#jimmy walker

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Above: the front page of the Daily News on July 8, 1931. Photo: Barnes & Noble.

The murder of Vivian Gordon on February 25, 1931, set off a chain of events that ended in the resignation of Mayor Jimmy Walker and the disintegration of the Tammany Hall machine.

Gordon had been convicted of prostitution in 1923 on shaky grounds. She was certainly no saint: the diaries mentioned in the headline above contained the names of over 300 men, including nearly every major gangland figure and many prominent businessmen and politicians, whom she either bankrolled or blackmailed. But the endemic corruption in city politics and the police force was responsible for her arrest and conviction. Not only did she fail to pay the accustomed bribe to get off, but when she was sentenced to a reformatory, her ex-husband was granted custody of their daughter. Gordon always maintained that that was the real reason behind the alleged set-up.

Above: Vivian Gordon. Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images/NY Post

Before her death, Gordon had been in touch with Samuel Seabury, a former judge so unimpeachably honest he was dubbed "the bishop" by the tabloids. Seabury was investigating corruption in the judiciary, including the conspiracy among cops, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges to frame innocent women for prostitution. The possibility that Gordon had been murdered to keep her from further contact with Seabury led Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to tell "the bishop" to expand his investigation to include the Manhattan D.A., the entire police force, and the upper echelon of Tammany Hall—including Mayor Walker.

After Walker resigned, evidence of Tammany's corruption came to light: they had put a price on every city service, from permits to political patronage. After a couple of interim mayors, the reformer and Tammany foe Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor on January 1, 1934. During his first term, Tammany membership dropped by 70%.

Vivian Gordon's alleged killers were acquitted due to the timely appearance of witnesses who provided them with alibis. But the identity of the true killers, and the mysteries surrounding the killing, still linger. “There are still more frames than there are pictures,” Walker once quipped.

"Gentleman Jimmy" Walker, the 97th mayor of New York, entering the courthouse to be examined on corruption charges in 1932. Photo: Associated Press via NY Magazine

[racefortheironthrone]

great info on the mayors / political leaders of New York - on the anti side, how about the absolute worst and most destructive , regressive, or otherwise harmful in its history?

This one is mostly covered by my first post about NYC mayors, where I discussed the mayors from Lindsay to the present. However, I can talk about earlier mayors, even though most of them were bland non-entities. One major exception to this rule was Fernando Wood.

If there was one consistent theme of Wood's career - other than fraud (Wood stole from his bank and his own brother-in-law) and corruption - it was racism and violence.

From the very beginning of Wood's political career, he distinguished himself as the most pro-slavery man in New York Democratic politics, seeking the patronage of figures like John C. Calhoun and James Buchanan. When he shifted from Congress to mayoral politics, Wood went back and forth on what variety of pro-slavery politics he preferred (variously backing Douglas' popular sovereignty position and Buchanan's anti-Douglas position), but was a consistent enemy of John Van Buren's Free Soil Democrats, "Black Republicans," and abolitionism as a concept. Nevertheless, he managed to win election in 1854 with a bare third of the total vote.

Unlike more pliable Tammany mayors, Wood believed in "one-man rule" rather than collective pursuit of power, particularly when it came to direct mayoral control of the police force. While claiming to stand for home rule, democratic accountability, and efficiency, in reality Fernando sought to remove any commissioners on the police board who stood between him and turning the Municipal Police into his personal army. In the 1856 election, Wood gave the police the day off so that the Dead Rabbits gang could engage in street violence, physical intimidation of voters and poll workers, and theft of ballot boxes. Evidently Wood needed the help, because he won with a tiny plurality of the vote and ran well behind the Democratic ticket.

Wood managed to skate from any indictment from Election Day violence, but he had gone too far politically. Tammany broke with Wood, barring him from the building and promoting his political opponents to Federal patronage positions. The Republican-controlled state legislature enacted a new Municipal Charter that ordered a new election for 1857 and transferred control over public works to state commissioners appointed by the governor, and then a Metropolitan Police Act that abolished Wood's Municipal Police and replaced them with a new force under state commissioners.

Wood refused to accept the Metropolitan Police Act or the Municipal Charter as law, ordered his Municipal Police to physically remove state commissioners from government buildings, and when the new Metropolitan Police attempted to arrest him for selling the office of Street Commissioner for $50,000, Wood mobilized the Municipal Police against the "Black Republicans," leading to the "Great Police Riot" in which the two police forces met in open combat on the steps of City Hall. 53 people were injured, the state militia had to be called out to disperse the Municipal Police, and Wood was arrested (and then promptly released by a friendly judge).

New York City's gangs, with Wood's allies the Dead Rabbits very much in the lead, realized that with the city's two police forces at war (Wood had directed the Municipal Police to stop the Metropolitan Police from carrying out arrests, leading to frequent skirmishes), there was no state monopoly on violence to restrain them.

Amid a rising crime wave, the Dead Rabbits Riot broke out on July 4th - in which the Five Points gangs under the leadership of the Dead Rabbits invaded the Bowery and went to war with both the Bowery gangs and the Metropolitan Police. At its height, the riot involved 800-1,000 armed men and women who responded to police charges by building barrricades. Once again, the state militia had to be called out to quell the violence (at least 8 people killed and about 100 injured), although fighting would continue for another week. Ultimately, the courts ruled against Wood and the Municipal Police were disbanded.

In the election that year, Wood ran on a pro-slavery platform that praised the Dred Scott decision and Buchanan's pro-slavery policy in Bleeding Kansas, while attacking Republican efforts to expand voting rights to black New Yorkers. This race-baiting failed to distract voters from the violence and corruption of the Wood Administration, to say nothing of the Panic of 1857 which had sent unemployment in the city skyrocketing. To get rid of Wood, Tammany formed a fusion ticket with the Republicans and Know-Nothings that narrowly defeated the incumbent mayor.

Learning nothing from his defeat, Wood blamed the loss on a shadowy cabal of "Black Republicans" who had supposedly infiltrated Tammany Hall and formed his own rival Democratic machine out of Mozart Hall. In 1859, Wood once again used armed violence, this time to try to seize control of the State Democratic Convention from Tammany delegates. When this didn't work, Wood once again turned to racism in his campaign to get back into the mayoralty, running on a pro-slavery, anti-John Brown, and anti-abolition platform. He just barely managed to pull out another tiny plurality victory with only 38% of the total vote.

In his next term, Wood crossed the line from mere bigotry to open treason, calling for New York City to secede from both New York state and the United States (both controlled by "Black Republican" abolitionists, according to Wood) so that it could trade freely with the Confederacy. In 1861, Wood came in third place for re-election, finishing only a thousand votes behind both the Republican and the Tammany Democrat.

Despite (or arguably because of) his vocal pro-Confederacy stance and his supporters having caused the 1863 Draft Riots, Wood became the leader of the so-called "Peace" Democratic faction against the War Democrats. Lest you think that Wood was motivated by his abbhorence of war, Wood made the reasons for his opposition clear when he pushed for constitutional amendments to protect slavery, attacked War Democrats as "a white man's face on the body of a negro," and led the Congressional opposition to the passage of the 13th Amendment. In 1868, Wood was censured by Congress for his verbal attacks on the Reconstruction Acts. This censure accomplished nothing, and Wood continued his Congressional career unabated, which culminated in becoming Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee following the end of Reconstruction.

Wood had the reverse Midas touch of turning everything he touched to shit, such that even the few good things he supported - like home rule for New York City and public works jobs for the unemployed - became tainted by association with his violence and corruption. As far as I'm concerned, they should have done him like they did Vallandigham.

Compared to Wood, the faults of every other NYC mayor seem like the most minor of venal sins.

"Gentleman" Jimmy Walker was corrupt as fuck - supporting his lavish lifestyle by taking bribes from anyone with a pulse, selling the services of the NYPD to the mob, getting in bed with Arnold Rothstein, and perhaps having been connected to the murder of a whistleblower on police corruption and the disappearance of a New York Supreme Court judge - but he was also part of the progressive wing of Tammany Hall and a talented administrator (albeit one who only worked from 3-5 so as not to interfere with his more important time with showgirls, nightclubs, speakeasies, and boxing matches). He supported social welfare policies, opposed the KKK, built municipal waterworks and subway lines (albeit through corrupt contracts), and created the Sanitation and Hospitals Departments.

Similarly, William O'Dwyer was a typical Tammany politician who oversaw a massive police corruption scandal in Brooklyn, and ultimately had to flee to Mexico to avoid investigations from the Justice Department and the Brooklyn DA into his ties with organized crime, but he was in most other respects a typical if unremarkable mid-century NYC Mayor.

Shouldn't have raised the subway fare to ten cents, tho.

[gallimaufryish]

[evanp-daily]

Where it all began 🖤

[sunflowersandsesameseeds]

  Sharing Cigarettes

(This isn't my best work, but I recently got back into this series sooooooo)

Y/N took the last sip of his coffee and hung his head back, sighing quietly.

  "Rough day, handsome?"

   His head snapped to the direction for his eyes to be met with a young man in a leather jacket with leather gloves, around his own age. Y/N would be lying if he said he didn't think he was attractive. 

  Dark and curly hair, with one strand sticking to his forehead, and a playful grin across his lips. He raised an eyebrow as he waited for a response. Y/N's face heated slightly, but he chuckled lightly. 

  "Guess you could say that. Rough might be an understatement, though." He looked away from the man to dig through his pockets for a cigarette.

  The man slid his gloved hands into his pockets, smiled lessening but not fading completely.

  "I think I know how ya feel. I'm Jimmy, though. Jimmy Darling." 

  Y/N grinned. "'Darling?' Fitting." 

  Jimmy laughed and leaned back in his stool, his feet looped through the stool legs.

   Y/N lit his cigarette, taking a long drag off of it. He breathed the smoke out through his nose.

  "I'm Y/N. That's about all you need to know." Things spread fast in this town. The last thing he needed was to out himself immediately. Jimmy hummed and stood up from his place.

  "It was nice seein' a fresh face. I'm sure I'll see you around." Jimmy then strolled out of the diner, and Y/N could've swore he saw a wink before the man walked out. 

  He decided to boil it down to his imagination. After finishing his cigarette, he left his money on the counter and left.

  

  

   Y/N was cornered by two other guys against the back of the diner. He sighed as they began to laugh at him.

  "Well hey, fagboy. You enjoyin' yourself tonight? Suck any dick?" One of them snarked. They both burst into another fit of laughter. Y/N's nose scrunched in disgust.

  The other one shoved him hard, his head hitting the brick wall. 

  "I gotta know, do you prefer takin' it up, or puttin' it in?" They howled with laughter. 

  Y/N tried to keep his cool, really. He's learned pretty well. Being gay in this time was a pain in the ass, and if they called the cops, he'd be fucked. No questions asked.

  Today was different, though. The news of his 'sickness' had gotten out to his job, so now he didn't have one. All Y/N wanted was a meal from the diner, but of course, that was fucking impossible.

  He couldn't help it. Before he even knew what he was doing, Y/N punched the man to his right, knocking him to the ground. 

  He immediately jumped on the man on the ground, punching him repeatedly. The man screamed, punched, and kicked, landing a lot on the other. Y/N felt his blood boil as the guy's blood started to splatter onto his knuckles. The guy below him was knocked unconscious at some point, so he backed up, now panting.

  Y/N was jerked away as the other man pulled him up, his arm around his neck. He held him higher, beginning to choke him. Y/N squirmed and thrashed, trying desperately to escape.

  Right as he was going to pass out, someone yanked the man off of him. Y/N gasped for air, falling to his knees. 

  "Get the fuck away from him!" Jimmy screamed, shoving him into a wall. He then kicked him square in the ches. The man stumbled up, grabbed his friend, and limped out of the area, screaming profanities.

  Y/N managed to look up at Jimmy and grinned, wiping spit off of his bottom lip. 

  "G- Good to see you again, Darling." His voice came out raspy and low. 

  Jimmy laughed breathily, gently pulling the other up. "I could say the same. What were those guys pissy about anyways?" Y/N considered telling him the truth, eventually deciding to as they set off. What would be the harm?

  He spit off towards the side, grimacing at the blood in his saliva, and looked at Jimmy.

  "This town isn't too fond of fairies, I've noticed." Y/N answered, voice flat. Jimmy paused, trying to get what he was referring to. 

  "Uh, what- oh. Oh." He smiled. "Well, you certainly did a good job roughin' one of' em up. Two against one ain't fair." 

  Y/N laughed. "Aren't you a charmer?" He lit another cigarette, wincing as he put it between his lips. Stupid split lip. He took a drag and offered it to Jimmy. 

  Jimmy hesitated. He took off his gloves, revealing his deformed hands, and then looking to Y/N for his response. Y/N just smiled.

  "Well, those are cool."

  He blinked a few times and started laughing, taking the cigarette from the other man.

  "Thanks, toots. You're something else." Jimmy pressed the cigarette to his lips and scrunched his nose at the taste of blood. He looked at Y/N.

  "Your lip's bleeding." Before Y/N could apologize for giving this dude a bloody cigarette, Jimmy reached out and wiped away some of the blood from his lip. His hand lingered near the other's face a little longer before dropping to his side. 

  Jimmy took a hit from the cigarette and offered it back to him. Y/N swallowed thickly, taking it back. His face felt very warm again; he felt like he was drowning, but in a good way.

  Y/N smiled. "Now you're just being cruel." He put the cigarette in his mouth. Jimmy walked closer and leaned in a bit.

  "Hey, what'd ya say we go out sometime?" He grinned, leaning right by Y/N's ear. "Got something I wanna show ya. More people like me." His voice was very audible. Y/N grinned and backed up.

  "Yeah, I think I'd like that, Darling." 

  Jimmy grinned and kissed his cheek. He waved as he started to walk off.

  "See you around, handsome."

  Y/N smiled, shaking his head. "Seems I've gotten myself into something."

[hagleyvault]

This arresting photograph was taken on this day, October 16th, in 1930, when a coalition of protesters organizing for the rights of the unemployed were rounded up and jailed following a demonstration in front of New York City Hall calling on Mayor Jimmy Walker to abandon plans to appropriate an additional $8,000,000 for the city’s police and redirect funds to unemployment relief for those affected by the Great Depression.

Following a violent confrontation with the police, the protest was suppressed. This photograph shows the arrest of J. Louis Engdahl (1884-1932), the Communist candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York, along with Freda Jackson and Anna Pogribsky, who New York’s Daily News described as “two women combatants”. Charges of disorderly conduct against all of three, as well as fellow protesters Sam Nesin, Robert Lealess, Spiro Curator, and Milton Stone were dismissed for lack of evidence on October 30th. Mayor Jimmy Walker would later be forced to resign in 1932, amidst increasing social unrest and a corruption scandal that revealed that he had been accepting bribes in exchange for municipal contracts.

This photograph is from Hagley Library’s collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation’s Business photographs (Accession 1993.230.II). To view more items from this collection online, visit its page in our Digital Archive by clicking here.

[blackhistoryalbum]

A Piece of the Action (1977), Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let's Do It Again (1975) were considered a movie trilogy, even though the actors play characters with different names. The films were directed by and starring Sidney Poitier and co-starring Bill Cosby.

[twixnmix]

JET magazine covers from 1975