Dewey, Thomas E.

Thomas E. Dewey (1902–71) was a federal and state prosecutor, district attorney, governor of New York, and the Republican presidential candidate in 1944 and 1948. Dewey is best known to criminal justicians for his war on organized crime in New York during the 1930s. After earning a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1925, Dewey worked as a prosecutor and then went into private practice. In the early 1930s, Dewey returned to public service as a special prosecutor, charged with investigating corruption and organized crime in New York.

In 1935, Dewey assembled a staff of over 100 to target organized crime and the political corruption related to such enterprises. Dewey went after prominent New York City gangster Arthur Flegenheimer, better known as “Dutch” Schultz, who had made millions with an illegal alcohol bootlegging enterprise during the 1920s and then continued with other criminal activities after Prohibition ended. Lacking direct evidence of Schultz's involvement in criminal enterprises such as extortion, numbers running, and union racketeering, Dewey instead charged Schultz with tax evasion for failing to report the proceeds of his criminal activities. Schultz's first trial, in 1935, resulted in a hung jury. He was acquitted in a second trial after spreading money around the small town in which the trial was held.

By 1935, New York crime gang bosses had formed a syndicate, which met to make and enforce rules designed to minimize violent warfare among the city's gangsters. Schultz proposed to the syndicate that Dewey be murdered in order to stop his investigations into organized crime. Agents from Murder Inc., a gangland hit squad, tailed Dewey and developed a plan to assassinate him. Before the plot could be carried out, the syndicate leaders decided to call it off because killing such a high profile lawman would increase surveillance of organized crime and potentially expose the entire syndicate to federal charges. The mob leaders decided that it would be better to undermine Dewey's cases by killing his witnesses instead. Schultz announced that he would have Dewey killed anyway, in defiance of the syndicate. The syndicate responded by having Schultz assassinated. In 1936, Dewey won a conviction against Gurrah Shapiro, a founder of Murder Inc. who was involved in garment district labor racketeering and protection rackets. Shapiro had been the only syndicate boss who agreed with Schultz about assassinating Dewey. Shapiro received a two-year prison sentence for violating federal antitrust laws.

Dewey also went after Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, a full partner in Shapiro's criminal enterprises. Lepke reportedly surrendered to federal authorities on the condition that they not turn him over to Dewey. Lepke received 30 years for narcotics trafficking and labor racketeering. He was later convicted of murder and became the highest- ranking organized crime boss ever executed for his crimes. Dewey then set his sights on Charles “Lucky” Luciano, another syndicate boss. Dewey won convictions on 90 counts related to Luciano's prostitution rackets. Luciano received a sentence of 30 to 50 years in prison. In 1937, Dewey was elected New York district attorney.

...