take his place." The magazine also mocked Thomas for expecting mercy from the courts, saying he had shown none as chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Alexander Holtzoff, the federal judge in the matter, clearly did not feel the same way, saying at Thomas's sentencing, "There is no doubt he did much good as head of the Un-American Activities Committee." Holtzoff denied that this was a mitigating factor, saying that Thomas "had a duty to set an example of upright living" due to his past chairmanship. He sentenced the congressman to serve six to 18 months in prison and pay a $10,000 fine.

Thomas announced his resignation, effective January 2, 1950, and was able to collect his federal pay for the remaining weeks until that date. His wife, Amelia, said Thomas had been "maligned and persecuted" since his time on the committee, and announced her intention to run for the seat to "continue the same struggle against subversive influences." She dropped out within the month, and William B. Widnall, a Republican, was elected in February 1950 in a special election held to fill the vacancy.

Thomas spent eight-and-a-half months in the same federal penitentiary where two of the Hollywood Ten had done time for contempt before he was paroled. Following his release, he edited and published three New Jersey newspapers from 1951 to 1955. President Harry Truman granted him a pardon in 1952. After unsuccessfully challenging his replacement for the Republican nomination in the 1954 election, Thomas worked in real estate and investment securities. He later moved to Florida, where he died in 1970.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, In Capra's Shadow: The Life and Career of Screenwriter Robert Riskin by Ian Scott, Daily Life in the United States, 1940-1959: Shifting Worlds by Eugenia Kaledin, Kate: The Woman who was Hepburn by William J. Mann, Time Magazine, the St. Petersburg Times, The Political Graveyard, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New York Times, Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present by James Chapman