Bicentennial Celebration

of the

United States Attorneys

1789 - 1989
"The United States Attorney

is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy,

but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is

as compelling as its obligation to govern at all;

and whose interest, therefore,

in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case,

but that justice shall be done.

As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the

servant of the law, the twofold aim of which

is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.

He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor–

indeed, he should do so.

But, while he may strike hard blows,

he is not at liberty to strike foul ones.

It is as much his duty

to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce

a wrongful conviction as it is

to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one."

QUOTED FROM STATEMENT OF MR. JUSTICE SUTHERLAND, BERGER V. UNITED STATES, 295 U. S. 88 (1935)
Note: The information in this document was compiled from historical records maintained by the Offices 

of the United States Attorneys and by the Department of Justice. Every effort has been made to prepare 

accurate information. In some instances, this document mentions officials without the “United States 

Attorney” title, who nevertheless served under federal appointment to enforce the laws of the United 

States in federal territories prior to statehood and the creation of a federal judicial district.
INTRODUCTION

In this, the Bicentennial Year of the United States Constitution, the people

of America find cause to celebrate the principles formulated at the inception of the

nation Alexis de Tocqueville called, “The Great Experiment.” The experiment has

worked, and the survival of the Constitution is proof of that. But with the celebration

of the Constitution must also come the commemoration of those sharing

responsibility for the realization of those noble principles in the lives of the

American people, those commissioned throughout our nation’s history as United

States Attorneys. Charged in the Constitution with ensuring “that the laws be

faithfully executed,” the Presidents of the United States, from George Washington

to George Bush, have been responsible for the appointment of United States

Attorneys to assist them in carrying out that mandate.

Those who live in the Twentieth Century can scarcely imagine life in

America two hundred years ago. Victory in the Revolutionary War did not guarantee

independence, as the War of 1812 soon proved. Neither did the end of war ensure

a peaceful and methodical government. As the infant Union struggled to exist, it

soon became apparent that a federal system of courts would be needed to take care

of cases beyond the jurisdiction of the states. How could individual states prosecute

cases involving crimes at sea or claim jurisdiction in matters such as counterfeiting

or fraud against the then-existing national bank?

The framers of the Constitution, therefore, included in Article III a directive

requiring a system of federal courts to be established just below the United States

Supreme Court to deal with such cases. In response to the mandates of the

Constitution, Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of 1789, directing the President to

appoint in each federal district “a meet person learned in the law to act as an attorney

for the United States.” According to 1 Stat. 92, the United States Attorney was “to

prosecute in (each) district all delinquents for crimes and offenses cognizable under

the authority of the United States, and all civil actions in which the United States

shall be concerned.”

Within a few days of the passage of the Judiciary Act, President George

Washington appointed thirteen distinguished people to fill the offices of United

States Attorneys in the newly created federal judicial districts. Among those first

appointed were John Marshall, United States Attorney for Virginia, later the Chief

Justice of the United States Supreme Court; and Christopher Gore of Massachusetts,

later governor of that state. Those selected for the Office of United States Attorney

represented the best from their states. President George Washington wrote to

Richard Harrison about accepting the appointment as United States Attorney for the
District of New York, “The high importance of the judicial system in our national

government makes it an indispensable duty to select such characters to fill the

several offices in it as would discharge their respective duties in honor to themselves

and advantage to their country.”1

 The tradition of appointing those committed to

honor, courage, and justice continues to the present day. Those who have held and

now hold the Office of United States Attorney reflect the honor of which George

Washington spoke two hundred years ago.

Ninety-four federal districts exist today with ninety-three United States

Attorneys serving in those districts protecting the interest of the United States and

its citizens.2

 Caseloads involve issues ranging from the brutal to the compassionate.

The United States Attorney is the one responsible for translating the concept of

justice into the everyday lives of its citizens. A United States Attorney brought to

justice a man who had murdered his wife and two young daughters when he had

convinced all others of his innocence, and it was a United States Attorney who

arranged for the silver from the U.S.S. Missouri to be returned to the home state for

display and safekeeping.

Before the Civil War, United States Attorneys prosecuted only the cases

mentioned specifically in the Constitution, namely, piracy, counterfeiting, treason,

felonies committed on the high seas, or cases resulting from interference with federal

justice (perjury, bribery), extortion by federal officers, thefts by employees from the

United States Bank, and arson of federal vessels.3 Over the years, however, the

caseloads have changed as have the responsibilities of the office.

1

 The First 100 Years (1789-1889); The United States Attorneys For The Southern District of New York, p. 3.

2

 The same United States Attorney serves both the District of Guam and the District of the Marianna Islands.

3 James Eisenstein, Counsel for the United States: U. S. Attorneys in the Political and Legal Systems,

(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1978), p. 9.
Since 1870, the United States Attorneys have worked under the direction of

the United States Department of Justice. Prior to that time, they conducted their

duties in what has been described by one former United States Attorney as “splendid

isolation . . . Each was a king in his own domain, appointed by the President of the

United States and directly answerable to him alone.”4

 Before the institution and

regulation of salaries for the office, only a privileged few managed to live like kings.

Until 1896, United States Attorneys were paid on a fee system based on the

cases they prosecuted. Those fees could amount to quite a substantial sum if the

district was located on the coast. In those districts, maritime cases filled the docket

with seizures and forfeitures involving substantial amounts of expensive cargo. One

United States Attorney in such a district reportedly received an annual income of

$100,000 as early as 1804, a substantial fortune for that time. In contrast, when

regulated salaries were introduced in 1896, they ranged from $2,500 to $5,000.

United States Attorneys exerted even more independence by being able to retain their

private practice while holding office, a policy that remained unchanged until 1953.

This system occasionally gave rise to awkward situations as one United States

Attorney discovered when he found himself prosecuting a defendant represented by

the Assistant United States Attorney.

In 1820, the President was granted the power by Congress to designate an

officer within the Treasury Department to oversee the activities of the United States

Attorneys. Ten years later, Congress created the position of Solicitor of the Treasury

and empowered it to have control over all United States Attorneys as well as United

States Marshals and Clerks of Court. With the attending chaos of the Civil War, the

work of the United States Attorneys was thrown into disarray, thus signaling the

need for more centralized supervisory control. Congress shifted this control in 1861

from the Solicitor of the Treasury to the Attorney General, but the transfer of full

supervisory duties did not occur until 1870 with the creation of the Department of

Justice. An Executive Order of the President on June 10, 1933, solidified this change

in policy stating, “The functions of prosecuting in the courts of the United States .

. . and of supervising the work of the United States Attorneys . . . now exercised

by any agency or officer, are transferred to the Department of Justice.”

4

 Whitney North Seymour, Jr., United States Attorney, (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1975),

p. 46.
To this day, however, the United States Attorney retains a large degree of

independence and prosecutorial discretion. Obviously United States Attorneys

receive direction and policy advice from the Attorney General and other Department

officials, but the United States Attorney has wide latitude in determining what cases

are taken under consideration in his or her district. “The discretionary power to

decide whether to prosecute is awesome,” admitted one United States Attorney.5

 So

formidable is this power that, “if the United States Attorney abuses this power, the

only available remedy is removal.”6

An additional supervisory mechanism was added in 1953 with the creation

of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. An order of the Attorney

General on April 6, 1953, established the Executive Office to “provide general

executive assistance and supervision to the offices of the United States Attorneys.”

In recent years, the Executive Office has acted more as a mediating and coordinating

agency rather than in a supervisory capacity. Indeed, one of the original directives

instructed the Executive Office to “serve as liaison, coordinator and expediter with

respect to the Offices of the United States Attorneys, and between those offices and

other elements of the Department [of Justice].” The evolution of this coordinating

function came about largely through the responsibilities of the Executive Office for

direct technical and administrative support, maintenance and publication of a policy

guide known as the United States Attorneys’ Manual, circulation of the United States

Attorneys’ Bulletin, and the administration of the Attorney General’s Advocacy

Institute, a program begun in 1974 for the purpose of improving “the efficiency of

the Department's legal staff in both criminal and civil trials.” The Executive Office

also provides coordinating support to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee,

an organization created in 1973 to provide advice and assistance to the United States

Attorney General.

The average person knows little about issues such as centralization or

autonomy. Instead, the United States Attorney represents the government of the

United States. Despite the importance of United States Attorneys, however, people

may still find themselves asking the question, “What does a United States Attorney

do?” According to one who has held the office, the United States Attorney “is

administrator, troubleshooter, enforcement planner, interviewer, litigator, statesman,

paper-pusher, back-slapper, adviser, writer, researcher, negotiator, interviewee, and

a dozen other things as well.”7

5

 Ibid., p.47.

6

 Ibid.

7

 Ibid., p.48.
While the exact duties of the United States Attorney may not be known to all,

some of the names of those who have served the office will be familiar to most,

names like Dick Thornburgh, Attorney General of the United States; Ed Dennis,

Acting Deputy Attorney General; Sam Skinner, Secretary, Department of

Transportation; William Webster, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency;

William S. Sessions, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; George

Mitchell, Majority Leader of the United States Senate; Elliott Richardson, former

Attorney General; and Brock Adams, United States Senator, to name just a few of

the many distinguished men and women who have served as United States Attorneys.

Two Presidents of the United States have served as United States Attorneys. Andrew

Jackson was the first United States Attorney for the District of Tennessee, and

Franklin Pierce served the District of New Hampshire.

The duties and most of the names of the United States Attorneys may go

unrecognized, but many of the important cases they handle are known to all. The

great Brink’s robbery, the Birdman of Alcatraz, the trial of Aaron Burr, the Chicago

Seven, Al Capone, the bogus biography of Howard Hughes, the civil rights murders

in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the entrance of James Meredith into the University of

Mississippi–all part of an endless list of cases handled by those serving as “the

attorney for the United States.” Many thousands more cases unknown but just as

important have come to trial because of the hard work and dedication, the honor, as

George Washington referred to it, of the United States Attorneys. Such dedication

involves more than knowledge of the law. It also requires a knowledge of people as

evidenced in the work of one United States Attorney in a southern district in the

1960's. Avoiding the backlog involved with formal litigation, the United States

Attorney convinced transit authorities of a town in his jurisdiction to remove one

“Colored Move to the Back” sign each week until they were all gone.8

One common thread runs through the history of the United States Attorney’s

Office, a feeling best expressed by Harry L. Stimson who had an illustrious career

in government. When asked his views on the United States Attorney’s Office, he

replied “There is no other public office which makes such a direct and inspiring call

upon the conscience and professional zeal of a high-minded lawyer as that office .

. . It has always been my first love.”

8

 Eisenstein, p. 18.
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

James Eldon Wilson, United States Attorney

William Hugh Smith, who served as

United States Attorney for the Middle

District of Alabama in 1880, was known for

his less than normal exploits. During the

Civil War, this native of Alabama left the

South and lived within the Union until the

war had ended. His father was an ardent

Unionist, and three of his brothers even

served in the Union Army. After the war,

Smith returned to Alabama where he was

elected the 18th Governor of the State.

When he was defeated in a reelection bid

and it was time to leave the Governor’s

mansion, he contended that his defeat had

occurred through the misdeeds of his

opposition. Consequently, Smith had to be

forced out by federal troops armed with a

federal court order. Smith became involved

with the other side of federal court orders

when he was appointed the United States

Attorney for the Middle District of

Alabama.

Although few other United States

Attorneys from the Middle District

possessed Smith’s penchant for the unusual,

they did exhibit his tenacity in the way they

investigated and prosecuted cases. Edward

Burns Parker, a member of the State House

of Representatives, who became United

States Attorney on November 23, 1942, was

said to have compiled a record containing

the fewest acquittals and the shortest

pre-trial detention time of any in the

country.

State’s Most Distinguished Families

Between 1889 and 1905, four prominent

individuals served as United States Attorney

for this district. Although well known in

their own right, they were members of some

of the state’s most distinguished families.

Lewis E. Parsons, Jr., (1889-1892) was the

son of Alabama’s post-Civil War provincial

governor. Henry D. Clayton, Jr.,

(1893-1896) was the son of the ninth

President of the University of Alabama.

Henry, Jr., also served on the Executive

Committee of the National Democratic

Party. George F. Moore, Jr., (1896-1897)

was the son of a prominent judge in

Alabama. Warren Reese, Jr., (1897-1905)

was the son of a Civil War hero and the

great-nephew of the founder of the City of

Birmingham. Completing the cycle was

Lewis Parsons’ son, Erastus, who succeeded

Reese as United States Attorney in 1906.

Other distinguished individuals, such as

Arthur B. Chilton, who was a Professor of

Law at the University of Alabama, served

this district. During World War II, Chilton

served on the personal staff of General

Douglas McArthur. More recently, Barry E.

Teague (1977-1981) won election in 1983 to

the Alabama Senate. He also received

appointment as Special Assistant Attorney

General of the State of Alabama.
Headquarters: Montgomery

12 Assistant United States Attorneys

Drugs - Fraud - Public Corruption

The Middle District of Alabama came

into existence by Act of Congress on

February 6, 1839. Since that time, the

United States Attorney’s office has directed

the prosecution of many interesting cases

involving drugs, fraud, and public

corruption.

One case in the early 1980's uncovered

the extent of-drug-related enterprises in this

District. The defendant’s records showed

drug profits of $280 million accumulated in

just a two-year period. More frightening

was the extent to which this organization

would go to accomplish its

objectives–murder, terrorism, electronic

eavesdropping of grand juries, and the

bombings of electric power lines.

Public corruption and fraud have drawn

recent attention. As many as four members

of the House of Representatives were

indicted on charges of violating the Hobbs

Act. In one of those cases, the legislator

extorted $10,000 from a family seeking the

early parole of their son. When the Parole

Board reversed itself and denied the parole,

the family tape-recorded a meeting with the

legislator to retrieve the money. The tape

recording helped to secure the conviction.

In a successful effort to force the State

of Alabama to upgrade its facilities for the

mentally ill, (Wyatt v. Stickney) the United

States Attorney acted on behalf of the

government in joining cases seeking

improvements in the state’s prison system.

As a result of one suit, the state was

required to overhaul completely its prison

medical facilities. The other suit resulted in

the construction of several new prisons to

eliminate overcrowding.

Bad Blood

A case involving involuntary

sterilization drew public attention several

years ago and was recaptured in a book

entitled Bad Blood. Between 1932 and

1972, the Public Health Service conducted

a study known as the Tuskegee Syphilis

Study on 625 participants. Some aspects of

the study involved involuntary sterilization.

The case obviously could not be defended

upon a factual, legal, or moral basis.

Therefore, a settlement was negotiated

whereby the United States agreed to pay

various sums of money and to provide

medical care to the participants and to their

heirs. The settlement exceeded $12 million.

Department of the Treasury Award

In 1988, the Financial Litigation

Division of the United States Attorney’s

office for the Middle District of Alabama

received the Department of Treasury Award

for distinction in cash and credit

management. United States Attorney James

Eldon Wilson combined the Debt Collection

Unit and Bankruptcy Unit into one entity,

naming it the Financial Litigation Division.

The name has been adopted by the Financial

Litigation Subcommittee of the Attorney

General’s Advisory Committee of United

States Attorneys and has replaced the

designation of debt collection units

nationwide.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

Frank W. Donaldson, United States Attorney

A Typical Tale Of The West

In the early 1880's Jesse James rode into

town accompanied by his equally notorious

group of men known as the James Gang.

They robbed a local paymaster in Muscle

Shoals, Alabama, of about $5,000 in gold,

silver, and bank notes–money intended for

use in a river improvement project. As a

result, the United States Attorney for the

Northern District of Alabama sought

indictments against James and his men.

James and his men fled, but one by one

were run down.

Unfortunately, before James could be

brought to trial, he was killed in

Missouri–shot in the head by an associate,

Bob Ford. The Northern District lost

another defendant, “Wild Bill” Ryan, when

he was caught in Tennessee and sent to

prison for 25 years on conviction of an

earlier crime. The first gang member caught

and tried was David Liddell. The jury

found him guilty, but recommended

lenience in order to secure Liddell’s

testimony against Jesse’s brother, Frank

James. Once again, however, the United

States Attorney was unable to convict a

James. Frank James had an alibi which

placed him in Nashville at the time of the

Muscle Shoals murder. Consequently, the

people of the Northern District received

little restitution for this one outing of the

James Gang in Alabama.

Early History

Alabama entered the Union in 1819. On

May 13, 1820, William Crawford was

appointed as its first United States Attorney.

At the time, the state comprised a single

judicial district. Crawford was a native of

Virginia and had moved to Mobile where he

held several public offices before his

appointment as United States Attorney and

later as a federal district judge. After

Crawford’s resignation, the state was

divided into the Northern and Southern

Districts and in 1824, Frank Jones was

appointed to serve as the first United States

Attorney for the Northern District.

John D. Phelan, who was appointed in

1836, was born in New Jersey but moved to

Alabama in the early 1800's where he

embarked on a successful career in law. In

addition to serving as United States

Attorney, Phelan was elected to the state

legislature in 1833 and eventually became

Speaker of the House. He served as

Attorney General for the State of Alabama

and later became an Alabama Supreme

Court Justice.
Headquarters: Birmingham

12 Assistant United States Attorneys

Jesse James

The Twentieth Century

Erle Pettus, who served the Northern

District from 1918 to 1922, spent two terms

in the Alabama legislature where he brought

a resolution which resulted in the direct

election of United States Senators. He was

also the author of the first primary election

laws in Alabama as well as the state’s

antitrust law. In 1901, he was elected a

delegate to the Alabama constitutional

convention.

Another appointee from the Northern

District who gained prominence was Frank

M. Johnson, Jr., who served as United

States Attorney from 1953 to 1955.

Johnson resigned when he was appointed by

President Eisenhower as United States

District Judge for the Middle District of

Alabama where he served for 24 years. In

1979, he received appointment to the United

States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in

1981 moved to the Eleventh Circuit where

he issued major decisions in the area of civil

rights.

Grateful Man Wills Government $300,000

As reported in the Birmingham News, a

rather unusual incident occurred in the

Northern District on February 2, 1984. An

elderly Shelby County resident, Herbert

Huppert, who passed away at the age of 82,

willed his entire estate of $300,000 to the

government. Huppert, who had experienced

the Great Depression, was so grateful to the

government for giving him a job as a

railroad postal clerk and for his retirement

pension that he wanted to give something

back. Huppert had no close relatives and

was intent on his money going to the

government. Concerned that his old will

was outdated, he executed a new one shortly

before he died. Frank Donaldson, United

States Attorney for this District, received a

check for $267,260.50 made out to the

United States of America, plus the deed to

Huppert’s house and property, a total of

more than $325,000. The check was

deposited by the Treasury Department in the

nation’s General Fund.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

J. B. Sessions, III, United States Attorney

District Judge Shot

The sound of gunshots echoed off the

building walls and brought people out into

the streets to see what had happened. On

that chilly December morning in 1867, the

routine in the business district of Mobile

was interrupted by an assault on United

States District Judge Richard Busteed. As

office workers cautiously stepped out to

investigate, they saw a horrifying sight. Just

as Judge Busteed fell to the ground, the

would-be assassin stepped closer to the

judge and fired two more shots into the

wounded man. Even more shocking was the

attacker’s identity–United States Attorney

L. V. B. Martin.

Judge Busteed was a Northerner

appointed by Lincoln to oversee the courts

in the Southern District of Alabama after the

Civil War. Although the exact nature of the

differences between the two men never

came to light, speculation centered on the

supposed corruption of Judge Busteed. No

doubt the continuing animosity between the

North and South contributed greatly to the

conflict. Fearful of federal reprisal, the

Mobile newspapers decried the actions of

Martin and assured their Northern neighbors

that a full investigation was welcomed and

desired by all respectable Southerners.

Judge Busteed recovered and later faced

impeachment charges for the misuse of his

office, while Martin resigned from the office

of the United States Attorney and moved to

Texas. Charges against Martin were never

pursued.

Henry Hitchcock

The episode in 1867 was one of the

more interesting stories from the history of

the Southern District of Alabama, but

definitely not a typical one. More often

than not, those who served the district as

United States Attorney followed the

example of the first United States Attorney

for Southern Alabama, Henry Hitchcock.

Alabama remained a single district for only

six years after statehood before Congress

established the Northern and Southern

Districts in 1825. Like Judge Busteed,

Hitchcock was also from the North. Unlike

the judge, however, he became one of the

most loved and respected people in

Alabama. Hitchcock had moved South in

1815 when the state was still a territory and

established himself in the practice of law.

The fact that he was chosen to serve in

Alabama’s constitutional convention just

four years later attests to his abilities and

respected status. Prior to his term as United

States Attorney, Hitchcock had served as

the state’s Attorney General. When he

resigned as United States Attorney, he

became an Associate Justice of the Alabama

Supreme Court, becoming its Chief Justice

in 1836. His early death from yellow fever

in 1839 was said to have been lamented

throughout the state as a tragedy.

Father Of The Public Schools

Another United States Attorney to gain

the people’s trust was Alexander Meek, who

was appointed United States Attorney in

1846.
Headquarters: Mobile

13 Assistant United States Attorneys

Judge Busteed

Meek was an exceptional individual. As

a little boy, he displayed remarkable

intellectual ability to his family and those

around him. At church, he could recite

every verse of the Bible from memory.

Later he became one of the first students at

the newly established University of

Alabama. Graduating in 1833, Meek, just

three years later, became the Attorney

General for the State of Alabama. His

abilities gained him national recognition

which resulted in his selection as the

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury by

President Polk in 1845. He became the

United States Attorney for the Southern

District a year later, and by 1853 had won

election to the state legislature. Reelected

in 1859, Meek served as Speaker of the

House. In the legislature, he worked very

hard for the cause of public education.

Under his guidance as Chairman, the

Committee on Education established a state

system of public schools, an achievement

that earned him the nickname as “the father

of public schools in Alabama.”

Meek’s successor, Peter Hamilton, also

displayed rare abilities during his career. In

the course of his education Hamilton

assisted a professor who performed

experiments with telegraphy several years

before Morse’s invention. Elected to the

state legislature in 1847, Hamilton became

United States Attorney in 1851. Reelected

to the legislature after the war, Hamilton

contributed greatly to the founding of the

library of the Mobile Bar.

The United States Attorney’s Office for

the Southern District of Alabama boasts a

very proud heritage despite the misguided

zeal of one such as L. V. B. Martin. The

personal contributions to education and

other areas reflect the natural leadership of

those who have served as United States

Attorney for this district.
DISTRICT OF ALASKA

Mark R. Davis, United States Attorney

The United States Attorney’s office for

the District of Alaska has had a rich and

interesting history. In 1868, “Seward’s

Folly” quickly became a national treasure

with the discovery of gold and other natural

resources. Waves of settlers and fortune

hunters arrived, some of whom were intent

on breaking the law. The treaty that ceded

the land from Russia did not provide for any

laws, however, and the territory remained

unregulated in its first year of American

possession. The Act of July 27, 1868

extended jurisdiction of the United States

District Courts of Washington, Oregon, and

California to include the people and lands of

Alaska. Minor offenses were tried

before—military courts administered by the

United States Army and Navy, and major

offenders were transported to the United

States District Court in Portland, Oregon.

In 1884, Congress enacted the

legislation which defined the territory of

Alaska as a civil and judicial district with its

seat at Sitka. Court sessions were held at

Wrangell and in other such places as the

judge deemed expedient. The Act of March

3, 1891 extended appellate jurisdiction of

the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to

include Alaska. The District Court located

at Sitka had administrative responsibility for

the entire territory, as the territory was later

divided into several divisions. The first

United States Attorneys in Alaska operated

under this territorial system and were based

in Sitka. One of the earliest exceptions to

the court sessions in Sitka was the water

lane circuit. In this perhaps unique situation

for an Office of the United States Attorney,

a session of the district court was

administered on board the revenue cutter,

Bear, a ship that transported the court up

and down the coast of Alaska.

First Holders Of The Office

Although many capable and competent

people have served as United States

Attorney for the District of Alaska, the first

holder of the office did not mirror the

qualities of his successors. In 1885, the

Commissioner of Education for Alaska

complained in a letter to President

Cleveland that United States Attorney

Edward W. Haskett was “an uneducated

man, rowdyish in his manner, vulgar and

obscene in his conversation, low in his

tastes, spending much of his time in saloons,

a gambler and confirmed drunkard with but

little knowledge of the law.”

Fortunately, Haskett’s successor proved

to be less controversial and more capable.

Mottrone Dulany Ball was a native of

Virginia who had served as a Cavalry

Officer in the Confederate Army, practiced

law in Alexandria, and edited and published

a newspaper. He first came to Alaska in

1878 as Collector of Customs for the

district. Before appointment as the

territory’s second United States Attorney,

Ball spent four years commuting between

Alaska and Washington, D.C., as the first

elected, but unofficial, representative of

Alaska to Congress. One of Ball’s most

lasting contributions occurred not in the

area of law, but in his co-founding of the

newspaper, The Alaskan.
Headquarters: Anchorage

Branch Office: Fairbanks

13 Assistant United States Attorneys

Organization Of The Courts

In 1900, provision was made for

removal of the territorial capital from Sitka

to Juneau. At the same time the district was

divided into three divisions with courts

meeting at Juneau, Nome, and Eagle (later

moved to Fairbanks). In 1909, a fourth

division came into existence. The first two

divisions remained the same with the

headquarters of the third division being

moved to Valdez (later moved to Anchorage

in 1943), and the newly created fourth

meeting at Fairbanks. Each division had its

own United States Attorney appointed by

the President. This organization of the

courts remained until statehood in 1959

when the unified District of Alaska was

created.

Keystone Canyon

Nathan V. Harlan was United States

Attorney in the early part of this century

when one of the most famous and notorious

cases in Alaskan history came to trial.

Referred to formally as the E. C. Hasey

case, it became popularly known by its

precipitating event, the Keystone Canyon

Riot. Rival factions had competed for

access to the right-of-way to what became

the lucrative Copper River Railway. On one

side of the argument stood the

Morgan-Guggenheim interests, known as

the “Alaska Syndicate.” Just as interested in

the land was their competition, the AlaskaReynolds Company. The competition

evolved into a battle when a shootout

ensued at Keystone Canyon resulting in one

man’s death. Fictionalized in the novel, The

Iron Trail, the episode became a struggle

over the question of the environment, an

issue that commands attention even today.

United States Attorneys - Later Years

Other prominent United States

Attorneys served this district. Joseph W.

Kehoe (1934-1942) gained recognition as a

water color artist of Alaskan scenes.

Warren N. Cuddy (1929-1933) founded the

First National Bank of Anchorage, one of

Alaska’s two largest banking enterprises.

Ralph Julian Rivers (1933-1944) was

Alaska’s first elected Representative in

Congress, serving from 1959 to 1966.

Theodore Fulton (Ted) Stevens was

appointed in Fairbanks from 1954 to 1956

and later elected Senator in 1968. Stevens

remains in that position today, ranking ninth

in seniority in the United States Senate.

Michael Spaan (1981-1989) served the

longest term as a United States Attorney for

this district. He also personally tried the

longest criminal case in the history of the

state which resulted in RICO, fraud, and

extortion convictions of two well-known

lobbyists and political brokers. Spaan also

gained widespread reputation for his

vigorous enforcement of laws designed to

protect Alaska’s rich fishing grounds.
DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

Stephen M. McNamee, United States Attorney

In 1850, the United States Congress

created what was then known as the

Territory of New Mexico. This included the

larger part of Arizona lying north of the Gila

River. The southern part of Arizona was

added to the territory in 1853. Federal

crimes committed in the early days of

Arizona were tried in the Second District at

Dona Ana, known today as the State of New

Mexico.

In 1858, as Arizona was becoming a

haven for criminals and outcasts, President

James Buchanan recommended territorial

government for Arizona, stating that its

people were “practically without a

government, without laws, and without any

recognized administration of justice.

Murder and other crimes are committed

with impunity.” In the face of a national

civil war, however, neglect continued until

1863 when the Territory of Arizona was

created. Almon Gage of Indiana was

appointed and is recognized as the first

United States Attorney for the District of

Arizona, although President Lincoln

originally named John Titus of

Pennsylvania, who never took office.

The first grand jury in Arizona was

convened in May 1864, and the first trial

followed a few weeks later in Tucson. The

trial involved a mortgage foreclosure filed

by Charles T. Hayden. Other cases about

the same time, but which never came to

trial, charged various Tucson citizens with

waging war against the United States.

Indian Prosecutions

In the following years the Territory of

Arizona grew, and settlers arrived by the

hundreds. As a result, pressure was put

upon the Indian lands and landholders.

There were several campaigns in the second

half of the nineteenth century to “subdue the

hostiles of Arizona.” One campaign

prompted the October 15, 1887, indictment

of Geronimo, the famous leader of the

Apaches, for murder with “a certain gun of

the value of dollars, then and there charged

with gunpowder and divers leaden bullets

which said gun the said Geronimo in his

hands then and there had and held . . . ” It

took the entire military forces of Arizona,

New Mexico, and western Texas to capture

this fearless leader and his small band of

Indians, which never numbered more than

80 at any one time. Geronimo was not

prosecuted, but instead the United States

Attorney’s office had him declared a

prisoner of war, which he remained until his

death in 1909.

Land Fraud

From the late 1800's to the present day,

land fraud has continued to plague Arizona.

Around 1885, James Reavis, a notorious

land hustler, attempted to sell a tract of land,

which involved 12,000,000 acres some 235

miles long, to unsuspecting buyers. It took

more than ten years for the scheme to unfold

and be discovered, but the Office of the

United States Attorney eventually

prosecuted Reavis with conspiracy to

defraud the government. He was found

guilty in 1896.
Headquarters: Phoenix

Branch Office: Tucson

58 Assistant United States Attorneys

During the 1960's, another major land

swindle occurred involving the Lake Mead

Rancheros, nationally advertised as a new

community but actually approximately

11,000 acres of desert a dozen miles from

water and utilities. , Its promoters were

convicted by the United States Attorney’s

office of 22 counts of mail fraud in 1968.

Lesser schemes have occurred involving

the deforestation of land and illegal removal

of timber from federal lands. Today, the

District of Arizona works closely with other

agencies to develop and protect federal

lands and their natural and archaeological

resources.

The following is a verbatim transcript of

a sentence imposed upon a defendant

convicted of murder in the federal district

court the territory many years ago:

“JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER

GONZALES, in a few short weeks it will be spring.

The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will

vanish and the air will become soft and balmy. In

short, JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL Xavier GONZALES,

the annual miracle of the year’s awakening will come

to pass--but you won’t be here.

The rivulet will run its purring course to the sea,

the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender

shoots, the glorious valleys of the imperial domain

will blossom as the rose--still you won’t be here to

see.

From every tree-top some wild-woods songster

will carol his mating song butterflies will sport in the

sunshine, the busy bee will hum happily as it pursues

its accustomed vocation, the gentle breeze will tease

the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature--JOSE

MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER GONZALES --will be

glad but you. You won’t be here to enjoy it because,

I command the sheriff or some other officer of this

county to lead you out to some remote spot swing you

by the neck from a nodding bough of some sturdy

oak, and let you hang until you are dead

And then JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER

GONZALES, I further command that such officer or

officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse so

that the vultures from the heavens may descend upon

it until nothing shall remain but the bare, bleached

bones of a cold-blooded bloodthirsty, throat-cutting

sheep-herding murdering son of a bitch.”
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS

Charles A. Banks, United States Attorney

Arkansas was first designated a judicial

district during territorial days, with Samuel

C. Roane appointed as the first United

States Attorney. In 1852, the state was

divided into separate districts, and Joseph

Stillwell was commissioned as the first

United States Attorney for this new Eastern

District.

At the turn of the century, Jacob Trieber

received appointment to the district. Born

in Poland, Trieber emigrated to America

with his parents and settled in St. Louis.

After studying law, Trieber moved to

Arkansas and became active in state and

national politics. In 1888 he served as the

Chairman of the Republican State

Convention of Arkansas, and was the

Republican nominee for several state posts,

including Chief Justice of the Arkansas

Supreme Court and the United States

Senate. Trieber was named United States

Attorney in 1897.

Trieber’s successor, William G.

Whipple, had served earlier as United States

Attorney for the Eastern District from 1868

to 1871. Prior to his second term as United

States Attorney, he served as the mayor of

Little Rock, and in 1892, had been the

Republican candidate for Governor of the

state. June P. Wooten was appointed United

States Attorney in 1919 and served for three

years. He later was named a Special

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme

Court. His successor, Charles F. Cole,

served many times as a delegate to the

Republican National Convention. On two

of those occasions, he served as chairman.

Cole was twice the Republican nominee for

the United States Senate.

Largest Drug lnvestigation In Arkansas

History

Those who have served the Eastern

District have provided the leadership for

investigating and prosecuting violators of

the interests and laws of the United States.

One such important investigation conducted

by the Eastern District involved 13

defendants from six different states. At the

time, United States Attorney George Proctor

referred to it as the largest drug

investigation in Arkansas history. The

organization represented the first combined

effort in Arkansas of the Organized Crime

Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)

and state and local law authorities.

The primary defendants, Phillip A.

Bonadonna and Charles J. Alaimo and

accomplices, were charged with conspiring

to import heroin and marijuana into the

United States from Colombia. The two

defendants arranged for a private plane to be

outfitted with an extra fuel tank, then hired

pilots to fly the aircraft to a secured landing

site in South America where 450 pounds of

marijuana and more than 10 kilos of heroin

were purchased. The plane then returned to

the United States and was eventually seized

by the United States Customs Service in

Waycross, Georgia. Bonadonna was also a

defendant in a larger trial related to that

investigation which took place in Atlanta.

He was convicted and sentenced to a

40-year prison term for his participation in

a continuing criminal enterprise. Convicted

with him in that enterprise was Harold

Rosenthal, a former Atlanta bail bondsman.

The investigation took place as part of the

national investigation code-named

“Operation Southern Comfort,” which was

referred to by the Justice Department as the
Headquarters: Little Rock

16 Assistant United States Attorneys

largest cocaine investigation in United

States history.

White Collar Crime–A Personal Tragedy

Another case that occurred in the

Eastern District revealed a personal tragedy

involved with white collar crime. The

Arkansas Gazette, dated February 1, 1987

(p. 1A), opened with a statement about the

defendants that said, “David and Roxanne

Hamilton had it all.” Before the age of 30

the two defendants had forged a brilliant

career in finance. He had been a state

football hero who had just graduated from

college and was making $100,000 a year

with an investment firm. She had graduated

from high school and had become a

$30,000-a-year securities trader. The

couple used their jobs at a bank and an

investment institution to shuffle money from

one to the other to make money for

themselves. For their efforts, they were

convicted of wire fraud.

Upon sentencing, the judge turned to the

couple and said, “It is obviously a tragedy,

particularly so because of the potential each

of you had.”

The role of the United States Attorney in

the investigation revealed the judgment

needed by those who hold the office of

United States Attorney. The United States

Attorney for the Eastern District, Kenneth F.

Stoll, could have prosecuted for each

transaction but decided to prosecute on only

two counts because of the defendants’

cooperation in the investigation.

Commenting on the case, Stoll said, “My

objective in cases like this is to get the

entire scheme in front of the judge.”

In the early 1980's, United States

Attorney George W. Proctor headed the

District’s investigation into a scheme

involving arson and bank robbery. At the

center of the conspiracy was a lawyer from

Pine Bluff, Arkansas by the name of M. J.

Probst. A client of his came to his office

one day and asked if he knew anyone

interested in buying a restaurant. Probst

said no, and then asked, “What about fire?”

Thus began an elaborate scheme to torch the

business using the help of two bank robbers

with whom Probst had been involved in

another criminal undertaking. Under plea

agreement, Probst pleaded guilty to the

charge of conspiracy to commit arson, in

addition to other counts which were

dismissed in return for his cooperation in

the matter of the bank robberies.

As evidenced in these and other cases,

the work of the United States Attorney

involves more than legal knowledge or

courtroom expertise--it also requires good

judgment and dedication.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS

J. Michael Fitzhugh, United States Attorney

“The Hanging Judge”

Although relatively small in

geographical size, the Western District of

Arkansas stands out in the annals of

American history as one of the most famous

judicial districts in the country.

Headquartered in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the

District became synonymous in the 19th

Century with justice. Judge Isaac C. Parker,

with the help of United States Attorneys and

United States Marshals, forged what was

then a lawless frontier into a civilized and

peaceful territory. Known as the “Hanging

Judge,” Parker sentenced 160 men to death

during his 21 years on the bench. Judge

Parker once discounted his role in the

sentences by saying, “I never hanged a man.

It was the law.”

Fort Smith

Fort Smith was first established in 1817

by a company of United States soldiers led

by Major William Bradford. They built a

fort at the spot where the Poteau and

Arkansas Rivers merge. The Army

abandoned the fort in 1824, but returned and

rebuilt it in 1838. Poised at the edge of the

Central Indian Reservation, Fort Smith

became the security of settlers pouring into

the territory. As Indians were forced to

move from the East, they settled in

increasing numbers near the Arkansas

borders. As time progressed, the federal

courts at Fort Smith served to protect both

the Indians and the whites from “ruffians”

as Judge Parker once called those who

crossed the law. The court had

responsibility not only for the lands of

western Arkansas but the vast Indian

territory as well. Since by treaty the federal

government had no jurisdiction in

reservation lands, numerous criminals of the

day crossed the borders into the safety of

Indian territory. The United States District

Court at Fort Smith was responsible for

bringing them to justice.

Congress had originally established the

federal court in Van Buren, Arkansas, on

March 3, 1851. Twenty years to the day,

however, Congress moved the court to Fort

Smith and appointed the Western District its

own judge. The district had previously

shared a judge with the Eastern District.

After the resignation of the first judge under

suspicion of corruption, Parker took office

in May 1875. That first term saw the

sentencing of eight men to death.

William Henry Clayton

This famous period in the history of the

Western District revolved around the

personality of Judge Parker. But the United

States Attorney who served Fort Smith at

the time was just as instrumental in bringing

about law and order. Throughout most of

Judge Parker’s tenure on the bench, William

Henry Clayton served the office of the

United States Attorney for the Western

District of Arkansas. Clayton, a native of

Pennsylvania, had been named for the man

who was President at the time of his birth.

He moved to Arkansas in 1864 and began

the study of law three years later. Known in

the area for his hard work as the

Superintendent of Public Instruction, he

established some 30 schools before leaving

office. Clayton resigned the position in

1870 and was admitted to the Bar in 1871.

Before becoming United States Attorney,

Clayton was-appointed as the Prosecuting

Attorney for the First Judicial District of
Headquarters: Fort Smith

9 Assistant United States Attorneys

 Fort Smith, Arkansas

Arkansas, becoming judge of that district in

1873. Ulysses S. Grant appointed him

United States Attorney to serve with Judge

Parker in 1874. Clayton is said to have

prosecuted 10,000 cases during his time and

won the conviction of 80 people for murder.

After leaving office, Clayton became judge

of the United States Court for the Central

District of Indian Territory.

The famous “Hanging Judge” resigned

in 1896 but those appointed to the office of

the United States Attorney continued to

protect the citizens of the Western District

through the investigation and prosecution of

“ruffians.” James Seaborn Holt became

United States Attorney in 1920. For the

three years prior to that, he had been the

Assistant United States Attorney in the

district. In 1938 Holt became a Justice of

the Arkansas Supreme Court where he

served for the next 23 years. Holt retired in

1961 but tragically died in an automobile

accident just two years later.

Successors to those first United States

Attorneys for the Western District of

Arkansas continued to demonstrate the spirit

evidenced by Judge Parker, who once said,

“I have this much satisfaction after my

twenty years of labor: the court at Fort

Smith, Arkansas, stands as a monument to

the strong arm of the laws of the United

States and has resulted in bringing . . .

civilization and protection.”
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Gary A. Feess, United States Attorney

The Central District of California was

created by an Act of Congress in 1966.

Prior to that time, California had been

divided into the Northern and Southern

Districts, with the Southern District

headquartered in Los Angeles. Manuel L.

Real was an Assistant United States

Attorney for the Southern District from

1952 to 1955, and when the Central District

was formed, he was the United States

Attorney for the Southern District. Real

remained in Los Angeles and was

commissioned as the first United States

Attorney for the newly designated Central

District. Real went on to become a judge

for the United States District Court and later

became its chief judge. William D. Keller

became United States Attorney for the

District in 1972, and like Real, later became

United States District Court Judge.

Stephen S. Trott

Stephen S. Trott became the United

States Attorney for the Central District in

1981. He continued his distinguished legal

career by becoming an Assistant Attorney

General for the Criminal Division of the

Department of Justice in 1983. In 1986,

Trott was named Associate Attorney

General, and in 1988 he was appointed as

Judge of the United States Court of Appeals

for the Ninth Circuit. Trott also was known

before his legal career as a singer/guitarist

for the group, “The Highwaymen,” famous

for their gold record, “Michael Row the

Boat Ashore.”

Because of the major metropolitan areas

of Los Angeles and surrounding counties,

the Central District faces a very substantial

caseload that reflects the growing problems

associated with urban life. For instance, in

the early 1970's, the Central District was

one of only three districts in the nation that

had its own tax division. Thus, from its

inception, the Central District has faced an

inordinate amount of crimes in relationship

to its size, but those problems have not

deterred those serving in the United States

Attorney’s office.

Orthodontist Aids Draft Evaders

In 1970, the district faced a rather large

increase in the number of draft evasions

from the Vietnam War. In that year, more

than 5,000 people failed to report to their

Selective Service Boards. Once located,

many were persuaded to register, but several

cases represented a challenge to the United

States Attorney’s office. A number of

young men had gone to orthodontist Dr.

Bernard Bender to be fitted for braces which

would have delayed indefinitely their

qualification for the draft. After

investigation, the United States Attorney’s

office indicted the doctor on charges of

conspiracy and abetting the scheme.

Toy Company Indicted

One of the most complex and difficult

cases prosecuted in the Central District in

the late 1970's involved the well-known toy

company, Mattel, Inc. Ruth Handler, the

cofounder, major stockholder and former

President, Co-Chairman of the Board, and

Director of the Hawthorne, California-based

toy company, was indicted and convicted

for her role in a scheme whereby Mattel

falsified its financial statements over a

five-year period. Indicted with her were

several other employees and officers of the

company. The investigation required the

review of several thousand documents and

interviews of more than a hundred witnesses
Headquarters: Los Angeles

Branch Office: Santa Ana

141 Assistant United States Attorneys

to discover and prove the fraud. Losses by

the stockholders as a result of the fraud

exceeded $250 million. Handler was

sentenced to the maximum fine and required

to spend 2,500 hours in community service.

Espionage

Two of the most significant cases

prosecuted in the Central District during the

mid 1980's were espionage cases. One of

the cases involved an FBI agent. Soviet

emigres Svetlana and Nikolay Ogorodnikov

were charged with espionage in connection

with their recruitment of FBI Foreign

Counter-Intelligence Agent Richard Miller.

Svetlana successfully compromised Miller

by providing him with sex and gifts, and

then asked him on behalf of the KGB to

provide her with classified FBI documents,

an FBI personnel list, and information on

the location of Soviet and KGB defectors.

After two months of trial, the Ogorodnikovs

pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit

espionage.

In 1987, a case occurred in the Central

District considered by many as the most

significant undercover drug and money

laundering investigation in the history of

law enforcement. The investigation, known

as Operation Pisces, was centered in Los

Angeles, New York, and Miami. The

operation culminated in May 1987 with the

indictments of 117 defendants. Between

August 1985 and May 1987, the undercover

OCDETF operation collected and seized in

excess of $45 million in cocaine proceeds in

Los Angeles, New York, and Miami, and

resulted in seizures in excess of 19,000

pounds of cocaine and $25 million in cash

and assets. The Los Angeles investigation

resulted in indictments naming 30

traffickers.

In recent years, the United States

Attorney’s office for the Central District of

California has made extensive use of the

law allowing the government to seize the

assets of drug dealers. In 1987, the District

led the nation in the value of asset

forfeitures, having seized $30 million in that

year alone. Reflecting the cooperation

between the District and local and state

authorities, one third of that figure was

shared with local law enforcement agencies.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

David F. Levi, United States Attorney

In 1966 the Northern District of

California was split into two districts, thus

forming the Eastern District of California.

John Hyland, who was appointed to serve as

the first United States Attorney, previously

had held the position of Deputy in the

Visalia District Attorney’s Office. Hyland

served until 1970, assisted by eight support

staff, four of whom were Assistant United

States Attorneys. His successor, Dwayne

Keyes, who served in 1970, witnessed the

growth of the office to 18 Assistant United

States Attorneys and 17 support staff.

During this time, the office began two of the

most important cases in its history -- the

Roseville Bomb Case and the prosecution of

Lynette Fromme for her assassination

attempt on President Ford.

Roseville Bomb Case

On April 28, 1973, the residents of

Roseville, California, were awakened by a

series of blasts from a railroad yard that

continued for five hours. A lethal cargo

combination of propane gas and 7,000 navy

bombs destined for Vietnam exploded in the

early morning hours sending shrapnel into a

radius of four to five miles. The explosion

was heard 40 miles away. The bombs alone

comprised a shipment of two million pounds

of TNT. Described by residents as a war

scene, the disaster fortunately resulted in no

deaths, but did cause many millions of

dollars in property damage. Subsequent

lawsuits could have resulted in huge

liability claims, but since no

cause for the blast was ever determined,

the United States Attorney’s office assisted

in the settlement of claims outside of court.

Lunette Fromme

The assassination case against Lynette

Fromme came to trial in the Eastern District

of California and ended in what some called

a surprising verdict. Through the

prosecutive efforts of the United States

Attorney’s office, Fromme was found guilty

of the more serious charge of attempted

assassination, rather than the expected

verdict of assault on the President. United

States Attorney Dwayne Keyes encountered

the rage of the former Manson disciple,

Fromme, when she hit him in the face with

an apple. Fromme was sentenced to life in

prison -- the first ever given by then District

Judge Thomas MacBride.

Voting Rights Take Priority

Dwayne Keyes left the District in

December 1977 and was succeeded by

Herman Sillas who placed major emphasis

on the implementation of the Voting Rights

Act. Sillas supervised the creation of a

manual which outlined proper voting

procedures pursuant to the Act. He also

sent representatives to talk with workers at

the District county voting centers about the

need to follow the guidelines and to

encourage bilingual workers to assist

non-English speaking citizens with the

voting process.
Headquarters: Sacramento

Branch Office: Fresno

38 Assistant United States Attorneys

The 1980 ‘s

On October 1, 1980, William Shubb

became the United States Attorney for the

Eastern District. During his tenure, the civil

section represented the government in the

first swine flu case in the nation. A

settlement was reached which kept damages

to a minimum. Another first during Shubb’s

term was the indictment of the district’s first

airline hijacking case.

Donald B. Ayer succeeded Shubb as

United States Attorney and served until June

1986. Under Ayer’s guidance, the District

began its prosecution of the Monaco

brothers who were indicted for a

multimillion dollar ponzi scheme under the

company name of “Golden Plan.” The

defendants all pleaded guilty and received

significant terms of imprisonment. Ayer’s

tenure also saw the implementation of the

LECC/Victim-Witness Program as well as

the Drug Task Force, White Collar Crime,

Forfeiture and Methamphetamine units in

the office. Following his resignation, he

became Deputy Solicitor General and

Counselor to the Solicitor General for the

Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Public Corruption

In 1985, the FBI began a three-year

undercover investigation of alleged public

corruption in the California state legislature.

David F. Levi, Assistant United States

Attorney at the time, was assigned to the

case. In 1986, when Levi was appointed to

serve as United States Attorney, he

continued to direct the investigation. In

August 1988, six search warrants were

executed at the State Capitol. On May 17,

1989, State Senator Joseph Montoya and his

aide were indicted on charges of

racketeering, extortion, and money

laundering. The legislator and his aide had

allegedly used their offices to extort

campaign contributions and speaking fees

from those seeking help with legislation.

Under Levi, the Eastern District also has

investigated a major national security case

involving a research engineer’s attempt at

Aerojet Solid Propulsion Company to

export to Egypt the materials for a

sophisticated rocket and missile system.

The United States Attorney’s office for

the Eastern District of California has come

of age in a little more than twenty years.

This office prides itself on its legal

craftsmanship, dedication to service, and

leadership in the ranks of law enforcement.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Joseph P. Russoniello, United States Attorney

The Judiciary Act of September 28,

1850, created both the Northern and

Southern Districts of California. The

Northern District has existed in its present

configuration since 1966, when two

additional judicial districts were created and

the lines of the original two were redrawn to

reflect the changes.

Forty United States Attorneys have been

appointed to the Northern District including

Mrs. A. A. Adams, who was appointed by

the court on July 25, 1918, and then

received presidential appointment from

Woodrow Wilson on August 5, 1919. Mrs.

Adams was the first woman ever to serve as

United States Attorney.

Several former United States Attorneys

for this district have distinguished

themselves in other areas of government

service. Samuel W. Inge, who served the

Northern District in 1853, grew up in

Alabama and in 1844 served in that state’s

legislature. In 1845 he was elected to the

United States Congress from Alabama.

While in office Inge received attention from

an incident that took place outside the

confines of Congress. Due to an argument

that started on the floor of the House, Inge

challenged Edward Stanley from North

Carolina to a duel. Fortunately, both

survived. One account stated that the two

even became friends in later years.

President Pierce appointed Inge United

States Attorney for the Northern District of

California several years later.

Walter Van Dyke, who served as United

States Attorney in 1873, reflected the

popular conception of the pioneer traveling

west to California. As a young man, Van

Dyke hurried to California like so many

others during the Gold Rush in search of

quick wealth. Van Dyke had been in

California for two years when he became

the District Attorney for Klamath County.

A year later, he won election to the state

legislature. Prior to the Civil War, Van

Dyke argued the Union cause so

passionately that he became known as the

father of the Union Party in California.

Celebrated Cases

Among the earliest celebrated cases

handled by the Northern District of

California were lawsuits brought by the

government in connection with the

provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe

Hidalgo. Two of these cases involved land

grants associated with the treaty. U.S. v.

Jose Yves Limantour dealt with the

defendant’s fraudulent claim that he owned

most of the San Francisco Bay Area. U.S. v.

Andres Castilleroan was an enormous case

for its day concerning settling title to the

New Almaden quicksilver mine. Another

important case that came before the District

was the Sanford will case, U.S. v. James L.

Stanford, et al, which concerned whether

Leland Stanford’s estate was liable for the

debts of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Victory in the Supreme Court by Stanford’s

widow insured the future endowment of

Stanford University.
Defendant Killed During Trial

In 1917, excitement filled the

courthouse in this district during the trial of

Franz Bopp. Bopp and a number of other

defendants were being prosecuted by United

States Attorney John Preston on charges that

they and other Indian nationals conspired

with German agents to overthrow British

rule in India. On the final day of the trial,

one of the defendants shot and killed

another defendant in open court in the

mistaken belief that the victim had betrayed

the cause. The assailant was in turn shot

and killed by a United States Marshal.

Jack Dempsey - “Tokyo Rose” - Patty

Hearst - Sarah Jane Moore - Lawrence

Layton

Several well-known defendants have

come to trial in the Northern District of

California. In 1920, the United States

Attorney prosecuted the famed boxer, Jack

Dempsey, on charges of draft evasion due to

his former wife’s accusations that Dempsey

had failed to support her and was therefore

not entitled to his World War I draft

deferment. Dempsey was acquitted, but the

charges haunted him until he finally served

in the military during World War II.

Just after World War II, the infamous

“Tokyo Rose” came to trial in the Northern

District. She was convicted for

broadcasting propaganda messages over the

radio aimed at misinforming and attacking

the morale of United States troops in the

Pacific.

Another famous defendant to come to

trial in this district was Patty Hearst. Hearst

was convicted in 1976 for bank robbery in

San Francisco. Her case attracted

nationwide publicity because of her claim

that her kidnapping and imprisonment by

the so-called Symbionese Liberation Army

had forced her into committing that crime.

In 1975 Sarah Jane Moore was prosecuted

for the attempted assassination of President

Gerald Ford. Moore was convicted and

received a sentence of life imprisonment.

A case related to one of the most tragic

events of the century occurred in this district

in 1975 when Lawrence Layton was tried

and convicted of conspiracy to kill

Congressman Leo Ryan at an airstrip in

Guyana. Congressman Ryan went to

Guyana to investigate complaints from

concerned relatives that residents from

Jonestown were being held against their

will. Shortly thereafter, 900 people, who

were followers of the Reverend Jim Jones,

were found dead under mysterious

circumstances.

In recent years, two separate defendants

were prosecuted in connection with

espionage activities. In 1984 James Harper

was convicted and received a life sentence

for selling secrets to the Soviet Block

regarding our nation’s ICBM force and

missile defense system. In 1986, Navy

Petty Officer Jerry Whitworth was

convicted of conspiring with the Walker

brothers, former Navy officers, to sell top

secret naval communications information to

the Soviets.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

William Braniff, United States Attorney

The need for the establishment of a

United States Attorney’s office in San

Diego was created by the area’s proximity

to the border and the dramatic increase in

population and crime rate. A branch office

of the United States Attorney’s office for

the Southern District of California in Los

Angeles was established in San Diego in the

early 1950's. Assistant United States

Attorney Edwin C. Jefferies was selected to

run the office. Jefferies conducted a

one-man operation, and immediately faced

a tremendous backlog of cases. Sixteen

years later the new Southern District of

California was created.

President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed

Edwin L. Miller, Jr., to serve as the first

United States Attorney. Those following

Miller included Harry D. Steward

(1969-1974), Terry J. Knoepp (1975-1978),

Michael J. Walsh (1978-1980), M. James

Lorenz (1980-1981), William H. Kennedy

(1981-1982), Peter K. Nunez (1982-1988),

and William Braniff commissioned in 1988.

By the year 1969, the new Southern

District of California had the largest

caseload in the nation, but the staff had

increased only to 12 attorneys and 10

support personnel. This staff worked with

one grand jury, two district judges, and one

magistrate within the District. With

resource shortages and a heavy caseload, the

office could do little more than react to

resulting pressure.

Southern District Comes Of Age

By 1975, the size of the office had

grown substantially to 29 attorneys. At the

same time, the district had increased to five

federal judges, three full-time magistrates,

two part-time magistrates, and eight grand

juries. As a result, the Southern District had

come of age, with the ability to handle

successfully the reactive caseload and

devote a significant portion of resources to

the investigation and prosecution of the

growing number of complex cases. Under

the leadership of United States Attorney

Peter Nunez, the office experienced

unprecedented growth and creativity in the

formulation of approaches to accomplishing

its mission. By 1989, the office had grown

to 135 attorneys with 77 support personnel.

Throughout its existence, the United

States Attorney’s office for the Southern

District has received praise from the

community, and often nationwide, for its

many accomplishments and the success of

individual employees. A prime example ‘is

the first United States Attorney for the

Southern District. As San Diego County

District Attorney, Ed Miller had been a

strong force in the local law enforcement

community. He continued in that role as the

first United States Attorney for the Southern

District.
Headquarters: San Diego

69 Assistant United States Attorneys

Several former United States Attorneys

left office to continue their law practices or

join the corporate world. Former United

States Attorney Mike Walsh became Vice

President of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Subsequent to serving as United States

Attorney, William Kennedy was appointed

to the California Superior Court Bench. In

addition to Judge Kennedy, eight former

Assistant United States Attorneys received

federal, state or local judicial appointments.

Innovative Methods

This district has been the forerunner for

many successful innovative management

systems and prosecutorial programs. In

1969, the Southern District suggested

implementing a computer license check

system along the Mexican border to screen

vehicles and thereby detect suspected

smugglers. In 1970, the Collections Unit of

the Civil Section was established, serving as

a model for other districts.

In 1984, a Financial Investigations Unit

was created to promote the efficient

handling of financial investigations, seizures

and forfeitures, and money laundering. This

unit was one of the first of its kind in the

United States and has served as a model for

forfeiture units in other Districts. Today,

this unit consists of six attorneys and nine

support personnel.

Cross Designation Program

The Cross Designation Program was

initiated in San Diego in 1975. Over the

years, this program has been expanded and

used successfully with a variety of federal

agencies. In December 1977, the district

was involved in the first prisoner exchange

executed with Mexico pursuant to the

Prisoner Transfer Treaty. Over the years,

periodic transfers have taken place and

hundreds of United States and Mexican

citizens have been returned to their

homelands.

Zero Tolerance Program

During the latter part of 1986, the

United States Attorney’s office for the

Southern District of California conceived

and implemented the “Zero Tolerance” drug

prosecution program, which was

subsequently adopted by the National Drug

Policy Board and made a major portion of

the government’s drug enforcement

program. The Zero Tolerance program was

intended to help reduce the demand for

drugs by reminding people that it is illegal

to buy, possess, or use drugs in any

quantity. By prosecuting personal use cases

in the court system, the United States

Attorney’s office wanted to demonstrate

that society will no longer tolerate the use of

illegal drugs.
DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Michael J. Norton, United States Attorney

Colorado existed as a territory until

1876 when it was admitted into the Union.

Even before statehood, the territory of

Colorado was served by the Office of the

United States Attorney. Within the first two

years, the District of Colorado had three

United States Attorneys. In 1861, Theodore

D. Edwards was the first to be appointed to

the office. His successor, James E. Dalliba,

was appointed later that same year, with

Samuel E. Brown becoming the third United

States Attorney to serve the district a year

later.

Many accomplished people followed

these first United States Attorneys for the

District of Colorado. Henry V. Johnson,

appointed in 1893, later served as mayor of

Denver. His successor, Greely W.

Whitford, left the United States Attorney’s

office to become a State District Judge and

later Justice and Chief Justice of the

Colorado Supreme Court. Harry E. Kelly

was a member of the Colorado House of

Representatives when he accepted the post

of Assistant United States Attorney for

Colorado in 1909. He became United States

Attorney in 1912 and resigned in 1914 to

become Counsel for the Interstate

Commerce Commission in Washington.

John F. Symes was appointed to the

Office of the United States Attorney in

1921. A year later, he was named as judge

of the United States District Court for this

district. Two former United States

Attorneys became very prominent leaders in

state politics. George Stephan,

commissioned in 1924, became Lieutenant

Governor and was Acting Governor for a

time. His successor, Ralph Carr, was a

newspaper editor-turned lawyer who had

been First Assistant Attorney General for

Colorado before becoming United States

Attorney in 1929. In 1938 and again in

1940, Carr was elected Governor of

Colorado and in that office erased the state

debt of almost one million dollars. He left

office with a surplus in the state treasury of

$3 million.

Harry B. Tedrow, appointed by

President Wilson as United States Attorney

in 1914, proved to be a most tenacious

prosecutor. During World War I, Tedrow

began investigations against several Denver

businessmen for profiteering. Petitions

against Tedrow’s actions resulted in a

United States District Court Judge enjoining

the United States Attorney from continuing

his investigations. Tedrow responded with

an immediate appeal to the United States

Supreme Court. Unfortunately, Tedrow

died unexpectedly before the court ruled.

Significant Cases

Those who have held the position as

United States Attorneys have displayed the

same tenacity as that of Tedrow in

upholding the law. In 1980, an

investigation began into the activity of the

Smaldone Organization, an organized crime

group long active in Colorado. Court

authorized electronic surveillance of

telephones revealed that several defendants,

including the Smaldone brothers, were

planning to murder an individual in the

Denver area and were conducting a loansharking business relating to their gambling

activities. The FBI conducted a search of

their office and recovered a 12-inch silencer

and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to be used

in the murder. Before indictment, the

collectors for the loan-sharks entered guilty
Headquarters: Denver

33 Assistant United States Attorneys

pleas in connection with their activities.

The Smaldone bothers, and one other

defendant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy,

firearms’ violation, and income tax charges.

They were sentenced to 10 years’

imprisonment.

Beginning in February 1980, Lawrence

Louis Levy formed an organization and

network comprised of 30 or more persons to

distribute multi-kilogram quantities of

cocaine in Colorado and other states. The

DEA, IRS, FBI, and local law enforcement

officials began an investigation of the

organization in late 1981. The investigative

techniques included the use of several

wiretaps and an oral intercept device.

Almost 30 suspects were arrested and

indicted. Levy was charged with a

continuing criminal enterprise, but became

a fugitive and was not apprehended until

1986, when he was arrested in Hong Kong

living under an assumed name. After a

lengthy extradition process, he was

sentenced to a 20-year prison term. More

than one million dollars in cash was seized

from the Levy organization and forfeited.

Several years ago, the District of

Colorado became the focus of much

attention in the media when Alan Berg, a

radio talk show host, was machine-gunned

to death in front of his home in Denver. In

April 1987, a federal grand jury returned

indictments against four suspects in the

case. The indictment charged that the

defendants murdered Berg because he was

Jewish and because of his abrasive style on

his radio show. Berg had often confronted

ultra-conservative groups, such as the Klan,

on his show. Three of the defendants had

been members of such a group, known as

“The Order.” At trial, the government

sought to prove that in the spring of 1983,

one of the defendants surveilled Berg,

collected information about him, and then

reported to Robert Matthews, founder of

“The Order.” The government also

attempted to establish that the defendants

followed Berg to his home on the night of

June 18, 1984, where he was murdered.

Two of the four were convicted and

received terms of imprisonment of 150

years each.

In an important environmental case, this

district secured indictments against

PROTEX for the illegal treatment, storage,

and disposal of hazardous wastes, and for

conspiracy and making false statements

concerning such practices. Following a

three-week jury trial, PROTEX was

convicted on 16 of 19 counts, including

three counts of knowing endangerment. The

company was fined $7.6 million, placed on

five years’ probation and ordered to make

restitution of almost all but $440,000 of the

total fines on the condition that the company

clean up its property, at an estimated cost of

$2.25 million.
DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT

Stanley A. Twardy, Jr., United States Attorney

In 1789, President George Washington

appointed Pierrepont Edwards as the first

United States Attorney for the District of

Connecticut, one of the original thirteen

judicial districts. Edwards, son of the

famous theologian, Jonathan Edwards, had

served in the Revolutionary War and had

been a member of the Continental Congress.

He later became a member of the

Connecticut legislature and eventually

received appointment as judge of the United

States District Court for the District of

Connecticut. Edwards was the first of many

capable leaders who became United States

Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Nathan Smith was commissioned to the

office in 1829 by John Quincy Adams.

Prior to his appointment, Smith served

several terms in the state legislature and was

the Prosecuting Attorney for New Haven

County. Smith is credited with writing a

large part of the Constitution for the State of

Connecticut, which was adopted in 1818.

Smith also was influential in the founding of

Trinity College in Hartford. In 1833, he

was chosen to fill the unexpired term of

Samuel A. Foote in the United States

Senate.

William Shipman, who was

commissioned in 1853, became known

during his day for the opinions he handed

down as a United States District Court

Judge. The former United States Attorney

frequently was quoted in national and

international law reviews. A former

member of the Connecticut legislature,

Shipman served in the United States District

Court for Connecticut for 13 years. Charles

W. Comstock served for several years in the

Connecticut Assembly before being

appointed United States Attorney by

President Cleveland. Frederick A. Scott

was Assistant Clerk for the State House of

Representatives and Clerk for the State

Senate before being elected to the House in

1905. He served as Speaker of the House in

1911 before being named United States

Attorney in 1912.

Scott’s successor, Thomas J. Spellacy,

had an extensive career in government

service after leaving the District of

Connecticut. In 1919, he became the

Assistant Attorney General of the United

States. In 1935, Spellacy was elected

Mayor of Hartford, a post he held until

World War II when he became a legal

adviser to President Roosevelt in Europe.

He later served as the Assistant Secretary of

the Navy.

In recent years, several former United

States Attorneys for this District have been

appointed as judges. Robert C. Zampano,

appointed in 1961, became Senior United

States District Judge for the District of

Connecticut. Zampano became instrumental

in the settlement of the L’Ambiance

construction case for the families of 26 men

who died when a building under

construction collapsed. F. Owen Egan

became a United States Magistrate for the

same court. Other former United States

Attorneys who have received appointment

to the bench of the United States District

Court for Connecticut have been Jon O.

Newman, Peter C. Dorsey, and Alan H.

Nevas. Newman later became Judge of the

Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Richard

Blumenthal was appointed to the Office of

United States Attorney and later became a

State Senator.
Headquarters: New Haven

Branch Offices: Hartford, Bridgeport

32 Assistant United States Attorneys

Expressway Case

One of the most important cases to occur

in the District became known as the

“Expressway Case.” In this three-year

undercover investigation, approximately

100 people around the country turned over

about $200 million in drug money to FBI

agents posing as money launderers. More

than $50 million was delivered to the FBI’s

“front” office in Greenwich, which was the

center for the undercover operation. The

investigation culminated in June 1987 when

federal agents arrested 41 people around the

world and seized $8.5 million in cash and

more than 100 kilograms of cocaine.

Another 70 people were arrested, and nearly

one ton of cocaine and 11 tons of marijuana

were confiscated throughout the United

States in related investigations. The leader

of the organization was sentenced to 40

years in jail. In addition, his lieutenant

received a 20-year sentence with two other

defendants each receiving 16 years.

Commenting on the case, United States

Attorney Stanley Twardy stated, “[The]

sentences reflected the fact that those who

provide support for the Colombian drug

dealers are equally culpable for illicit

narcotics transactions. Both the drug

dealers and their financiers will be

vigorously prosecuted, and as shown,

severely punished.”

Longest Federal Trial In Connecticut

The longest federal trial in Connecticut

history took place in early 1989 when three

defendants were charged for their part in a

$7 million robbery from Wells Fargo. The

defendants, Puerto Rican nationalists,

received the maximum penalty for their

crimes. The trial took six months and was

filled with emotion due to the defendants’

contention that they were being imprisoned

because of their advocation of Puerto Rico’s

independence. One defense witness, a

Central Connecticut State University

professor, stated that he believed the

government should not have prosecuted the

defendants because the robbery was

politically motivated. According to

newspaper accounts of the trial, when

United States District Judge T. Emmet

Clarie asked the witness if he thought it

would be permissible to steal $7 million for

cancer research, he replied, “If you believe

in the cause.” (As quoted in The Hartford

Currant, June 9, 1989, “Fargo Convicts Get

The Maximum,” by George Gombossy.)

The United States Attorney’s office for the

District of Connecticut disagreed and

secured the defendant’s conviction with

maximum penalties.
DISTRICT OF DELAWARE

William C. Carpenter, Jr., United States Attorney

George Read, II

From the earliest United States

Attorneys to the present, Delaware’s highest

ranking law officers have been

distinguished statesmen. While all of these

individuals were patriots in their own right,

many were descendants of equally known

war heroes and public servants. Many

former United States Attorneys have gone

on to become judges and senators in the first

state.

Early Years

The first United States Attorney for the

District of Delaware was George Read, II,

who was succeeded 27 years later by his

son, George Read, III. Both were

descended from the signer of the

Declaration of Independence of the same

name.

James Asheton Bayard and Thomas

Francis Bayard became distinguished

senators following their terms as United

States Attorneys. Another, Anthony

Higgins, served the District of Delaware

from 1869 to 1876. Elected to the United

States Senate in 1881, he became known as

a champion of such causes as public

education and equal rights. Higgins was

recognized as one of the most eloquent

members of the Senate in his day.

Daniel Moore Bates was Delaware’s

Secretary of State prior to becoming the

United States Attorney. In 1865 he was

appointed Chancellor of the Delaware Court

of Chancery, nationally recognized for its

involvement in corporate litigation.

William Marvel, United States Attorney

from 1948 to 1953, also served as

Chancellor. Of particular note is that the

two Assistant United States Attorneys who

served under Marvel, Daniel Herrmann and

James Latchum, went on to hold the two

highest judicial appointments in the state:

Hermann is Chief Justice of the Delaware

Supreme Court and Latchum is Chief Judge

of the United States District Court.

Edward Bradford and William Spruance

were members of the convention which

formed the Constitution of the State of

Delaware in 1897. Bradford later served 21

years on the United States District Court

while Spruance became Senior Associate

Justice of Delaware.
Headquarters: Wilmington

9 Assistant United States Attorneys

John Pierce Nields, commissioned in

1903, was the son of John Nields, a lawyer

and one of the organizers of the Delaware

battery in the Civil War. Nields compiled a

notable record in the courtroom, losing only

one case, and at that a relatively

unimportant one. Nields was appointed

District Judge in 1930, a position he held

until his retirement in 1941. President

Coolidge appointed Leonard E. Wales as

United States Attorney in 1927. At the end

of his second term, Wales became the first

judge of the New Castle County Court of

Common Pleas.

In 1953, Leonard G. Hagner became the

first full-time United States Attorney

appointed in the District. Prior to this time,

the positions of United States Attorney and

Assistant United States Attorney were held

on a part-time basis. In 1975, W. Laird

Stabler, Jr., former Attorney General of the

State of Delaware and majority leader in the

Delaware House of Representatives,

assumed the position of United States

Attorney. Today Stabler is recognized as a

prominent political and community leader

and is a Vice President in one of Delaware’s

leading banking institutions. Joseph J.

Farnan, Jr., former Chief Deputy Attorney

General for the State of Delaware, became

United States Attorney for the District of

Delaware in 1981. In 1985 he was

appointed United States District Court

Judge by President Reagan.

Public Corruption

In 1909, a federal grand jury indicted

Ronald J. Aiello, New Castle County

Councilman, on charges of extortion in

violation of the Hobbs Act. Aiello was

arrested on May 18, 1989, for attempting to

extort $100,000 from builder-developer

Louis J. Capano, Jr. The investigation

represented a cooperative effort between the

United States Attorney’s office and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Recent Times

In recent years, United States Attorney

William C. Carpenter, Jr. has guided several

important investigations for this District. In

the early part of 1989, the Drug

Enforcement Administration and the

Delaware State Police conducted an

investigation which culminated in the arrest

of a major cocaine and marijuana distributor

and several co-conspirators. The

investigation involved a federal

court-authorized wire intercept which led to

the identification and seizure of numerous

assets including $56,000 in cash, three late

model vehicles, and several properties.

A similar investigation in 1988 resulted

in a check being issued to the Delaware

State Police in the amount of $89,000 as

part of the asset forfeiture/equitable sharing

program. To date, a total of approximately

$400,000 has been turned over to state and

local police departments as a result of an

aggressive equitable sharing program in this

state. In 1989 alone, pending forfeitures

included more than $1.6 million in cash,

$200,000 in property, vehicles valued at

$75,000, and more than $30,000 worth of

stocks, bonds, and personal property.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Jay B. Stephens, United States Attorney

The Office of the United States Attorney

for the District of Columbia is unique

among the 94 United States Attorneys’

offices across the nation by virtue of its size

and varied responsibilities. It is the largest

United States Attorney’s office with 235

Assistant United States Attorneys and 197

support personnel. The size of the

personnel force is the result of the breadth

of its responsibility for criminal law

enforcement and its location in the nation’s

capital. The United States Attorney’s office

for the District of Columbia is not only

responsible for the prosecution of crimes

against the United States, but also for the

prosecution of all serious local crimes

committed by adults in the District of

Columbia.

Many distinguished people have served

this office as United States Attorney,

including the first appointee, Edward

Carrington, who was commissioned in 1863.

Also prominent was his successor, George

P. Fisher, who served in 1870. Fisher had

served the State of Delaware in the State

House of Representatives, as Secretary of

State and as Attorney General. In 1860, he

was elected to the United States House of

Representatives from Delaware. President

Taylor once appointed him to litigate certain

claims on behalf of United States citizens

against the government of Brazil. Prior to

his appointment as United States Attorney,

Fisher served as an Associate Justice of the

Supreme Court for the District of Columbia.

During that time, he presided over the

conspiracy trial of John H. Surratt in the

murder of President Lincoln. Fisher later

became Auditor of the Treasury under

President Harrison.
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.

233 Assistant United States Attorneys

Father And Son Serve Together

Henry H. Wells served as State

Legislator before becoming United States

Attorney, winning election to the Michigan

legislature in 1854. After the Civil War, he

was named provisional governor of Virginia

and in 1869 became the United States

Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In 1875, Wells became one of the few

individuals to hold two different positions as

United States Attorney when he was named

to the Office of the United States Attorney

for the District of Columbia. While he was

United States Attorney, his son, H. H.

Wells, Jr., served as his Assistant United

States Attorney. They served together until

1879.

Arthur Alexis Birney became United

States Attorney in 1893. From a prominent

family, Birney had been born in Paris and

was the grandson of James Birney, twice

candidate for President of the United States.

Arthur Birney became Assistant United

States Attorney for the District of Columbia

in 1875 before helping to reorganize the

Law Department of Howard University in

1880. As United States Attorney, he

prosecuted the famous “Sugar Trust” cases

involving defendant Elverton R. Chapman.

In 1898, he aided in the prosecution of

Montana’s Senator Clark under the direction

of the Senate Committee on Privileges and

Elections. The prosecution resulted in the

senator’s resignation.

The Office of the United States Attorney

for the District of Columbia has been a

veritable school for judges. A large number

of former Assistants and United States

Attorneys have been appointed to various

courts. Four former United States

Attorneys--Thomas A. Flannery, Oliver

Gasch, Edward M. Curran, and Stanley S.

Harris--were appointed to the United States

District Court for the District of Columbia.

Attempted Assassination of President

Reagan

Some of the more notable crimes

brought to trial by the United States

Attorney’s office for the District of

Columbia include an incident that shocked

the nation in March 1981. In United States

v. Hinckley, the United States Attorney’s

office prosecuted John Hinckley for the

attempted assassination of President Ronald

Reagan and the shooting of James Brady.

ABSCAM

One of the most publicized cases to

come before the District involved Richard

Kelly and John Jenrette, both members of

the United States Congress. These cases

were part of the so-called ABSCAM

investigation which sought to bring to light

the bribery of public officials. This

investigation represented the first successful

use of a complex undercover sting operation

by the FBI.

Because of its location near the seat of
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Robert W. Genzman, United States Attorney

American government, the United States

Attorney’s office for the District of

Columbia has prosecuted several cases other

than ABSCAM involving public corruption.

The United States Attorney’s office

prosecuted Paul Thayer, a former Deputy

Undersecretary of Defense, for insider

trading charges, and Alphonse Hill, a former

Deputy Mayor of Washington, on charges of

fraud against the District of Columbia.

Espionage and Stealing Government

Documents

Another case which received national

attention occurred in the District of

Columbia which involved the prosecution of

Jonathan Pollard and his wife Anne, on

charges of espionage.

This office also has been involved with

several interesting cases such as United

States v. Henning Heldt, et al. This

prosecution involved several members of

the Church of Scientology for conspiracy to

burglarize government offices (including the

District of Columbia’s office), and to steal

official government documents which were

material to a pending prosecution of a

member of the Church of Scientology.

In October 1962, the United States

Congress removed 32 counties from the

jurisdiction of the Southern District of

Florida to form the Middle District. In

February 1989, three additional counties

were added which gave the Middle District

responsibility for more than half of Florida’s

67 counties and a majority of the state’s

total population. The Middle District, in its

present form, extends from the Georgia

border north of Jacksonville, diagonally

across the state to the Everglades south of

Fort Myers, a distance of more than 300

miles.

The history of the district indicates a

dramatic change in its growth and its major

prosecutorial emphasis from the

appointment of Edward F. Boardman as the

first United States Attorney in 1962.

President Kennedy appointed Boardman in

1961 as the United States Attorney for the

Southern District of Florida, but upon the

creation of the Middle District, Boardman

relocated to Tampa to become the district’s

first United States Attorney. Over the next

seven years, Boardman served under three

presidents until leaving office to return to

private practice. In 1972, he was elected to

Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals.

John L. Briggs followed Boardman as

United States Attorney for the district.

During his tenure, Briggs emphasized the

prosecution of white collar crime and was

responsible for the trial of United States

Senator Edward J. Gurney on charges of

bribery and conspiracy. Other well-known

cases that came to trial under Briggs’

leadership were the prosecution of Glenn

Turner, the renowned promoter of Koscot,

on mail fraud charges; and Donald Segretti

of Watergate infamy for election law
Headquarters: Tampa

Branch Offices: Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Myers.

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

violations. Briggs also was responsible for

enforcing school desegregation laws and

defusing the resulting confrontation with

then-Governor Claude Kirk.

Gary L. Betz became United States

Attorney for the Middle District in 1979.

Known for his successful prosecution of

organized crime figures, Betz took on the

task of reorganizing the office into the

Criminal and Civil Divisions. Robert W.

Merkle succeeded Betz in 1982 and quickly

received national attention for his zealous

fight against drugs and public corruption.

Most notable during his tenure was his

personal and successful prosecution of a

prominent member of the Medellin Cartel.

Robert W. Genzman became United States

Attorney in 1988 and earlier had served as

an Associate Minority-House Counsel for

the Iran-Contra hearings.

Medellin Cartel Member Prosecuted

One of the most significant narcotics

cases undertaken in the Middle District

involved the prosecution of Carlos Enrique

Lehder-Rivas, the Medellin Cartel member

brought to justice by former United States

Attorney Robert Merkle. The Middle

District pursued this investigation until it

resulted in Lehder’s original indictment in

January 1981. A further indictment was

handed down several months later charging

the defendant with a continuing criminal

enterprise. At the time, Lehder was

spending a substantial amount of time on

Norman’s Cay, a Bahamian Island which he

used as a staging area for bringing plane

loads of cocaine to the United States from

Colombia. The United States Attorney’s

office, along with the DEA, pressured the

Bahamian government to extradite Lehder,

which resulted in his being denied use of

Norman’s Cay by Bahamian authorities.

Lehder then changed his place of operations

to Bogota. The district responded by

traveling to Bogota to persuade Colombian

officials to extradite the defendant.

As a result of Merkle’s request and

meeting with the Attorney General for

Colombia, the Colombian government

prosecuted the extradition in the Colombian

Supreme Court. In November 1983, Lehder

became the first Colombian ever approved

for extradition to a foreign country.

Extradition required, however, the approval

of the President of Colombia. The Minister

of Justice urged the President to approve the

request and, as a result, was assassinated.

The act was widely attributed to Lehder and

other members of the cartel. Nine days

later, the President signed the necessary

order allowing Lehder to be taken to the

United States to stand trial.

The handling of the litigation was very

difficult with the defense raising every

conceivable legal challenge to the

prosecution. The sheer volume of the

defense effort is illustrated by the number of

docket entries in the case--1,297. The

vigorous pretrial investigation included the

obtaining of numerous financial records

from overseas. Thousands of documents

were obtained from various banks that

showed the defendant had deposited $33

million in small bills in just two years.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

K. Michael Moore, United States Attorney

An interesting situation evolved during

the trial when a defense witness, a pilot for

a major airline, broke down on the witness

stand and admitted that he had committed

perjury in his testimony the day before. He

then admitted to flying cocaine into the

United States for Lehder. Despite the

original testimony, the United States

Attorney’s office persevered by refusing to

release the witness from his subpoena and

interviewing him further. This resulted in

the pilot’s confession the next day. The

recantation of perjury in the middle of trial

is so rare in court proceedings that it

severely damaged Lehder’s defense.

Lehder was sentenced on July 20, 1988

to life without parole, plus 135 years

consecutive to the life sentence. He also

was fined $335,000. This sentence

constituted a major blow against one of the

four principal members of the Medellin

Cartel, and was the culmination of ten years

of prosecutive effort by the United States

Attorney’s office for the Middle District of

Florida.

Upon its organization as a territory in

the early 1820's, Florida received two

superior courts--one in East Florida at St.

Augustine, and the other in West Florida at

Pensacola. In 1824, when the territorial

capital was established in Tallahassee, three

more courts were subsequently added.

However, when Florida was admitted to the

Union in 1845, it was constituted as one

judicial district with terms of court meeting

at Tallahassee, St. Augustine, and Key

West. This arrangement soon gave way to a

division into Northern and Southern

Districts in 1847, with the addition of the

Middle District in 1962.

Distinguished United States Attorney

Alexander Anderson was appointed to

serve as the first United States Attorney for

the District of Florida on May 18, 1821,

thus beginning a long line of distinguished

individuals to hold this office. In January

1857, former United States Attorney Ben D.

Wright was selected to take the place of a

retiring Florida Supreme Court Justice,

Walker Anderson, another former United

States Attorney. Wright also had been a

member of a group that met in Tallahassee

in 1824 to develop a code of civil and

criminal laws for courts of justice. In recent

years, two former United States Attorneys

have attained prominence-William Stafford

(1969-1975) became Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the Northern

District, and his successor, Nicholas P.

Geeker, was appointed as Judge for the First

Judicial Circuit of Florida.

One of the most well-known United

States Attorneys to have served this District

was G. Harold Carswell, who received

national attention as then-President Nixon’s
Headquarters: Tallahassee

Branch Office: Pensacola.

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

nomination for United States Supreme Court

Justice. Carswell had served as United

States Attorney for the Northern District

from 1953 to 1958 and later became District

Judge for the Northern District and the Fifth

Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate

defeated Carswell’s nomination.

Moonshine Flourishes

Due to the rural make-up of much of the

Northern District, many of the cases

prosecuted in the early years were alcohol

tax offenses, popularly known as moonshine

cases. Most of these cases were tried in the

old Marianna Division of the Northern

District. Marianna is the county seat of

Jackson County in rural north Florida. In

the late 1970's, the Panama City Division

was substituted for the Marianna Division to

comprise the current four divisions of

Pensacola, Panama City, Tallahassee, and

Gainesville in the Northern District. Clerk

of the Court Marvin Waits, who began his

service in the Northern District in 1946 as a

United States Marshal, noted that 25 to 30

arraignments in moonshine cases per term

were not uncommon during these times.

And, it would not be unusual to have 30 or

more moonshine trials set on the opening

day of every term in the Marianna Division.

What’s more, during the winter months the

court docket was consistently overloaded

with cases involving young juveniles from

northern states who had stolen cars to come

south for the winter. Prosecutions for stolen

motor vehicles (Dyer Act prosecutions)

were the second most common type of case

tried in this area.

Gainesville Eight

A case in the Northern District that

garnered national attention during the 1970's

was the so-called “Gainesville Eight” trial.

The defendants allegedly conspired to

disrupt the 1972 Democratic and

Republican National Conventions in Miami.

They had reportedly planned to create havoc

by planting explosive devices in buildings

and motor vehicles. Although the case

ended in acquittal, the trial had the effect of

exposing the scheme and preventing any

disruptions at the Democratic and

Republican Conventions in the summer of

1972.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

Perhaps the most interesting and

rewarding civil case handled by this District

occurred in the early 1970's and involved a

suit to quiet title tried by then-United States

Attorney William Stafford. The Gulf

Islands National Seashore quite possibly

became a federally owned and protected

national reserve largely as a result of the

efforts of Stafford.

A 1400-acre parcel of land in the

Northern District was once used by the

federal government as a source of timber for

naval vessels. This was part of what was

known as the Naval Live Oak Project.

Following World War II, when the

construction of ships utilized materials

almost exclusively made of metal, the

United States deeded the property to the

State of Florida with the proviso that the

land would revert to the United States if the

state ever used the property for anything
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Dexter W. Lehtinen, United States Attorney

other than public purposes. When the

United States Attorney’s office learned in

the 1970's that the state had, for some years,

allowed private residences on the land, it

brought suit which resulted in the reversion

of the property to federal ownership and the

subsequent establishment of what is known

as the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Multi-Ton Drug Shipments

With its vast stretch of unprotected

coastline and its proximity to South

America, the Northern District of Florida

provides an ideal corridor for drug

smuggling by plane or by boat. As a result,

this District was among the first in the

country to prosecute cases involving

multi-ton shipments of drugs. In 1970, the

District prosecuted Floyd Capo and his

coconspirators for importation and

possession with intent to distribute nine and

a half tons of marijuana. The prosecutor

who tried the case reports that at the time it

was believed to be the largest tonnage case

ever to be prosecuted in the United States.

The Southern District of Florida was

created by Act of Congress in 1847. The

geographic area for the district was

extensive, spanning from Jacksonville in the

north to Key West in the south, leaving only

a small section of the state in the northwest

as the Northern District. Initially, all court

sessions for the district were held in Key

West due to the extensive maritime

problems in that area. In 1879 the first

federal courthouse for the Southern District

opened in Tampa. The federal court moved

to Miami in 1906 with a permanent

courthouse constructed in 1914. The United

States Attorney’s office for the Southern

District was moved to the courthouse in

Miami in 1929. On October 29, 1962, the

Middle District of Florida was created,

leaving the Southern District with 12 of the

67 counties in the state. This region

included the City of Miami, the largest in

the state, and the Gold Coast area which

was the most heavily populated area

stretching from Fort Pierce in the north,

Naples to the west, and Key West to the

South.

United States Attorney Dexter W.

Lehtinen, a former member of the Florida

State Legislature, was commissioned in

1988. Lehtinen served in both the State

Senate and the House of Representatives. A

veteran of the Vietnam War, Lehtinen also

served as a federal prosecutor in the

Organized Crime Strike Force in Miami and

as an Assistant United States Attorney in

Los Angeles, California. Lehtinen followed

a distinguished line of United States

Attorneys.

During World War I, the United States

Attorney’s office was headquartered in
Headquarters: Miami

Branch Offices: Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach.

143 Assistant United States Attorneys

Tampa, with Herbert S. Phillips serving as

United States Attorney. In 1933, John W.

Holland was appointed United States

Attorney when the office was headquartered

in Jacksonville. Holland was appointed

United States District Judge in 1936, and

Phillips was reappointed United States

Attorney, serving until 1935.

In October 1962, when the Middle

District was created, Edward Boardman,

United States Attorney for the Southern

District, elected to become the United States

Attorney for the new district. As a result,

Edith House, an Assistant United States

Attorney, was appointed United States

Attorney for the Southern District and

served for eight months until William A.

Meadows, Jr, a Circuit Court Judge of Dade

County, was appointed in 1963. Stanley

Marcus served as United States Attorney

from 1982 until 1985 at which time he

became United States District Judge for the

Southern District of Florida.

Narcotics, Fraud, and Public Corruption

The accomplishments of the Southern

District of Florida are dramatic, particularly

in the areas of narcotics, fraud, and public

corruption. Perhaps the most notable

prosecutions are in the narcotics area.

Miami is the “core-city” for the

Florida/Caribbean Organized Crime Drug

Enforcement Task Force. The Southern

District has focused on large scale

enterprises and has been a leader in the

number of continuing criminal enterprises

and narcotics-based RICO prosecutions.

This District also leads the nation in the

seizure of narcotics-related properties and

currency. In the area of white collar crime,

prosecutors in the district have been

successful in weeding out local political

corruption and in prosecuting large-scale

national and international swindlers baked

in the Southern District. Recently, the

United States Attorney’s office has

established an aggressive environmental

protection policy.

‘We’ll Drown Them [Americans] In

Drugs.”

A unique case occurred in the Southern

District in 1983, when four defendants were

tried and convicted without being arrested

or present in the Southern District of

Florida. The defendants were four

high-ranking Cuban officials--a member of

the Central Committee of the Communist

Party of Cuba, the former Cuban

Ambassador to Colombia, the

Minister-Counselor of the Cuban Embassy

in Colombia, and a Vice Admiral of the

Cuban Navy. Although none of these four

officials were ever brought within the

jurisdiction of the United States, all of the

co-conspirators were convicted by a jury

which heard testimony that the Vice

Admiral of the Cuban Navy stated, “We’ll

drown them [Americans] in drugs.”

Manuel Antonio Noriega

One of the most publicized drug cases to

come before the Southern District was

against Manuel Antonio Noriega. The

indictment charged Noriega with exploiting

his official position as head of the

intelligence section of the Panamanian

National Guard and then as

Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces

of the Republic of Panama to receive
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Edgar William Ennis, Jr., United States Attorney

payoffs in return for assisting and protecting

international drug traffickers, including

members of the infamous Medellin Cartel.

Corruption In Law Enforcement

Perhaps the most significant problem

resulting from drug trafficking in South

Florida is the corruption of public officials,

especially those in law enforcement. Since

1983, the Southern District has created and

maintained a public corruption section to

work in close coordination with two FBI

squads, one of which is exclusively

dedicated to investigating law enforcement

corruption. The Southern District has seen

the successful prosecution of several DEA

agents and one FBI agent for assisting drug

traffickers, a Coast Guard Reserve

Lieutenant for selling the operational plans

for the Vice President’s South Florida Task

Force, and several United States Customs

agents, officers, and inspectors for aiding or

becoming drug traffickers.

The Middle District of Georgia came

into being by Act of Congress on May 28,

1926. Bascom Deaver became the first

United States Attorney for the District,

serving until his appointment in 1928 by

President Calvin Coolidge as Judge of the

District Court for the Middle District of

Georgia. Bascom served in that position for

the rest of his life.

Judge Deaver’s eventual successor as

District Judge was another United States

Attorney from the Middle District, T. Hoyt

Davis, who served from 1933 to 1945.

Davis proved to be an able trial lawyer and

went on to become a superb trial judge. In

1949 provisions were made for an additional

judge for the Middle District. Joining Judge

Davis on the bench in 1954 was his

predecessor as United States Attorney,

William A. Bootle. Thus, between 1954

and 1961, both of the district judges were

former United States Attorneys from the

Middle District.

M. Claud Screws v. United States

Deaver and Davis joined forces in the

case of Screws v. United States. Screws was

sheriff of Baker County, Georgia, in the

early 1940's. In 1943 he was indicted by a

federal grand jury for the beating death of a

black prisoner, Robert Hall Screws was

prosecuted by Davis, then United States

Attorney, and by his assistant, John P.

Cowart, who later became United States

Attorney. Presiding over the case was

former United States Attorney Davis.

Screws’ conviction was affirmed on appeal.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court upheld the

constitutionality of the civil rights statute

which formed the basis of the prosecution.
Headquarters: Macon

14 Assistant United States Attorneys

As a result, this case is considered a

landmark decision and is frequently cited in

civil rights cases.

Myers v. United States

Also significant was the case of Myers v.

United States, which involved Lt. Col.

Lemuel Penn, a black officer of the U.S.

Army Reserve who, on July 11, 1964, was

murdered in the vicinity of Athens, Georgia.

The murder was carried out by members of

the Athens Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Klansmen were tried in state court, but

were acquitted. Later, United States

Attorney Floyd Buford tried the Klansmen

on federal civil rights violations. This time,

two of the defendants received the

maximum sentence of 10 years’

imprisonment. The successful prosecution

was significant considering the racial

climate of the nation during the early 1960's.

Calla v. Callow

Perhaps the most famous case in the

district was Calley v. Calloway, which

stemmed from the appeals of Lt. William

Calley, who was convicted in 1970 for the

atrocities at My Lai, Vietnam. Following

his conviction, Galley pursued his appeal

rights within the military justice system

which confirmed his conviction. Thereafter,

he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus

in the United States District Court for the

Middle District claiming he was denied a

fair trial at his court martial. The District

Court granted his petition but was later

reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of

Appeals. The government was represented

in both courts by two future United States

Attorneys for the Middle District, Charles T.

Erion and Ronald T. Knight.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Robert L. Barr, Jr, United States Attorney

Ku Klux Klan

In 1789, Georgia became one of the first

thirteen judicial districts organized to

protect federal interests in the states. Not

until 1882 was the State of Georgia divided

into two districts: the Northern District,

which included the cities of Atlanta, Rome,

and Columbus, and the Southern District,

which encompassed Savannah, Augusta,

and Macon.

United States Attorneys In The 1800's

Matthew McAllister, who resided in

Savannah (later known as the Southern

District of Georgia), was the first to serve as

United States Attorney for the District of

Georgia in 1789. McAllister was followed

by his son, Matthew, in 1827. McAllister’s

term fell within a 30-year period which saw

the appointment of several very

distinguished and successful United States

Attorneys for this District. Richard

Habersham, predecessor to the younger

McAllister, was commissioned as United

States Attorney in 1819. Habersham

became quite influential after leaving the

Office of the United States Attorney.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Robert L. Barr, Jr, United States Attorney

Serving as the State’s Attorney General,

Habersham was elected to the United States

House of Representatives in 1839 serving

until his death. Robert M. Charlton also

achieved success in his later career by being

named Judge of the Supreme Court for the

Eastern District of Georgia. In 1829 he had

been a member of the State Legislature and

in 1852 was elected to the United States

Senate. His successor, William H. Stiles

attained prominence on the national political

level by his election to Congress in 1843.

President Polk later named him Charge

d’affaires to Austria.

Perhaps John E. Ward, who was

appointed in 1838, represented the best of

that early Period of prominence in the

United States Attorney’s Office. Ward had

studied law under the junior McAllister and

was admitted to the Bar before age 21 by a

special Act of the State Legislature. Three

years later, he became the United States

Attorney. Extremely popular, Ward won

election as a State Representative in 1839,

1845, and 1854. He was also Speaker of the

House and was elected as Mayor of the City

of Savannah. Declining an offer to fill a

vacancy in the United States Senate in 1856,

Ward became Minister to China two years

later. He served there until Georgia seceded

from the Union. Reflecting Ward’s

popularity and prominence, someone once

said that had Ward been in Georgia during

the period leading up to the break with the

Union, he could have “saved the state from

the folly of secession and the ruin of war.”

Several years following William Stiles’

service in Austria, another former United

States Attorney, Henry Jackson, received

appointment as Minister to Austria in 1853.

Previously, Jackson had been a Judge in the

State’s Superior Court. Jackson declined an

offer to become the Chancellor of the

University of Georgia, and went on to

become a Brigadier General during the Civil

War. He later resumed his diplomatic

career in 1885 as Minister to Mexico.

Speer Prosecutes Klansmen

Some of the most noted cases in the

Northern District took place during the

tenure of Emory Speer who was appointed

in 1883. In a celebrated and landmark case,

Speer successfully prosecuted a group of

Klansmen for the beatings of several blacks

who had dared to vote in an election.

Although Jim Crow laws soon took hold the

case gave the United States Supreme Court
the chance to claim early the legal power to

defend the rights of all voters.

Speer later became District Judge and

one of his opinions in a case involving the

railroads resulted in the labor movement

gaining status it had previously been unable

to achieve. The United States Senate

considered Speer’s opinion so important

that it published the decision as a means of

public information.

War Crimes Commission

Following World War II, another United

States Attorney from the Northern District

was chosen to protect the rights of innocent

people. In 1945, M. Neil Andrews was sent

to Paris as a member of the War Crimes

Commission to aid in the prosecution of

those who had acted in a criminal manner

during the war.

On September 6, 1789, Matthew

McAllister was appointed by President

George Washington to the newly created

position of United States Attorney for the

District of Georgia which was

headquartered in Savannah. McAllister’s

office was located on a popular Savannah

street known today as Oglethorpe Street.

The McAllister family owned a large

plantation called Strathy Hall located

southwest of Savannah. The plantation
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Hinton R. Pierce, United States Attorney

survived the Civil War and is listed on the

Georgia Historical Register.

A most eminent lawyer, McAllister

entered office just ten years after graduating

from the College of New Jersey. As

prominent as the first United States

Attorney was, his son, Matthew Hall

McAllister, overshadowed his

accomplishments. The younger McAllister

followed in his father’s footsteps, being

appointed as United States Attorney for the

District of Georgia in 1827. Born in

Savannah, he quickly made a name for

himself and was elected to the state

legislature in 1835 and later as mayor of

Savannah. As mayor, the younger

McAllister gained a reputation for his

equitable treatment and protection of the

blacks in Savannah. In later years, he

moved west where he was appointed the

first United States Circuit Judge of

California.

Biggest Bank Robbery Case Since Dillinger

The Southern District of Georgia has

been the site of several significant cases

throughout its history. In 1955, the

Southern District of Georgia tried the

biggest bank robbery case since Dillinger.

The defendants, Hornback and Goldman,

with their two girlfriends, robbed banks all

over the southeast, among them a bank in

Savannah. They were arrested in Savannah,

brought to trial and convicted. After

sentencing, they shot their way out of the

Chatham County Jail, killing five persons,

but were subsequently located in

Jacksonville, Florida. When the FBI

attempted to apprehend the pair, a shootout

resulted and Goldman was killed. Hornback

was later tried, convicted and executed. The

two girlfriends were each sentenced to five

years’ imprisonment for smuggling guns to

the defendants in jail.

Postal Jobs For Sale

Also during the 1950's, Republican

officials in Ware County, Georgia, were

tried for selling postal jobs in small south

Georgia towns. The postmaster’s job sold

for between $5,000 and $10,000, with rural

route carriers’ jobs selling for around

$1,000. During the trial the defendants

admitted to selling the jobs but were

acquitted, nonetheless. One of the jurors

told the United States Attorney that the

defendants had been selling the jobs for

years before he came, and that they’d be

doing it for years after he was gone.

Gambling On Numbers

In the early 1970's, a large case came to

trial in this District involving the “numbers”

racket, or gambling on numbers.

Investigation revealed the conspiracy of

many top local political leaders. Among the

20 wiretaps in the case, the phones of the

local District Attorney and a Superior Court

Judge were tapped--the District Attorney

and the judge had been paid to overlook the

gambling violations. Thirty-five search

warrants issued after indictment were all

coordinated and executed at the same time.

The search involved so many FBI agents

from all over the country that they had to

stay in outlying towns before coming into

Augusta the next morning to execute the

warrants. The prosecution of the case

resulted in approximately 60 guilty pleas.
Headquarters: Savannah

Branch Office: Augusta

16 Assistant United States Attorneys

Beginning in 1972, the United States

Attorney’s Office for the Southern District

became involved in the Thiokol litigation, a

massive tort claims case that resulted from

an explosion at the Thiokol Chemical Plant

in February 1971. Twenty-four separately

filed claims totaled in excess of $700

million. The Southern District worked on

the liability phase of the litigation in

conjunction with Department of Justice

counsel. When the government did not

prevail on the liability question, all of the

cases went back before the District Court on

the issue of the damages. Beginning in

1982, the United States Attorney’s office

had responsibility for litigation of all of

these cases on the damages issues.

Approximately fifty separate trials took

place, with the government able to achieve

good and fair results on the payment of

damages in each case.

Multi-District Espionage Investigation

This district successfully prosecuted in

the late 1980's a significant portion of a

multi-district espionage investigation. The

case involved the spotter, recruiter, and

courier for a spy ring operated by the East

German MFS and Soviet KGB directed

against United States intelligence facilities

in Berlin. Huseyin Yildirim, also known as

“the Meister,” a Turkish national, was

convicted of conspiracy to commit

espionage with United States Army Warrant

Officer James Hall. The scheme involved

the transfer to East Germany and the Soviet

Union of top secret, classified United States

defense information relating to the United

States intelligence effort against the Warsaw

Pact, as well as the maneuver, resupply, and

operation plans of NATO forces. The

espionage activity spanned a six-year period

and involved intelligence facilities in Berlin,

Frankfurt, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and

Fort Stewart, Georgia. The investigation

was unusual in that it encompassed the

recovery of a significant volume of

classified material that had been copied and

sold to foreign powers, thereby aiding

United States intelligence services in

assessing the damage done by the

conspirators. The government’s case was

designed and executed so as to eliminate the

need to present classified information

during the public jury trial.
DISTRICT OF GUAM

K. William O’Connor, United States Attorney

(Also Serves The Southern Mariana Islands)

Headquarters: Agana

4 Assistant United States Attorneys

The District of Guam was established in

1950 with the passage of the Organic Act of

Guam. James Mackey was appointed as the

first United States Attorney. The United

States Attorney’s office on Guam currently

is staffed by four Assistant United States

Attorneys, a paralegal and four support

staff, in addition to the United States

Attorney.

The Office had a small caseload until

the mid-1970's when Guam experienced an

increase in drug importation, trafficking,

and usage. Major federal prosecutions of

primary dealers and an almost complete

drug cleanup of the island by DEA agents

halted this increase. In the 1980's, the major

prosecutive category involved white collar

crimes, culminating in the 1986 conviction

of the governor of Guam. United States

Attorney K. William O’Connor personally

handled the prosecution which resulted in

the governor’s conviction for conspiracy to

obstruct justice and witness tampering.

Since 1984, more than 35 Government

of Guam officials and 30 vendors have been

convicted of corruption charges relating to

bribes and kickbacks. Most recently, United

States Attorney O’Connor was successful in

the prosecution of a major Wall Street

economic crime, United States v. Goldberg

involving a municipal housing bond scheme

of more than $2 billion nationwide, in

arbitrage bonds. Goldberg, a Vice President

of the Wall Street municipal bond firm of

Matthews and Wright, pleaded guilty in July

1989 to three counts of mail fraud. The

prosecution contended that he used the

United States mails to defraud a Guam trust

fund, created in connection with a $300

million Guam bond issue underwritten by

Matthews and Wright.

The Japanese Yakuza, an organized

crime group, has consistently made its

presence known on Guam. The Yakuza ran

a gun smuggling operation in 1982

stretching from Long Beach, California, to

Guam, through Saipan, and on to Japan.

The Yakuza smuggled handguns and

ammunition hidden under the cremated

remains of Japanese World War II soldiers.

A federal prosecution led by United States

Customs resulted in 12 convictions.

In 1984, the largest food stamp case

involving case workers in the Western

Region of the United States was

successfully prosecuted, resulting in 14

convictions. In July 1989 the federal grand

jury in Guam indicted 46 heroin

traffickers--the largest indictment in number

of defendants in the history of the District of

Guam.

The district also has been the site of the

OMNIBUS Territories Land Claims Act

litigation being handled by the Land and

Natural Resources Division. This case

involved the issue of compensation to the

numerous landowners whose properties

were condemned by the United States

government for military use during World

War II.
DISTRICT OF THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

K. William O’Connor, United States Attorney

Headquarters: Saipan

Assistant United States Attorneys Allocated From Guam

The District of the Northern Mariana

Islands was first opened in January 1978 by

virtue of Public Law 95-157 establishing the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

Islands. Although the office was unstaffed,

the United States Attorney for the District of

Guam made occasional trips to the Islands

on investigative matters. Overall

management came from the Guam office.

Because of budget constrains and the

inability to obtain a True Bill during the

period of operations, the Office was closed

in 1979. In July 1987, the Office reopened

and was given a resident Assistant United

States Attorney, which led to the first

federal criminal indictment and conviction

in that jurisdiction.

First Criminal Indictment

The grand jury for the Northern Mariana

Islands returned the first criminal indictment

in the history of the Northern Mariana Is

lands on December 17, 1987, against Robert

W. P. Choy, the Director of the Farmers

Home Administration for the Pacific

Region. Choy was appointed by President

Reagan and resides in Hawaii. The grand

jury indicted him along with an associate,

Alma Valdez, and two employees of

Japanese corporations, for conspiracy to

accept $55,000 in violation of the Travel

Act. In addition to violations of the Travel

Act, Choy also was indicted for conspiracy

to obstruct justice, and obstruction of

justice. The obstruction charges were based

on recorded conversations among Choy,

Valdez and the Japanese witness in which

both Choy and Valdez provided the witness

with misleading information and attempted

to coach him to lie to the grand jury of the

Northern Mariana Islands.

Civil Cases On Increase

There has been a significant increase in

civil cases caused by a deepening rift

between the local government and the

federal government over the applicability of

federal law. A typical case occurred in

early 1988 when a resident of the Mariana

Islands, one of the three founders and part

owner of DHL Courier Service, brought a

declaratory judgment action. In addition, a

local attorney joined in challenging the very

basis of the relationship between the United

States and the Northern Mariana Islands. If

successful, this suit would have held the

Constitution for the Commonwealth of the

Northern Mariana Islands unconstitutional.

The suit specifically challenged the

constitutionality of selection of

representatives to the Commonwealth

Senate by island, rather than at large, and

the prohibition against alienation of land by

non-indigenous persons in the Northern

Mariana Islands. The complaint was

dismissed on the pleadings on a motion filed

by the United States which raised the issues

of standing and justiciability.
DISTRICT OF HAWAII

Daniel A. Bent, United States Attorney

John C. Baird

In 1894, a provisional government was

formed in Hawaii thus creating the Republic

of Hawaii under the presidency of the

controversial Judge Sanford Ballard Dole.

Five years later, in 1898, the United States

annexed the Republic of Hawaii. American

residents of Hawaii were delighted, and on

June 14, 1900, American legislation went

into effect making Hawaii a territory of the

United States, with its capital located in

Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. The

legislation established a federal district

court consisting of a district judge, a district

attorney, later known as the United States

Attorney, and a Marshal of the United States

for a six-year term of appointment. The

six-year term of appointment continued

until Hawaii became a state in 1959, at

which time the term of appointment

changed to four years.

On June 27, 1900, John C. Baird of

Cheyenne, Wyoming, was appointed to

serve as the first United States Attorney for

the District of Hawaii. Due to his early

death on November 7, 1901, Assistant

District Attorney J. J. Dunne was appointed

as the Acting United States Attorney until

Robert W. Breckons, also of Wyoming, was

appointed in 1902. Breckons served the

District of Hawaii until his resignation in

1913.

COL. J. C. BAIRD

Senate Letter Introducing John C. Baird
Headquarters: Honolulu

17 Assistant United States Attorneys

Appointments To Judgeships

Of the 25 United States Attorneys and

Acting United States Attorneys who served

the District of Hawaii from 1900 to the

present, half subsequently were appointed to

various judgeships on the Territorial

Supreme Court, Territorial Tax Appeal

Court, Hawaii Supreme Court, Hawaii

Intermediate Court of Appeals, First Circuit

Court and United States District Court for

the District of Hawaii.

Several of the United States Attorneys

from the District of Hawaii have served

with particular distinction in the higher

offices of government service. Ingram M.

Stainback was appointed as United States

Attorney for this District in 1935. After

leaving office, he won election as the

Governor of Hawaii. Former United States

Attorney Harold M. Fong, who served from

1973 to 1978, became Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the District

of Hawaii. Herman Lum, commissioned in

1961 and reappointed in 1965, became

Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Yoshimi Hayashi, United States Attorney

for the District of Hawaii from 1967 to

1969, was appointed Associate Justice of

the Hawaii Supreme Court. Walter Heen

became United States Attorney in 1978.

Heen resigned in 1981 on his appointment

as Associate Judge of the Intermediate

Court of Appeals.

Drugs - Fraud - White Collar Crime

During the 89 years that the United

States Attorney’s office has been in

existence in Hawaii, it has been involved in

myriad cases dealing with violations of drug

and liquor laws, antitrust violations,

embezzlement and fraud. Since 1983, the

number of Assistant United States Attorneys

in this district has more than tripled.

Under the administration of United

States Attorney Daniel Bent, appointed in

1983, the office began the successful

prosecution of numerous multi-defendant

drug cases. The office also became

involved in the prosecution of a number of

fraud cases. Of significance was United

States v. Ronald Rewald. In 1985, the

United States Attorney’s Office won the

conviction of the defendant on charges of

defrauding more than 400 victims in a ponzi

scheme involving $22 million. Rewald was

sentenced to 80 years in prison, the longest

sentence imposed for a white collar criminal

in history.
DISTRICT OF IDAHO

Maurice O. Ellsworth, United States Attorney

The Territory of Idaho, which included

all of present-day Montana and present-day

Wyoming, was established in 1863 and was

the last to separate from the Oregon

Territory. Richard Williams was appointed

by President Lincoln as the first United

States Attorney for the District of Idaho.

Williams and his successors proved to be

capable holders of this important office.

In 1864, members of the Bar of the

Territory of Idaho sent a letter of

recommendation to President Lincoln

requesting the appointment of George C.

Hough as United States Attorney. On

February 5, 1864, President Lincoln

requested that the United States Attorney

General send him Mr. Hough’s nomination

and on February 29, 1864, Hough was

appointed.

James Waldo Huston was appointed by

President Grant on April 19, 1869 and

served as United States Attorney for nine

years. Having no formal education beyond

the age of 12, he went to Kalamazoo,

Michigan, where he read law in a law firm.

In 1857 he was admitted to the Michigan

Bar, and in 1891, he was elected to the

Idaho Supreme Court. Huston was always

held in the highest esteem throughout the

state and was considered an eminent lawyer

and jurist, as well as a student of

Shakespeare. Some of his decisions issued

while on the bench are considered to rank

among the classics of judicial literature.

Several prominent United States

Attorneys followed. Norman Buck, an

attorney from Winona, Minnesota, was

appointed by President Hays on May 10,

1878, and subsequently to the Idaho

Supreme Court in 1879. James B. Butler

was appointed on March 17, 1880, to be

followed a year later by Wallace White,

who came from Maine. White established

his office next door to the U.S. Courthouse

and while performing his duties as federal

prosecutor for Idaho, he also handled

private litigation.

James H. Hawley

One of the most well-known individuals

in Idaho’s history was James H. Hawley,

who served as United States Attorney in

1886. Hawley came to Idaho as a boy of 15

searching for gold. While in the mining

fields he studied law, and thus began an

illustrious legal and political career.

Hawley served in the territorial legislature

and eventually won election as the Mayor of

Boise, and later as the Governor of the State

of Idaho. During his lifetime, Hawley was

reputed to have the distinction of having

participated in more murder trials than any

other attorney in the United States. He

assisted in defending the miners in the trials

resulting from the blowing up of the Helena

and ‘Friso mill in 1892, successfully

clearing every defendant out of almost 800

indictments in federal and state courts, with

some going all the way to the United States

Supreme Court.
Headquarters: Boise

12 Assistant United States Attorneys

Haywood Trial

Fremont Wood had the distinction of

being the last territorial United States

Attorney and the first United States

Attorney assigned to the State of Idaho.

Wood was an Assistant United States

Attorney under James Hawley, and in 1889

he was appointed by President Harrison as

United States Attorney. He resigned four

years later and in 1906 was elected judge for

the Third Judicial District, a position which

he held until 1911. During his judgeship he

presided over the famous Haywood trial,

which included prosecutors James Hawley

and W. E. Borah, later to become a United

States Senator. Clarence Barrow acted for

the defense.

The case arose out of the famous Coeur

d’Alene mining union dispute, in which

several miners were killed and a mill

destroyed incident to the deliberate violation

of a federal court injunction. Because of the

Governor’s actions during the strike, he was

murdered by an exploding bomb as he

opened the gate to his residence in Caldwell,

Idaho. Several persons were charged with

the murder including Charles Moyer,

President of the Western Federation of

Miners, an organization which extended

throughout the gold and silver mining states.

Harry Orchard confessed to the murder but

testified that it was done at the instance of

Moyer, and two other defendants, Pettibone

and Haywood. Both Pettibone and

Haywood were acquitted.

Embezzlement Of Bank Funds

During the tenure of Sherman F. Furey,

Jr., who served as United States Attorney in

1958 and again in 1973, an investigation led

to the prosecution of a case of particular

interest to the North Idaho area. The case

involved two would-be bankers who had

misapplied and embezzled bank funds. The

defendants had purchased enough stock in

the Bank of North Idaho in Priest River to

move into positions of authority in the bank.

Thereafter, they used their positions to

manipulate loans to themselves from the

bank to pay off personal loans by which

they acquired the money to buy the stock of

the Bank of North Idaho. In other words,

they borrowed the funds of the bank to

purchase the bank. The two proceeded to

dissipate large amounts of the bank’s funds

through payment of personal expenses. As

a result, the bank at Priest River and another

bank they had purchased went broke and

were turned over to the FDIC for

liquidation. After a three-week trial they

were found guilty of the bank charges, as

well as obstruction charges stemming from

printed leaflets distributed to prospective

jurors claiming their innocence.

Idaho Today

The current United States Attorney,

Maurice O. Ellsworth, is a distant cousin of

Oliver Ellsworth, who was one of the first

two United States Senators from

Connecticut and was considered the “father”

of the Judiciary Act of 1789. He later

became the third Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court.
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

J. William Roberts, United States Attorney

In 1979, Congress created the Central

District of Illinois by renaming the old

Southern District. Somewhat confusing,

since a newly recreated Southern District is

in existence today. The old Southern

District (hereafter referred to as the Central

District) has retained its proud history since

1855.

William J. Allen was appointed by

President Franklin Pierce in 1855 as the first

United States Attorney for the Central

District. Allen later sided with Illinois’

Senator Douglas on the question of the

admission of Kansas and Nebraska to the

Union, and thus became instrumental in

forcing the hand of the Buchanan

Administration. The governor of Illinois

soon appointed Allen to fill an unexpired

term in Congress, to which Allen was later

elected. Allen was a devoted Democrat,

who served as a delegate to every national

convention from 1864 to 1888.

The Whiskey Ring

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed

Bluford Wilson to the Office of the United

States Attorney in 1869. Wilson, who was

only 27 years old at the time, served in that

position until 1874 when he was appointed

Solicitor of the Treasury. There he teamed

with Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin

Bristow and created an outstanding record

in the war against the Whiskey Ring.

Operating out of various cities, the Whiskey

Ring, as it was known, had bribed officials

of the Internal Revenue Service to avoid

taxes on liquor. A secret investigation led

to 238 indictments and 110 convictions.

The scandal widened when rumor spread

that some of the illegal profits were

intended for Grant’s reelection campaign.

Some of the cases associated with the

Whiskey Ring came to trial in the Central

District under the direction of United States

Attorney James A. Connally who served

from 1876 to 1885, and 1889 to 1893. After

an illustrious war career, Connally engaged

in private practice until his appointment by

Grant in 1876, and was later reappointed by

Presidents Hayes, Arthur, and Harrison.

During his prosecution of the Whiskey Ring

cases, Connally attracted widespread

attention because he did not require special

assistance. He was one of the few who did

not need help with this type of litigation.

Progressive Mine Workers Union

Howard L. Doyle served the Central

District as United States Attorney for almost

22 years beginning in 1935. One of the

most important cases in the history of the

district occurred during Doyle’s tenure. In

the mid 1930's, Illinois’ mining factions

were at war. Thousands of people were

killed and 35 railroad bombings took place.

In December 1936, under the leadership of

Doyle, 41 indictments were returned against

members of the Progressive Mine Workers

Union who had been locked in battle with

John L. Lewis and his United Mine

Workers. The case gained national attention

and spanned two years before 38 of those

indicted were found guilty and sentenced to

prison at Leavenworth, Kansas.
Headquarters: Springfield

Branch Offices: Peoria, Danville

18 Assistant United States Attorneys

Harlington Wood, Jr.

United States Attorneys And Private

Practice

Doyle is remembered not only for his

accomplishments in law but also for an

investigation by the House Judiciary

Subcommittee. During his sixth term as

United States Attorney, his finances came

under the scrutiny of the committee. The

investigation led to the prohibition of all

future United States Attorneys from

engaging in private practice while serving in

their official capacity.

Appointments In Washington, D.C.

The Central District has provided

leadership to other United States Attorneys

byway of appointments to the Executive

Office for United States Attorneys.

Harlington Wood, Jr. first received an

appointment to the Central District by

President Eisenhower in 1958. In 1969 he

became the Director of the Executive Office

for United States Attorneys and then

Associate Deputy Attorney General. He

also served as Assistant Attorney General

for the Civil Division. Wood eventually

became a District Judge and later United

States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit.

Earlier in his career he had aided in the

negotiated settlements of two major

conflicts, the surrender of General

Yamashita in the Philippines during World

War II, and the episode at Wounded Knee

where he served as the chief negotiator with

the American Indian Movement.

Frank J. Violanti (1969-1971) left the

Central District in 1971 to become Assistant

Director of the Executive Office for United

States Attorneys. Violanti continued in that

position until his appointment as the United

States Attorney for the Panama Canal Zone.

The treaty that turned the Canal over to

Panama meant that Violanti would be the

last United States Attorney for the Canal

Zone. Gerald D. Fines served as Deputy

Director and Acting Director in 1975 before

his appointment to the Central District in

1977.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

Anton R. Valukas, United States Attorney

The Northern District of Illinois,

headquartered in Chicago, was established

in 1875 and has been the site of many

interesting and significant cases in

American legal history. One of its most

interesting cases involved the interference

with production of war material and

disruption of the military draft: This

situation, reminiscent of the 1960's,

involved United States v. Haywood in 1917

in which several leaders of the Industrial

Workers of the World organization were

charged and convicted of conspiring to

interfere with the government’s conduct of

World War I.

The Al Capone Case

The most notorious single case

prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s

office resulted in the conviction and

imprisonment on tax charges of the

renowned gangster, AI Capone. The federal

investigation began during the term of

United States Attorney George E. Q.

Johnson, and continued under his successor,

Dwight H. Green. Capone was indicted on

charges which included tax evasion and

failure to file returns. The trial was held

before District Judge James H. Walkerton,

himself a former United States Attorney in

the district, George Johnson went on to

become governor of the State of Illinois.

FDR Era

William J. Campbell was appointed

United States Attorney in 1938 by Franklin

D. Roosevelt. Campbell, a staunch

supporter of FDR in Chicago, pioneered a

novel method of augmenting the staff of the

United States Attorney’s Office. Using

whatever influence he had, Campbell

convinced several large Chicago law firms

to “lend” attorneys to the District to work as

assistants. The genius of the plan was that

Campbell also persuaded the firms to pay

the salaries of the ersatz assistants.

World War II

J. Albert Woll served as United States

Attorney for several years beginning in

1940. During that time, the district

prosecuted several members of an Axis spy

ring in United States v. Haupt. The lead

defendant, Hans Haupt, was the father of

prominent Nazi spy Herbert Haupt. The

defendants were convicted, and several

sentenced to death, by presiding judge

William J. Campbell (Wolfs predecessor as

United States Attorney). The Court of

Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, however,

sent the case back for retrial. Convicted a

second time, the defendants received life

sentences.

Post-War Era

A shift in the focus of the District

toward prosecution of public corruption

cases ironically stemmed from

investigations into one of the district’s

former United States Attorneys, Otto

Kerner, Jr. (1947-1954). Kerner in 1960

became the second former United States

Attorney to be elected governor of the State

of Illinois. Later, he was appointed to the

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals by

President Johnson. In 1971, an

investigation supervised by the United

States Attorney’s Office uncovered

evidence which led to Kerner’s indictment

on bribery and tax charges in connection

with his role in supervising the regulation of

horse racing in Illinois during his term as
Headquarters: Chicago

Branch Office: Rockford

104 Assistant United States Attorneys

Al Capone (1931)

governor. William Bauer, who initiated the

investigation, was appointed to fill Kerner’s

seat on the Seventh Circuit bench. Other

United States Attorneys connected with the

case during their terms also went on to other

prominent positions. William Bauer’s

successor, James R. Thompson, became

Governor of Illinois. Assisting in the

Kerner case in the early 1970's was

then-Assistant United States Attorney

Samuel K. Skinner who became United

States Attorney in 1975. Skinner was later

appointed Secretary of Transportation by

President Bush.

Chicago Seven

One of the most highly publicized of the

district’s cases was United States v.

Dellinger, more popularly known as the

“Chicago Seven” case, in which seven

defendants were tried and convicted of

promoting and inciting a riot. The charges

stemmed from the turbulent Democratic

National Convention held in Chicago in

August 1968. The convictions won at trial

ultimately were reversed on appeal.

Recent Times

During the last decade, many of the

significant cases in the district have

involved public corruption in the Cook

County courts. Operation Greylord, a

comprehensive investigation of bribery and

other misconduct in the courts, began during

the term of United States Attorney Thomas

P. Sullivan and continued under his

successors, Dan K. Webb and Anton R.

Valukas. To date, the Greylord probe has

resulted in the convictions of fifteen state

judges, fifty-two lawyers, five court clerks,

and nineteen deputy sheriffs and police

officers. Charges have ranged from

racketeering, fraud, and extortion to tax

violations.

Most recently, the district has been

involved in the highly publicized trial and

subsequent conviction of sports agents

Lloyd Bloom and Norby Walters on

racketeering and fraud charges in

connection with their signing of college

athletes to professional contracts.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

Frederick K. Hess, United States Attorney

The Office of the United States Attorney

for the Southern District of Illinois has

remained a strong and driving force in

curtailing vice and corruption. The office

conducts the prosecution and defense for the

United States in thirty-eight counties--the

home of almost two million citizens. It

continues to uphold an undaunted tradition

of diligent prosecution which began in 1905

when the first United States Attorney for the

District, William E. Trautman, took office.

President Taft, Vice President Sherman,

Governor Charles Deecan and other

officials attended the dedication of the

federal building in 1909. The federal

building, located in East St. Louis,

originally housed the offices for the Eastern

District of Illinois which included forty-five

counties. In 1978, the Illinois Districts were

restructured into the Northern, Central, and

Southern Districts. A portion of the

restructured Eastern District, along with the

other areas of Southern Illinois, became the

Southern District. The United States

Attorney’s Office for the Southern District

of Illinois remained in East St. Louis.

In 1914, Charles A. Karch, a former

state legislator and teacher, was appointed

by President Woodrow Wilson to serve as

the United States Attorney for the Southern

District during the bloodiest period in

southern Illinois history. As reported by

one newspaper, the East St. Louis race riots

of that time were the “worst riots in the

history of the nation.” Forty-eight people

lost their lives in the turmoil. Karch’s office

pursued an investigation leading to the

arrest and indictment of hundreds of people

charged with promoting or participating in

the riots. Their sentences were upheld by

the Supreme Court in 1918.

Mine Riots, Klan Violence, and Labor

Racketeering

Williamson County in the Southern

District also experienced its share of

needless bloodshed during three separate

periods of violence, mine riots, Klan rule,

and gang terrorism. In 1921, a group of

striking mine workers marched twenty-one

strike breakers from a mine and shot them to

death. Despite fifty-seven indictments for

the murders, no one was punished because

of local support for the mine workers’

cause. Also at this time, violence from the

appearance of the Klan began to affect the

district. In the midst of this social unrest,

W. O. Potter was commissioned as United

States Attorney on July 22, 1922. In

addition to the problems caused by such

violence, the United States Attorney’s office

faced the difficult task of enforcing the laws

of prohibition and dealing with the resultant

public corruption and gang warfare.

In the 1950's, riots and Klan violence

had given way to crimes involving labor

racketeering. Clifford M. Raemer was

commissioned on April 16, 1953, and

immediately began a tenacious investigation

involving such crimes. The investigation

resulted in the conviction of eighteen labor

bosses, business agents, and labor

racketeering involved in corruption dealing

with the construction industry. Of the 1,447

cases handled by Raemer during his term,

only one percent were lost.
Headquarters: East St. Louis

Branch Offices: Benton, Alton

15 Assistant United States Attorneys

Twenty-Four Hour Job

One investigation that occurred in the

Southern District illustrates that the work of

the United States Attorney does not stop at

the end of the day. One night, Frederick J.

Hess, commissioned as Acting United States

Attorney in 1977, had gone out with some

of his Assistants after work. They

overheard a contractor’s conversation in

which he bragged about selling 17-cent light

bulbs for $1.17 to a local school district. As

a result, the government eventually

prosecuted the contractor and used his guilty

plea in implicating other corrupt officials

and contractors.

On July 14, 1977, James R. Burgess was

approved by the Senate to serve as United

States Attorney. Burgess’ success in office

included the prosecution of “The Company”

by Assistant United States Attorney Clifford

J. Proud, at the time the largest marijuana

conspiracy prosecution in history. Burgess

also instituted the first RICO prosecution in

the District.

Frederick Hess received presidential

appointment in 1982 as United States

Attorney and in that year successfully

prosecuted three members of the “Army of

God” for an abortion protest-related

abduction of a physician and his wife who

owned and operated an abortion clinic in the

Southern District. The victims were

blindfolded and held in captivity for eight

days, constantly fearing death at the hands

of their captors. The defendant received

thirty years in prison for his crime.

Hess Prosecutes Toxic Waste Offenders

In 1984, United States Attorney Hess

and Assistant United States Attorney Bruce

R. Reppert filed suit against major chemical

manufacturers involved in toxic waste

dumping. The toxic waste dump was

located in Greenup, Illinois, where more

than seven million gallons of waste products

were illegally dumped. McDonnell

Douglas, Northern Petrol Chemical,

Cam-Or, Petrolite, and Alcoa were named

as defendants in the action. The case

resulted in all defendants having to pay for

the cleanup without financing from the

government’s Superfund. The United States

Attorney’s office negotiated the settlement

in the belief that such sites were too

numerous across the nation and that if the

private sector were not forced to pay for

clean up, the Superfund would be depleted

in less than two years. The United States

Attorney’s office also believed the clean up

project could be accomplished more

expeditiously and economically by private

industry than through government agencies

or funds.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

James G. Richmond, United States Attorney

On April 21, 1928, the federal district

for the State of Indiana was divided into the

Northern and Southern judicial districts,

resulting in the creation of the Office of the

United States Attorney for the Northern

District of Indiana. The first United States

Attorney to serve this district was Oliver

Mullins Loomis (1928-1933), followed by

James R. Flemming (1933-1941).

Appointees In Washington

The third United States Attorney to

serve the district was Alexander M.

Campbell (19411948). During his tenure,

Campbell brought charges against many

suspected of war profiteering and dealing in

the black market. Campbell resigned the

office upon his appointment as Assistant

Attorney General for the Criminal Division

of the Department of Justice in Washington,

D.C. While Assistant Attorney General,

Campbell directed the investigations and

trials of the famous defendants, Alger Hiss

and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

In 1953, Joseph S. Lesh became the fifth

United States Attorney for the district. Lesh

conducted a series of grand jury

investigations and successfully prosecuted

Bernard Edmond LaClair who had gained

nationwide attention as the “lunch hour”

bank robber. Lesh’s term in office was

brief, as he resigned to become the first

appointed Director of the newly created

Executive Office for United States

Attorneys in Washington, D.C.

Two United States Attorneys from the

Northern District received appointments as

District Judges, Phil M. McNagny, Jr.

(19571958) and William C. Lee

(1970-1973). The current United States

Attorney, James G. Richmond, presently

serves as Chairman of the Attorney

General’s Advisory Committee of United

States Attorneys. Under the leadership of

very capable appointees, the district has

vigorously prosecuted many significant

cases during its sixty-one year history.

The Prosecution Of John Dillinger

On March 3, 1934, John Dillinger and a

confederate escaped from the Crown Point,

Indiana, jail by overpowering a guard.

Using a piece of wood carved to look like a

gun, the pair forced jail personnel into cells,

stole the sheriff’s sedan, and fled across

state lines. In April 1934, under the

direction of United States Attorney James

R. Flemming (19331941), the district began

its prosecution of Dillinger, who was

indicted under the Dyer Act (crossing state

lines in a stolen vehicle). Unfortunately, the

results of this prosecution are unknown.

Drs. Peter And Charles Kaadt

Under the leadership of Alexander

Campbell (1941-1948), the United States

Attorney’s office began prosecution of Drs.

Peter and Charles Kaadt for violation of the

federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for

distributing false and misleading written

statements about their treatment program for

diabetics, and for placing their “drug” in

interstate commerce. The Kaadt brothers,

who operated the Kaadt Diabetic Institute in

South Whitley, Indiana, advised patients not

to use insulin and instead promoted their

own concoction, consisting primarily of

saltpeter and vinegar, as a cure for diabetes.

The Kaadts charged $30 a gallon for their

potion. After a celebrated trial, at which

some of the leading medical experts of the
Headquarters: Hammond

Branch Offices: Fort Wayne, South Bend

20 Assistant United States Attorneys

day testified, the jury found the Kaadt

brothers guilty on all counts.

First Continuing Criminal Enterprise Case

Under the direction of United States

Attorney John Wilks (1973-1977), the

Northern District of Indiana was the site of

the successful prosecution of one of the

first, if not the first, continuing criminal

enterprise (CCE) case in the country. After

prosecuting the defendant, Garland Jeffers,

on drug conspiracy charges, Wilks

re-indicted him on a CCE charge. Defense

attorneys attempted to thwart the CCE

charge on grounds of double jeopardy but

failed. Both the Seventh Circuit Court of

Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld

Jeffers’ subsequent conviction.

Espionage

An unusual case for any district came to

trial in 1978 during the tenure of David T.

Ready. The case, United States v. William

Peter Kampiles, involved espionage,

specifically the sale to the Soviet

government of an operations manual for the

KH-11 (Big Bird) photography satellite.

The manual disclosed the resolution of the

satellite, its possible routes and locations of

ground stations. Of historical interest to the

Northern District was the fact that the

presiding judge, Phil McNagny, was a

former United States Attorney, and the

Assistant in the trial, James G. Richmond,

later became the United States Attorney for

the Northern District.

Environmental Waste

Another important case (United States v.

Environmental Waste Control) occurred in

the district, in which the significant issue of

individual liability of corporate officers was

settled. The $2.7 million penalty was

imposed not only on the corporation but on

the president of the company and the

individual who owned the landfill on which

hazardous waste had been improperly

stored.

Largest Penalty Under Clean Water Act

Another major environmental case was

tried in the district when the United States

Attorney’s office secured a judgment

against the United States Steel Corporation

(now USX) for polluting the Grand Calumet

River. The penalty of almost $3 million was

at that time the largest ever imposed under

the Clean Water Act and still ranks as one

of the largest penalties ever collected under

an environmental statute.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

Deborah J. Daniels, United States Attorney

Through the years, the District of

Indiana has benefitted from the leadership

of many prominent individuals. The first

United States Attorney to serve while

Indiana was still a territory was Elijah

Sparks in 1813. His successor, William

Hendricks, witnessed Indiana’s admission to

the Union as the 19th state in 1816.

Hendricks went on to the United States

House of Representatives in 1817 and later

he became the third governor of the State of

Indiana. In 1825 Hendricks was chosen to

fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate

in which he continued to serve for twelve

years.

Tilghman A. Howard was another

prominent leader during the days when

Indiana comprised a single judicial district.

A native of South Carolina, Howard had

won election to the Tennessee Senate at the

age of twenty-seven. In 1832 Andrew

Jackson appointed him to serve as United

States Attorney for Indiana. Three years

later, the President again selected Howard

for a special task, settling a land dispute

near Chicago that had arisen from an Indian

treaty. Showing competency in such affairs,

he received appointment as the Charges

d’affaires to the Republic of Texas but died

of yellow fever within months of arriving at

his new post.

In 1888 Alvin P. Hovey became the

second of three United States Attorneys

from Indiana to be elected governor.

Hovey, who served as United States

Attorney from 1856 to 1858, also had

served on the bench of the Indiana Supreme

Court. Because of his bravery during the

battle of Shiloh, he became a decorated war

hero and a Brigadier General.

Hovey’s successor also proved to be a

most competent and distinguished leader.

Daniel Voorhees, known as the “Tall

Sycamore of the Wabash,” once defended

the brother-in-law of the governor of

Indiana in a criminal proceeding. The

defendant was an associate of John Brown

and had been arrested during the raid on

Harper’s Ferry. His speech during that

defense was so eloquent that newspapers all

over the country reprinted it. It was even

translated into several languages and

circulated abroad. A year later Voorhees

won election to Congress where he stayed

for twelve years. In 1877 he was appointed

to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate

and eventually won reelection, remaining in

that position until 1895.

Southern District Is Established

By Act of Congress, Indiana was

separated into the Northern and Southern

Districts on April 21, 1928, making George

Jeffrey the first United States Attorney for

the Southern District in 1929. The first

United States Attorneys continued to

exemplify the outstanding leadership

abilities of those who had come before

them. Matthew Welsh, who served for two

years beginning in 1950, was elected to the

Indiana Senate where he became the

Democratic Floor Leader in 1957 and 1959.

In 1960 Welsh was elected governor of the

State of Indiana. Welsh’s predecessor, B.

Howard Caughran, served the district for ten

years and became well known for his

prosecution of several cases, including a

1940 case involving the Works Progress

Administration.

Fugitive Slaves
Headquarters: Indianapolis

16 Assistant United States Attorneys

Prior to the Civil War, the criminal

docket of the district court in Indiana was

dominated by fugitive slave cases. These

cases resulted in relatively non-existent

penalties, however. Typical was the case of

Benjamin Waterhouse who was indicted in

1854 for harboring three slaves from

Kentucky. The jury convicted him but

recommended mercy. Judge Elisha

Huntington sentenced him to one hour in

prison and a $50 fine. The number of slave

cases diminished through the years and by

1857 they virtually disappeared.

Moonshine And Car Thefts

Like other districts, the first fifty years

of the 20th century brought a heavy

caseload of alcohol tax offenses (moonshine

cases) and automobile thefts. The only

death penalty ever imposed in the district

came about as a result of a car theft. When

two investigative agents from the

Department of Justice attempted an arrest

for possession of a stolen vehicle, the

defendant opened fire, killing one and

seriously wounding another. When the

sentence of hanging was carried out on the

jailhouse lawn in 1936, the presiding judge

was so shaken that some time later he

remarked, “I often wonder whether I will

reach heaven as a result of having to

pronounce a death sentence.”

Car theft became the instance of another

brief moment of notoriety when two inmates

of the Indiana Boys’ School stole a car

belonging to the school’s physician. One of

the inmates was Charles Manson, later of

California.

Gambling In Terre Haute

One of the most noted cases to occur in

this district involved a large-scale gambling

operation, which was uncovered in Terre

Haute in 1958. The operation was estimated

to be doing $1.5 million per month worth of

business, with some single-game bets

reaching $25,000 and involved customers in

forty-three states, Cuba and Canada. The

investigation received nationwide publicity

and produced a number of celebrity

witnesses, including Zeppo Marx and H. L.

Hunt.

Public Corruption And Drupes

The 1980's saw an emphasis on public

corruption prosecutions, and resulted in the

successful prosecution of a number of office

holders, including the 1982 obstruction of

justice convictions of the President pro-tem

of the State Senate Phillip Gutman and

another state senator, and the 1989 extortion

conviction for Marion County Superior

Court Judge Michael Dugan. Today, the

Southern District is currently seeking to

obtain jurisdiction over Paul and Richard

Heilbrunn. The Heilbrunn brothers headed

a marijuana distribution ring that netted

millions of dollars which was laundered

through the Caribbean. The Heilbrunns

currently are in Austria and were the subject

of a recent article in the June 19, 1989, issue

of People magazine.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA

Charles W. Larson, United States Attorney

When the first United States Attorneys

were commissioned in 1789, the Northern

District of Iowa was part of French territory

later acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of

1803. Bordered by the Mississippi River to

the east and the Missouri River to the west,

this land between two great rivers holds in

its rich soil traces of civilizations which

existed long before the first trains of “prairie

schooners” inched their way into the Iowa

territory.

Creation Of The Northern District

When Iowa was admitted to the Union

in 1846, Congress established the federal

judicial district of Iowa. In July 1882, the

state was divided into two districts. Six

months later, in January 1883, Maurice D.

O’Connell was appointed the first United

States Attorney for the Northern District of

Iowa.

The Northern District spans the breadth

of the state and includes 52 counties

encompassing 25,120 square miles with six

court points. For the United States Attorney

and staff, travel remains one characteristic

of the office that has not changed with time.

Distances between the various court points

range from 64 miles to 316 miles. Travel

for early United States Attorneys was more

time consuming, less comfortable, and

required a watchful eye on the odometer

since mileage was paid only from the city

limits of one town to the limits of the next.

Early attorneys were allowed to select the

court point nearest their residence for the

site of the office. In the beginning, the

position of United States Attorney was a

part-time one. One former officeholder still

remembers when the salary was $8,500 a

year.

Former United States Attorneys

During the past century, twenty-four

individuals have held the position of United

States Attorney for the Northern District.

The majority were native Iowans and

received their legal education at what is now

the University of Iowa College of Law. The

individuals appointed already had earned

outstanding reputations as trial lawyers.

Many returned to private practice while

three went on to distinguished careers in the

judiciary.

Frederick F. Faville, who served from

1907 to 1913, was a member of the Supreme

Court of Iowa from 1921 to 1932, serving as

Chief Justice for two of those years. In

1933 the Supreme Court of the United

States appointed him as Special Master of

Chancery to establish boundary lines

between the states of Wisconsin and

Michigan. In 1942, Justice Faville was

appointed Editor of the Code of Iowa and

Reporter of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Headquarters: Cedar Rapids

Branch Office: Sioux City

11 Assistant United States Attorneys

In 1978, United States Attorney Donald

E. O’Brien (1961-1967) was appointed a

judge in the Northern and Southern Districts

and in 1985, he became Chief Judge of the

Northern District of Iowa. He also has

served by designation on the United States

District Courts for the Districts of Nebraska,

Minnesota, and South Dakota.

From 1952 through the early 1970's, the

United States Attorney’s office was located

in the federal courthouse in Sioux City, at

the western boundary of the district. In

1969, a branch office was established in the

federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids. The

Cedar Rapids site later became the

headquarters with the Sioux City office

becoming a branch office. In 1989, the

space available in the courthouse could no

longer accommodate the needs of a staff that

had doubled in a two-year period. In June

1989, the office was moved to the Ground

Transportation Center, a few blocks from

the Courthouse.

Northern District Today

Under the direction of Charles W.

Larson (1986-present), the office has

witnessed caseloads that surpass the

national average, and has implemented a

streamlined collection unit that has

significantly increased collections for the

district. An aggressive Organized Crime

Drug Enforcement Task Force has resulted

in a successful drug-related prosecutive

effort which has received considerable

attention from the local and national media.

Since 1986, more than two hundred

defendants have been sentenced to more

than 1200 years in prison and fined a total

exceeding $700,000 for drug-related

offenses.

In 1988, the office also received national

media attention with the efforts of Robert L.

Teig, Interim United States Attorney and

presently First Assistant, in the prosecution

of Steven Hadley. Hadley had walked away

with $1.36 million from a credit union

where he was employed. Hadley had

changed his identity and had been a fugitive

for five years prior to being captured and

returned to Iowa.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA

Christopher D. Hagen, United States Attorney

The United States Attorney’s Office in

the Southern District of Iowa claims to be

part of the “oldest, continuously operating

law firm in Iowa.” Established as a judicial

district on June 12, 1838, the Territory of

Iowa was still very much a frontier with

open lands and opportunities for

law-abiding citizens and criminals alike. To

deter the criminal and protect the citizens,

Isaac Van Allen was appointed to serve as

United States Attorney in 1838. Van Allen

was succeeded by other prominent people

who served throughout the territorial days

and coming statehood in 1845.

A Large And Respectable Meeting

One of the first United States Attorneys

to serve Iowa after statehood was Caleb

Baldwin who was appointed by Abraham

Lincoln in 1865. Earlier in his career,

Baldwin was elected to the Iowa Supreme

Court and became its Chief Justice in 1862.

Baldwin perhaps held the distinct honor of

being the largest United States Attorney

ever, weighing 430 pounds. A favorite

story about Baldwin tells of his presence at

a meeting of the Iowa Agricultural Society

which was poorly attended. When asked by

the secretary what to say to the press about

the poor showing, the President of the

Society, Judge Clagett, responded, “Publish

to the world that a large and respectable

meeting was held.” When the secretary

inquired as to whether the judge was

stretching the truth with such a statement,

Clagett replied, “Not at all. Baldwin makes

it large, and you and I make it respectable”

National And State Acclaim

The United States Attorneys for the

Southern District have made great

contributions to the legal community on

both the state and national levels. Maurice

F. Donegan (19401949), came to the United

States Attorney’s office from the Iowa

Supreme Court to which he had been

elected in 1932, and later appointed as Chief

Justice in 1936. Claude R. Porter served the

Southern District for four years beginning in

1914. The United States Attorney in

Chicago once requested Porter’s assistance

in the trials of members of the Industrial

Workers of the World, an organization that

conspired to interrupt the nation’s war effort

during World War I. Porter was responsible

for convicting 99 members on charges such

as obstructing the draft, interfering with war

industries, and sabotage. In recognition of

his efforts, President Wilson appointed

Porter as an Assistant Attorney General

within the Department of Justice. He later

became the General Counsel of the Federal

Trade Commission and a member of the

International Commerce-Commission.

Other United States Attorneys for the

Southern District have made their mark on

history through relentless efforts to protect

and serve their constituency. One of the

most respected federal judges in the district

was Roy Stephenson, a former United States

Attorney who served from 1953 to 1960.

Stephenson became District Judge in 1960

and was elevated in 1971 to the United

States Court of Appeals, Eighth Judicial

Circuit, where he served until his death in

1982.
Headquarters: Des Moines

Branch Office: Cedar Rapids

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

Ralph Stephen Gambin

Allen L. (Barney) Donielson became

United States Attorney for the Southern

District in 1969. On November 1, 1976, the

Governor of Iowa appointed him as the first

judge of the newly created Iowa Court of

Appeals. These and other United States

Attorneys for the district have been

responsible for the prosecution of some very

important cases in the state.

Six And Petary

In 1987, Andrew Wessel Six and Donald

Eugene Petary committed a crime in the

Southern District of Iowa that captured the

headlines for several weeks. They viciously

assaulted a family in rural southern Iowa,

kidnapped a mildly retarded 14-year-old

daughter, and headed toward Texas. The

FBI and local officials pursued and captured

Six and Petary, but not before the pair had

killed the girl. The dramatic circumstances

resulted in the matter being tried in two

separate trials. For the convenience of

witnesses and minimization of shock on the

victim-witnesses, the trials were held

simultaneously in Des Moines before two

different judges and two different juries

with witnesses shuttled back and forth

between trials as appropriate. Both cases

resulted in convictions, Six and Petary each

being sentenced to 200 years in prison.

Ralph Stephen Gambin

Ralph Stephen Gambin is perhaps the

most notorious individual prosecuted in this

district. Gambia kidnapped the President of

the Iowa State Bank of Ankeny, a suburb of

Des Moines. He taped explosives to the

President’s back, marched him into the

bank, obtained $120,000 and fled to

Mexico. Authorities brought Gambin back

to Iowa, where he was tried and convicted.

Later, while being transported, he shot two

Deputy Marshals in an escape attempt. He

subsequently was sentenced to an additional

eleven years in jail, paroled in 1988 and

soon thereafter made the Marshals’ top 15

list for parole violations.
DISTRICT OF KANSAS

Benjamin L. Burgess, Jr., United States Attorney

The first United States Attorney for the

District of Kansas was Andrew J. Isaacs,

who was appointed by President Franklin

Pierce on June 29, 1854. Isaacs was the

first of a long line of United States

Attorneys to provide strong leadership to the

District of Kansas.

Former United States Attorney John

Taylor Burris served only a few months as

United States Attorney in 1861 prior to the

Civil War. He was a member of the Kansas

constitutional convention and helped frame

the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

Burris resigned his position as United States

Attorney to serve with another former

United States Attorney for Kansas, William

Weer, in the Kansas Tenth Volunteers.

After the Civil War, Burris was named to

the Kansas Supreme Court where he became

Chief Justice. His successor, Robert

Crozier, was the founder of the

Leavenworth City Times. He, too, became

Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.

A third United States Attorney for this

district to become Chief Justice of that court

was Albert H. Horton, who served from

1869 to 1873.

Another United States Attorney, Cyrus

I. Scofield, gained notoriety when he was

forced to resign his appointment after only

six months. Scofield’s resignation was due

to questionable financial transactions. After

leaving office, Scofield went to St. Louis,

Missouri, and promptly was jailed for six

months due to a forgery charge brought by

his sister. After his release, Scofield

became a well-known minister in Texas,

best remembered for the version of the Bible

he edited known as the Scofield Reference

Bible. A Kansas newspaper once described

him as a “late lawyer, politician, and shyster

generally,” and a “peer among scallywags.”

George R. Peck followed Scofield as

United States Attorney and served the office

with more dignity. A veteran of Sherman’s

march to the sea, Peck later became

President of the American Bar Association

in 1905. United States Attorney James R.

Halowell, who served from 1879 to 1885,

later served four terms in the Kansas State

Senate and was elected to the United States

House of Representatives. Halowell’s

successor, William C. Perry, while serving

as United States Attorney, became involved

with a case dealing with the Missouri,

Kansas and Texas Railroad Company. The

railroad had claimed title to 1,500 farms, but

Perry went to court against the company and

saved the farms. Another former United

States Attorney, George Templar, served the

district from 1953 to 1954. He resigned his

office to run for governor of Kansas, but

was unsuccessful in his attempt. In 1962, he

received appointment as United States

District Judge for the District of Kansas.

Metal Detectors Used In Courtroom

Robert J. Roth was the United States

Attorney when the case more popularly

known as the “Leavenworth Seven” came to

trial. In July 1973, several prisoners of

Leavenworth Prison rioted and killed a

guard. Four of the prisoners were tried and

convicted of the murder in the summer of

1974. The trial lasted nine weeks, involved

the testimony of 137 witnesses, and resulted

in what is believed to be two “firsts” for a

federal trial. Due to the violent propensity

of the defendants and the great amount of

publicity generated by the trial, United

States Marshals used metal detectors for the
Headquarters: Wichita

Branch Offices: Kansas City, Topeka

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

first time to screen those entering the

courtroom. Also, in an apparent attempt to

have a mistrial declared, some of the

defendants continuously disrupted the

proceedings until the presiding judge

ordered they be removed. The court then

ordered that the defendants be allowed to

watch the trial by way of closed circuit

television in their cells, another first for a

federal trial.

The trial resulted in additional charges

being filed against two others. Apparently,

at the urging of the defendants, one

prisoner, who was testifying on their behalf,

lunged for a juror after leaving the witness

stand. He was subdued by the Marshals and

later charged with battery. Also charged

during the trial was a Harvard law student

who was acting as a legal assistant for the

defense. She was arrested after it was

discovered she was smuggling marijuana to

the defendants. The defendants appealed

their convictions, which were affirmed

despite the defense’s citation of 80 points on

appeal.

“Birdman Of Alcatraz”

The most famous case to occur in this

district came during the tenure of Fred

Robertson who served from 1913 to 1921.

Robertson prosecuted Robert Stroud, the

famed “Birdman of Alcatraz,” who was

convicted in Alaska of murdering a

bartender and was sentenced to 12 years in

prison. He began serving his sentence in a

Seattle prison. When he assaulted a guard,

he was transferred to Leavenworth. In

March of 1916, Stroud murdered another

prison guard, this time in front of 1,200

prisoners during the Sunday noon meal.

Because the guard was well-liked, several

prisoners were willing to testify against

Stroud. At the time, however, federal

prisoners had no civil rights. Stroud had

become well known, and when he was

prosecuted for the murder, several people

donated money for his defense, including a

$1,000 donation from Douglas Fairbanks.

Before the trial, Robertson met with

President Wilson concerning the case. At

the trial, Robertson called the first witness,

a prisoner, to which Stroud’s attorney

objected. Robertson then produced five

presidential pardons, one for each of the

witnesses, signed by the President. The

prisoners testified, and Stroud was

convicted and sentenced to hang. Four days

before the date of the execution, President

Wilson commuted the sentence to life in

prison. Stroud later vowed that if he was

ever released, he would kill the United

States Attorney. Stroud was never released,

and Robertson died a peaceful death in 1959

at the age of 88.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

Louis G. DeFalaise, United States Attorney

The Commonwealth of Kentucky was

still part of Virginia when the first Judicial

Act was passed on September 29, 1789.

The Act established 13 judicial districts, one

of which was the United States Court for the

District of Kentucky sitting at Harrodsburg.

Two days later, President Washington

appointed Colonel George Nicholas to serve

as United States Attorney. Nicholas had

been appointed by the governor of Virginia

to succeed Harry Ines as the Attorney

General for the District of Kentucky. With

the entrance of Kentucky into the Union,

Nicholas served as a delegate to the state’s

constitutional convention, and is believed to

be the author of the state’s constitution.

One of Nicholas’ students, Robert Trimble,

became United States Attorney for the

District of Kentucky in 1813, District Judge

in 1817, and by appointment of John Quincy

Adams, Supreme Court Judge in 1826.

The Eastern District Is Created

Until 1900, Kentucky remained a single

district with its headquarters relocating first

to Frankfort in 1794 and to Louisville in

1860. On February 12, 1901, Congress

passed an act dividing the District of

Kentucky into two districts, the Eastern

District headquartered in Covington and the

Western District headquartered in

Louisville. Lexington became the

headquarters for the Eastern District in

1935.

A published report issued by the

Attorney General in 1902 indicated that the

total number of office personnel for the

Eastern District, excluding the United States

Attorney, consisted of one Assistant United

States Attorney and one clerk. The

combined yearly salaries of the United

States Attorney and his office of two

amounted to $7,720. In that year, 16 civil

cases involving the United States and 92

criminal cases were pending in the district,

and a total of $1,150 was collected on

judgments and fines. Since that time, the

Eastern District has experienced

considerable growth. Recent figures show

1,700 civil cases and 113 criminal cases

pending, and in 1988, almost $4.0 million in

fines collected.

Future Governor Of Kentucky

One of the most interesting United

States Attorneys to have served the Eastern

District was Edwin P. Morrow, later elected

governor of Kentucky. He began his

practice in Lexington where his first client

was a black man charged with killing a

prominent citizen of that city. Morrow

gained instant and national attention when

he won acquittal for his client. Morrow

again displayed his zealous defense of civil

rights during his term as governor. On

February 9, 1920, a mob stormed the

courthouse in an attempt to lynch a black

man accused of murder. Governor Morrow

ordered the state militia to repel the attack

which resulted in the killing of six members

of the mob as they tried to break into the

courthouse and steal the prisoner. Some

labeled Morrow’s actions as the beginning

of a new era of law and order in the state.
Headquarters: Lexington

Branch Office: Covington

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

Mac Swinford

United States Attorney And Author

Another United States Attorney for the

Eastern District of Kentucky to gain

popularity was Mac Swinford who served in

1933. Swinford authored a book entitled

Kentucky Lawyer, a colorful account of the

legal profession in a primarily rural state

during the Depression. In his book

Swinford related his experiences as a United

States Attorney and the practice of law.

One story Swinford remembered in

particular involved numerous mail order

houses in Chicago and St. Louis. They

complained to Swinford of receiving much

false credit information and many bad

checks from the people in his district.

Without any investigation, Swinford knew

that the desperately poor people in his area

were the ones responsible since most of the

orders were for clothing, especially

children’s clothing. Without making any

arrests, he discovered the names of those

responsible and instructed them to appear at

the courthouse on a certain date, which all

135 defendants did without escort or

summons.

Swinford had already told his

investigators to disregard anyone who had

any reason at all for being unable to serve

jail time, particularly expectant mothers or

those with small children. But, as one case

came before the judge, the defendant was

indeed a mother with an eight-month-old

child. In view of the situation, Swinford

recommended probation and the judge

concurred. Later, another woman appeared

and was likewise given probation. The next

woman defendant appeared holding a child,

as did the next and the next. Swinford

began to worry that the bulk of his cases

would result in little jail time, until he

recognized the child. Sure enough, after

receiving probation, the first woman took up

a position outside the door of the courtroom

and “rented” her child for ten cents a visit to

hopeful defendants. The people had noticed

Swinford’s leniency. Unfortunately for the

defendants, there was only one child in the

whole group.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

Joseph M. Whittle, United States Attorney

In 1789 Kentucky was not a state but a

frontier portion of Virginia. Nevertheless,

Congress decided to place one of the

original thirteen district courts here.

Although far from the busy coastal colonies,

the Kentucky wilderness was growing

rapidly with a variety of hardy settlers and

adventurers, ex-soldiers, and land

speculators.

On September 29, 1789, George

Washington appointed Colonel George

Nicholas to serve as the first United States

Attorney. Born in Virginia, Nicholas had

been a Captain in the Virginia line during

the Revolution. Before settling in

Kentucky, he had been an influential

member of the Virginia convention called to

ratify the federal Constitution. Nicholas,

“the brightest luminary” of the Convention,

has been called the “Father of the Kentucky

Constitution.” In 1799, Nicholas became

the first Professor of Law at Transylvania

College, the first college west of the

Allegheny Mountains.

Other prominent individuals followed.

One of the earliest was James Brown.

Brown commanded a company of Lexington

riflemen in General Wilkinson’s expedition

against the Indians in 1791. He served as

the first Secretary of State for Kentucky and

later moved to New Orleans where he was

elected to the state legislature. In 1823,

Brown was named Minister to France.

John Breckenridge, who served the

district for two years beginning in 1793, was

born in Virginia and was elected to the

Virginia House of Burgesses in his early

twenties. In 1792 he emigrated to Kentucky

where he soon became a leading citizen. An

eloquent speaker, he was an intense

anti-Federalist who authored the famous

Kentucky Resolutions decrying the Alien

and Sedition Acts. He was a key figure in

writing the second Kentucky Constitution of

1799. In 1801, he was elected to the United

States Senate and four years later was

chosen by Thomas Jefferson as the Attorney

General of the United States.

The Trial Of Aaron Burr

Joseph Hamilton Daviess was

commissioned as United States Attorney in

1800. He was the first western lawyer to

come before the United States Supreme

Court in 1802. In 1806, Daviess prosecuted

Aaron Burr, the former Vice President

under Thomas Jefferson, for treason.

Daviess accused Burr of plotting to seize

Spanish territory and to wrest the western

territory from the infant Union, but he did

not obtain a conviction. The trial is one of

the most renowned in Kentucky history and

deserves special note. The fiery court scene

and proceedings are described in detail on

page 192.

After the Kentucky proceeding, Burr

was indicted for treason and tried in

Richmond before Chief Justice John

Marshall in one of the most famous trials in

American history. Again he was found not

guilty. Colonel Daviess, who had shown

such courage in the Burr trial, was killed on

November 7 in the last battle of the Indian

wars--the battle of Tippecanoe.
Headquarters: Louisville

19 Assistant United States Attorneys

Other United States Attorneys

Robert Trimble was commissioned in

1813, and left office in 1816 to become

United States District Judge. In 1826, John

Quincy Adams elevated him to the United

States Supreme Court Chief Justice

Marshall and Justice Joseph Storey

pronounced him not only one of the finest

lawyers, but one of the most profound men

they had ever known. George M. Bibb

succeeded Trimble as United States

Attorney and eventually became a United

States Senator. He was Secretary of the

Treasury under President Tyler. John J.

Crittenden, after his service as United States

Attorney from 1827 to 1829, became the

15th Governor of Kentucky. Between 1841

and 1850, Crittenden served as the United

States Attorney General under three

presidents, and was elected to the United

States Senate for five terms. John Marshall

Harlan, who served one of the longest

tenures of any United States Supreme Court

Justice, also served as the United States

Attorney for Kentucky for a period during

the Civil War.

Western District Established

Kentucky was divided into the Eastern

and Western districts on February 12, 1901.

The Western District is headquartered in

Louisville and consists of 53 counties. Its

varied caseload of criminal and civil cases

reflect the diversity of the operations and

interests of the federal government, as well

as the economic and social makeup of

Western Kentucky. The region consists

generally of the financial and commercial

centers found in Louisville, the state’s

largest city, and other urban areas, as well as

farming and rural areas. The district also

contains two major military installations,

Fort Knox and Fort Campbell.

Kentucky has become a significant

battle area in the war on drugs. The state

has been identified as the base of what has

been called the largest marijuana cultivation

ring in the history of the United States.

More than 50 Kentuckians involved with the

ring have been successfully prosecuted.

The district also obtained the conviction

of two top national leaders of the Hell’s

Angels Motorcycle Club in what is believed

to be the longest criminal trial in the state’s

history. The case was part of a highly

successful national task force effort which

resulted in convictions of more than 25

members of this club across the country.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

John Volz, United States Attorney

On January 10, 1825, John W. Smith

was commissioned as the first United States

Attorney to serve the Eastern District of

Louisiana. Smith’s appointment began a

long line of distinguished and prominent

appointees to serve the Eastern District of

Louisiana.

Two Brothers

Two brothers, John and Thomas Slidell,

served the Eastern District of Louisiana in

1829 and 1837, respectively. John was one

of two Confederate Commissioners sent to

France and England during the Civil War.

Slidell never made it, however, as he was

arrested by Union officials aboard an

English vessel. After his release from

prison, Slidell went to London, never again

to return to his homeland. His brother,

Thomas, became an Associate Justice of the

Supreme Court of Louisiana, for which he

was appointed Chief Justice in 1852.

Assaulted by thieves in 1855, Thomas

Slidell never fully recovered and died in

1860.

While John Slidell was characterized as

an extremist in Southern views, Balie

Peyton who served as United States

Attorney from 1841 to 1844, was very much

the Union man. So much so that he became

Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War at the

outset of the Civil War in 1861. Peyton’s

career encompassed many differing

positions including an appointment as

Minister to Chile in 1849 and a term in the

United States Congress in 1833. He had

earlier declined an offer as the Secretary of

War from President Harrison. Peyton is one

of the few individuals to have served two

states as United States Attorney, also having

served as the United States Attorney for the

District of California in 1853.

Solomon Downs, who served from 1845

to 1846, and Walter Guion, who served

from 1913 to 1917, were elected to the

United States Senate following their terms

as United States Attorney. Guion also

served as the Attorney General for the State

of Louisiana, as had E. Warren Moise

before him in 1853.

Public Corruption A Priority

Throughout the years, the Eastern

District of Louisiana has made the

prosecution of public corruption cases a

high priority. Wayne C. Borah, for

instance, gained recognition for his

prosecution of political, educational, and

business leaders for corruption during the

1930's. Borah endured some public

criticism for his pursuit of certain cases. As

a district judge, Borah presided over many

of the condemnation cases that resulted in

the construction of the floodways important

to the well being of the state. The cases

established new avenues of litigation in

acquiring property for the construction of

such floodways. Borah also became well

known for his efficiency at debt collecting

during his term as United States Attorney.
Headquarters: New Orleans

33 Assistant United States Attorneys

Governor Edwards Indicted

Perhaps the most notable public

corruption cases to receive national media

attention occurred in 1985, when Edwin

Edwards, governor of the State of Louisiana

at the time, was indicted by the Office of the

United States Attorney. Newspapers

accounts described Edwards as one of the

most powerful governors of Louisiana, one

of the last of that colorful yet intimidating

breed, the Louisiana politician. Sounding

equally fearsome were descriptions of the

United States Attorney for the Eastern

District, John Volz. One observer referred

to him as “a stubborn and aggressive

prosecutor.” These two powerful men

locked horns by means of a federal

indictment on February 28, 1985, which

accused Edwards and several of his political

supporters and business associates, of mail

fraud and racketeering.

In the two years that followed the

indictment, Volz and Edwards, and the state

in general, battled back and forth

concerning the issue. Edwards allegedly

had used his office to impose a moratorium

on the construction of new hospitals in the

state. He exempted, however, two hospitals

constructed by companies belonging to

business associates, companies that paid

him $2 million during an interim period

between two terms as governor. With

speculation and media coverage swirling

about, the case came to trial in late 1985,

resulting in a hung jury which voted eleven

to one for acquittal.

Not to be denied, Volz refused advice

that he drop the matter due to the almost

unanimous vote of the jury. Volz forged

ahead with a second trial which ended in

May 1986. The jury found Edwards

innocent. News accounts declared that Volz

may have lost the battle, but won the war

when a year and a half later, Edwards lost

his bid for reelection as governor. It was the

first election he had ever lost. At a press

conference, Edwards continued to proclaim

his innocence, but admitted that “many . . .

simply cannot embrace that as an idea.” A

local reporter summarized the events,

saying, “I think (United States Attorney)

Volz took Louisiana by the scruff of its neck

and forced voters to look at the seamy

details of Edward’s hospital moratorium

deal.” After the second trial, John Volz

offered his own analysis of the affair. “If

we didn’t make him honest,” he declared, “I

hope we made him sorry.”

Throughout his tenure, Volz has made

prosecution of public corruption cases a

priority. In 1980, he had prosecuted the top

official in the State’s Agriculture

Department for bribery changes. Volz

represents the continuation of a reputation

forged by his predecessors in the Office of

the United States Attorney for the Eastern

District of Louisiana.
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

P. Raymond Lamonica, United States Attorney

As one of the most recent districts to be

created, the Middle District of Louisiana has

nonetheless compiled an impressive record

of indictments and convictions in its short

history. Formed from the Eastern District in

1972, the Middle District has its

headquarters in Baton Rouge.

Public Corruption A High Priority

Since 1986, the Middle District has

made the prosecution of public corruption

cases its highest priority. In a relatively

short time, the United States Attorney’s

office has achieved substantial success. In

a situation all too familiar to state

governments, an official, an aide to the

former Governor Edwin Edwards, was

prosecuted and convicted by this district of

extortion and tax fraud in connection with

an ongoing investigation of corruption in the

Louisiana Department of Transportation and

Development. Ray pleaded guilty to

extorting thousands of dollars from

engineering companies seeking to do work

for the state, and failing to report those same

funds to the Internal Revenue Service. Ray

received a four-year prison sentence.

In other cases, this district has exposed

the criminal activities of officials in

positions of similar importance. The person

in charge of state hospitals was prosecuted

and convicted of accepting bribes from a

chemical company doing business with the

state charity hospitals. He was sentenced to

four years of imprisonment. The Chairman

of the State Board of Parole was discovered

accepting money from prisoners in

exchange for pardons. The United States

Attorney’s Office prosecuted him for

extortion, which resulted in a prison term of

five years.

An investigation into the activities of the

East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority

resulted in a series of cases involving the

misuse of funds from a federally supported

program to assist low income persons in

obtaining decent housing. The Executive

Director was convicted of fraud and

receiving kickbacks. The former Chairman

of the Authority also was convicted of

receiving kickbacks and currently is serving

a three-year sentence. A local contractor

was found guilty of illegally obtaining

government contracts, and a Housing

Authority employee pleaded guilty to

embezzlement.

Bank Failures A Reality

Bank failures have plagued the district

in the last several years. A significant factor

in such failures has been criminal activity

by bank officers and their associates.

Without supplemental resources, the United

States Attorney’s Office began to

investigate the many bank failures within its

jurisdiction.
Headquarters: Baton Rouge

10 Assistant United States Attorneys

In 1987, the Sun Belt Federal Bank

failed, causing more than $100 million in

losses. The bank president, an attorney who

often represented the bank, and a contractor

were prosecuted for conspiring to violate

banking laws. The defendants were charged

in a 16-count indictment in October 1987

with conspiracy to defraud the United States

and making false entries and misapplication

in connection with an $8.3 million dollar

loan scheme. The purposes of the scheme

were to “dress up” the Sun Belt’s books by

making foreclosure-required “OREO”

property appear to be sold for cash and to

conceal federal lending limit violations.

The bank failure caused in part by these

transactions involved more than $100

million in losses.

In another case, a bank president of the

Sun Belt Savings and Loan and regularly

used independent appraisers were convicted

of making false statements and making false

entries in bank records. At the time, Sun

Belt was the largest FSLIC institution in the

state to fail.

Protection Off The Environment

As a petrochemical and oil and gas

center, the Middle District has a particular

interest in environmental concerns and

enforcing environmental laws. Assisting the

Environmental Enforcement Section of the

Lands and Natural Resources Division of

the Department of Justice, the office has

collected more than $5,076,400 in monetary

fines relating to environmental violations.

As an experiment, with the court suggestion

and approval, some of the collected funds

have been targeted for local environmental

research at Louisiana State University.

Collections Exceed District Budget

In two of the last three years, the debt

collection unit in the district has, in civil

litigation matters for which the office was

primarily responsible, collected more than

the total operating budget of the office.

This does not include the fines collected for

environmental violations or foreclosure bid

backs, but rather cases brought into the

Treasury for debts due the United States.

Although the Middle District of

Louisiana is a small office with limited

resources, in a relatively small district,

efforts have begun to create a greater

awareness of the local drug problem and the

need for involvement by the private sector.

The district recently prepared a full color

pamphlet entitled, “Drugs in the

Workplace” to call attention to the drug

problem with the goal of reducing demand.

The district printed 10,000 copies of the

brochure with funds derived from forfeited

drug funds turned over to the state and made

available for this project.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

Joseph S. Cage, Jr., United States Attorney

In the early days of the Western District

of Louisiana, a judge asked a witness to

hold up his right hand to take the oath.

“Can’t do it, sir,” answered the man. “Why

not?” asked the judge. “Got shot in that

arm, sir.” “Then hold up your left,”

declared the judge. The man replied he had

been shot in that arm too. “Then,” said the

judge sternly, “you must hold up your leg.

No man can be sworn in this court without

holding up something.” (As quoted in

Maude Hem O’Pry, Chronicles of

Shreveport, p. 259.)

In those days, Louisiana was still a new

territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

By Act of March 26, 1804, Congress

created a superior and lesser court having

jurisdiction over the new territory.

Provision also was made at the time for a

federal court to be established in the

Territory of Orleans, present day southern

Louisiana. On April 12, 1812, Louisiana

became a state and was established as a

unified judicial district.

On May 3, 1823, however, the state was

divided by Congress into separate judicial

districts with the Western District having its

headquarters at Opelousas. At the time, the

district shared a judge with the Eastern

District. Strangely, the districts were

reunited for a while beginning in 1845, but

were divided again four years later. After

the Civil War, Louisiana again became a

unified District until the Act of Congress of

March 3, 1881, which established the

present Western District of Louisiana.

Today, the District has its headquarters in

Shreveport.

A Colorful History

The first United States Attorney for the

territory was James Broom who was

appointed on March 11, 1805. Brown,

married to the sister of Mrs. Henry Clay,

began the practice of law in the State of

Kentucky where he became Secretary of

State in 1792. Brown later moved to the

Territory of Orleans where he became

Secretary of the Territory in 1804. In 1812,

he served in the Louisiana constitutional

convention, and won election as United

States Senator in 1813. From 1823 to 1829

Brown served as the Minister to France.

John R. Grymes became United States

Attorney in 1811, and reflected the colorful

history of the Territory. One account of his

life stated that he was involved in several

duels and enjoyed elegant living with a taste

for gambling. Grymes also served as

personal counsel to Andrew Jackson during

the Battle of Orleans.

Other noted former United States

Attorneys for the Western District of

Louisiana included Henry Boyce, an

immigrant from Ireland. Boyce had become

United States Attorney in March of 1849,

but served only two months before President

Taylor appointed him United States District

Judge. Boyce’s successor, Lawrence P.

Crain, had served as mayor of Shreveport

before his appointment as United States

Attorney. Several of those who became

United States Attorneys for the Western

District had served as the City Attorney for

the City of Shreveport, including George W.

Jack, who was appointed in 1913. Four

years later, Jack was named United States

District Judge for the Western District of

Louisiana.
Andrew Jackson

Maier General Andrew Jackson Indicted

A very interesting case occurred during

the tenure of United States Attorney John

Dick in 1815. Just after the Battle of New

Orleans during the War of 1812, United

States Attorney Dick indicted Major

General Andrew Jackson on charges of

obstruction of justice. Jackson also was

charged with contempt of court.

According to the indictment, Jackson

had “ . . . disrespectfully wrested from the

clerk an original order of the honorable the

judge of this court, for the issuing of a writ

of habeas corpus in the case of a certain

Louis Louallier, then imprisoned by the said

Major General Andrew Jackson.” Jackson

incurred the charges of obstruction when he

imprisoned the judge who had charged him

with contempt. When the future President

of the United States appeared in court, he

refused to answer the interrogatories and

promptly received a fine of $1,000 which he

paid and then left the court. Leaving the

courthouse, Jackson stopped and spoke to a

large crowd that had gathered:

I have during the invasion (of New Orleans)

exerted every one of my faculties for the

defense and preservation of the Constitution

and the laws. On this day I have been called

upon to submit to their operations, under

circumstances which many persons might

have thought sufficient to justify resistance.

Considering obedience to the laws, even when

we think them unjustly applied is the first duty

of the citizen, and I do not hesitate to comply

with the sentence you have heard

pronounced; and I entreat you to remember

the example I have given you of respectful

submission to the administration of justice.

(As quoted in Proceedings of the Louisiana

Bar Association.1898-1899, p. 120.)

“At a District Court of the United States

begun and held at Portland within and for

the District of Maine, before David Sewall,

Esquire, Judge of the said Court, on the first

Tuesday of December in the year of our
DISTRICT OF MAINE

Richard S. Cohen, United States Attorney

Lord, one thousand seven hundred and

eighty-nine.” So reads page one of the

record of the first session of the United

States District Court for the District of

Maine. The first order of business that day

was the commissioning of the first United

States Attorney for the district, William

Lithgow, Jr. Lithgow had fought in the

Revolutionary War in which he was

severely wounded and retired with the rank

of Major. Said to be a man of “fine personal

appearance, military bearing, and

accomplished manners,” Lithgow proved to

be an excellent litigator.

First Capital Case

Lithgow tried the first case in the

District Court of Maine, that of Thomas

Bird, who was convicted of “piratically,

feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice,

making an assault upon one John Connor,

on the high seas, and for the killing and

shooting him with a gun.” It is interesting

to note, that the defendant was represented

even at that time by court-appointed

counsel. Because of the large number of

people in attendance, the trial had to be

concluded in Portland’s First Parish

Meeting House. Bird was found guilty by

the jury, sentenced to death by Judge

Sewall, and hanged. Bird’s trial is believed

to have been the first capital case tried in a

federal court, and his execution the first of

a federal prisoner in the United States.

Several distinguished individuals

followed as United States Attorney. Ether

Shepley, who served from 1820 to 1833,

was chosen as a member of the Convention

of 1819 which drafted the Maine

Constitution. Shepley served as United

States Attorney under three Presidents

before being named to the Supreme Court of

Maine in 1836, and later to Chief Justice in

1848. Shepard’s son, George, also became

a United States Attorney, eventually being

named as military governor of

Union-occupied Louisiana by Abraham

Lincoln.

John Holmes, who served from 1841 to

1843, became an important leader in the

State of Maine. Elected to Congress in

1816 and reelected in 1818, Holmes was a

leader in the movement for Maine

statehood. Holmes chaired the committee

responsible for drafting the Maine

Constitution in 1819 and also served as the

first Senator to represent Maine in the

United States Senate. Holmes was reelected

in 1829 and later elected to the Maine

House of Representatives in 1836.

Remarkably, all of these accomplishments

occurred before Holmes was appointed

United States Attorney in 1841. His

successor, Gorham Parks (1843-1845), held

the distinction of serving both as a United

States Marshal and then as United States

Attorney.
The holders of the Office of United

States Attorney for the district exemplified

the dedication needed for “the faithful

execution” of the office. This sacrifice can

be seen in a description of the life and

service of Silas Lee (1801-1814). At his

death one account observed, “From 1807 to

the close of the war with England in 1815,

during the non-intercourse and

non-importation laws, the embargo and the

restrictive measures of government, the

United States courts were crowded with

business . . . and the novelty and importance

of the suits rendered the duties of the

District Attorney exceedingly arduous.

These kept the attorney in a state of constant

excitement and exertion, and were too great

a burden for Mr. Lee to bear; he perished in

the midst of them, a martyr to official duty.”

Cases Off National Importance

The District of Maine has prosecuted

many cases of national importance. One in

particular involved a series of bombings and

bank robberies which occurred in Maine and

New England in the 1970s and 1980s and

occupied the time of both the District of

Maine and the FBI. The acts were carried

out by individuals who were at various

times committed to the overthrow of the

United States Government. Bank robberies

occurred in Portland and Augusta in 1975.

In 1970 the Maine Power Company was

bombed. That spring, the Suffolk County

Courthouse, the Dorchester Armory and a

plane at Logan Airport in Massachusetts

were bombed. FBI surveillance paid off on

July 4, 1976, with the arrest of Joseph

Aceto, who later cooperated with the

government. Richard Picariello, Everett

Carlson, and Edward Gullion were

prosecuted by United States Attorney Peter

Mills and sentenced to substantial prison

terms. Other suspects remained fugitives

until 1984 when James Barrett was

apprehended and later Raymond Luc

Levasseur and others. In 1985 Thomas

Manning and his wife were arrested.

Convictions against Levasseur and the

Mannings were dismissed, in favor of

including them among predicate offenses in

a criminal RICO indictment against several

group members in the District of

Massachusetts.

In 1983, the district prosecuted a drug

trafficking case involving 1,000 pounds of

marijuana and 250 pounds of hashish. The

defendant tried to defend the case,

prosecuted by United States Attorney

Richard Cohen, by claiming that his drug

smuggling activities were consistent with

his work as a writer researching a book on

the drug trade. Testifying in Stratton’s

defense were Pulitzer prize-winning author

Norman Mailer and Harvard University

Professor Doris Kearns, a prominent writer

and biographer of President Lyndon

Johnson. Stratton had been a caretaker of a

farm in Maine jointly owned by Mailer and

Richard Goodwin, a speech-writer for

President Kennedy and who was Kearns’

husband. Stratton had stored drugs there

without anyone’s knowledge. Stratton

received a 15-year prison term.

The District of Maryland takes great

pride in being one of the original 13 judicial

districts created by the Judiciary Act of

1789. President George Washington
DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

Breckinridge L. WIllcox, United States Attorney

appointed Richard Potts to serve as the first

United States Attorney in September of that

year.

Potts was from Prince George’s County,

Maryland, educated in Annapolis, and

entered the office of Judge Samuel Chase

where he continued a family tradition of

reading law. In the course of his illustrious

career, Potts held a number of political

offices at the local, state and federal level.

He served as Clerk of the Frederick County

Court and two terms as a member of the

Maryland House of Delegates. He also

served as a delegate to the Continental

Congress and on November 1, 1784, he was

appointed State’s Attorney for Frederick,

Montgomery, and Washington counties. In

1787, Potts was elected as a member of the

state convention which met and ratified the

proposed federal Constitution. After service

as United States Attorney, Potts was

appointed Chief Judge of the Fifth Judicial

District. In 1792, he filled an unexpired

term in the United States Senate until he

was elevated to Chief Judge of the Fifth

Judicial Circuit in 1796. He became

Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of

Maryland in 1801. When the judiciary was

revised in 1804, Potts returned to the

practice of law until his death in 1808.

Potts was followed by a number of

capable United States Attorneys who

continued to distinguish themselves in

public service. Thomas G. Hayes came to

the office having already made his mark in

government through his election to the

Maryland Senate in 1883 and again in 1892

and 1894. Hayes eventually became the

mayor of Baltimore in 1899. Another, John

C. Rose received appointment to the District

of Maryland by President McKinley in

1898. He served until 1910 when he

became the United States District Judge for

the District of Maryland. He was appointed

to the bench of the United States Fourth

Circuit Court of Appeals in 1922. John

Philip Hill served from 1910 to 1915 but

made his greatest contributions as a Member

of Congress. Avery intelligent person, Hill

lectured at Johns Hopkins and Harvard

Universities before his election to Congress

in 1920. A decorated war hero, Hill served

in Congress as a member of the Military

Affairs Committee where he sponsored the

first bill to consolidate the war and navy

departments into one Department of

National Defense. An ardent foe of

prohibition, Hill was the first to offer a bill

seeking the repeal of the Eighteenth

Amendment.

Marvin Mandel

One of the most widely publicized trials

that occurred in this District began in

November 1975 when Marvin Mandel, then

Governor of Maryland, together with W.

Dale Hess, Harry W. Rodgers, III, William

A. Rodgers, Irvin Kovens, and Ernest N.

Cory were indicted on charges of mail fraud

and racketeering. Mandel and his cronies

were charged with having deprived the

citizens of Maryland of their right to

Mandel’s honest and faithful services. The

charges stemmed from a scheme involving

the bribery of Mandel by his co-defendants

to garner his support of legislation that

would be financially beneficial to Marlboro

Race Track, which they owned. The bribes

took the form of various gifts to Mandel

valued at $380,000. The initial trial was

aborted after several weeks when publicity

concerning unsuccessful efforts to bribe a

juror reached the jury. After eight weeks of
a new trial, and a week of deliberations, the

jury found the defendants guilty. Mandel

was sentenced to three years in prison.

On appeal, a panel of the Fourth Circuit

Court reversed the convictions due to jury

instructional error, but upon rehearing, the

full court affirmed the convictions. Mandel

and his co-defendants served their prison

sentences. Ten years later, the Supreme

Court held in McNally v. United States that

the mail fraud statute did not extend to

schemes directed solely at the deprivation of

intangible rights, which had been the

argument used by the prosecution in the

Mandel case. Although Congress later

overturned McNally, Mandel and his

co-defendants sought and received vacated

sentences from the district court, later

affirmed by the Fourth Circuit. On June 19,

1989, the Supreme Court denied the

government’s petition for certiorari. Thus,

some 14 years after indictment, Mandel and

his political cronies succeeded in vacating

their convictions in one of the longest

running and most convoluted legal battles in

history.

Spiro Anew

The District of Maryland faced another

difficult and highly visible case involving

Spiro Agnew, Vice President of the United

States. As a result of an investigation by the

United States Attorney’s Office, Agnew

resigned his office on October 10, 1973, and

entered a plea of nolo contendere in U.S.

District Court in Baltimore to charges of tax

evasion. The plea ended weeks of secret

negotiations between the lawyers for the

Vice President and government lawyers,

including United States Attorney George

Beall, and Attorney General Elliot

Richardson. Coming in the midst of the

refusal by President Richard Nixon to

furnish subpoenaed tapes to the Special

Prosecutor, the resignation and plea by the

Vice President resolved at least that portion

of the greatest constitutional crisis ever to

envelop the Executive Branch.

The conviction of the Vice President

was the unforeseen result of an investigation

launched in 1972 by the United States

Attorney for the District of Maryland of

kickbacks paid to Baltimore County

Executive Dale Anderson. The

investigation revealed evidence of bribes

paid by engineers doing business with

Anderson, as well as the man who preceded

him as Baltimore County Executive, Spiro

T. Agnew. As the investigation progressed,

evidence revealed that Agnew continued to

receive bribes in his subsequent positions as

Governor of Maryland and as Vice

President. Negotiations spared Agnew the

embarrassment of imprisonment but set a

fine of $10,000 and a suspended three-year

prison term.

The District of Massachusetts was

another of the thirteen original districts. As

such, Christopher Gore was appointed on

September 26, 1789, by President George

Washington as one of the original thirteen

United States Attorneys.

Over the next two centuries many

illustrious lawyers served in the position of
Headquarters: Boston

Branch Office: Springfield

53 Assistant United States Attorneys

Christopher Gore

United States Attorney in this District. Few

records from the first 100 years remain in

existence, but much is known about the first

United States Attorney, Christopher Gore.

Gore was the son of a Tory banished during

the war for his loyalist sentiments but later

repatriated by an Act of the state legislature

in 1878. Christopher Gore had proved

himself quite capable in the field of law and

received appointment as the first United

States Attorney for the District of

Massachusetts, an office in which he forged

a reputation for working very hard for his

constituency. After the Revolutionary War,

as a commissioner appointed under the Jay

Treaty, Gore succeeded in securing large

amounts in settlements against England

through masterful litigation. He

subsequently won election as governor of

Massachusetts in 1809 and as United States

Senator in 1813.

Gore Presents Daniel Webster To Bar

Christopher Gore is best remembered for

two non-legal accomplishments. One day a

young man came to Gore’s law office and

asked to be hired as a clerk and tutored in

the law. The young man later admitted that

the location of the office first drew him to

Gore. The established lawyer was so taken

by the promise of the young man, he hired

him immediately. So began the career of

Daniel Webster. When Gore presented

Webster to the Bar, he made such a

powerful speech in his behalf that it sparked

Webster’s ambition for years to come.

Later in life, Gore became the first

non-clergy, non-government officer to be

elected as an overseer for Harvard

University, his alma mater. Without

children of his own, Gore left a sizeable gift

to the school in his will. Upon his death

Harvard received $100,000, an enormous

amount for the early 19th Century. Gore

Hall at Harvard was built from this bequest

and named after him.

Literary Tributes

George Lunt served as United States

Attorney from 1849 to 1853. An

accomplished poet, he authored and

published several volumes of poetry.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

Stephen J. Markman, United States Attorney

Lizzie Borden

Another United States Attorney from the

District of Massachusetts succeeded in the

literary world as well as in the world of

jurisprudence. Between 1861 and 1865,

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was the United

States Attorney for Massachusetts. He

achieved fame earlier, however, by his 1840

publication of Two Years Before the Mast,

followed by The Buccaneer, and later The

Idle Man. Dana studied law in Boston,

Baltimore, and Newport, and lectured for

two years at Harvard Law School. He also

wrote highly acclaimed legal treatises on

maritime and international law, worked with

the anti-slavery movement, and acted in

1867 to 1868 as counsel with William M.

Evarts in the treason trial of Jefferson Davis.

In 1876, President Grant nominated Dana as

Minister to England. Dana, however, failed

to receive confirmation by the Senate.

Lizzie Borden Took An Axe

Melvin O. Adams served as United

States Attorney from 1904 to 1905. He

served as associate defense counsel in the

sensational double murder trial of Lizzie

Borden, accused of killing her father and

stepmother with an axe in Fall River. She

was acquitted after a trial which focused

great attention on the brutality of the crimes.

Elliott Richardson

Another United States Attorney who had

a distinguished career in government and

law was Elliott Richardson, who served the

district from 1959 to 1961. His legal

background included working as a law clerk

for both Judge Learned Hand on the Second

Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Felix

Frankfurter. Richardson served as the

Attorney General for the State of

Massachusetts; Under Secretary of State;

Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare;

Secretary of Defense; Attorney General of

the United States; Ambassador to the Court

of St. James; and, Secretary of Commerce.

Richardson also served as

Ambassador-at-large, the special

representative of the President to the Law of

the Sea Conference.

The District of Michigan was created in

1815, with Solomon Sibley appointed to

serve as the first United States Attorney. In

1863, 48 years later, the Eastern District of

Michigan was established by Act of

Congress. At that time, the district was

divided into the northern and southern

divisions. The court for the northern

division was held at Detroit, while the court
Headquarters: Detroit

Branch Offices: Bay City, Flint

67 Assistant United States Attorneys

sessions for the southern division were held

in Bay City and Port Huron. A special term

of court was held at Bay City for the hearing

of admiralty cases.

Many distinguished United States

Attorneys served the Eastern District of

Michigan. One of the earliest was Theodore

F. Shepard, who was born in New York and

later moved to Michigan to begin his career

in law. From 1872 to 1876 Shepard served

as the President of the Board of Education

for Bay City, the headquarters of the

southern division of the Eastern District. He

also served as City Attorney for Bay City

and the prosecuting attorney for Bay

County. In 1890, Shepard was

commissioned United States Attorney for

the Eastern District and served for four

years. Later, in 1900, he was named Circuit

Judge for the 18th Judicial Circuit of

Michigan.

Arthur J. Tuttle

One of the most accomplished United

States Attorneys for the Eastern District was

Arthur J. Tuttle who was appointed on June

20, 1911. He was formerly the prosecuting

attorney for Ingham County and the

Michigan State Senator from 1907 to 1911.

As prosecuting attorney, Tuttle brought to

trial many state officials who had been

charged with profiteering during the

Spanish-American War. While in the state

senate, he was responsible for the

formulation and enactment of the statute

that guaranteed a free education for all

children in the state through 12th grade,

even if they did not live within an

incorporated city or town. At the end of his

term, Tuttle received appointment from

President Taft as United States Attorney for

the Eastern District of Michigan.

United States Attorney Tuttle

successfully prosecuted what became

known as the “Bathtub Trust” under the

Sherman antitrust statutes. A year after his

appointment, Tuttle was elevated to the

bench of the United States District Court for

the Eastern District, a position he

maintained for 32 years. While on the

bench, he decided the case of Dodge

Brothers v. United States in which he

upheld the constitutionality of the surtax

clause of the income tax laws. The Supreme

Court of the United States affirmed that

opinion on appeal.

Washington Appointee

Earl J. Davis who became United States

Attorney for the District in 1921 soon

gained prominence in Washington. Two

years after becoming United States

Attorney, he was named as an Assistant

Attorney General of the United States.

Throughout the rest of his career, Davis

acted as Special Counsel to various

branches of the government, attorney for the

United States Senate Committee

investigating the Bureau of Internal

Revenue, and Special Counsel to the

Secretary of the Treasury. He twice served

as Special Assistant to the Attorney General

of the United States.

United States Senator Philip A. Hart

One of the mgt well known former

United States Attorneys for the Eastern
Headquarters: Detroit

Branch Offices: Bay City, Flint

67 Assistant United States Attorneys

District was United States Senator Philip A.

Hart. Senator Hart was a veteran of World

War II who was wounded on Utah Beach

during the landing on Normandy. He served

as United States Attorney in 1952 before

becoming legal adviser to the Governor of

Michigan for two years beginning in 1953.

From 1955 to 1958 he was elected as

Lieutenant Governor, becoming the first

person to devote full time to that office. At

the end of his term, he was elected to the

United States Senate in 1958 where he soon

became one of its most important and

influential members.

New Era In Joint Law Enforcement

One of the most significant prosecutions

and trials in the Eastern District of Michigan

was the case of Young Boys, Inc., in which

defendants were indicted in 1982 for

operating one of the largest and most

organized heroin and cocaine trafficking

organizations in the Midwest. The

300-member organization was arranged in

an elaborate pyramid scheme resembling a

modern business.

The lowest echelon of the operation was

the street sellers and “runners,” many of

whom were juveniles ranging in age from

10 to 14. The recruitment of children for

such tasks was the hallmark of the

organization. These juveniles could sell and

transfer the drugs leaving law enforcement

virtually helpless to terminate their activity.

The rest of the organization was very

efficient with several specialized subgroups

employed to run a vertical, mass retail

distribution system. The leadership of the

organization was so insulated that repeated

law enforcement efforts to infiltrate the

group were unsuccessful.

The case marked a new era in joint law

enforcement investigations. The

combination of Detroit Police intelligence,

DEA technical expertise and IRS financial

analysis was so successful that it set the

pattern for many subsequent task forces.

Several mufti-kilogram quantities of drugs,

more than $1.5 million in currency and

many luxury vehicles and real estate parcels

were seized and forfeited to the United

States. After a dramatic and lengthy trial,

all defendants were convicted and received

lengthy prison terms.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

John A. Smietanka, United States Attorney

The names have all become infamous in

the work of crime-Bonnie Parker, Clyde

Barrow, Lester Gillis a/k/a/ Baby Face

Nelson, Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, and

John Dillinger, the criminal who once ran

into trouble with the United States

Attorney’s office for the Western District of

Michigan. In 1934, Dillinger and some of

his gang members visited a friend who lived

in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. A local

sheriff heard of the gangsters’ presence in

town and informed federal authorities. By

the time Special FBI Agent Melvin Purvis

arrived, however, Dillinger had left. Joseph

Donnelly, United States Attorney for the

Western District, charged the friends of

Dillinger with two counts of harboring

fugitives and one count of concealing

information. Doubtful of the proper

procedure and caselaw for such charges,

Donnelly corresponded with the Texas

United States Attorney who had recently

convicted 20 defendants on the same

charges involving “Bonnie and Clyde.”

Dillinger was later indicted by the Northern

District of Indiana.

United States Attorneys For The Territory

Michigan

Not all of the cases in the Western

District of Michigan have been as exciting

as the Dillinger incident, but the United

States Attorney’s office has sought to

prosecute each one with the same purpose,

to obtain justice. Such dedication has

characterized the Office since the

appointment of the first United States

Attorney for the Territory of Michigan,

Solomon Sibley, in 1815. Born in

Massachusetts, Sibley was elected a

member of the General Assembly of the

Northwest Territory in 1799. As a member

of that body, he had been instrumental in the

establishment and incorporation of Detroit

in 1802, becoming the city’s first mayor

four years later. After Sibley’s service as

United States Attorney, he was elected to

the United States Congress from the

Territory of Michigan, and in 1823, was

named to the Supreme Court of Michigan.

Years later, his son became the first

governor of the State of Minnesota.

John Norvell also served as United

States Attorney during the territorial days of

Michigan. He was a personal friend of

Thomas Jefferson and a close adviser of

President James Madison. Norvell also was

a friend of Andrew Jackson who named him

Postmaster of Detroit in 1832. Norvell

became a leading member of Michigan’s

constitutional convention in 1835 and later

served as United States Senator from the

Territory. As Senator he was partly

responsible for securing the Upper

Peninsula as part of the boundary settlement

for Michigan’s admission into the Union.

Elected as a state legislator in 1842, Norvell

was commissioned as United States

Attorney in 1845.
Headquarters: Grand Rapids

20 Assistant United States Attorneys

Ella M. Backus

One of the last United States Attorneys

to serve the district before statehood was

William L. Stoughton. Appointed by

President Lincoln in 1861, Stoughton soon

resigned to join the Army where he

eventually attained the rank of Major

General. He was badly wounded in Atlanta

and was said to have fired the last gun at the

battle of Chiccamauga. Stoughton became

Michigan’s Attorney General in 1866 and

its representative to Congress for two terms

beginning in 1868.

John W. Stone was a distinguished jurist

who served on the bench for 32 years. He

had served in Congress from 1877 to 1881

before being named United States Attorney

for the Western District of Michigan in

1882 by President Arthur. In 1909, Stone

was appointed to the Michigan Supreme

Court becoming its Chief Justice in 1916.

First Female Assistant United States

Attorney For The Western District Of

Michigan

The Western District of Michigan has

benefitted from the leadership of those

appointed to the Office of the United States

Attorney, but it is also proud of one of its

Assistant United States Attorneys. The

Western District set a precedent when it

hired Ella M. Backus as an Assistant United

States Attorney in 1903. In an age when

traditional values dictated gender roles and

job opportunities, Ms. Backus not only

became the first female Assistant United

States Attorney hired in the Western

District, but she also became a symbol of

perseverance and justice for 35 years. Ella

Backus had passed the bar exam in the late

1800's without the benefit of law school.

Her dedication was never doubted and only

reinforced when she refused to go home ill

the day before she passed away at the age of

76 in 1938.
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

Jerome G. Arnold, United States Attorney

The District of Minnesota was

established by Act of Congress as a judicial

district on March 17, 1849. Two days later

Henry L. Moss was appointed as the first

United States Attorney for this District.

From the appointment of Moss to the

present, the United States Attorneys who

have served this District have been a source

of pride because of their hard work in

upholding the laws of the nation.

Cushman K Davis

One of the earliest United States

Attorneys for the District of Minnesota also

was one of the most well known. Cushman

K. Davis was a member of the Minnesota

Legislature when he was commissioned as

United States Attorney. In 1873, Davis won

election as Governor of Minnesota. Later,

he was elected to the United States Senate

where he served until his death in 1900. In

the Senate, Davis became a member of

several important committees, including the

Foreign Relations Committee of which he

became Chairman in 1897. Davis authored

the resolution that resulted in the annexation

of Hawaii by the United States, and after the

Spanish-American War, he became one of

the commissioners responsible for the

drafting of the treaty. Davis was also well

known as a Shakespearean scholar.

Clarence U. Landrum became United

States Attorney for the District of Minnesota

on October 21, 1949, by appointment of

President Truman. Earlier he had served the

District as a Special Assistant United States

Attorney from 1918 to 1921. As United

States Attorney, Landrum was largely

responsible for the litigation that acquired

the lands necessary to establish the Tamarac

National Wildlife Refuge in Rochester,

Minnesota.

Many former United States Attorneys

for the District of Minnesota went on to

become United States District Court Judges,

including Milton D. Purdy, George F.

Sullivan, Philip Neville, Miles W. Lord,

Robert G. Renner, and James M.

Rosenbaum. George E. MacKinnon,

appointed in 1953, became a Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the D. C.

Circuit in 1969. Others became judges on

the state level, such as Fallon Kelley who

was appointed to the Minnesota Supreme

Court, and Andrew W. Danielson, a

Minnesota State District Court Judge.

Former United States Attorney Hartley

Nordin became a bankruptcy judge, and J.

Earl Cudd was appointed in 1973 as a

United State Magistrate.

Antitrust Violations In The 1950's

A case that occurred in the District of

Minnesota in the early 1950's reflects the

impact of the United States Attorney’s

office on the everyday lives of its citizens.

A dairy employees’ union was enjoined

from conspiring with milk producers, stores,

and others to fix the retail price of milk in

the Minneapolis area. The United States

Attorney’s office enforced the Sherman

Antitrust Act against the union which

resulted in the plea of nolo contendere by

the union, ten dairies, the trade association,

and various officials.
Headquarters: Minneapolis

Branch Office: St. Paul

25 Assistant United States Attorneys

News Clipping, Minneapolis Tribune

May 30, 1963

In a case that seemed a portent of things

to come, Felix Williams was sentenced to

35 years in prison for dealing in narcotics in

1957. According to one news account, upon

sentencing, the judge referred to the

defendant as “a handmaiden to the devil.”

What incensed the court most was

Williams’ selling of marijuana to

Minneapolis teenagers. At the time of the

trial, enforcement officials considered

Williams to be the major supplier of

narcotics in the District.

The United States Attorney’s Office in

1963 secured indictments against 20

different financial institutions charging them

with antitrust rate-fixing violations. Among

the defendants were 11 of Minnesota’s

largest banks. The banks had conspired to

fix the rates of service charges for checking

accounts as well as loan and interest rates.

The indictments were the first time in the

history of the Sherman Antitrust Act that

criminal charges, rather than civil, had been

brought against a bank.

Another case in 1963 that garnered

public attention was the conviction of

defendants accused of defrauding a charity

foundation. The jury returned guilty

verdicts of mail fraud and conspiracy to

defraud. Another fraud case came before

the District of Minnesota in the mid-1960's

involving the American Allied Insurance

Company. Six major defendants, including

then-State Insurance Commissioner Cyrus

Magnusson, stood trial on charges that they

conspired to steal $6 million from the

insurance company.

From Midnight To Guntown
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

Robert Q. Whitwell, United States Attorney

The history of the United States

Attorney’s Office has been a long, active,

and legally significant one. From the Delta

town of Midnight in the southwest to the red

clay hills of Guntown in the northeast,

federal crimes and vigorously contested

civil suits have occupied United States

Attorneys for more than 150 years. Much

significant case law of the Supreme Court,

in both criminal and civil rights cases, has

arisen from this colorful, sparsely populated

region best known through the writings of

Nobel Prize-winning author William

Faulkner. Appropriately, the first

permanent federal courtroom was

established in an Oxford office above a drug

store which later became a favorite hangout

of Faulkner’s.

Reconstruction

The most intensive period of litigation

for the early United States Attorneys in the

District occurred during Reconstruction,

from 1871 to 1884. In that period alone,

there were 585 convictions, nearly all of

which involved prosecution of alleged

members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Mississippi’s conviction rate was 55

percent, nearly double the national average.

Incredibly, nearly all cases involved jury

trials, and were tried by the United States

Attorney and a single assistant. Those

responsible were not carpetbaggers; four of

the five United States Attorneys of that time

were native Mississippians. Three had

served in the Confederate Army, but

nevertheless believed the only way to

reestablish order was under federal law. A

good example of the type of person required

by the times was G. Wiley Wells, United

States Attorney in 1872. In a letter to the

Attorney General, he remarked that he

really enjoyed strapping on a sidearm and

mounting up to help the Marshals arrest

Klansmen.

Prohibition

As times changed, so did the nature of

the caseload in the Northern District. By

the early 1900's, the United States

Attorney’s Office was fully involved in

prosecuting violators of the Prohibition

Statutes. On a single day, 248 people were

sentenced for moonshining. Local residents

recalled a line of defendants extending out

the door of the Courthouse and around the

block. Occasionally, special trains were

ordered just to haul away all the prisoners.

Reconstruction II

In 1962, United States Attorney H. M.

Ray faced a situation not unlike the 1870's

when James Meredith, a black man, entered

Ole Miss, then a bastion of segregation.

With the support of President John Kennedy

and his brother, Attorney General Robert

Kennedy, Ray litigated for years, under very

difficult circumstances, numerous cases

similar to those litigated by United States

Attorney Wells almost a century earlier.

Hundreds of Federal Marshals were brought

to Oxford and the Northern District again

became a hotbed of nationally significant

litigation with the school desegregation

cases of the late 1960's and early 1970's. In

1980, after 20 tumultuous, but highly

successful, years in his role as United States

Attorney (one of the longest tenures in

recent memory), Ray retired.

Current United States Attorney’s Office
William Faulkner Oxford Courthouse

Following H. M. Ray, United States

Attorney Glen Davidson served with

distinction four years before being named a

U.S. District Judge. He was succeeded by

the current United States Attorney, Robert

Q. Whitwell. Like his predecessor,

Whitwell not only tries many important

cases himself, but enjoys leaving the

courtroom to go with officers to execute

search warrants and supervise investigations

personally.

What earlier United States Attorneys

called the “Old Court Town” of Oxford

(pop. 10,000) has been carefully restored

and now looks like a better-painted version

of its 19th Century ancestor, with

Faulkner’s old courthouse in the middle of

the square and the old Federal Courthouse

renovated into a handsome City Hall. 

An occasional moonshine case joins the

usual prosecutions for bribery and drugs.

There are civil rights cases in Midnight and

insurance frauds in Guntown. Paperwork

has increased, but in many ways the nature

of the district is much the same as a century

ago with one exception: racial strife has

decreased. USA Today recently named

Oxford one of the six best college towns in

the United States, along with Princeton,

New Jersey, and Tempe, Arizona. And

assistants here still go home for lunch.

The western lands of colonial Georgia

became the Mississippi Territory on April 7,

1798. At that time, President John Adams
Headquarters: Jackson

Branch Office: Biloxi

18 Assistant United States Attorneys

appointed a governor and three superior

court judges to govern the new territory.

Before long, however, the governor pleaded

with the President to appoint a United States

Attorney who was, as the Judiciary Act of

1789 had required, “learned in the law.”

Congress granted the governor’s wish and in

1813 a district court for the territory was

created. Thomas D. Anderson was

commissioned as its first United States

Attorney on July 29 of that year.

In 1817, Mississippi entered the Union

as the 20th State and on April 3, 1818, was

organized as a single judicial district by Act

of Congress. Sessions of the court were

held at the state capital of Washington in

Adams County. The District Court was

moved to Natchez in 1822, and to its present

location of Jackson in 1835. Three years

later, the state was divided into the Northern

District and the Southern District. Although

the districts had separate United States

Attorneys and United States Marshals, they

shared a District Judge until 1929.

Early United States Attorneys

Bella Metcalf became the first United

States Attorney following Mississippi’s

statehood. He had been educated by his

older brother, “Old Stone Hammer”

Metcalf, the tenth Governor of Kentucky.

After leaving the district, Metcalf was

commissioned as Judge of the Mississippi

Supreme Court. His successor, William

Griffith, also left the Office of the United

States Attorney to become Justice of the

State’s Supreme Court.

Richard M. Gaines was United States

Attorney for the District of Mississippi

when the state was divided into two separate

districts. Remaining in office after the

division, he became the first United States

Attorney for the new Southern District.

Gaines served in that post for more than a

decade. An 1843 newspaper article

described him as “energetic and rigidly

conscientious in the discharge of his duties,”

which may account for the article’s further

description of him as “now scarce forty and

. . . gray as a Norwegian rat.”

Carnot Posey was United States

Attorney when the Civil War broke out. He

resigned his office and was reappointed by

Jefferson Davis to the same position under

the Confederacy but soon resigned again in

order to join the war effort. His bravery

made him a local hero. Posey attained the

rank of General before dying from battle

wounds in 1863. Another United States

Attorney who greatly influenced life in the

region was A. H. Longino. Longino,

commissioned on February 6, 1888,

resigned his office one year later to run for

the office of governor which he won. Under

his leadership, the State of Mississippi

began construction on a new statehouse with

a rather substantial appropriation for that

time of $1 million.

Later Years

Julian P. Alexander served as United

States Attorney from 1919 to 1921. Unable

to qualify for active service during World

War I, Alexander became a member of the

Four-Minute Men Organization and

delivered many speeches on war causes. As
Headquarters: Jackson

Branch Office: Biloxi

18 Assistant United States Attorneys

United States Attorney, Alexander became

known for locating and placing in active

service hundreds of draft dodgers. In 1941,

he became an Associate Justice of the

Mississippi Supreme Court where he gained

a reputation for the humor contained in his

written opinions.

One of the most loved and respected

Mississippians served the Southern District

as United States Attorney from 1938 to

1947. Toxey Hall was reportedly such an

eloquent speaker, spectators would fill the

courtroom when he delivered his arguments.

It was once determined that Hall was so

popular that more than 300 people were

named after him.

In January 1954, Robert Hauberg took

the oath of office as United States Attorney,

a position which he held for the next 26

years, the longest tenure of any United

States Attorney. An impressive figure,

Hauberg stood a full six and a half feet tall

and used this to full advantage when

prosecuting criminals or hitting home runs

in the annual “Sawbones versus Shysters”

softball game. Under his guidance the

district gave priority to voting rights and

school desegregation suits under the Civil

Rights Act. Hauberg and Department of

Justice attorney John Door were successful

in the prosecution of seven defendants

charged with conspiracy to violate the civil

rights of three civil rights workers murdered

in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Observers cite

this and related cases as the point at which

the federal courts broke the strangle hold of

the Ku Klux Klan on Mississippi.

Hauberg’s successor, George Phillips,

once declared he would have rather been a

cowboy. Phillips quickly became proficient

at rounding up criminals instead. Under his

leadership, the Southern District began

vigorous prosecution of drug cases and

public corruption. Once referred to as one

of Mississippi’s “Untouchables,” Phillips

gained a reputation for toughness on public

corruption by helping to convict more than

50 county supervisors on charges related to

graft in an investigation called “Operation

Pretense.” Phillips also received national

recognition for his work with the district’s

Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee.

Phillips’ statement to prospective

Assistants characterizes the history of the

Office in general: “If put to a pinch, an

ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of

cleverness.”
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

Thomas E. Dittmeier, United States Attorney

The United States Attorney’s Office for

the Eastern District of Missouri has a proud

tradition of outstanding United States

Attorneys from 1814 to the present. John

Scott became the first United States

Attorney to serve the Missouri Territory

when he was appointed to the post by James

Madison. The culmination of the War of

1812 brought a rush of immigration into the

Missouri Territory by war veterans and

those who had postponed their westward

journeys during the war. Bitter land

disputes arose between the new immigrants

who held speculative land warrants issued

by the federal government, and wealthy St.

Louisians who claimed the same lands

based on bogus congressional certificates.

Settling these hostile disputes was Scott’s

major responsibility as United States

Attorney. This issue was very important to

the federal government since a major source

of its revenue was derived from the sale of

Louisiana Purchase lands. Scott was later

elected to Congress from the territory and

became a leader in the drive for Missouri

statehood by helping to engineer the

Missouri Compromise. Scott continued to

serve in the House of Representatives after

Missouri attained statehood in 1821.

Other former United States Attorneys

for the unified District of Missouri became

well known for their positions of leadership.

James Hawkins Peck, appointed to the

district in 1819, later became a United

States District Judge. Edward Bates,

commissioned in 1824, was chosen by

Abraham Lincoln in 1861 as Attorney

General of the United States. Montgomery

Blair, appointed in 1840, served until 1842

when he was elected Mayor of St. Louis. In

1860 Mr. Blair represented Dred Scott in the

historic slavery case tried in St. Louis.

Although Blair’s victory in the Dred Scott

case was reversed by the United States

Supreme Court, Blair was rewarded for his

efforts when President Lincoln appointed

him Postmaster General in 1861.

Eastern District Is Created

On March 3, 1857, Congress established

the Eastern District of Missouri as a

separate district for the purposes of the

federal judiciary system. The first United

States Attorney to serve the Eastern District

was Calvin F. Burns, appointed on June 3,

1857. The Civil War era was a very

difficult time for United States Attorneys in

Missouri. As a border state, Missouri was

divided between unionists and Southern

loyalists. Lincoln’s wartime policies

suspending the writ of habeas corpus and

the imposition of martial law were

particularly unpopular in Missouri. One of

those appointed United States Attorney

during this time was William Grover.

Grover was an interesting appointment, as

he previously had been indicted for the

murder of Joseph Smith, founder of the

Mormon Church. Although he and the other

defendants were acquitted of the murder

charges, some still believe that Grover was

involved in Smith’s assassination.

David Patterson Dyer became United

States Attorney in 1876. A member of the

Missouri Senate and the United States

House of Representatives, Dyer became

known as the prosecutor of the famous

“Whiskey Ring.” The investigation of the

ring’s activities proved difficult as its

members had many friends in the

government. Finally in 1875, Secretary of

the Treasury Benjamin Bristow found
Headquarters: St. Louis

30 Assistant United States Attorneys

enough evidence to put the conspirators on

trial. Dyer tried the case in St. Louis and

convicted most of the key members of the

“Whiskey Ring.”

Another famous case in the district was

the Standard Oil trust case tried by Henry

Blodgett who was appointed in 1907. In

1909, the District Court ordered the

dissolution of the trust under the Sherman

Antitrust Act. The decision was upheld by

the United States Supreme Court in 1911.

Director Of Central Intelligence Agency

Current Central Intelligence Agency

Director William Webster was appointed

United States Attorney for the Eastern

District on January 4, 1960. Webster later

became judge of the United States District

Court for the Eastern District of Missouri,

and in 1973 was promoted to the Eighth

Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1978,

President Jimmy Carter named him as

Director of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation. He was later appointed

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

by President Reagan.

Those who have served the district in

recent years have supervised the prosecution

of several important cases. Barry A. Short,

appointed to office in 1966, successfully

prosecuted the Speaker of the Missouri

House of Representatives, Richard Rabbitt,

on charges of mail fraud and extortion. The

case began a trend which gave federal

prosecutors a greater ability to prosecute

corrupt state legislators. Thomas Dittmeier,

appointed in 1980, launched a massive

investigation of the St. Louis Mafia which

resulted in the most significant organized

crime case ever tried in this District. Ten

leaders of the Mafia were sentenced to

prison terms ranging from 18 years to life.

One defendant received a death sentence

after a state murder conviction.

Appointment For Murder

One of the most publicized cases in this

district occurred during the tenure of Robert

K. Kingsland, appointed in 1976. A dentist

by the name of Engleman had convinced his

dental assistant, Carmen Miranda, who was

having financial difficulties, to meet and

marry a rich man and then take out a large

insurance policy on his life. Engleman

would then kill the husband, and split the

insurance proceeds with Miranda.

Engleman was convicted of using the

United States Postal Service to perpetuate

the insurance fraud. His crimes were

uncovered for the public in a book aptly

titled, Appointment for Murder.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

Thomas M. Larson, United States Attorney

The picture of a small orphaned boy

sifting though the rubble of a mining

company looking for ore with which to

support himself characterizes the

determination and resourcefulness of those

appointed to the Office of the United States

Attorney for the Western District of

Missouri. The small boy was William

Warner, one of the early United States

Attorneys for the Western District.

He took a job in a grocery store where,

in his spare time, he taught himself to read.

From such meager beginnings, he went on

to earn his law degree and in 1869, he

became the County Prosecuting Attorney in

Kansas City. In that office he displayed the

odd mix of courage and common sense

required of a United States Attorney by

dismissing many of the grand jury

indictments against former Confederate

soldiers. He believed that the incidents of

war were settled with the surrender of the

South. In 1871, he was elected Mayor of

Kansas City and began a number of reforms

that led to the writing of a new charter

believed to be authored largely by Warner.

His terms as United States Attorney from

1882 to 1884 and 1898 to 1905 were

separated by two terms in the United States

Congress where he was largely responsible

for the establishment of the Soldier’s Home

in Leavenworth, Kansas. After his last term

as United States Attorney, Warner won

election to the United States Senate. In later

years, he was extremely influential in

Missouri politics, and served as a delegate

to his party’s national conventions for more

than 30 years beginning in 1872.

Other United States Attorneys from the

Western District have provided leadership

in various areas of government service. One

of Warner’s successors, Arba S. Van

Valkenburgh served first as Assistant

United States Attorney, then as United

States Attorney, United States District

Judge, and finally as Judge of the United

States Court of Appeals for the Eighth

Circuit. During his term as United States

Attorney, Van Valkenburgh was responsible

for the prosecution of prominent meat

packers, such as Armour and Swift, and a

major railroad, the Chicago, Burlington, and

Quincy for conspiring to defeat the tariff

regulations of the Elkins Act. The case

went to the Supreme Court, becoming the

first case to establish the effectiveness of the

Elkins Act.

Another United States Attorney from the

Western District, Francis M. Wilson, who

served from 1913 to 192U, directed the

litigation of several important cases. Some

included the constitutionality of the

Adamson Labor Law and the first

conspiracy case involving the Selective

Service law during World War I. Roscoe C.

Patterson had the honor of serving first in

the United States House of Representatives,

later as United State Attorney, and finally as

United States Senator. His successor,

William Vandeventer, became well known

for his prosecution of prohibition violators.

More recently, Robert G. Ulrich, who

served as United States Attorney from 1981

to 1988, was appointed as Judge of the

Missouri Court of Appeals. Ulrich, while

United States Attorney, served three terms

as Chairman of the Attorney General’s

Advisory Committee of United States

Attorneys.

Downfall of Political Boss Tom Pendergast
Headquarters: Kansas City

Branch Office: Springfield

31 Assistant United States Attorneys

One of the most enduring reputations of

a former United States Attorney belongs to

Maurice M. Milligan, the person responsible

for the downfall of political boss, Tom

Pendergast. In his book, The Missouri

Waltz, Milligan described the Pendergast

machine that kept Kansas City in its

clutches for many years. In two different

investigations, Milligan delivered a double

blow to the organization resulting in its

downfall. In 1936, Milligan investigated

election fraud in Kansas City that netted 259

convictions or guilty pleas out of 278

indictments. The investigation also caused

the removal of more than 50,000 fraudulent

names from the voter lists. Three years

later, Milligan went after the boss himself

by successfully prosecuting Pendergast on

charges of tax evasion. Pendergast went to

prison, thus ending his influence on

Missouri politics. That same year, Milligan

ran for United States Senate but was

defeated by the piano-playing politician and

future President, Harry S. Truman.

Federal Exclusionary Rule Established

One of the most important cases for

federal litigation originated in the Western

District of Missouri. One day in December

1911, while Fremont Weeks was at work,

police officers and the United States

Marshal searched his Kansas City residence

without a warrant. Based upon fruits of the

search, Weeks was charged with interstate

transportation of lottery tickets. Weeks

objected to the use of the evidence seized in

the warrantless search but was overruled at

trial. The Supreme Court agreed with

Weeks, however, thus establishing the

federal exclusionary rule.

A tragic case in 1953 ended in very

swift justice. In September 1953 a six-yearold boy from a wealthy family was

kidnapped and murdered. The kidnappers

collected a ransom but were arrested in

early October. They were arraigned in

November at which time they pleaded guilty

to violation of the Lindbergh Law. Trial of

the penalty issue before a jury commenced

on November 16, and three days later, the

jury returned verdicts recommending

punishment by death. The two defendants

were executed in the Missouri gas chamber

on December 18, 1953, less than three

months after the crime.
DISTRICT OF MONTANA

Byron H. Dunbar, United States Attorney

In the spring of 1876, Sitting Bull and

his large following of Sioux, Cheyenne and

Arapaho Indians assembled in the valley of

the Little Big Horn to discuss the white

threat that had entered their land.

Meanwhile, General George Custer was

planning a full-scale campaign to destroy

these tribes. On June 25, 1876, Custer, with

five troops of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, led

his attack--which, as many of us remember

from our history books-turned into

“Custer’s Last Stand.” One year later, while

Montana was still a territory, the Office of

the United States Attorney was established

and Robert Anderson was appointed to

serve as the first United States Attorney

(December 1877 to 1879).

Two other United States Attorneys stand

out among Montana’s finest. Burton K.

Wheeler, who served from 1913 to 1918,

attained both national and international

prominence. While United States Attorney,

he prosecuted many state and local

politicians on graft and corruption charges

and went on to become one of the state’s

most prestigious and recognized United

States Senators during the Harding

Administration. As a Senator, he authored

a resolution under which an investigation of

the Department of Justice took place in

1924. Wheeler also served as the chief

investigator of Attorney General Harry M.

Daugherty leading to Daugherty’s

resignation. Later, he was involved in the

investigations of Secretary of the Interior

Albert Fall and the ensuing Teapot Dome

scandal. Wheeler’s pursuance of laws

regulating railroads drew national attention

from railroad and farmer-Labor groups, as

well as from the Great Plains Nonpartisan

League, which resulted in his selection as

the vice-presidential candidate of the

Progressive Party.

The second United States Attorney to

attain prominence was Wellington D.

Rankin who served from 1926 to 1934.

Rankin, a cattle rancher, went on to become

the largest single landowner in the

forty-eight contiguous states, with property

holdings totaling more than one million

acres in thirteen different counties.

Montana’s population of approximately

840,000 keeps United States Attorney

Byron H. Dunbar quite busy. Besides

problems associated with seven Indian

reservations, the district is involved

extensively with oil and mining cases,

federal lands and trespass, and because of

the state’s 600 mile-long Canadian border,

there are numerous cases concerning

Canadian wiretaps and investigations. The

district also has important environmental

concerns, including wildlife protection.

Two examples are illustrated below.

Operation Trophykill

Protecting wildlife in the western United

States is big business. With bighorn sheep

skulls selling on the black market for $5,000

and wild animal skins selling for almost as

much, the United States Attorney’s Office is

busy protecting this irreplaceable resource.

Recently, publicized reports tell of the

slaughter of American black bears for their

gall bladders. Prized in the Far East for

their supposed medicinal and aphrodisiacal

properties, the gall bladder from a bear can

bring $3,000 a pound when properly

prepared. In conducting Operation

Trophykill, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has
General George Custer

Sitting Bull

achieved a conviction rate of more than

ninety-six percent.

Operation Falcon

To most of us, traffickers flying small

aircraft across remote sections of the border,

smugglers body-carrying or using luggage

with false compartments, and dealers

exchanging large amounts of money are

scenes from the illegal drug trade. But not

in Montana. In the Big Sky State, these

tactics are employed to rob the United

States of one of its most precious

resources--bird eggs. We refer here not to

just any birds’ eggs, but to those of the

falcon, the majestic bird of prey. Falconry,

often referred to as the “sport of kings,”

recently has become the concern of

criminals.

In cooperation with other federal

agencies, the United States Attorneys’

Office in Montana began Operation Falcon

in an attempt to stop the increased

smuggling of live falcons and their eggs out

of the country. In some ways, the traffic in

falcons is as lucrative as that of drugs. In

Europe and the Middle East, some species

of American falcons bring as much as

$50,000 for a single bird.

Armed with the Migratory Bird Treaty

Act of 1972 and other laws and international

agreements, this office has coordinated a

multi-district investigation into illegal raptor

taking and trading. As a result of these

efforts, the District of Montana has

successfully prosecuted more than 60 cases

concerning this violation against the natural

resources of America.

The Territory of Nebraska was created

with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska

Act of May 30, 1854. One month later,

General Experience Estabrook was
DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA

Ronald D. Lahmers, United States Attorney

Theodore (Ted) Richling

appointed to serve as United States

Attorney. Estabrook clearly evidenced the

courage and conviction needed by United

States Attorneys, as he actively fought to

secure the right of women to vote.

Addressing the President of the Nebraska

Constitutional Convention in 1871,

Estabrook turned and chided the President

of the Convention by asking, “I have been

told, Mr. President, that it was not the

intention at the time of creation of this earth

that women should belong to the governing

power. I want to know, Mr. President, how

you found that out?”

Other prominent United States

Attorneys have served the district as well.

James C. Kinsler, who served from 1921 to

1930, contributed to the founding of the

Creighton University School of Law. Prior

to his term as United States Attorney,

Kinsler’s successor, Charles S. Sandall

(1930-1935) was associated with the case of

State of Nebraska v. Meyer. Meyer was a

school teacher charged with violating state

laws that prohibited the teaching of any

language in the public schools other than

English. The case went to the Supreme

Court which overturned the original

conviction and in turn struck down many of

the language laws then in effect in many of

the states. Donald R. Ross (1953-1954)

went on to become an influential leader in

the Republican National Committee.

One of the most interesting figures to

serve this district was Theodore (Ted)

Richling who was appointed by President

John Kennedy in 1961. During World War

II, Richling was called on to prosecute

black-marketeers in Paris. Faced with the

problem of finding a foolproof method of

prosecution, Richling recalled having

“searched the books” until discovering he

could prosecute them with sabotaging the

war effort, a capital offense. General

Dwight Eisenhower awarded Richling a

Bronze Star for his efforts. Later, Richling

became involved with trying Nazi war

crimes committed during the French and

Belgian occupation.

“Familiar Ring To Old Problems”

In 1960, a reporter for the Omaha

World-Herald interviewed William Spire,

the thirty-third United States Attorney for

this District. He asked Spire his views
Headquarters: Omaha

Branch Office: Lincoln

14 Assistant United States Attorneys

concerning the change in the United States

Attorney’s Office over the years. The

reporter stated, “Perhaps the characters were

a bit more salty, the language more flowery

but most of the problems that beset tire

District Attorney’s Office here before the

turn of the century have a familiar ring.”

From horse stealing to automobile theft, the

theme remained the same. Spire did notice

one change for the better. While

rummaging through some old files, he found

a monthly pay receipt for the United States

Attorney of Nebraska dated October 1894 in

the amount of $16.80.

Today, much of Nebraska’s caseload

involves the prosecution of drug dealers.

The United States Attorney’s Office

realized the extent of the drug problem in

Nebraska when it prosecuted the leadership

of the local Hell’s Angels Motorcycle

organization in 1981. Seven different

agencies combined forces to arrest and

prosecute the gang members on charges of

conspiracy to distribute the controlled

substance methamphetamine. The

defendants were also suspected of torturing

and intimidating witnesses and competitors

and in one case, murder. Among items

confiscated were firearms, drugs, a human

skull, and a human thumb.

Cannibalism In Nebraska

Not all of the cases in the District of

Nebraska have been so serious, as former

United States Attorney Harry W.

Shackleford (1956) once discovered. His

opening statement to the press hinted at the

lighter side of the work, when he said that

cannibalism was a problem in Nebraska. He

was referring to the problem farmers had

with poultry and consequently with those

who took advantage of their plight, such as

a company that manufactured and

distributed “Barton’s Cannibalism

Remedy.” Shackleford filed suit alleging

the product’s ineffectiveness and had it

confiscated. However humorous, the case

reveals an important aspect in the work of

the United States Attorney. In order to

move on the case, Shackleford first had to

take a short course on poultry problems

from University experts, a testament of the

need for wide-ranging knowledge on the

part of the United States Attorneys.
DISTRICT OF NEVADA

William A. Maddox, United States Attorney

Acquired from Mexico in 1848, Nevada

originally was part of the Utah Territory

which was established in 1850. With the

discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859,

the population of Nevada increased and on

March 2, 1861, Nevada was made a separate

territory. Three years later, as a result of

efforts by the Lincoln Administration to

secure another anti-slavery state, Nevada

entered the Union.

The first United States Attorney to serve

this scarcely populated but wealthy land was

Benjamin Bunker, who was commissioned

on March 27, 1861, three weeks after

Nevada became a separate territory. Bunker

was followed by Theodore Edwards. From

the beginning, those who served the Office

of the United States Attorney for the District

of Nevada displayed the leadership and

capabilities that led to their election and

appointments to other governmental offices.

C. S. Varian was appointed to the

District of Nevada on December 7, 1875,

following a term in the Nevada Senate.

Upon resignation from the Office of the

United States Attorney, he won election to

the Nevada House of Representatives where

he served as its Speaker. Reflecting the

early relationship between Nevada and

Utah, Varian became in 1884 the Assistant

United States Attorney for the District of

Utah. In 1889, Varian became one of the

few people to serve as United States

Attorney for two different districts when he

was appointed to the District of Utah where

he served until 1903. During that time, he

also served in the Utah House of

Representatives and as a delegate to Utah’s

Constitutional Convention.

Shortly thereafter, Samuel Platt became

United States Attorney for the District of

Nevada in 1906. Platt had held several

positions of leadership within the state

government: Assistant Secretary of the State

of Nevada in 1906; a member of the Nevada

State Assembly from 1903 to 1906; and,

Speaker of the Assembly in 1905.

Accustomed to serving in several posts at

the same time, Platt received during his term

as United States Attorney an appointment as

Special Assistant to the United States

Attorney General in 1911. In 1912, Platt

ran for the United States Senate, but lost the

election by 38 votes out of the entire State

of Nevada. In addition to his government

posts, Platt was also the owner of the

Carson City News

Other United States Attorneys became

known for their vocational interests other

than the law. George Springmeyer became,

after his tenure from 1922 to 1926, a very

successful cattle rancher. William

Woodburn, appointed to the District in

1914, was Vice President and Director of

the Goldfield Consolidated Mines.

One of the most noted former United

States Attorneys from the District of Nevada

was E. P. Carville who served this district

from 1934 to 1938. Carville resigned from

the district in 1938, ran for the office of

governor and won. As governor, Carville

retired the state debt and left office with the

state treasury showing a surplus of $1.5

million. In 1945, he was selected to fill an

unexpired term in the United States Senate.

Several years later, he received a

Presidential medal and citation for his work

in establishing the draft boards in Nevada

during his term as governor.
Headquarters: Las Vegas

Branch Office: Reno

24 Assistant United States Attorneys

Sham “Promotions And Giveaways”

Throughout the years, the District of

Nevada has prosecuted many important

cases. One of the most noted centered on a

mail fraud scheme involving fraudulent

telemarketing businesses named East-West

Distributing, World Wide Factors, and

National Printing. Those companies, and

the defendants who operated them, induced

customers all over the United States to

purchase cheaply constructed advertising

specialty items. Fraudulent methods

included the use of false pretense and

representations, most notably a succession

of sham “promotions and giveaways.”

Between the proceeds from the sale of the

overpriced specialty items and the “back

end” redemption charged for the overvalued

“premium gifts,” the defendants pocketed

almost $4 million between 1983 and 1987.

The conviction of these defendants resulted

in the closing of the companies and laid the

ground work for a Federal Trade

Commission lawsuit aimed at securing

millions of dollars in damages and

restitution.

The Company

In another case which occurred in

October 1986, the District of Nevada

worked very closely with the Federal

Bureau of Investigation, the Marshals

Service, local law enforcement authorities,

and San Diego law enforcement authorities

in the investigation and prosecution of 20

individuals convicted of numerous

violations of the controlled substances laws

of this country. The principle charges

alleged a continuing criminal enterprise and

conspiracies to violate the drug laws. The

enterprise itself came to be known as “The

Company.” Twelve defendants, each with

their own counsel, faced one Assistant

United States Attorney, three Special

Agents of the FBI, and a representative of

the Nevada Division of Investigation. Four

hundred and eighty-nine days later, the jury

returned a verdict of guilty on 65 of 71

charges. All 12 defendants were convicted

of felony violations of the drug laws.
DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Jeffrey R. Howard, United States Attorney

Franklin Pierce

Fourteenth President Of The United States

“Remarkable for his adroitness, tact and

art in dealing with witnesses and jurors, it

was natural for him to seem everyone’s

friend. He was the master of those little

attentions and that deference of manner

which secured goodwill toward himself and

his clients.” So read contemporary

descriptions of one former United States

Attorney for the District of New Hampshire.

Such attention and deference not only

served well in court, but in the political

realm as well, as the former United States

Attorney from New Hampshire, Franklin

Pierce, later became the fourteenth President

of the United States.

Pierce brought more than fame to this

District, as both his law partner, Josiah

Minot, and later one of his students, John

Hatch George, succeeded him in the Office

of the United States Attorney.

An Original Colony

The District of New Hampshire is proud

of its heritage as one of the thirteen original

districts. The United States District Court

for this district first met in Exeter and

Portsmouth, but was moved to Concord in

1881. A branch court, which met in

Littleton beginning in 1892, was abolished

in the early 1980's. Since that time all

offices have been located in Concord.

Despite an occasional political incident,

the persons serving as United States

Attorneys in New Hampshire exemplified

the highest honor and capabilities. For

instance, in what is most likely a unique

occurrence in the history of United States

Attorneys, the District of New Hampshire

contributed two opposing candidates to a

presidential election. Running against

Franklin Pierce in 1852 was John Parker

Hale, Free Soil Party candidate and former

United States Attorney from the District of

New Hampshire (1834-1841).
Headquarters: Concord

8 Assistant United States Attorneys

First United States Attorney

Dedication to protecting the interests of

the United States is well recorded in New

Hampshire’s historical archives. Early

records describe a trial involving the

smuggling of coffee which was most likely

tried by the first United States Attorney for

this District, Samuel Sherburne, Jr. An

historical document setting forth the history

of the courts in New Hampshire portray

Sherburne as an able advocate who

“sometimes flattered the Court and at other

times bullied it, as the humor moved him.”

Sherburne later received an appointment as

the District Judge, but only after

participating in a deserved, though less than

honorable, impeachment of the sitting

judge. As one contemporary account noted,

Sherburne’s actions in the matter “always

remained in the minds of many a black

cloud upon his character.”

First Hazardous Waste Case

Many important contributions to the

Nation have been made by this District. In

1985, the District Court rendered a decision

in the case of United States, et al v. Ottati

and Goss, Inc., et al. It had been the longest

case ever tried in the district, taking more

than 187 days just to secure testimony. The

case involved the illegal disposal and

resulting cleanup of hazardous waste, and

was the first major hazardous waste case in

the country. Under the prosecution by the

United States Attorney’s office, the

defendants were found jointly liable and

assessed significant damages.
DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

Samuel A. Alito, United States Attorney

The original enactment that formed the

various district courts throughout the nation

called for the convening of court on the first

Tuesday in November 1789. Twice,

however, Judge David Brearly found it

necessary to postpone the convening of the

first District Court of New Jersey. The first

session finally was held on December 22,

1789, at which time Richard Stockton was

commissioned as the first United States

Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Stockton had come from a prominent

family in New Jersey. His father had signed

the Declaration of Independence a little

more than a decade earlier. Stockton spent

most of his time dealing with cases arising

from the maritime trade from nearby ports.

These cases involved the collection of

customs duties on goods brought through

the New Jersey ports from foreign countries.

Stockton left office in 1791 and became

United States Senator for New Jersey in

1796. He also won election to the United

States House of Representatives in 1813.

Other United States Attorneys continued

their service in government after leaving

office. William S. Pennington left the

United States Attorney’s office in 1804 to

become an Associate Justice of the New

Jersey Supreme Court and later, the United

States District Judge for the District of New

Jersey. Pennington became well known for

his courage during the Revolutionary War

when General Knox once spotted him

loading and firing a cannon by himself, a

task usually requiring the work of two or

three people. Pennington had done all of

this during enemy fire. He must have been

no less committed in the field of politics

since he won election as the sixth governor

of New Jersey in 1813.

Frederick Frelinguysen became United

States Attorney in 1801 having already

distinguished himself in government

service. In 1778, he had been a delegate to

the Continental Congress and in 1793 had

been elected to the United States Senate.

Frelinguysen died just three years after

leaving the Office of the United States

Attorney. Strangely, he had predicted the

very day of his death, April 13, 1804.

Joseph McIlvaine took office as the United

States Attorney just one month before

Frelinguysen’s death and became one of

several from the District of New Jersey who

later served in the United States Senate.

McIlvaine’s successor, Lucius Q. C. Elmer

had quite a career both before and after

serving as United States Attorney from 1824

to 1829. Elmer had been a prosecuting

attorney for the State, and a member of the

New Jersey Assembly, becoming Speaker of

the House in 1823. After leaving the

District, Elmer was elected to the United

States Congress in 1824 and later received

appointment as the Attorney General for

New Jersey in 1852. He added to an already

illustrious career by later becoming a Justice

of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Headquarters: Newark

Branch Offices: Trenton, Camden

74 Assistant United States Attorneys

Richard Stockton

A Unique Line Of United States Attorneys

On March 27, 1861, Anthony Q.

Keasbey began one of the longest tenures of

any United States Attorney, serving

continuously for 25 years, until 1886.

David O. Watkins, United States Attorney

from 1900 to 1903, had earlier in his career

been elected mayor of the City of

Woodbury. At the time, he was only 24

years of age. In what may be another first,

Watkins served as governor before

becoming United States Attorney. In 1898,

a set of odd circumstances brought Watkins

to the governorship when both the elected

governor and the President of the New

Jersey Senate resigned while Watkins was

Speaker of the House for the New Jersey

Assembly. By succession, Watkins became

the Acting Governor, two years before

becoming United States Attorney.

The District has witnessed other unique

events involving the Office of the United

States Attorney. The first United States

Attorney Richard Stockton (1789-1791) and

the third, Lucius Horatio Stockton

(1798-1801) were cousins. In recent times,

two brothers have held the

Office--Raymond Del Tufo, Jr. (1954) and

Robert J. Del Tufo (1977-1980).

Notable Cases

Of the notable cases that have occurred

in the District of New Jersey, one of the

more interesting ones came to trial during

the service of John J. Quinn in 1937. At the

time, Ellis H. Parker was the Burlington

County detective chief. He had been

accused of kidnapping Paul H. Wendel, a

prominent Trenton lawyer. Apparently,

Parker had gotten the idea for the

kidnapping from the famous Lindbergh case

a few years earlier.

Such a rich history no doubt contains

some very interesting stories to which the

earliest minutes allude. According to one

history of the federal court in New Jersey,

the court often adjourned in order to meet at

“Henry Drake’s Tavern.”
DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO

William L. Lutz, United States Attorney

While most offices of the United States

Attorneys are created by Act of Congress,

and filled by presidential appointment, the

Office of the United States Attorney for the

District of New Mexico was created by

special order of Stephen W. Kearney,

Brigadier General, U.S. Army, on

September 22, 1846. Kearney and his Army

had wrested Santa Fe from the control of

Mexico and had been authorized by the

President to appoint all officers for the

government of this new territory. Kearney

selected one of the men in his army as the

first United States Attorney-Francis P. Blair,

Jr.

Blair, born in Lexington, Kentucky, had

studied law in St. Louis before moving to

the Rocky Mountain region in 1845 because

of ill health. After moving West, he joined

Kearney’s outfit in its march to Santa Fe.

Blair only served a few months, but directed

the investigation of a very important case

involving the instigators of a short-lived

rebellion against the United States that had

occurred in Taos, New Mexico. The

rebellion had resulted in the murder of

Governor Charles Bent. After his brief

tenure as United States Attorney, Blair

returned to the East where he became part of

another, more famous military march --

Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the sea

during the Civil War. Sherman once

described Blair as “one of the truest patriots,

most honest and honorable men, and one of

our most courageous soldiers this country

ever produced.”

William W. H. Davis also served as

United States Attorney for a very brief time,

but left an important record of his tenure.

Davis kept a diary of his time in office

which was later published as El Gringo or

New Mexico and Her People. Initially

Davis thought the work of the United States

Attorney took little effort. The actual

performance of his duties proved to be more

difficult than he expected, however. He

once described a court date in the city of

Tome which he almost missed saying, “The

court already being in session, I had only

time to dismount and lay off pistols and

spurs, when I was obliged to go thither.”

After only one term, Davis resigned, having

changed his mind about the requirements of

the job.

Rough Riders

Other United States Attorneys from the

district have had distinguished careers in

positions of government service. Stephen

Benton Elkins (1867-1870), was appointed

Secretary of War by President -Harrison and

remained in that position until his election

to the United States Senate in 1894. He was

reelected to that post in 1901 and 1907. W.

H. H. Llewellyn (1905-1907) and David J.

Leahy (1907-1912) shared a common

experience before their eventual

appointment as United States Attorneys.

They both served in Troop G of the First

Volunteer Cavalry during the

Spanish-American War, a group better

known as the Rough Riders. Both took part

in the famed charge up San Juan Hill, in

which Leahy was wounded. Their

commander in that outfit, Theodore

Roosevelt, eventually appointed them as
Headquarters: Albuquerque

27 Assistant United States Attorneys

Major W. H. H. Llewellyn

First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry

United States Attorneys for the District of

New Mexico.

Recent appointees to the Office have

served with equal distinction. Victor

Ortega, who served from 1969 to 1978, was

a charter member of the Attorney General’s

Advisory Committee of the United States

Attorneys formed in 1973. He served as its

Chairman in 1977. His successor, R. E.

Thompson (19781982), also served on the

Advisory Committee and served as its

Chairman in 1981.

The Minutemen

Throughout its history the United States

Attorney’s Office for the District of New

Mexico has taken on various cases of legal

and historical significance. In United States

v. Robert Bolivar DePugh, the United States

Attorney’s Office won a conviction against

the founder and leader of the right-wing,

paramilitary group, “The Minutemen.”

United States Attorney Ortega tried the case

of Morton v. Mancari, a civil case which

resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court

upholding the federal statutes giving

preference to Indians employed by the

Bureau of Indian Affairs. The litigation was

extremely important with respect to the

government’s policy toward the Indian

people. The court’s opinion was the first

major pronouncement recognizing and

affirming the doctrine of Indian selfdetermination.

Lobogate

Another highly publicized case was the

trial involving the country’s first case of

altering the transcript of student athletes. In

the case known as “Lobogate,” United

States Attorney Thompson brought charges

against a coach for mail fraud. The

defendant was acquitted, but the

investigation led to further charges in state

court of fraud against the state in which the

coach was convicted of multiple counts of

travel voucher fraud.

Due to its nature as a border state, New

Mexico also deals with a substantial number

of drug cases. Single case seizures have

netted such cargoes as 23,000 pounds of

marijuana and 2,000 pounds of cocaine. In

one case alone, the United States Attorney’s

Office successfully prosecuted thirty-six

defendants out of forty. Another wellknown drug case involved the prosecution

of Boston Witt, a former gubernatorial

candidate in New Mexico, and twice

Attorney General for the state.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Andrew J. Maloney, United States Attorney

Until 1865, the future Eastern District of

New York was still part of the “mother

court,” as the Southern District is fondly

referred to by New Yorkers. In that year,

Ira Harris, Senator from New York, moved

that the Senate consider a bill “to facilitate

proceedings in the admiralty and other

judicial proceedings in the port of New

York. After some debate, the bill passed by

more than three to one and the Eastern

District of New York was created, having

concurrent jurisdiction with the Southern

District over the waters within the counties

now comprising the City of New York and

Long Island.

Abraham Lincoln appointed Benjamin

D. Sillman as the first United States

Attorney for the District. Sillman had a

staff of two and tried the first case in the

District in June 1865. In that case, Harry

Severance was indicted for trying to use a

counterfeit $50 treasury note. The docket

entries in his case followed a familiar

pattern: the defendant was arraigned and

entered a plea of not guilty; two weeks later

he withdrew it and pleaded guilty. On July

1, he was sentenced to “imprisonment for

two years in the state prison at Sing Sing

and to pay a fine of one dollar.”

Other indictments in the first docket

mention “larceny from the Navy yard,

making counterfeit money, and counterfeit

fractional currency.” A total of 30

indictments was filed that first year. In the

first decade of the court’s history, a total of

282 cases was on the docket, an average of

28 per year. By the turn of the century, the

volume of criminal work in the district had

tripled with the greatest number of cases

stemming from enforcement of the

Prohibition Act.

Spies Come To Long Island

World War II brought spies to Long

Island, with many being captured. Among

those, Russian master spy, Rudolph Abel

was tried in this District in 1957. The Abel

incident was a case in the best novel

tradition, involving the use of hollowed-out

bolts, coins and pencils containing

microfilmed messages in code, other coded

messages, a false birth certificate, and other

incriminating evidence. Abel was

convicted, with the United States Supreme

Court sustaining the conviction upon appeal.

In 1963, Abel was exchanged in Berlin for

American Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot

down and convicted in the Soviet Union for

spying. Abel’s attorney later wrote a best

seller about the case, entitled Rangers On A

Bridge.

Over the years the caseload for the

district has changed. In the 1950's, bank

robberies were in style and caused the

government much concern. Robin Hoods

and plain “hoods” took to the business of

relieving banks of their cash. By the 1960's,

the caseload had grown to an average 500

criminal cases a year with a majority of

those cases involving theft from the mails

and the related crime of forging of

government checks stolen from the mail.

More than seven mullion people live

within the Eastern District representing

more than two-thirds of the population of

New York City. Within the district lie New

York’s two major airports and several

international harbors, including one of the

busiest ports in the United States for import
Headquarters: Brooklyn

Branch Offices: Garden City, Hauppage

97 Assistant United States Attorneys

and export of sea and air cargo. More than

57 percent of all international air cargo

entering the United States passes through

Kennedy Airport. The airport also

accommodates 27 million passengers each

year.

Because of the district’s importance as

an international port of entry, the large drug

operations often use the district as their base

for distribution throughout the northeast and

the rest of the country. At Kennedy Airport

alone, this district oversees the seizure of

approximately 1,000 kilograms of cocaine

each year--enough to provide a dose of

crack for every man, woman, and child in

the city. Dozens of the members and

associates of the Cali and Medellin drug

cartels, responsible for at least 80 percent of

the cocaine imported into this country, have

been arrested, indicted, and convicted in the

district.

Political Corruption And Organized Crime

Political corruption investigations in the

Districts have led to the convictions of

Congressman Mario Biaggi; Meade

Esposito, former head of the Brooklyn

Democratic Party; Richard Rubin, Counsel

to the Speaker of the New York Assembly

and former Executive Secretary to the

Queens Democratic Organization; and Jay

L. Turoff, Chairman of the New York Taxi

and Limousine Commission. In conjunction

with the FBI, one investigation into the

Department of Health resulted in the

conviction of more than one third of the

city’s health inspectors.

For several years, the district has

prosecuted members of the five traditional

La Cosa Nostra families in New York: the

Gambino, Genovese, Colombo, Lucchese,

and Bonanno families. Recently the

families have had their greatest impact in

labor racketeering and infiltration of

legitimate business and institutions. This

District obtained a successful conviction of

Gene Gotti, brother of Gambino crime

family chief, John Gotti, and an associate,

Charles Carneghin. Each received 50 years

in prison.

In 1987 and 1988 the district convicted

large corporations guilty of cheating

consumers. A major victory occurred for

Hertz customers when Hertz agreed to

return more than $13 million to thousands

of customers who were fraudulently billed.

In another publicized case, the Beech-Nut

Nutrition Corporation was convicted for

distribution of adulterated apple juice.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., United States Attorney

Susan B. Anthony (1872)

The Northern District of New York was

created by the Act of April 9, 1814, which

divided the previously existing District of

New York into the Northern and Southern

Districts. The Northern District covered

that part of New York State north of New

York City, running from the

Massachusetts-Vermont border east of

Albany to the Pennsylvania border west of

Buffalo. The first of more than 40 United

States Attorneys to be appointed for the new

Northern District was Roger Skinner, who

served from 1815 to 1819. By Act of May

12, 1900, the Northern District was divided

into the Northern and Western Districts with

the western border being moved to its

present location between Syracuse and

Rochester.

Susan B. Anthony

United States Attorneys in various

districts are occasionally required by their

oath of office to enforce laws which history

and events later repudiate. One such

situation befell Richard Crowley, the United

States Attorney for the Northern District of

New York who served from 1871 to 1879.

In 1871, Crowley brought charges against

Susan B. Anthony which alleged that she

voted illegally in a Congressional election,

“the said Susan B. Anthony being then and

there a person of the female sex.” Crowley

obtained a guilty verdict at trial and the

court imposed a sentence of $100 plus costs.

Ms. Anthony had the last word, however, as

the fine and costs were never paid.

Special “Booze Terms”

The longest tenured United States

Attorney appointed to the Northern District

was Oliver D. Burden who served from

1923 to 1936. During Burden’s term,

enforcement of the 18th Amendment and

the Volstead Act dominated the activities of

the office as bootleggers traversed the

district between Canada and New York

City. The number of bootlegging cases in

the district grew so large that, as the New

York Times reported in 1926, the district

court had begun to hold “special booze

terms’ of a day or so at which those who

had been caught can come and take their

sentence.” Burden’s office obtained

criminal fines in bootlegging cases totaling

more than $1,000,000 in both 1925 and

1926, amounts which, even given sixty

years of inflation, still approximates

present-day fine totals.
Headquarters: Syracuse

Branch Offices: Albany, Binghamton

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

News Clipping, New York Times

August 2, 1935

Dutch Schultz

One Northern District bootlegger who

escaped Burden’s clutches was Arthur

Flegenheimer, better known as Dutch

Schultz. Schultz, who maintained a

residence in the district, was charged with

tax evasion. His first trial, held in Syracuse,

ended in a hung jury. His second trial, held

in Malone near the Canadian border, ended

on August 1, 1935, in an acquittal. The New

York Times headline the next day reported

the verdict as follows: “Schultz Is Freed;

Judge Excoriates Jury Of Farmers . . .

Crowds In And Out Of The Building Cheer

The Outcome And Schultz Smiles.” Schultz

met a less lenient justice three months later,

however, when he was shot to death at a

tavern in Newark, New Jersey.

Mayor Of Syracuse Prosecuted

Few defendants were as fortunate as

Dutch Schultz in avoiding conviction. One

who was not was Lee Alexander, the mayor

of Syracuse from 1970 to 1985, and a past

president of the United States Conference of

Mayors. In 1988, United States Attorney

Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., obtained the

convictions of Alexander and nine

associates on charges of racketeering,

extortion, obstruction of justice; and related

offenses. The case revealed that Alexander

and his co-conspirators had, during

Alexander’s four terms as mayor, illegally

extorted more than $1.5 million from

companies doing business with the City of

Syracuse. His sentence included ten years

imprisonment and forfeitures totaling more

than $1.4 million. The nine co-defendants

received sentences ranging from two to

thirty months. The case stands as the most

important public corruption case ever

prosecuted in the Northern District.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Dennis C. Vacco, United States Attorney

The United States District Court for the

District of New York convened its first

session on November 3, 1789 in the

Exchange Building near the foot of Broad

Street in New York City. This was the first

court organized under the sovereignty of the

United States. In 1814, the state was

divided into the Northern and Southern

Districts and in 1865, in response to the

rapid population growth of New York City,

the Eastern District was created. Thirty-five

years later, the State of New York was

divided into four districts with the addition

of the Western District in 1900.

“Wild Bill” Donovan

Twenty lawyers have served the

Western District of New York since its

creation. One of the most adventurous and

famous members of this distinguished group

was “Wild Bill” Donovan. Appointed as

United States Attorney in 1922, Donovan

successfully challenged and prosecuted the

illegal narcotics and liquor rings in this

district. On August 23-24, 1923, Donovan

directed enforcement officers in raiding “his

own” Saturn Club and Country Club to

enforce prohibition. Donovan left the

United States Attorney’s office to become

Assistant Attorney General of the United

States during the Coolidge Administration.

Donovan established his international

reputation for valor and his nickname “Wild

Bill” during his service in World War I. But

it was in World War II that Donovan served

with particular distinction. His intelligence

gathering exploits during the war became

legend. From Donovan’s work at the Office

of Strategic Services (OSS) evolved the

Central Intelligence Agency. For his

organizational skills and genius, he was

promoted to Brigadier General and then to

Major General. After the war, Donovan

went to Nuremberg as a war-crimes

prosecutor. Serving in various other

government posts such as Ambassador to

Thailand. Donovan was the first man in

American history to receive the Nation’s

four highest medals for distinguished

service: The Congressional Medal of Honor,

Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished

Service Medal, and the National Security

Medal.

John Lord O’Brian

By appointment of Theodore Roosevelt,

John Lord O’Brian became United States

Attorney for the Western District in 1909.

During his tenure, he directed the

government prosecutions of Standard Oil

Company, Coaster Brake Company, and the

Kodak Com-Company. For a number of

years, O’Brian lectured at the University of

Buffalo without salary on subjects such as

insurance law and medical jurisprudence.

He was also an active and important

member of the 1915 New York

Constitutional Convention. O’Brian

returned to federal service in 1917 as

Special Assistant to the Attorney General

for War Work in charge of the War

Emergency Division of the Department of

Justice. In administering the war laws,

O’Brian was responsible for recruiting a

young man for his investigation team named

J. Edgar Hoover. O’Brian served a similar

function during World War II, being chosen

as General Counsel for the various

organizations responsible for production

allocation.

George L. Grobe
Headquarters: Buffalo

Branch Office: Rochester

24 Assistant United States Attorneys

J. Edgar Hoover

George L. Grobe served the Western

District as United States Attorney for 18

years beginning in 1934, and figures

prominently in the history of the Western

District, not because of the many public

offices he has held, but the way in which he

served. His was a notable reputation of

honesty and integrity achieved during the

years of the Great Depression. Grobe was

an influential leader in the Democratic

politics of the New Deal. As United States

Attorney, he created a special grand jury to

investigate widespread criminal activities in

the 17 counties within the District. On

numerous occasions he passed along

evidence to county district attorneys for

local corrective action, discouraging

publicity that he had made the discoveries.

Grobe sincerely enjoyed advising, assisting

and serving the City of Buffalo, the State of

New York, and his country. With Grobe,

principle and honor came first. He

encouraged those interested in politics to

strive diligently to fulfill their goals,

advising them “to go into politics for one

reason only - to be of service, and that’s

all.”

Recent United States Attorneys

Recent United States Attorneys for the

Western District have continued the

tradition of spending their careers in public

service. John O. Henderson, John T. Curtin,

John T. Elfvin, and Richard J. Arcara all

became United States District Judges. Even

more reminiscent of the path traveled by

Donovan, O’Brian and Grobe, Salvatore R.

Martoche continued his career of public

service in Washington, D.C., as the

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

Department responsible for law

enforcement, one of the leading roles in the

Administration’s war against drugs.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Benito Romano, United States Attorney

On November 3, 1789, thirteen weeks

before the first session of the Supreme

Court, the United States District Court of

New York opened its doors. One of its first

orders of business was to record Richard

Harrison’s commission as “Attorney of the

District of New York.” In a personal letter

accompanying the commission, President

Washington wrote to Harrison: “The high

importance of the judicial system in our

national government makes it an

indispensable duty to select such characters

to fill the several offices in it as would

discharge their respective duties in honor to

themselves and advantage to the country.”

(As quoted in The First 100 Years

(1789-1889): United States Attorneys for

the Southern District of New York, from

which this monograph was taken.)

Harrison was the son of a Tory

councillor and a lineal descendant of the

first judge of the colonial Vice Admiralty

Court. He had been admitted to the Bar at

the age of 20, but had his license suspended

for remaining loyal to the crown during the

Revolutionary War. After the war,

however, he “regained the public favor by

his kindness and urbanity, spiced frequently

enough with dashes of sharp wit” and his

loyalty to the principles of federalism.

Furthermore, after the Constitution was

drafted in 1787, Harrison became a leader in

the fight to ratify the Constitution in New

York.

First Federal Criminal Case Tried In New

York

Seven months after he was

commissioned, Harrison prosecuted the first

federal criminal case in a New York federal

court. The indictment charged James

Hopkins and William Brown with

conspiring to destroy the brigantine,

Morning Star, and to murder the captain and

a passenger. Trial began on April 14, 1790,

before Chief Justice John Jay, Justice

Cushing, District Judge Duane, and a jury.

A guilty verdict was returned the same day.

The punishment--six months imprisonment

“without bail or Mainprize” to begin by

standing in the pillory and to conclude with

“thirty-nine stripes upon the naked back” at

the public whipping post. Harrison’s first

civil case in the District Court began on

April 16, 1790, with the application for

forfeiture of certain goods, namely, “Three

boxes of Ironmongery Lines and Brushes,

Four Boxes of Glass Ware, etc.”

Nathan Sanford became United States

Attorney in 1803, and reportedly received

$100,000 annually in fees from the Office.

Sanford was a most accomplished man who

served in the New York State Assembly and

eventually became its Speaker. In 1812 he

was elected to the New York Senate and to

the United States Senate in 1815. He

became the Chancellor of New York in

1823. After his election to the United States

Senate, Sanford urged the expansion of the

Attorney General’s Office in the

Department of Justice, an idea whose time

did not come until 1870.

Landmark Piracy Case

Robert Tillotson was United States

Attorney in 1823 when the trial of Josef

Perez took place for piracy–a case that

became a constitutional landmark. The

crime occurred in August 1822 when pirates

captured the Schooner Bee, held her captain

and crew prisoner for eight days, sold off
Headquarters: New York

150 Assistant United States Attorneys

her cargo, and eventually set her ablaze.

About a year later, Perezwas found and

indicted in New York for leading the pirate

band. At the trial, the jury reported back

that they were divided equally, at which

point the Court discharged them.

Thereafter, the Circuit Court for the

Southern District of New York divided on

the question of whether the government

could retry Perez and referred the question

to the Supreme Court which held that there

was no bar to Perez’s retrial.

The most infamous United States

Attorney to serve the Southern District was

William N. Price who was appointed in

1834. Price manipulated the fee bill system

used at that time to steal $70,000 from

public funds. Some questioned the

intelligence of Charles O’Conner, who

served as United States Attorney from 1853

to 1854. After his resignation from office,

O’Conner represented Jefferson Davis

against charges of treason and succeeded in

having the charges dropped. On the other

hand, United States Attorney Samuel G.

Courtney (1866-1869), prosecuted John H.

Surratt for complicity in the assassination of

President Lincoln.

One of the most accomplished United

States Attorneys for the Southern District

was Elihu Root who served from 1883 to

1885. Root held a number of significant

positions in the United States government

including Secretary of War, Secretary of

State, and United States Senator. He also

was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rudolph Giuliani

Another one of the most accomplished

United States Attorneys for this District is

Rudolph Giuliani, who was commissioned

in---1983. Giuliani became known in the

state and the nation, as well as being

infamous among criminals, for his relentless

effort to curb organized crime. A

newspaper once referred to him as today’s

Elliott Ness. So effective was Giuliani that

one New York policeman was quoted as

saying, “It has to come to an end. Either

he’ll move up in political life or someone

will take him out.” Giuliani previously

served as Associate Attorney General

(1981-1983) and Associate Deputy Attorney

General (1975-1977) for the Department of

Justice, and was an Assistant United States

Attorney for the Southern District in 1970.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

Margaret P. Currin, United States Attorney

First settled in the late 16th Century,

North Carolina became the twelfth State

admitted to the Union on November 12,

1789. North Carolina contains one of the

Nation’s largest rural populations, and is

considered the third largest state east of the

Mississippi River. As one of the 13 original

states, North Carolina became one of the

first districts to be assigned an appointee as

United States Attorney. The first appointee

was John Sitgreaves, commissioned on June

8, 1790.

Sitgreaves had distinguished himself

during the Revolutionary War as a member

of the North Carolina Militia. Following the

war, he served as a delegate to the

Continental Congress in 1784 to 1785. For

the next three years, Sitgreaves was a

member of the North Carolina House of

Commons in which he held the position as

Speaker of the House. On June 8, 1790,

Sitgreaves was commissioned as United

States Attorney for the District of North

Carolina. Following his term as United

States Attorney, he became District Judge

for North Carolina, a post he held until his

death.

James McKay became United States

Attorney for the District in March 1817, and

is remembered for his leadership not only in

the District but on the state and national

levels as well. Prior to and following his

term as United States Attorney, McKay won

election as State Senator. But, in 1826 he

was elected to the United States House of

Representatives and began his tenure of

seven consecutive terms. In the Congress

he became the leader of the Democratic

Party of the House, and Chairman of the

House Ways and Means Committee.

Another former United States Attorney

for the Eastern District of North Carolina

who gained prominence in national politics

was William H. Haywood, who served the

district from 1840 to 1843. Before his

appointment, Haywood had been elected to

the North Carolina House of Commons and

served as its Speaker in 1836. After

resigning as United States Attorney, he won

election to the United States Senate in 1842.

Twentieth Century Leaders

Just before the turn of the century, one

of the most influential people from the State

of North Carolina was appointed to the

Eastern District. Charles B. Aycock became

United States Attorney in September 1893.

Earlier he had gained recognition as one of

the most eloquent campaign speakers in the

region by aiding others in their quest for

political office. In 1899, he used his talents

on his own behalf, winning election as

governor of the State of North Carolina.

His majority was the largest ever enjoyed by

any candidate running for the office of

governor. As governor, and later as a

private citizen, Aycock became known

nationally for his relentless efforts to better

the condition of public education. He was

instrumental in the development of public

education in the South.

Another United States Attorney for the

District, James O. Carr, was a friend to the

cause of education: Appointed in 1916 by

Wilson and 1934 by Roosevelt, Carr

previously had served in the state General

Assembly. Between his two terms as

United States Attorney, he went to Europe

to secure United States war claims against

Germany after World War I.
Headquarters: Ralieh

17 Assistant United States Attorneys

Husband And Wife

One interesting note about those who

have served the Eastern District involves

two United States Attorneys appointed in

1981 and 1988. They are husband and wife,

Sam T. Currin and Margaret Currin.

Fatal Vision

An important case tried in the Eastern

District which received national attention

was United States v. Jeffrey R MacDonald.

In 1970, Jeffrey MacDonald, a

Princeton-educated physician and Green

Beret officer, was stationed and living at

Fort Bragg, with his pregnant wife and two

small daughters. Under seemingly bizarre

circumstances, his wife and daughters were

murdered in their home with MacDonald

present. Professing his innocence and

following a lengthy Article 32 hearing at

Fort Bragg, MacDonald was cleared of any

wrongdoing by military authorities. He then

relocated to Southern California where he

specialized in emergency medicine and

established a new life style.

In 1974, the United States Attorney’s

Office for the Eastern District of North

Carolina reopened the murder investigation

at the insistence of MacDonald’s

father-in-law, who had been one of his most

faithful supporters during the initial inquiry.

An extended federal grand jury

investigation resulted in the indictment of

MacDonald for the murder of his wife and

two daughters. MacDonald twice appealed

to the Supreme Court seeking dismissal of

the indictment but was unsuccessful.

In 1979, approximately, nine and a half

years after the murders were committed,

Jeffrey R. MacDonald was tried and

convicted. Following his conviction,

MacDonald exhausted all possible avenues

of appeal and began serving three life

sentences in the federal prison system.

The MacDonald case received

nationwide media attention throughout its

many stages and was the subject of the best

seller and movie, Fatal Vision.
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

Robert H. Edmunds, United States Attorney

The Middle District of North Carolina

was established in 1927. Consisting of 24

counties, its headquarters is located in

Greensboro, with branch offices in Durham

and Winston-Salem.

Frank Linney was appointed as the first

United States Attorney for the Middle

District in 1927, and thus began a long list

of distinguished and accomplished people

who have served this District. Edwin M.

Stanley, who served from 1954 to 1957, and

N. Carlton Tilley, Jr., who served from 1974

to 1977, later became United States District

Judges. Carlyle W. Higgins, who served

from 1934 to 1947, received appointment as

Associate Justice of the North Carolina

Supreme Court. Several Assistant United

States Attorneys from the Middle District

later served in similar positions of

importance. Henry Frye became an

Associate Justice of the North Carolina

Supreme Court. Howard Coble was elected

as a United States Representative for the

Sixth Congressional District. Russell A.

Eliason was appointed as a United States

Magistrate. The first female Assistant

United States Attorney for the Middle

District was Edith Hayworth, who served

from 1928 until 1961.

When the United States Attorney’s

Office for the Middle District was first

constituted in 1927, it consisted of one

United States Attorney, three Assistant

United States Attorneys and three support

staff. Today, in addition to the United

States Attorney, this office has 10 Assistant

United States Attorneys and 14 support

staff.

An interesting event occurred in this

District in July 1988, when fire struck the

United States Courthouse in Greensboro

destroying the chambers of United States

District Judge Eugene Gordon. The rest of

the building, including the Office of the

United States Attorney suffered severe

smoke damage. Other recent events have

been more pleasant. In 1989, Assistant

United States Attorney David Smith was

appointed the first Organized Crime Drug

Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)

attorney for the district. In April 1989, the

Middle District commemorated National

Victims Week by hosting a Law

Enforcement Run for Victims, an idea

conceived by the District’s Victim-Witness

Coordinator.

Breeze Cons Secret Service

Like other regions of the country, the

Middle District of North Carolina has

experienced its share of unusual cases. For

example, in United States v. Ensbrook

Breeze, the defendant was charged with

stealing government funds and with illegally

making $20 bills. Breeze was involved in a

scam where he assured undercover agents of

the United States Secret Service that he

could make $20 bills out of $1 bills. As part

of the investigation, agents provided him

with a quantity of money for conversion to

the higher denomination. Breeze took the

money and ran. When apprehended, he

defended himself by informing the jury that

he was an experienced con man. He

claimed that his experience was so good that

the Secret Service needed his expertise and

had offered him a $60,000 per year job if he

could fool other Secret Service agents.

Breeze claimed, therefore, only to be

auditioning for the job. The jury was
Headquarters: Greensboro

10 Assistant United States Attorneys

U.S. Courthouse Fire in Greensboro

unimpressed and returned a verdict of

guilty. Prior to trial, Judge Ward had

advised the jury in his preliminary

instructions that actual trials are not like the

unusual drama they might see on television.

After the defendant gave his bizarre

testimony and the verdict was returned,

Judge Ward apologized to the jury and

retracted his earlier statement.

Skyjacker Charged

In another unusual case, a skyjacker was

charged in the Middle District because he

had seized control of an aircraft while flying

over North Carolina. Refusing court

appointed counsel, the defendant raised only

the defense of venue, claiming that the air

molecules at 37,000 feet had no connection

with the earth below, and thus he could not

be convicted. The jury disagreed.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

Thomas J. Ashcraft, United States Attorney

The State of North Carolina comprised

one of the original thirteen districts created

in 1789. It remained a single district until

1872, when the state was divided into the

Eastern and Western Districts. One of the

First United States Attorneys to serve the

Western District was James E. Boyd. Boyd

was elected to the North Carolina

Legislature in 1874 and served as a delegate

to the North Carolina Constitutional

Convention in 1875. He was appointed

United States Attorney for the Western

District in 1880 and later became an

Assistant Attorney General for the United

States. In 1900, Boyd received appointment

as United States District Judge for the

Western District of North Carolina.

Robert B. Glenn became United States

Attorney in 1893. He had the reputation of

being particularly gifted in his dealings with

both juries and witnesses. Throughout his

practice as a lawyer, he is reported to have

lost only one case in defense of a murder

charge. Glenn spent much of his life in

service to the state and national government.

He served in the State Legislature in 1880

and as a State Solicitor or prosecuting

attorney in 1886 before becoming United

States Attorney in 1893. Glenn was elected

to the North Carolina Senate in 1899 and in

1904 became the State’s 50th Governor.

Glenn became known for his ardent stand in

favor of prohibition to the point of

becoming known as the “Prohibition

Governor.”

Several years later, William C. Hammer

followed Glenn in the Office of the United

States Attorney. Hammer was the owner,

publisher, and editor of the Asheboro

Courier when appointed to the Western

District by President Woodrow Wilson in

1914. After leaving the Office of United

States Attorney, Hammer served for the

remainder of his life in the United States

House of Representatives where he became

known for his support of education. Charles

A. Jonas, United States Attorney for the

District from 1931 to 1932, also served in

the United States House of Representatives,

as well as various state posts, such as

senator and representative. David E.

Henderson was commissioned United States

Attorney in 1945 and served the Western

District until 1948 when he was appointed

as United States District Judge.

Voter Fraud

Those appointed to the United States

Attorney’s Office have been responsible for

the prosecution of several significant cases

in the Western District. For many years,

election fraud primarily committed through

vote-buying practices had been a regular

part of rural western North Carolina politics.

Shortly after the 1982 general election, the

United States Attorney’s Office, acting on

citizen complaints, requested the FBI to

investigate allegations of voter fraud. The

results were described as the largest FBI

investigation in North Carolina. More than

100 defendants were indicted and charged

with various violations of the election laws

of the United States. From 1983 to 1985,

successful prosecutions brought to justice

various high ranking political figures,

including four sheriffs, six deputy sheriffs,
Headquarters: Charlotte

Branch Office: Ashville

17 Assistant United States Attorneys

one state magistrate, one register of deeds,

one clerk of the court, one deputy clerk of

the court, and one policeman.

American Nazi Party

One of the most publicized cases to

come out of the Western District involved

the American Nazi Party. In the fall of

1980, the United States Attorney’s Office

received authorization to monitor telephone

conversations of six members of the

American Nazi Party who were sympathetic

with the defendants in the Greensboro cases

which involved Klan murders. The

evidence revealed six planned terrorist

attacks against Greensboro in retaliation for

an anticipated conviction of their associates.

The attacks were never carried out as the

Greensboro defendants were acquitted, but

all six of the American Nazi Party members

were convicted on conspiracy charges.

Poaching Of Black Bears

In 1989, 28 defendants were convicted

and sentenced in cases involving the

poaching of black bears. A record $132,875

in fines was ordered, representing the

largest amounts ever in the nation for such

an investigation. During the three-year

undercover investigation, state and federal

wildlife officers targeted the black market

trade in bear parts threatening the bear

population in the Great Smoky Mountains

National Park. The probe revealed a

flourishing market with a large number of

bears killed during the closed season or in

the national park.

Dangerous Special Offender

A notorious case ended in 1984 when

James Mitchell Debardeleben was convicted

of four counts of passing counterfeit $20

bills, exposing him to a maximum of 60

years incarceration. The United States

Attorney’s Office petitioned to have the

defendant declared a Dangerous Special

Offender. At the hearing, the United States

Attorney’s Office showed that

Debardeleben had been responsible for

circulating in excess of $360,000 in

counterfeit bills. In addition, he had been

linked to other crimes such as extortion,

fraud, numerous rapes, kidnappings, and

murders. At the conclusion of the hearings,

Debardeleben was designated a Dangerous

Special Offender and sentenced to the

maximum 100 years imprisonment.
DISTRICT OF NORTH DAKOTA

H. Gary Annear, United States Attorney

An interesting event occurred in history

during the admission of North and South

Dakota into the Union. The territory had

been divided into North and South Dakota

in February of 1889, with both territories

being admitted as states in November of that

year. Upon signing the Acts of Statehood,

President Harrison placed his signature on

the two documents which had been covered

completely except for the place of signature.

To this day, no one knows which of the two

Dakotas was admitted to the Union first.

Beginning with John F. Selby, a total of

18 people have served as United States

Attorney for this District. The official

duties must have been difficult, for in the

first year alone, three different United States

Attorneys were appointed. Succeeding

Selby were Edgar W. Camp and Tracy R.

Bangs.

P. W. Lanier, who was appointed in

1933, had the longest tenure of any United

States Attorney at the time, serving for 21

years. Lanier brought indictments against

several defendants, including William

Langer, Governor of North Dakota, and

Frank A. Vogel, State Highway

Commissioner. Charged with extortion, the

defendants were found guilty. Governor

Unger received 18 months in the

penitentiary and a $10,000 fine, while Vogel

and others received a sentence of 13 months

and a $3,000 fine.

The Wild West

Occasionally, the heritage of the wild

west still surfaces in some of the district’s

cases. On February 13, 1983, while

attempting to arrest a well-known tax

protester on a misdemeanor violation out of

Texas, a United States Marshal and Deputy

Marshal were killed. One other Deputy

Marshal and two local authorities were

seriously wounded. Although the defendant

escaped, his wife, son and three friends

were brought to trial. The trial resulted in

two convictions of murder, one charge of

obstruction of justice, one conspiracy charge

and one acquittal. The original defendant

was later found in Arkansas where a

shootout occurred leaving him and one

sheriff dead.

A strange incident took place on June

26, 1975, which resulted in the deaths of

two FBI agents. The agents had gone to the

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South

Dakota to serve arrest warrants on several

young Indians, particularly Jimmy Eagle.

The agents went to the location where they

thought Eagle was hiding, but found instead

a violent criminal named Leonard Peltier.

Peltier mistakenly believed the two agents

had come to arrest him and began shooting

at the officers. The agents were trapped in

a small river valley with no escape possible.

Both eventually were wounded by

long-range rifle fire, and finally slain in an

execution-type close range shooting. Peltier

was believed to have participated in both

shootings. Although Peltier escaped to

Canada, two co-defendants were brought to

trial on murder charges in Iowa. Both were

acquitted, however, because of missing

witnesses. When Peltier was returned from

Canada, a change of venue occurred from

South Dakota to North Dakota. He was

tried and convicted of two counts of first

degree murder and sentenced to two

consecutive life sentences.

State Attorney General Is Indicted
Wyoming Territory that was once part of Dakota Territory, 1867

In 1952, a federal grand jury returned an

indictment against Elmo T. Christianson, a

31-year-old State Attorney General, for

conspiracy to violate federal gambling laws,

along with the president of the company that

distributed the gambling devices, and the

company’s attorney. The trial resulted in

the Attorney General being convicted of the

conspiracy charge.

Two very prominent United States

Attorneys served the unified District of
Headquarters: Cleveland

Branch Offices: Toledo, Akron

48 Assistant United States Attorneys

Ohio during its early history. William

Creighton who was appointed in 1804, later

served as the first Secretary of State for

Ohio, and Noah Swayne who was appointed

in 1830 became a United States Supreme

Court Justice.

When the State of Ohio was divided into

two districts in 1855 and the Northern

District created, R. P. Ranney was

commissioned as the first United States

Attorney. Ranney had been a delegate to

Ohio’s Constitutional Convention in 1850

and the next year was elected to the Ohio

Supreme Court. His abilities gained him the

appointment as Chief Justice in 1855.

Ranney also served as the first President of

the Ohio State Bar.

Another United States Attorney, John J.

Sullivan, who served as United States

Attorney under President McKinley in 1898,

gained instant popularity with the people of

Ohio. As a former school teacher and

newspaper editor he had been elected to the

Ohio State Senate. Sullivan is remembered

for his prosecution of Mrs. Cassie

Chadwick. During the early 1900's, Mrs.

Chadwick traveled around northern Ohio

convincing businessmen and bankers that

she was the daughter of multimillionaire

Andrew Carnegie. She was so convincing

that she succeeded in defrauding millions of

dollars from her victims. Unfortunately for

Mrs. Chadwick, Sullivan began an

investigation which led to her prosecution

and conviction. Sullivan also was

responsible for directing the government’s

antitrust actions against Standard Oil which

resulted in a much talked about fine of $29

million, an unheard of amount in those days.

In 1941, Francis B. Kavanagh was

appointed to serve as the United States

Attorney for the Northern District.

Kavanagh had served previously as the

Special Assistant to the United States

Attorney General in 1918 and had been

placed in charge of the war prosecution in

Northern Ohio. In that position, he directed

the prosecution of those charged with

espionage and black marketing. His most

noted defendant was Eugene V. Debs, the

perennial Socialist presidential candidate,

who had attacked vehemently the United

States for its participation in World War I.

The government had charged Debs with

violating the sedition provisions of the

Espionage Act of 1917. Special Assistant

Kavanagh secured Deb’s conviction.

During his term as United States Attorney,

Kavanagh became known for his

prosecution of those suspected of tax

evasion.

Public Corruption And Tax Fraud

As a tough prosecutor of tax evaders,

Kavanagh would have appreciated recent

investigations by the United States

Attorney’s Office into matters of public

corruption and tax fraud. In 1985, a

municipal court judge resigned following

her conviction on charges of willfully

evading estate taxes. The United States

Attorney’s Office proved that Judge Elaine

R. Crane had attempted to evade

approximately $260,000 in taxes on her

father’s $6 million estate. Crane once had

served as an Assistant to United States

Attorneys General Elliott Richardson and

Richard Kleindienst.
Headquarters: Cleveland

Branch Offices: Toledo, Akron

48 Assistant United States Attorneys

In 1988, TRW, one of the nation’s

largest defense contractors, pleaded guilty to

conspiracy to defraud the government and

agreed to pay criminal fines and penalties of

$3 million. In the scheme,

management-level employees had altered,

backdated, and destroyed documents to

support inflated labor costs, thus cheating

the taxpayer on the cost of components used

in tanks and military jet engines. Besides

the corporation, five individual management

employees were convicted.

Under the leadership of former United

States Attorney Patrick M. McLaughlin, the

Northern District of Ohio distinguished

itself in several key areas of law

enforcement. For example, the Northern

District led the country in the number of

child pornography convictions. Among the

convictions obtained were the first child

pornography case in the country tried by a

jury, and the first case to uphold the

constitutionality of the Child Protection Act.

Drugs And Civil Litigation

This district has been aggressive and

creative in promoting and enhancing law

enforcement’s attack on significant drug

trafficking organizations and dealers. More

significant drug traffickers have been

prosecuted in the last four years than any

time in history. Through the district’s

efforts, law enforcement at all levels is

working more closely in pursuing these

violent drug trafficking organizations.

Through multi-agency operational task

forces, like the Caribbean Task Force, the

Northern District has forged alliances of

multiple law enforcement agencies and

prosecutors into elite, hard-hitting teams

bent on dismantling these violent drug

gangs. Through creations like the Northern

Ohio Drug Abuse Awareness and

Prevention Task Force, the district has

worked in concert with other concerned

community leaders and parents to help

reduce the demand for drugs, particularly

among our youth.

In key areas of environmental litigation

and defense procurement fraud, the

Northern District has made significant

contributions recognized nationally. In the

last fiscal year the district brought in a

record $13.8 million as a result of its active

pursuit of affirmative civil litigation,

criminal fines and penalties, and debt

collections.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

D. Michael Crites, United States Attorney

On March 1, 1802, Ohio became the

first state formed from the great Northwest

Territory. On that date, the state whose

Indian name means “great river” became the

17th State to join the Union. Even before

Ohio’s statehood, the United States

Attorney’s Office was at work protecting

the interests of the federal government and

the people. William McMeillan was

appointed to serve as United States Attorney

during those territorial days.

One Of “Ohio’s Fathers”

The first United States Attorney for the

District of Ohio after statehood was Michael

Baldwin, who took office on March 3, 1803.

Baldwin had been elected to the Ohio

General Assembly two days earlier, and

later stood for election to the United States

House of Representatives but was not

elected. He had worked very hard for

statehood and became known as one of 35

“Ohio Fathers.” Baldwin’s career suffered

due to alcoholism in later years. His

intemperance led to the appointment of a

successor in 1804, whereupon Baldwin

became United States Marshal for the

District. He passed away in 1806, bringing

an end to a career which in 1803 seemed to

have great promise.

Principle Of Judicial Review

Baldwin’s successor, William

Creighton, appointed December 2, 1804,

served another post during his tenure as

United States Attorney–he was Ohio’s

Secretary of State. Furthermore, he served

as the clerk of the subcommittee appointed

by the Ohio General Assembly to write

Ohio’s Criminal Code and is considered to

be one of its major authors.

Aaron Burr

Early in his service, Creighton had to

deal with Aaron Burr’s alleged treason.

Burr had assembled a force of six dozen

men on Blennerhassett Island on the Ohio

River. With this band of men, he planned to

establish a colony in Texas and from there

conquer Mexico. He would then combine

Texas and Mexico and establish a new

government. President Jefferson considered

this to be an unlawful military expedition.

Consequently, Burr was indicted in a

number of districts, including Ohio. When

he was acquitted in his first trial in Virginia,

Ohio subsequently dropped its charges.

Creighton’s distinguished legal career also

included defending two state judges who

had been impeached for decisions

confirming the controversial notion of

judicial review in the Ohio courts. His

success in these cases resulted in the

affirmation of the principle of judicial

review in the state courts.

John C. Wright received appointment as

United States Attorney on February 5, 1818.

In 1833 he helped to establish a private law

school in Cincinnati. By 1850, this venture

evolved into the Law Department of

Cincinnati College, the first law school in

Ohio.

Noah Haynes Swane became United

States Attorney in 1830 and served as one of

three commissioners appointed by President

Andrew Jackson to settle the boundary

dispute between Ohio and Michigan,

sometimes known as the Toledo War. The

dispute was settled formally when Michigan
Headquarters: Columbus

Branch Offices: Cincinnati, Dayton

32 Assistant United States Attorneys

entered the Union and was given the 9,000

square miles comprising the Upper

Peninsula while the disputed 400 square

miles were deeded to Ohio. Swayne was the

first of two former United States Attorneys

from Ohio appointed to the United States

Supreme Court.

Southern District Established

Hugh T. Jewett was the first person

appointed United States Attorney for the

Southern District when Ohio was divided

into two judicial districts in 1855. Stanley

Matthews, who became the United States

Attorney in 1858, had studied in the law

offices of Salmon P. Chase in Cincinnati.

Matthews eventually followed Chase as a

Justice of the United States Supreme Court

in 1881. Interestingly, Matthews was

appointed to the Court to replace a former

United States Attorney from Ohio, Noah

Swayne. Matthews and other United States

Attorneys from the Southern District had

distinguished themselves through their

military service. Matthews was a

Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard

and later served as Provost Marshal of

Nashville during the Civil War. Benson

Hugh, appointed in 1923, began his military

career as a private in the Ohio National

Guard in 1892. He eventually rose to the

rank of Brigadier General and Adjutant

General of the State of Ohio. During World

War I, he served in the 166th Infantry,

which was part of the famous 42nd Division

known as the Rainbow Division.

Little is known about the professional

career of one former United States Attorney

for the Southern District. His name was

Flamen Ball, Jr., and he became recognized

for a personal achievement. Ball was the

holder of Patent No. 277,536 issued by the

United States Patent Office on May 15,

1883. The patent covered his design of an

electric headlight for locomotives. Ball had

received the patent just three years after

Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

Roger Hilfiger, United States Attorney

Outlaws, bank robbers, highwaymen,

horse and cattle thieves, rapists, and petty

robbers flooded Indian territory to escape

the law in previously established states.

These and other criminals roamed with

relative freedom throughout Oklahoma as

the Indian Light Horse and Indian Police

held jurisdiction over Indians only,

excluding the white and black citizens.

Eventually, the United States Attorneys and

federal judges brought justice to the land

that became known as the Eastern District

of Oklahoma. On November 16, 1907,

Oklahoma became a state, after a bitter fight

to establish the State of Sequoyah and the

State of Oklahoma. The first United States

Attorney was William J. Gregg who was

appointed on January 13, 1908.

Early in the history of the District, fraud

involving Indian lands became widespread.

Oil had been discovered and illegal schemes

to acquire Indian land multiplied. Bank

robberies also began to flourish. Banks in

small towns were particularly vulnerable

since the robbers could get out of town and

escape into the hills before being arrested.

Stagecoaches were often waylaid and the

mail confiscated along with cash, jewels,

and money from the passengers. Among the

outlaws that roamed the Eastern District

were Belle Starr, a former spy for the

Confederate Army, Cherokee Bill, the

Younger Brothers, the Buck gang, and the

Cook gang. Of particular note was the

Dalton gang, which was comprised of

former Deputy United States Marshals.

Attorney Turned Train Robber

The one criminal who kept the United

States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern

District of Oklahoma busy was Al Jennings,

a former attorney turned train robber and

outlaw. Jennings was arrested, convicted,

and eventually pardoned by President

Theodore Roosevelt. He later ran for

governor for the State of Oklahoma in 1914.

Another outlaw who challenged the

authority of the United States Attorney’s

Office and eventually lost was Pretty Boy

Floyd. He especially liked to rob banks in

Eastern Oklahoma.

W. P. McGinnis served as United States

Attorney in 1917. During his tenure he

brought four men to trial charged with

conspiracy to dynamite the home of federal

district judge R. E. Campbell. Cleon

Summers, the first United States Attorney to

obtain a conviction under the Lindbergh

Kidnap Law, served the Eastern District for

17 years beginning in 1934.

Moonshine To Methamphetamine

The Eastern District of Oklahoma has

experienced an evolution in types of cases

prosecuted during its history. The first

cases focused on fraud involved with Indian

lands, but soon bank robbery became a

frequent occurrence on the district docket.

By the 1930s and 1940s moonshining

became the most extensively prosecuted

type of case in the district. In the 1960s, the

Eastern District tried Gene Stipe, an

Oklahoma State Senator, on charges of tax

evasion.
Headquarters: Muskogee

7 Assistant United States Attorneys

With the acute drop in oil prices in

recent years, the Eastern District has seen a

dramatic increase in the number of

prosecutions related to the economy,

including bankruptcy and mortgage

foreclosure cases. One of the most

publicized cases in recent years was the trial

of Dan Draper, then Speaker of the House of

the State of Oklahoma: The United States

Attorney’s Office prosecuted Draper on

charges of-voting fraud.

Moonshine cases have evolved into

cases dealing with methamphetamine and

marijuana, but the United States Attorney’s

Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma

remains just as committed and determined

as it was in earlier days to bring to justice

those who would escape the law.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

Tony M. Graham, United States Attorney

The Northern District of Oklahoma is a

relatively young District, formed from its

eastern counterpart by Act of Congress on

February 6, 1925. In March of that year,

John M. Goldesberry was commissioned as

the first United States Attorney. To this

day, the story is told about an incident

involving him which occurred in the

courtroom of Judge Kennemer. With his

hands in his pockets, Goldesberry

continuously jingled coins to the distraction

of the court. The judge stopped the

prosecutor and asked him what kind and

how much money he had in his pocket.

“Six silver dollars, Your Honor,” he replied,

“Whys do you ask?” The judge then

ordered Goldesberry to pay an immediate

fine of five silver dollars, leaving

Goldesberry with only one coin he was

unable to jingle.

Oklahoma’s Indian heritage, its early

history as a “dry” state, oil-based economy,

structure of local government, and its

geographic location have greatly influenced

the nature of cases undertaken by the

Northern District. In the late 1950's,

Oklahoma was still a dry state necessitating

the involvement of the district in many

cases involving the illegal sale, distribution,

and manufacture of beer and liquor. At one

point, the Tulsa police commissioner, the

police chief, several vice detectives, and a

well-known newspaper reporter were

charged in federal court with involvement in

a conspiracy to import liquor. In his

opening statement, United States Attorney

B. Hayden Crawford compared the

conspiracy to the play, A Streetcar Named

Desire. He then pointed to one of the

defendants, declaring “and that is the

conductor.”

As an important center for the

production of oil, Oklahoma has

experienced many energy-related fraud and

embezzlement crimes. For example, the

United States Attorney has prosecuted those

connected with the Homestake Production

Company, whose fraudulent scheme was

extensive, involving investors from all over

the country, including such celebrities as

Barbra Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, and

Andy Williams.

Nation’s Largest Public Corruption Scandal

During the early 1980's, Oklahoma’s

county commissioner form of government

fell victim to the nation’s largest public

corruption scandal. The United States

Attorney who prosecuted many of these

cases was Francis Keating II. Out of the

state’s 77 counties, very few counties

remained untouched. After the trials,

several hundred commissioners and

equipment suppliers across the state had

been found guilty of bribery and

kickback-related scandals. Keating,

following his term as United States

Attorney, went on to become an official in

Washington, D.C., with appointments to the

Department of Treasury as Assistant

Secretary for Enforcement, the Justice

Department as Associate Attorney General,

and the Department of Housing and Urban

Development as General Counsel.

In the mid 1980's, United States

Attorney Layn R. Phillips found that

Oklahoma was being used as a major

transshipment point for international

narcotics traffickers. Philips, in conjunction

with the Organized Crime Drug

Enforcement Task Force, compiled an
Headquarters: Tulsa

13 Assistant United States Attorneys

impressive record of continuing criminal

enterprise convictions–some of which

involved international cartel figures.

Additionally, eastern Oklahoma’s rural

topography and low standard of living have

fostered the manufacture of

methamphetamine. Meth labs which infest

the remote rural regions of the state provide

hundreds of pounds of “crank” to the state

and national market annually, with huge

profits going to those manufacturing the

drug.

Bank Fraud And Bankruptcy Embezzlement

The recent downturn in the oil industry

has affected other areas such as banking and

savings. An increase has occurred in loan

fraud and bankruptcy embezzlements. In

1989, United States Attorney Tony M.

Graham prosecuted a former president of a

national association of bankruptcy trustees

for embezzlement of a bankrupt Tulsa oil

exploration company. The defendant was

convicted of conspiracy, embezzlement, and

filing false reports with the court and

sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.

Moreover, many of the state’s financial

institutions have been closed or taken over

by the federal government. It is yet to be

determined how much these failures can be

attributed to criminal activity by

unscrupulous management. The United

States Attorney’s Office in the Northern

District of Oklahoma has firmly established

itself as capable of performing the complex

task of litigation in these matters by the

successful prosecution of several lengthy

and involved bankruptcy, embezzlement,

and bank fraud cases. Tony Graham, the

present United States Attorney, formed a

Financial Institution Fraud Working Group

to deal with the criminal problems in the

banking and savings and loan areas.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

Robert E. Mydans, United States Attorney

The region now constituting Oklahoma,

with the exception of the panhandle, was

originally a portion of the Louisiana

Purchase of 1803. The Kansas-Nebraska

Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas

and Nebraska. The area of Indian Country,

or Indian Territory as it was later known,

was reduced to the present State of

Oklahoma, exclusive of the panhandle

region.

All cases in Indian Territory in which

white people were involved and those in

which Indians were charged with federal

law violations had to go to federal court for

trial under the provisions of an Act of

Congress approved June 17, 1844. Until

1883, the United States Court of the

Western District of Arkansas had

jurisdiction in all federal cases from Indian

Territory with the court being held in Fort

Smith, Arkansas.

United States Court Off The Indian

Territory

In 1883, Congress approved an act

which placed all of the Indian Territory

north of the Canadian River into the judicial

district of Northern Texas. The area owned

and occupied by the five Civilized Tribes

(Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw,

and Seminole) was left under the

jurisdiction of the Western District of

Arkansas. On March 1, 1889, only a few

days before the passage of the Act which

opened the “unassigned district” of

“Oklahoma Country” to homestead

settlement, Congress created a United States

Court of the Indian Territory at Muskogee.

Zachary T. Walrond was appointed by

President Benjamin Harrison to serve as the

United States Attorney for this District.

The Oklahoma Organic Act approved by

Congress on May 2, 1890, provided for

three judicial districts in the Indian Territory

and required that the court meet in all Indian

nations. The Act further organized the area

not included in the Indian nations as the

Territory of Oklahoma and created the

Oklahoma Territorial Supreme Court. The

first grand jury that sat in territorial court in

1891 brought 75 indictments for perjury.

Horace Speed of Guthrie, the United States

Attorney for Oklahoma, handled the

prosecution. These indictments were

brought as a result of the opening of the

unassigned lands on April 22, 1889. Many

people had gone into the unassigned lands

prior to the official opening and staked

claims on the better parcels. These people

received the name of “sooners.” When time

came for them to register these claims, they

would swear and have witnesses to swear

that their claims were legitimate. This

practice was fairly widespread, but

eventually was stamped out as numerous

people were tried, convicted and sent to the

Leavenworth penitentiary.

Western District Established

On March 1, 1895, Congress

reorganized the Territorial Federal Court by

adding two judges and including the

different Indian tribes in the three judicial

districts. The jurisdiction of the federal

District Courts of Arkansas, Kansas, and

Texas was ended and the federal District

Courts of the Indian Territory were given

exclusive jurisdiction. In 1897, Congress

created an additional judicial district and
Headquarters: Oklahoma City

36 Assistant United States Attorneys

designated it as the Western District of

Oklahoma.

In 1906, Congress passed the Oklahoma

Enabling Act which allowed the people of

Oklahoma and Indian Territory to form a

constitution and state government and be

admitted into the Union. Upon admission in

1907, the Indian Territory and Oklahoma

Territory were combined to form the State

of Oklahoma. The enabling legislation had

provided that upon admission to the Union,

Oklahoma would have two federal judicial

districts. All judicial districts and courts in

Indian Territory were abolished, and the

area they had covered became the Eastern

District of Oklahoma with Muskogee

established as its headquarters. What had

been Oklahoma Territory became the

Western District of Oklahoma centered in

Guthrie and later moved to Oklahoma City

in 1928.

Frontier Days To Today

From Oklahoma’s frontier days to the

present time, the United States Attorney’s

Office has played a vital role in maintaining

law and order. In Oklahoma’s earlier days,

the United States Attorney prosecuted such

notorious outlaw gangs as the Doolins, the

Daltons, and the Wild Bunch. Other

prosecutions were not as well known, but

just as important to the survival of justice

within the state. In 1898, the United States

Attorney from Guthrie, Caleb R. Brooks,

prosecuted what was known as the Mont

Ballard case. This case involved the

identification and prosecution of a mob who

burned at the stake two Indian boys accused

of raping and murdering a white woman.

All involved in the incident eventually were

prosecuted. The case was most significant

in signaling an end to the vigilante mentality

of the time.

Another significant case prosecuted by

the United States Attorney for the Western

District was the Urschel kidnapping case.

In 1933, the United States Attorney Herbert

K. Hyde prosecuted and convicted George

“Machine Gun” Kelly for kidnapping

Oklahoma City oil man, Charles F. Urschel.

This was the first federal case tried under

the Lindbergh law passed in 1932.

In the early 1980's United States

Attorney William Price prosecuted one of

the largest public corruption cases in the

nation’s history. Before it was concluded,

public officials and material suppliers from

almost every county in the entire state had

been charged and convicted of assorted

felony offenses.
DISTRICT OF OREGON

Charles H. Turner, United States Attorney

Eramus D. Shuttuck

The District of Oregon encompasses a

region which rests at the end of what was

once a long and rigorous pioneer trail. On

August 14, 1848, President James K. Polk

signed the bill making Oregon a territory.

Thus began a political struggle which

spanned ten years. A battle occurred

concerning the location of the capital, with

Oregon City winning over Salem in 1850.

Salem was designated the capital at a later

date. Other struggles involved what was

termed foreign appointees, those who lived

outside the territory, and home rule

appointees. These problems led to a

demand for statehood which was rejected

three times. Not until 1859 was Oregon

admitted as a state.

The determined pioneer spirit displayed

by Oregon’s United States Attorneys was

exemplified by John H. Hall who overcame

being orphaned at the age of ten and worked

on farms, livery stables, and hardware stores

in order to pursue his legal studies. He

became United States Attorney in 1898 at

the age of 44. Other outstanding state and

national leaders from the Oregon office

include Benjamin F. Harding (1853-1854),

who was later elected United States Senator

in 1862, and Erasmus D. Shattuck

(1862-1863), who was a member of the

convention which formed the first

constitution for the State of Oregon.

The district has seen its share of

interesting cases since the commissioning of

its first United States Attorney, Amory

Holbrook, from 1850 to 1853. From

espionage cases after the First World War,

to the investigation of the fair price for a

loaf of bread, the United States Attorney’s

Office has been involved in the key legal

issues of the region.

The Heney Affair

One of the more celebrated of the

District’s cases occurred in the early part of

this century and involved three different

United States Attorneys for the District of

Oregon. Franklin J. Mays (1890-1893) was

convicted in 1906 for attempting to defraud

the federal government of certain public

lands in the area. Securing the conviction in

this and several related land fraud cases was

Francis J. Heney, United States Attorney by

special appointment (1905). Caught in the

middle was Heney’s predecessor, John H.

Hall.

Also involved in the related land fraud

case as a defendant was then-United States

Senator from Oregon, John Mitchell.
Headquarters: Portland

28 Assistant United States Attorneys

According to Hall’s testimony, Heney,

while on special assignment to the District,

approached then-United States Attorney

Hall and told him that he could “smirch”

Senator Mitchell, but that he did not have

enough evidence to convict him--whereupon

Hall declared that such tactics would never

be used while he was in office. Taking Hall

at his word, Heney wired President

Theodore Roosevelt and persuaded him to

remove Hall from office because of his

refusal to prosecute Mitchell. Heney then

began criminal proceedings against Hall for

conspiracy in one of the other pending fraud

cases.

Heney’s overzealousness was exposed

several years later by the discovery that he

and William Burns, the eventual founder of

the famous Burns Detective Agency, had

tampered with the juries which convicted

the defendants in the land fraud cases. As a

result, President Taft pardoned Mays as well

as Hall. Heney’s fanaticism obviously

continued as he was later shot while arguing

a case in court.

Birthplace of the Nation
EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Michael Baylson, United States Attorney

Stemming from one of the original

thirteen judicial districts, the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania boasts a long and

distinguished history. The District’s

headquarters are located in Philadelphia–the

city that is in some ways the birthplace of

the nation. During those historic times, a

man of great legal knowledge and integrity

became the District’s first United States

Attorney–William Lewis.

Lewis served from 1789 until he was

appointed Judge of the United States

District Court in 1791. A staunch supporter

of the patriot cause, Lewis nevertheless

defended Tories who had been charged for

their support of the British during the

Revolutionary War. During his service as

United States Attorney, Lewis also served in

the Pennsylvania legislature where he was

perhaps best known as the principal author

of the “Act for the Gradual Abolition of

Slavery,” which became law on March 1,

1780. Because of Lewis’ efforts,

Pennsylvania became the first state in the

Union to abolish slavery.

Early Cases

One of the first cases tried by the

Eastern District was the case of United

States v. William Nobel and Luther

Stevenson. That early indictment, bearing

Lewis’ signature, accused the pair of “not

having the fear of God before their eyes, but

being moved and seduced by the instigation

of the Devil,” thus killing Thomas Jackson

on board the ship, Experiment.

Other United States Attorneys from the

Eastern District have made their mark in

history as well. Lewis’ successor, William

Rawle, who served from 1791 to 1799,

prosecuted the authors of the famed

Whiskey Rebellion. The defeat and

prosecution of the rebellionists helped to

establish the federal authority of the new

nation within the states themselves. More

recently, Francis Fisher Kane, who served

from 1913 to 1920, later received

recognition for his work in establishing

legal aid for helpless defendants in the

area’s criminal courts.

Jared Ingersoll (1800-1811) was once a

nominee for Vice President of the United

States. Charles Jared Ingersoll became one

of the few people to follow in his father’s

footsteps as a United States Attorney when

he was appointed in 1815, and he served

until his death.

James D. Alexander (1814-1816)

became the Secretary of the Treasury of the

United States as well as Acting Secretary of

War under the Presidency of-James

Madison. George M. Dallas (1831-1833)

was appointed Minister to Russia and later

Minister to Great Britain. Henry Miller

Watts (1843-1844), who later became a

leader in the coal and iron industry, was

appointed Minister to Austria by President

Andrew Johnson in 1829.

Edward S. G. Dennis, Jr., who served as

United States Attorney from 1983 to 1988,

became Assistant Attorney General for the

Criminal Division in the Department of

Justice and is currently the Acting Deputy

Attorney General.

Public Corruption
Headquarters: Philadelphia

Branch Offices Scranton, Harrisburg

72 Assistant United States Attorneys

The Eastern District of Pennsylvania has

been particularly successful in the

prosecution of public corruption cases. In

1981 the FBI and the Eastern District began

an investigation into corruption in the

Philadelphia Police Department. The

investigation uncovered a pattern of

institutionalized corruption in which video

poker machine vendors and numbers writers

made regular monthly payoffs to police

officers assigned to the vice squads in order

to protect their illegal gambling operations

in the City of Philadelphia. In all, 32

officers were convicted, including the

Deputy Commissioner, two Chief

Inspectors, two Inspectors, one Captain, six

Lieutenants, and 20 other officers. In

another case, eight Philadelphia police

officers were indicted for corruption relating

to their official duties.

Recently, the Eastern District convicted

13 members of the local Roofers Union on

RICO charges, embezzlement, mail fraud,

extortion, solicitation of kickbacks, and

Interstate Transportation in aid of

racketeering. The most notorious activity of

the union and its leadership consisted of its

practice of paying cash bribes to federal,

state and local officials, including

approximately 25 sitting judges in the

Philadelphia court system. The union

leadership also extorted money from roofing

contractors by physically beating the

contractors until they agreed to pay certain

monies to the union. In related cases, a

judge elect of the Municipal Court, an

OSHA area director, and a Philadelphia

police officer were convicted of Hobbs Act

extortion arising out of their acceptance of

bribes from the union. Two lawyers were

convicted of paying kickbacks to the union

to generate cash for these bribes. As a

direct result of this investigation, the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court has removed

13 judges from the bench in Philadelphia for

their receipt of cash from the Union.

The District also participated with the

Internal Security Division of the Internal

Revenue Service in an investigation into

corruption in the IRS in the form of $1.7

million in bribes paid to corrupt agents in

exchange for assistance in connection with

IRS audits. To date, the investigation has

resulted in the conviction of 20 people,

including nine former IRS agents, four

accountants who funneled the bribes to the

IRS agents, and seven

businessmen/taxpayers who paid the bribes.

In another case, this office participated

with the FBI and the Department of Defense

in a large-scale investigation into public

corruption and fraud in the military clothing

procurement programs administered by the

Department of Defense. The investigation

resulted in the conviction of 18 individuals

and seven corporations and the recovery of

more than $3 million in forfeitures, criminal

fines and civil judgments. In addition, 68

individuals and 46 businesses were

recommended for debarment from bidding

or receiving government contracts.
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

James J. West, United States Attorney

On September 24, 1789, Congress

created 13 district courts, one for each of the

original 13 states of the United States.

These districts were divided into three

Circuit Courts of Appeal--the Eastern,

Middle, and Southern Circuits. The District

Court for Pennsylvania was authorized to

convene at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and

Yorktown, Virginia, as was the Court of

Appeals for the Middle Circuit, whose

jurisdiction included New Jersey,

Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and

Virginia.

On August 17, 1790, Congress removed

Yorktown, Virginia, as a designated site for

sessions of the District Court in view of a

jurisdictional dispute in the application of

the laws of the State of Virginia and those

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Thus, the district court was headquartered in

Philadelphia until April 20, 1801, when it

was divided into two districts, the Eastern

District (Philadelphia) and the Western

District (Pittsburgh).

On May 26, 1824, the counties, which

now comprise the Middle District of

Pennsylvania, were removed from the

Eastern District and placed under the

jurisdiction of the Western District. In

addition, the Court for the Western District

was authorized to hold sessions in

Williamsport. Another session in Scranton

was added on September 7, 1886.

Middle District Is Created

On March 2, 1901, Congress created a

third district, the Middle District of

Pennsylvania, headquartered at Scranton,

with Harrisburg and Williamsport

designated as sites for sessions.

Wilkes-Barre became an authorized site for

sessions of court in 1938. At the creation of

the Middle District, President McKinley

appointed Robert W. Archibald the first

judge for the new District and Samuel J. M.

McCarrell as the first United States

Attorney.

Samuel J. M. McCarrell

Samuel J. M. McCarrell, the son of a

Presbyterian minister, previously had served

as the District Attorney for Dauphin County

as well as state senator. While in the

Pennsylvania Senate, he led the fight against

moving the State Capital from Harrisburg to

Philadelphia. After serving as the first

United States Attorney for the Middle

District, McCarrell became United States

District Judge for Middle Pennsylvania in

1907. As judge, he brought about many

reforms, including the right of women to

become notaries public. McCarrell’s

successor, Charles B. Witmer, provided

unique services to the District from 1906 to

the time of his death in 1925 by serving as

United States Marshal, United States

Attorney, and United States District Judge.

Frederick Follmer, United States

Attorney from 1935 to 1946, also served as

United States District Judge for the Middle

District. Former United States Attorney

Andrew B. Dunsmore and Rogers L.

Burnette won elections to the Pennsylvania

House of Representatives.

Prohibition Era
Headquarters: Harrisburg

Branch Offices Scranton, Lewistown

19 Assistant United States Attorneys

Prohibition kept the United States

Attorney’s Office for the Middle District

very busy during the 1920s and 1930s. In

one case, a gang rented a warehouse next to

a bonded warehouse where whiskey was

stored. They entered the bonded warehouse,

drained the whiskey from the barrels into

their own barrels, and refilled the bonded

barrels with colored water. Then they set

the bonded warehouse on fire. Two of the

firemen who were called to the fire

discovered and publicized the switch when

they tried to save a couple of barrels for

their personal use.

“Berrigan Trial”

The early 1970's saw the trial of the

Harrisburg Seven or “Berrigan” trial

involving the antiwar movement. Philip

Berrigan, a priest, Elizabeth McAllister, a

nun, and six others, were suspects in a plot

to kidnap then-Presidential Advisor Henry

Kissinger, to damage and destroy heating

pipes under federal buildings in the District

of Columbia, and to destroy files of the

Selective Service. Berrigan was serving a

six-year term of imprisonment at the United

States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, as the

result of a felony conviction for defacing

and destroying Selective Service records in

the District of Maryland. Covertly

communicating with McAllister concerning

these illegal activities resulted in their

conviction for mailing threatening

communications. This trial resulted in the

eventual creation of a staff office in the

Harrisburg division.

Public Corruption - Narcotic Enforcement

- White Collar Crime

Recent successful prosecutions have

occurred in the area of public corruption,

narcotic enforcement, and white collar

crime, including the conviction of the two

highest state officials ever convicted in

Pennsylvania. The Treasurer and the

Auditor General were--convicted in separate

trials for corruption involving the sale of

state jobs and contracts. Two of the most

noted cases to occur in the Middle District

in recent years have been the infamous Air

America case involving the importation of

more than nine tons of cocaine directly from

South America to the Middle District, and

the investigation known as the E. F. Hutton

case.

Headquarters: Scranton

Branch Offices: Harrisburg, Lewisburg

19 Assistant United States Attorneys
WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Charles D. Sheehy, United States Attorney

In the 1960's an extensive look at the

United States Attorney’s office for the

Western District of Pennsylvania appeared

in a local newspaper. Even then, the district

reflected the wide variety of cases that arise

in a locale that includes both rural and urban

areas. The United States Attorney at that

time, Joseph Ammerman, had begun what is

the now accepted practice of assigning cases

to assistants specializing in specific areas of

law. The article stated that office consensus

believed the task of dealing with gambling

and drug offenses to be the most

glamourous and having the most public

exposure. The “fun job” as the newspaper

called it, dealt with moonshine cases.

According to one assistant, the defendants

sometimes resembled the cartoon character,

“Snuffy Smith,” who brandished a firearm

every time the revenuers showed up.

Those who have served the Office of the

United States Attorney for the Western

District of Pennsylvania have dealt with all

kinds of defendants and cases--from

moonshiners to drug kings, to liability cases

against the government. The Western

District came into being in 1801 when

Pennsylvania, one of the original thirteen

judicial districts, was divided into the

Eastern and Western Districts. On the

eleventh of March of that year, James

Hamilton was commissioned as the

district’s first United States Attorney.

Stone Removed For Political Activities

One former United States Attorney

illustrated very well the determination of

those who have served this district. William

A. Stone was seventeen years old when he

enlisted in the Union Army to fight during

the Civil War. His parents were so upset

over the matter that his father secured young

William’s release through their senator.

Within the year, however, the eager lad had

joined again. Stone survived the war and

began his legal career as the District

Attorney for Tioga County. In 1880, he was

named United States Attorney for the

Western District of Pennsylvania.

Stone carried his tenacity with him into

office since he ran afoul of President

Cleveland’s orders that federal employees

avoid political activities. He resigned from

the United States Attorney’s office in 1886

in order to support a friend running for

governor. He declared that he would not

allow a President to smother his political

and personal rights--a belief than resulted in

his removal. William Stone became a very

prominent individual in the state and local

government. He won election to the United

States Congress in 1890 and became

Governor of Pennsylvania in 1898. Under

his administration the state was able to

recover some of its $3 million debt.

A Skilled Litigator

One of the most successful litigators to

hold the Office of United States Attorney

for the Western District was Harry Alvan

Hall, who served from 1893 to 1897. Hall

previously had served in the Pennsylvania

Senate, but the Office of United States

Attorney brought his abilities to the

attention of those in government. Hall was

so capable in the courtroom, that the

Interstate Commerce Commission chose

him to try its important test cases. In United

States v. Wight Halo Hall won the first

conviction ever of a railroad executive

charged with violating the Interstate
Headquarters: Pittsburgh

Branch Office: Erie

36 Assistant United States Attorneys

Commerce Act. At the end of his term, Hall

was congratulated by the United States

Attorney General in his annual report for

having won the largest percentage of cases

brought to trial by any United States

Attorney. Hall refused a second

appointment at the close of his term, but

President McKinley refused to nominate

anyone else. Hall thus remained in office

until the Supreme Court by law was forced

to appoint a successor. The court appointed

Hall who thereby became one of the few

United States Attorneys ever to be

appointed to fill a vacancy created by the

expiration of his own term.

Dick Thornburgh Becomes 79th United

States Attorney General

The source of greatest pride for the

Western District of Pennsylvania is the

accession of one of its own to one of the

highest offices in the nation. The Honorable

Dick Thornburgh was appointed by

President Reagan in 1988 as the 79th

Attorney General of the United States. A

native Pennsylvanian, Thornburgh had

served the State of Pennsylvania as

governor for two consecutive terms,

beginning in 1978.

Dick Thornburgh was not new to the

Justice Department. Under President Ford,

he had served as Assistant Attorney General

in charge of the Criminal Division. Prior to

becoming governor, he held the position of

United States Attorney for the Western

District from 1969 to 1975. During his

tenure as United States Attorney, he was

one of the original 15 members of the newly

created Attorney General’s Advisory

Committee for United States Attorneys.

Also, as United States Attorney,

Thornburgh received national recognition

for his prosecutions against major organized

crime figures and drug traffickers. The

Drug Enforcement Administration presented

him with a “Special Medallion Award” for

“significant personal efforts to help

eliminate drug abuse”
DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

Daniel F. Lopez-Romo, United States Attorney

The District of Puerto Rico received its

first United States Attorney at the beginning

of this century when Noah B. K. Pettingill

was commissioned on June 5, 1900.

Reappointed in 1904, Pettingill represented

the first of a long list of highly qualified and

capable people who have served this

District.

Harry F. Besosa received appointment to

the District of Puerto Rico in 1932. A

native of New York, Besosa had been

stationed in Puerto Rico with the Army as

an interpreter in 1898. After leaving the

military, he stayed in Puerto Rico and

became very active in local government. In

1906 Besosa was chosen as the Secretary of

the Chamber of Commerce for Puerto Rico,

and from 1937 to 1939, he served as the

City Attorney for the City of San Juan.

Former United States Attorney Ira K.

Wells was commissioned in 1921. Wells

left the District in 1924 to take a position as

Assistant United States Attorney General in

Washington, D.C. Wells later was

appointed United States District Judge for

the District of Puerto Rico.

The Local “Watergate”

Many important cases have been tried

by the United States Attorney’s Office for

the District of Puerto Rico, including United

States v. Angel Perez-Casillas. Several

Puerto Rico police members were convicted

for perjury in relation to a grand jury

investigation related to the killing of two

pro-independence advocates by the Puerto

Rico police. The investigation into the

killings was one of the most noted in Puerto

Rican history. The case is generally known

as the “Cerro Maravilla” investigation, in

reference to the place where the incident

occurred. Because of the political

repercussions of the investigation, it is also

known as the local “Watergate.” The case

was one of major importance because it

involved the integrity of the United States

Department of Justice. Ten members of the

Police of the Puerto Rico Intelligence Unit

were found guilty and their sentences

totaled several hundred years. The FBI and

Criminal Division also were charged with

cover-ups. The United States Attorney

personally directed the investigation into the

incident and led the prosecution team.

Public Corruption

The District of Puerto Rico also has

investigated cases involving public

corruption. In one case, four defendants

were charged with conspiracy, possession,

acid distribution of cocaine. The primary

defendant in the case, Luis Carbone, was a

former State prosecutor and criminal

defense lawyer of the federal bar. In

another case, ten defendants, among them

various members of the Police of Puerto

Rico, were convicted of extortion under

color of official right in violation of the

Hobbs Act. The defendants were extorting

and robbing individuals involved in illegal

numbers racketeering. The scheme included

the preparation and execution of false search

warrants in order to obtain illegal money.
Dupont Plaza Hotel After the Fire

Dupont Plaza Hotel After the Fire

Second View

Police corruption also was involved in

the first continuous criminal enterprise

prosecution in the District of Puerto Rico.

A major undertaking of the FBI and the

United States Attorney’s Office resulted in

the investigation of drug trafficking within

the police force of Puerto Rica: The

enterprise used members of the police for

operational security and local attorneys

were involved in the financing aspects of

the organization. The major defendant was

sentenced to fifty years without parole.

Dupont Plaza Hotel

The most publicized case to occur in the

District of Puerto Rico involved a fire at the

Dupont Plaza Hotel. On December 31,

1986, a fire broke out at the hotel, gutting

the ground level and first floor areas.

Estimated damage was $6 to $10 million,

but more tragic was the loss of 100 lives.

Authorities concluded arson to be the cause

of the blaze. The National Fire Protection

Association concluded in its report that the

fire was “among the worst hotel fires in this

century, including the 1980 MGM Grand

Hotel fire which killed 85 and the 1946

Winecoff Hotel fire in which 119 were

killed.” During the fire, Manuel de Jesus

Marrero-Otero, a Special Agent of the

United States Secret Service, was killed

while engaged in the performance of his

official duties. Three defendants were tried,

convicted, and received a total of almost

300 years in prison.

While well known as one of the thirteen

original colonies, Rhode Island was not

among the first thirteen states to have a
DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

Lincoln C. Almond, United States Attorney

United States Attorney commissioned in

1789 by President George Washington.

Although the first colony to declare

independence on May 4, 1776, Rhode Island

refused to ratify the constitution until May

29, 1790.

Upon ratification, Rhode Island was

established as a federal district and received

its first appointee. William Channing

became the first United States Attorney for

the District of Rhode Island on July 3, 1790,

with the United States District Court

holding its first session in August 1790, in

Newport. Channing held the office of

United States Attorney while

simultaneously holding the Office of

Attorney General of the State of Rhode

Island, an accomplishment repeated by three

other Rhode Island United States Attorneys.

Three former United States Attorneys

became members of the United States

Senate and two served as governors. One

former United States Attorney, Edward M.

McEntee went on to become a Judge of the

First Circuit Court of Appeals, and three

became Judges of the United States District

Court. Raymond J. Pettine was formerly the

Chief Judge of the District of Rhode Island

and became Senior Judge.

District Judge For Forty Years

John Pitman served as United States

Attorney from 1820 to 1824. He then

received an appointment as United States

District Judge where he remained for 40

years, the longest tenure in the history of the

District Court in Rhode Island.

Attorney General Of The United States

Another former United States Attorney

deserving special note is J. Howard

McGrath who served from 1934 to 1940.

He became governor in 1941, Solicitor

General of the United States in 1945 and

United States Senator in 1947. While a

member of the United States Senate, he also

was National Chairman of the Democratic

Party and was instrumental in the 1948

presidential upset victory of Harry S.

Truman. McGrath received appointment as

Attorney General of the United States in

1949.

La Cosa Nostra

Armed with significant anti-crime

legislation of the early 1970's and a greatly

enlarged staff, the United States Attorney’s

Office for the District of Rhode Island

sustained an aggressive posture in all

priority areas of law enforcement in the last

two decades.
Headquarters: Providence

11 Assistant United States Attorneys

Under the leadership of Lincoln C.

Almond, constant pressure has been brought

against traditional organized crime and

political corruption, which threaten the

quality of life in the Ocean State. Working

in close cooperation with Strike Force

Attorneys assigned to the district over the

past 15 years, dozens of prosecutions have

substantially neutralized La Cosa Nostra in

Rhode Island. At the same time a number

of political corruption probes were

instituted. The most recent probe of the

City of Providence resulted in 16

convictions.

Particularly noteworthy has been the

dramatic increase in drug prosecutions and

related forfeiture actions. Forfeiture actions

relating to the Continuing Criminal

Enterprise case of United States v. Newton

constituted the largest forfeiture in United

States history.

E. F. Hutton

The $1,000,000 fine imposed in the E. F.

Hutton money laundering case in the

District of Rhode Island deserves special

notice. In that case, brokers at Hutton’s

Providence office, conspired to hide money

in fictitious accounts for the benefit of

organized crime figures.

World Prodigy Prosecution

In the World Prodigy prosecution, this

office obtained a plea of guilty requiring the

defendant, a shipping company, to pay a

$1,010,000 fine, the largest ever for the

negligent discharge of pollutants. This case,

brought under the Clean Water Act,

followed the discharge of almost 300,000

gallons of heating oil by a tanker which ran

aground at the entrance to Narragansett Bay.

The United States Attorney’s office for

the District of Rhode Island has committed

itself to monitoring and investigating

organized crime and political corruption

matters, while it pursues the leadership of

the local drug cartels. Because of Rhode

lsland’s unique size and close working

relationship with state and local narcotics

enforcement agencies, serious inroads are

being made in the war on drugs.
DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA

E. Bart Daniel, United States Attorney

An Original Colony

The District of South Carolina, one of

the original thirteen, began like many other

districts: the state comprised one district and

was later (in 1915) divided. Unlike other

districts, however, South Carolina once

again became a single district in 1968.

First United States Attorney

Its first United States Attorney was John

J. Pringle, who served from 1789 to 1792,

and went on to become Attorney General for

the state for a term of sixteen years. Pringle

is noted almost as much for the positions he

turned down as for those in which he

served: he declined a South Carolina

delegate seat to the United States

Constitutional Convention in 1787 and an

offer to become United States Attorney

General by Thomas Jefferson in 1805.

Former United States Attorneys

Pringle’s successors also served with

distinction and provided leadership beyond

their terms as United States Attorneys.

Edward Frost (1831) was chosen as a

member of a South Carolina delegation

which traveled to Washington after the Civil

War. The delegation went to discuss with

President Johnson the new government for

the state and the election of a governor.

Frost was also a member of the state

constitutional convention in 1865. James

Petigru (1850-1853) became well-known for

his codification and annotation of the laws

of South Carolina. James Connor

(1856-1860) became a decorated war hero

and Attorney General for the State of South

Carolina. Ernest Cochran, United States

Attorney from 1906-1914, also served in the

same capacity for the newly created

Western District of South Carolina from

1921-1923. He became a District Judge in

1923.

State And Local Law Enforcement

In recent times, the District of South

Carolina has enjoyed a very effective

relationship with local and state law

enforcement authorities. Several South

Carolina Assistant Attorneys General have

been cross-designated as Special Assistant

United States Attorneys. A prime example

of this close cooperation is the District’s

ongoing association with the office of the

South Carolina Consumer Advocate which

has led to more federal prosecutions for

odometer tampering than in any other

District. Joint investigations also have

taken place in such consumer-oriented areas

as fraud in the mobile home sales industry.

The cooperation between the United

States Attorney’s Office and State and local

agencies has resulted in an impressive

record of prosecutions in the area of

political corruption, the most notable

examples being the successful prosecution

of a state senator for voting fraud, the

Speaker pro tempore of the State House of

Representatives for mail and wire fraud, and

a committee chairman of the State House of

Representatives for mail and false

statements. The district has prosecuted

several sheriffs, state magistrates, a Clerk of

the Court, school board members, and other

public officials for a variety of offenses.
Headquarters: Columbia

Branch Offices: Charleston, Greenville

27 Assistant United States Attorneys

Drug Smuggling

In December 1982, the District of South

Carolina initiated a case resulting in the

conviction of drug smugglers first

apprehended in Sumter, South Carolina.

Law enforcement authorities in Sumter

seized a twin engine Cessna aircraft and

955.1 pounds of 88 percent pure cocaine

worth $350 million. Arrested were the

plane’s pilot, co-pilot, and several other

individuals. This arrest was the culmination

of a lengthy joint investigation by Customs,

FBI, IRS, the South Carolina Law

Enforcement Division, Sumter County

Sheriff’s office and local law enforcement

authorities in Florida.

After the seizure, a 19-count indictment,

including both RICO and CCE charges, was

returned against 16 defendants. A total of

13 defendants pleaded guilty or were

convicted of charges in the indictment while

four remained fugitives. The leader of the

operation was convicted of 17 of the

charges and sentenced to 70 years, 50 to be

served without parole eligibility. Other

sentences ranged from 3 to 35 years. The

investigation and prosecution of this case

was an excellent example of inter-agency

cooperation at all levels of law enforcement,

and as such had a major impact on drug

distribution in South Carolina.

Savannah River Nuclear Plant

In 1986, the district successfully

prosecuted a construction firm and the

purchasing agent at the Savannah River

Plant, a nuclear weapons fabricating facility

of the Department of Energy. The

defendants were indicted for bribing an E. I.

duPont purchasing agent, in exchange for

information concerning competitors’ sealed

bids. With this information, the defendants

successfully bid on multibillion dollar

roofing projects they were technically

unable to perform, paying the purchasing

agent some $40,000 in bribes. They were

able to steal some $419,000 in materials and

money while on the job at the Savannah

River Plant. The defendants pleaded guilty,

agreed to cooperate, and were sentenced to

five years imprisonment and $40,000 fines.

Of great significance is the fact that the

defendants implicated a network of

contractors and government officials who

were operating the same scheme at other

federal facilities, generally using Small

Business Administration-approved, Section

8-A minority set-aside companies as fronts.

The case gave rise to investigations and

prosecutions in other districts.
DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA

Philip N. Hogan, United States Attorney

The Dakota Territory, when established

in 1861, encompassed both of the present

states of North and South Dakota. At that

time Henry Vale was appointed to serve as

its first United States Attorney. Declining

to serve, Vale never took office. William E.

Gleason was appointed in his place, and

subsequently was commissioned as the first

United States Attorney for the Dakota

Territory.

One of the last persons appointed as

United States Attorney before the admission

of the two Dakotas to the Union was John E.

Carland, who served for two years

beginning in 1885. Carland was born in

New York and moved to the Dakotas where

he began an outstanding career in

government service. Carland resigned

office in 1888 to become an Associate

Justice of the Supreme Court for the

Territory. Though primarily associated with

the State of South Dakota, Carland served as

a delegate to the constitutional convention

for the State of North Dakota upon its

admission to the Union. Later he began a

noted career as a jurist, first as United States

District Judge for the District of South

Dakota, and in 1913 as judge of the United

States Court of Appeals for the Eighth

Circuit.

Carland’s successor, William E. Purcell,

was the last United States Attorney for the

Territory before statehood. He also was

born in the East and moved to the Dakotas

to begin his law career. Upon the division

of the Territory into states, Purcell remained

in office as the United States Attorney for

the District of North Dakota and United

States Senate. In 1889, John Murphy was

appointed to serve as the first United States

Attorney for the District of South Dakota.

Those United States Attorneys who

followed Murphy continued to be dedicated

to the Office of the United States Attorney.

Many of them began their careers as State’s

Attorney in the various counties. William

G. Porter, appointed United States Attorney

in 1907, previously had been State Attorney

for Custer County. Olaf Eidem who served

from 1926 to 1934, had been State Attorney

for Brookings County, and Samuel Wesley

Clark had held the same position for Spink

County before becoming United States

Attorney in 1921. Clark began as State’s

Attorney but eventually left the office to

become the Attorney General for the State

of South Dakota. He resigned in 1910 and

went on to become United States Attorney.

Arguing Against United States Jurisdiction

Several years later, George Philip

became United States Attorney for South

Dakota in 1934. Philip was born in

Scotland and displayed the true character of

a pioneer and adventurer. Coming to

America, he worked in a lumber camp in

Colorado and later as a cowboy on a cattle

range. He then began the study of law and

in 1913 started an 18-year tenure as

Assistant United States Attorney for the

district. Philip committed his life to work in

the district as he later served another

thirteen years as United States Attorney

beginning in 1934.

While Assistant United States Attorney,

and before the rules barring concurrent

private practice, Philip had become well

known for his defense of Joseph Iyott, Jr. in

a murder case. Strangely, Assistant United

States Attorney Philip found himself
Headquarters: Sioux Falls

Branch Offices: Rapid City, Pierre, Abendeen

14 Assistant United States Attorneys

arguing, as a private defense attorney,

against United States jurisdiction. The

murder had occurred in a county that

formerly had been part of the Rosebud

Indian Reservation. Although the offense

happened after the land had been taken out

of the reservation, the United States had

failed to gain proper title to the land thus

negating any United States jurisdiction.

Philip’s brief concerning jurisdiction of

courts over offenses committed by Indians

on Indian lands attracted considerable

attention throughout the country.

Mail Fraud In The 1900's

Because of its geography and pioneer

heritage, South Dakota has prosecuted

several interesting and important cases. In

the early 1900's, a man by the name of

Charlie Hyde came to South Dakota and

wrote letters to people back East claiming

that Pierre was going to be a “boom town.”

He suggested that they take advantage of his

information by purchasing lots from him for

$200. The offer was found to be fraudulent

and Hyde was convicted of mail fraud. He

received a Presidential pardon, however,

and never served his sentence.

Liquor

In the 1950's the United States

Attorney’s Office created quite a stir when

it executed a directive from the Justice

Department ordering the destruction of all

liquid exhibits seized during the days of

prohibition. Unfortunately, officials from

the District carried out the orders right in

the building itself resulting in the

evaporation and seeping of liquor odors

throughout the whole building. The event

attracted the notice of not only other tenants

in the building, but also the media.

Wounded Knee

The most remembered case in the

history of South Dakota involved the

conflict at Wounded Knee. The stand-off

between the American Indian Movement

(AIM) and the federal government occurred

in the spring of 1972. AIM leaders, Dennis

Banks, Russell Means, and Clyde Bellecourt

and numerous others, including Leonard

Peltier, were arrested and stood trial in the

District of South Dakota.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

John W. Gill, Jr., United States Attorney

The early history of the United States

Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of

Tennessee dates back to 1790. On May 26,

1790, Congress approved an Act that the

territory of the United States south of the

Ohio River, for the purposes of temporary

government, would be one district.

Therefore, without soliciting their approval,

the United States draped the mantle of its

citizenship about the surprised residents of

the Cumberland.

The President appointed three attorneys

for the territory, one of whom was Andrew

Jackson for what was termed the “Mero

District.” Jackson had settled in Jonesboro

in 1788, in what is now Washington County,

Tennessee, located in the Eastern District of

Tennessee. The early record books of the

Court at Jonesboro record that on Monday,

the twelfth day of May 1788, Andrew

Jackson produced a license as an Attorney.

Tennessee remained a unified district

until 1805 when the state was divided into

three districts, the Eastern, Middle and

Western Districts.

Jimmy Hoffa

One of the most noted cases occurring in

the Eastern District involved Jimmy Hoffa.

In 1962, Hoffa was charged with a

conflict-of-interest violation of the

Taft-Hartley law-a misdemeanor. The trial

lasted two months and ended in a hung jury.

The case (later referred to as the Test Fleet

Case) was tried in Nashville, and resulted in

a second trial in Chattanooga after Hoffa

was accused of trying to bribe jurors in the

Nashville case. Hoffa was convicted on

March 4, 1964, in Chattanooga of willfully

endeavoring to influence, intimidate, and

impede jurors in the discharge of their

duties in violation of the Federal

Obstruction of Justice statute. Hoffa was

sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and

fined $5,000. The conviction was affirmed

by both the Court of Appeals and the United

States Supreme Court.

Hoffa appealed to the United States

Court of Appeals for a new trial on four

different occasions with each appeal being

denied. The third motion for a new trial

alleged newly discovered evidence of

misconduct of the jurors and the United

States Marshals who had charge of the

jurors. The fourth motion alleged improper

electronic surveillance of Hoffa, his

witnesses, associates, and attorneys by the

United States. Hoffa was released from

prison after President Nixon approved his

application for clemency. He disappeared

in 1975.

The Company

During 1979, several defendants were

associated in a partnership known as “The

Company,” which was organized to

purchase and distribute large quantities of

cocaine, marijuana, and methaqualone in

southeastern Tennessee and northern

Georgia. Originating from a bank robbery

gang, the Company organization operated

several types of businesses as fronts for the

narcotics trafficking organization, including

several gambling houses involving

multibillion dollar sports betting operations,

interstate prostitution houses, a liquor store,

and a restaurant. Several million dollars in

cash was laundered through the liquor

store--approximately $800,000 in cash was
Headquarters: Knoxville

Branch Offices: Chattanooga, Greenville

17 Assistant United States Attorneys

seized at the time searches were conducted

in 1984.

The organization was able to continue

its operation through contacts with corrupt

police officers, attorneys, and other

officials. More than 60 individuals

subsequently were prosecuted and

imprisoned as participants in this

organization. More than $1,000,000 in cash

was seized, in addition to approximately

$750,000 in businesses and other real estate

holdings located in Chattanooga and

Georgia. Julius Parker and Harold Benson

Ellis were convicted of operating a

continuing criminal enterprise. In addition,

three prominent Chattanooga attorneys, two

senior police officers, and a former Chief of

Detectives of Hamilton County, Tennessee,

were sentenced to the penitentiary for their

participation in “The Company” operation.

A cooperating police official was offered a

$50,000 bribe from “The Company”

organization after the investigation was

revealed. Included in the prosecutive efforts

was the prosecution of a number of

interstate gamblers involved in a

multibillion dollar sports betting operation

which was a front for the narcotics

distribution business and two interstate

prostitution organizations.

The Fall Of The Butcher Banking Empire

Another highly publicized case

occurring in the Eastern District of

Tennessee involved the fall of the Butcher

banking empire. The conviction of C. H.

Butcher, Jr., in 1987 represented the

culmination of a four-year investigation

arising out of the collapse of the Jake and C.

H. Butcher, Jr., banking business. Jake

Butcher owned and operated the United

American Bank chain located in Tennessee

and Kentucky, and C. H. Butcher, Jr.,

owned and operated the City and County

Bank chain also located in Tennessee and

Kentucky. In--‘ 1983, both bank systems

collapsed as a result of massive insider

loans. The two bank chains had combined

assets of $3 billion and together represented

the largest bank failure in United States

history to that date. Jake Butcher was

convicted in 1985 and is serving a 20-year

term of imprisonment. In addition to C. H.

Butcher, Jr., five accomplices also were

convicted, with four receiving prison

sentences. The investigation and

convictions in the bankruptcy fraud case

resulted in the government recovering

almost $5 million in United States bearer

notes and coupons, silver coins, and cash.
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

Joe B. Brown, United States Attorney

Andrew Jackson served as the first

United States Attorney for the District of

Tennessee in 1790. Prior to becoming

United States Attorney, he was one of three

attorneys for the territory of the United

States south of the Ohio River. In 1789 he

became a judge of the State Superior Court

and played an active role in Tennessee’s

gaining statehood. Jackson was serving as

United States Attorney when Tennessee

entered the Union in 1796. In 1828,

Andrew Jackson became the Seventh

President of the United States.

From the appointment of Andrew

Jackson, the District of Tennessee and later

the Middle District have enjoyed competent

leadership from those appointed as United

States Attorneys. Abram M. Tillman served

the longest tenure of any United States

Attorney for the Middle District. He was

appointed in 1898 by President McKinley,

reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1902

and 1906, and by Taft in 1910, serving until

1914.

James F. Neal, Watergate Special

Prosecutor

Prior to becoming the United States

Attorney for the Middle District in 1964,

James F. Neal served as Special Assistant to

United States Attorney Robert Kennedy

from 1961 to 1964. While United States

Attorney, Neal prosecuted former Teamsters

Union Leader Jimmy Hoffa for offenses

arising out of jury tampering. During 1973

to 1974, Neal served as the Special

Prosecutor for the Watergate Special

Prosecution Force in United States v.

Mitchell, et al, In 1982, Neal served as

Chief Counsel, Senate Select Committee To

Study Undercover Operations of the

Department of Justice. Neal’s highly

successful private practice included the

defense of high profile cases such as those

involving Elvis Presley’s doctor, the Ford

Motor Company Pinto trial, Louisiana

Governor Edwin Edwards, and the disaster

on the set of the movie, “The Twilight

Zone.”

Gilbert E. Merritt became United States

Attorney for the Middle District in 1966.

Merritt had extensive experience as a

professor at Vanderbilt University School of

Law both before and after his service as

United States Attorney. In 1977, President

Jimmy Carter appointed him to the United

States Court of Appeals for the Sixth

Circuit. Merritt became Chief Judge of that

court in 1989.

Major Cases

Many important cases have come to trial

in the Middle District including the case

against Jimmy Hoffa. United States

Attorney James Neal prosecuted Hoffa on

charges arising out of a scheme to set up a

company, Test Fleet, to transport goods in

interstate commerce while holding an

official position with the Teamsters Union,

a violation of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Several cases brought before the Middle

District have had direct bearing on the

quality of the lives of people within the

District. Grier v. Ellington represented the

first litigation seeking to dismantle a

statewide system of discrimination in higher

education. After the 1968 Civil Rights Act,

the Attorney General intervened and the

parties were recast with the United States as
Headquarters: Nashville

14 Assistant United States Attorneys

a party plaintiff. The action was resolved to

end discrimination in Tennessee colleges.

Criminal Antitrust Indictment

In a series of 70 different prosecutions,

the United States brought criminal antitrust

indictments against various asphalt

contractors. Numerous Tennessee road

builders had rigged competitive award

contracts with the State of Tennessee

Department of Transportation. Following

the successful federal prosecutions, the

Administrator of the Federal Highway

Administration advised the Tennessee

officials that, under the Federal Highway

Trust Fund, each state receiving federal

assistance must actively pursue contractors

to recover any overpayment. Under the

Trust Fund, the Federal Highway

Administration is entitled to a share of the

recovery in proportion to its share of the

actual construction costs on each project.

Refusing to cooperate with the

Administrator, the State of Tennessee sued

to prevent the Administrator from

withholding current Trust Fund

reimbursements to recover the federal share

recovered by the state. The state prevailed

in the district court, but on appeal the Sixth

Circuit reversed. Upon remand for trial, the

State of Tennessee settled and paid

approximately $3.8 million to the Federal

Highway Administration. This case had

national significance since many other states

had followed the lead of Tennessee and had

denied an obligation to pursue recovery of

the federal share of any bid-rigged project

and had refused to account for and share

recoveries.

Tennessee Governor Receives Jail Tern:

In a highly publicized case in 1980,

Tennessee Governor Leonard Ray Blanton,

and his aides, Clyde Hood, and James M.

Allen, were indicted on federal corruption

charges arising from the issuance of state

retail liquor license. Convicted in 1981,

Blanton began serving his sentence in 1984

and became the first Tennessee Governor to

serve time in jail. Following McNally v.

United States, Blanton was successful in

vacating his mail fraud convictions, but

remained convicted on conspiracy and

Hobbs Act charges.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

W. Hickman Ewing, Jr., United States Attorney

Less than ten years after the end of the

Civil War, on October 2, 1874, United

States Attorney, W. W. Murray wrote to the

Attorney General in Washington, saying,

“I have the horror to say, that from

affidavits now in file in my office, the

following facts appear: Since the elections

on the sixth of August last, bands of men

armed and in disguise, and known as the Ku

Klux Klan, have been riding through certain

portions of Gibson County in this district,

almost every night, committing outrageous

(acts) upon the colored people, in some

instances whipping them, and in others

threatening to kill them, and on Saturday

night, August 16th, a number of colored

people were shot at on their return home

from church by a certain of these masked

men.”An old Negro named Isham was

severely whipped and at the time was told

by the Ku Klux that they should again visit

him on Saturday night August22nd

Therefore on that night several of his

colored neighbors started to go and assist

the old man in defending himself, and on the

way thither were met by a party of men

armed mounted and in disguise who first

fired upon them, they returning the fire in

either killing or wounding a mule

whereupon both parties fled. This is, as I

suppose, the conspiracy to take the lives of

the white citizens of the neighborhood or

which ‘sixteen Negroes were committed to

the jail of Gibson County in this state’

referred to in Governor Brown’s telegram.

“The next day, Sunday, the state

authorities commenced arresting the black

men in the vicinity almost indiscriminately,

taking among others two colored preachers

out of their churches, the prisoners, so

arrested were confined and guarded to await

their preliminary trial the next day; during

that night, some of these prisoners were

taken out of the building in which they were

confined by some of the guards, and by

means of threats and in one instance by

hanging the prisoner to a tree confessions

were extorted from them, which were used

as testimony against them in their

examination before the committing court. “

Disturbed by the incident, Murray took

what was at the time an unpopular position

--seeking federal indictments against white

residents of Tennessee. Apparently

Governor Brown of Tennessee had

telegraphed the President wanting to know

why the federal government was trying to

indict and prosecute Tennessee citizens,

rather than having the cases handled in state

court.

The full text of Murray’s letter, which

includes the arguments on why these men

should be prosecuted under federal statutes,

is reprinted on page 195. Murray argues

that under the state system it would be “very

difficult if not impossible to bring these

defendants to trial. . .” Murray also

suggests that there “may be grounds for

prejudice existing in the local court, which

could not exist in the federal court.”

Murray pressed for and received

indictments of the 16 men responsible for

the crimes. Despite the eventual ruling

against federal jurisdiction in the case,

Murray’s actions demonstrate that the

United States Attorneys for the Western

District have always stood for what is right

and good, despite criticism from the public,

including state officials.
Headquarters: Memphis

Branch Office: Jackson

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

Recent United States Attorneys

The people living within the Western

District have benefitted from the hard work

of those responsible for protecting federal

interests in the area. Thomas F. Turley, Jr.,

(1969-1977), Michael Cody (1977-1981),

and W. Hickman Ewing, Jr. (1981-Present),

have been responsible for the prosecution of

more than 100 public officials. The fact that

many of the defendants were high-ranking

members of the Governor’s Administration

did not deter these United States Attorneys.

Even more intimidating was the fact that

one of the defendants was a very popular

sports figure in the area.

United States Attorneys from this

district have also refused to neglect their

duty because of the lack of prestige inherent

in any particular case. For instance, in 1943

the District, under the supervision of United

States Attorney, William McClanahan

successfully prosecuted the case, United

States of America v. 284 Barrels of Dried

Eggs. Despite the apparent lack of

significance of this case, the district pushed

to keep the eggs from being sold as they

were deemed “unfit for food in any

manner.” The case was perhaps

insignificant, and certainly not glamourous,

but one of great importance to the United

States Attorney trying to protect his

constituency.

Charles B. Simonton, who served from

1895 to 1898, was twice elected

Congressman from the State of Tennessee.

Other United States Attorneys from the

district have gained national prominence for

their work, including S. E. Murray who

served from 1921 to 1926. Under his

direction, the Western District surpassed all

others in the United States in percentage of

convictions and the number of indictments.

During that time, the law enforcement

community focused much of its attention on

the prohibition laws. Under Murray, the

district led the South in the length of

sentencing for the people convicted of

breaking those laws.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Robert J. Wortham, United States Attorney

The Eastern District of Texas is the

oldest district in the State of Texas. With its

headquarters located in Beaumont, it

encompasses forty-three counties. On

December 29, 1845, Congress created the

first district court of the State of Texas, its

first session held in Galveston in 1846.

Soon after, the state was divided into four

divisions for court sessions-Galveston,

Austin, Brownsville, and Tyler. At the

time, the Eastern District of the state

contained 29 coastal counties, while the

Western District consisted of 91 sparsely

settled counties. On March 1, 1902,

Congress established the present day

Eastern District.

Distinguished United States Attorneys

Many distinguished individuals have

served this District as United States

Attorneys. Samuel D. Hay was appointed

on April 9, 1857, two months after the first

two federal courts were created in the State

of Texas. One of Hay’s successors was

Andrew P. McCormick, who had

previously served in the Texas Senate from

1876 to 1879. From 1879 to 1892, he was

appointed by President Hayes as Judge of

the United States District Court for the

newly created Northern District of Texas.

He was later appointed by President

Harrison as Judge of the United States

Circuit Court for the Fifth Judicial Circuit in

1892 until 1913.

In 1895, Sinclair Taliaferro was

appointed as United States Attorney.

Taliaferro had gained popularity in Texas as

City Attorney for the City of Houston,

winning a famous suit that affected all

Texans--whether or not homestead property

was taxable. Until Taliaferro’s victory in

court, cities in the state had great difficulty

in collecting such taxes.

Another prominent United States

Attorney for the Eastern District was

William Wayne Justice, who served from

1961 to 1968. At the time of his

resignation, Justice became the Judge for

the Eastern District. In 1980, he was

appointed Chief Judge of that court.

Agnes Pauline

One of the most significant cases in the

State of Texas during the late 1970's was

brought to trial in the Eastern

District--United States of America v. Rex

Cauble. Cauble was a wealthy Texan, who

became involved in marijuana smuggling.

This was the first major joint investigation

in drug importation between the FBI and

DEA. “It began with one shrimp boat

named the Agnes Pauline. The boat was

discovered in High Island, Texas with a

cargo of marijuana considered to be the

largest seizure of marijuana at that time in

the United States under 18 U.S.C. 63. Most

of the defendants in this case were ranch

hands who worked for Cauble, which

resulted in the case becoming popularly

known as “the Cowboy Mafia Case.” The

FBI calculated that Rex Cauble had made

approximately $30 million in the smuggling

of marijuana into the state. This case was

appealed to the Supreme Court twice, but

each time was denied. Consequently, the

case gave other Districts the legal

precedence they needed to support many

major drug seizures.
Headquarters: Beaumont

Branch Offices: Tyler, Sherman

23 Assistant United States Attorneys

Agnes Pauline

USA v. Freedom Financial Corporation

Another interesting case to occur in the

Eastern District of Texas involved a mail

fraud scheme. Freedom Financial

Corporation of Dallas, Texas owned seven

timeshare resorts in Texas and Missouri.

The company solicited millions of

prospective purchasers to tour its facilities

with the promise that all recipients were

“absolutely guaranteed to win $20,000 cash

and a 1988 BMW,” after touring the

facilities. Unfortunately, after touring the

facilities, visitors would receive a prize of

little or no value, or a coupon which would

allow them to purchase a gift at the full

retail price. In a nine-month period there

were more than 26 million mailings in the

six state area of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri,

Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The Southwest area of Texas recently

has become inundated with fraudulent mail

fraud schemes and promotional offers. The

publicity generated by the prosecution

created an awareness of these schemes in

this region and has greatly encouraged

consumers to file complaints. Stopping

Freedom Financial Corporation from

mailing fraudulent solicitations saved

countless individuals vast losses for time

and expense in responding to the false

presentations. It has also helped preserve

the quickly eroding reputation of

sale-through-mail efforts.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Marvin Collins, United States Attorney

The Northern District of Texas was

created in 1879, composed of territory

previously under the jurisdiction of the

Western District. The Northern District

included three divisions meeting at Dallas,

Waco, and Graham, the latter being the

headquarters. Despite its small population,

the community of Graham occupied a

significant position for a cattle ranching area

in North Texas, as it was here that ranchmen

formed the forerunner of the influential

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers’

Association. Also, Graham was located

near Fort Belknap, one of the most

important military posts in North Texas

prior to the Civil War. Before the

establishment of the district court, this area

was served by federal circuit courts. Since

1879, however, the district boundaries have

changed substantially. An Act of Congress

approved on March 11, 1902 established the

four judicial districts into which Texas is

now divided.

Prestigious United States Attorneys

The first United States Attorney to serve

the Northern District of Texas was Fred W.

Miner, who was appointed by President

Rutherford B. Hayes. Ironically, one of

Miner’s first recorded actions was his

refusal to try a case he deemed to be little

more than malicious prosecution. One of

the earliest cases tried by Miner involved an

alleged violation of federal law in

connection with a general election.

The United States Attorneys that

succeeded Miner served with distinction.

William Hawley Atwell served for fifteen

years, longer than any other person. Atwell

was in private practice when President

McKinley appointed him in 1898. He ran

for Governor in 1922 and was defeated;

however, a year later he was appointed to

the federal bench by Warren G. Harding.

Judge Atwell served for more than three

decades, resigning in 1954. A newspaper

article once described him as having a

“powerful sense of duty and responsibility

[whose] attitude toward bumptious lawyers

somewhat resembles the steel-eyed frigidity

of a battleship skipper toward untidy junior

officers who neglect to salute the

quarterdeck.” Atwell had a softer side as

well, as he was responsible for the

establishment of the Dallas Zoo while

serving as Zoo Commissioner in earlier

years.

Eldon B. Mahon had an extensive

background spanning two decades as a state

prosecutor and state court judge before

serving as United States Attorney in 1968.

President Nixon appointed him as U.S.

District Judge for the Northern District in

1972, where he presided over one of the

most publicized cases in the state, the Fort

Worth school desegregation plan.

Another United States Attorney, Harold

Barefoot Sanders, Jr., served the Northern

District from 1961 to 1965. After his term

as United States Attorney, he became

Assistant Deputy Attorney General and later

Assistant Attorney General for the Civil

Division of the Department of Justice in

Washington, D.C. In 1967, President

Johnson placed him on the White House

Staff to serve as legislative counsel. Later,

Jimmy Carter appointed him as United

States District Judge for the Northern

District. A recent story characterized

Sanders as a man who “has been quietly

influential in affecting social issues and

forming government policy since he first
Headquarters: Fort Worth

Branch Offices: Dallas, Lubbock, Amarillo

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

entered public service as a Texas legislator

in 1952. Among the emotionally charged

issues Sanders handled as a federal judge

were school desegregation, the rights of the

mentally ill and the assaulting, kidnapping

or care of the mentally retarded.”

Killing A President Becomes Federal Law

November 22, 1963 is a date the

Northern District of Texas and the nation

will never forget. On that date, President

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas

during a motorcade through the streets of

the city on his way to a speaking

engagement at the Dallas Trade Mart. At

the Trade Mart, the crowd, awaiting the

arrival of the President, began to buzz with

apprehension as someone with a portable

radio reported an announcement that shots

had been fired at the motorcade and that the

President had been wounded. Many of the

members of the Dallas staff were in the

crowd, including United States Attorney

Barefoot Sanders, who earlier that day had

greeted the President at the airport. Upon

hearing the radio reports, however, they all

returned to their offices at once.

During the now legendary confusion

that followed, United States Attorney

Sanders and his staff scrambled through the

volumes in their library attempting to locate

a federal statute applicable to the shooting

of the President. Sanders sought the

assistance of his Fort Worth criminal chief,

Bill Hughes, and the Department’s Criminal

Division in Washington. Unfortunately for

the United States Attorney’s office, no

federal law had been broken. The state had

exclusive jurisdiction, which left the United

States Attorney’s office powerless to protect

evidence and to talk with witnesses.

Through the evening and deep into the

night, the staff maintained constant

telephone contact with Justice Department

officials in Washington relaying information

they received from local sources. With the

murder on national television of the

President’s alleged assassin, Lee Harvey _

Oswald, the following day, the staff of the

United States Attorney’s office resumed

their contact with Justice Department

officials.

The outcome of those terrible events

was the enactment of Public Law 89-141 on

August 28, 1965, making a federal crime the

assaulting, kidnapping, or killing of the

President, President-elect, the Vice

President, the Vice President-elect, or

another official next in the order of

presidential succession. Another provision

of the statute provided for the assertion of

federal investigative and prosecutive

jurisdiction if a violation of the statute

occurs--a guarantee that no United States

Attorney’s office would ever again

experience the frustration and helplessness

this office suffered that tragic day.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Henry K. Oncken, United States Attorney

Texas was admitted to the Union in

1845 and assigned two federal judicial

districts, Eastern and Western. Later the

state was divided into four separate districts,

one of which was the Southern District.

Marcus C. McLeuone was appointed the

first United States Attorney in 1899 and

served until 1906: He was succeeded by

Lodowick “Lock” McDaniel, who had

served in several positions in the county

government of Grimes County, Texas,

including County Attorney and County

Judge. McDaniel was reappointed United

States Attorney in 1911, giving him a tenure

of eight years. John E. Green, Jr., followed

McDaniel as United States Attorney for the

Southern District in 1914. Several years

before, he had been a reporter and city

editor for The Houston Post. Green served

the Southern District for five years before

becoming General Attorney for the Gulf Oil

Corporation.

Many former United States Attorneys

for the district have received appointments

as Judges. Woodrow Seals, who served

from 1961 to 1966, later became a United

States District Judge. Malcolm Wilkey,

commissioned in 1954, became a Circuit

Court of Appeals Judge for the D. C.

Circuit. Henry Oncken served in the State

District Court of Alaska before coming to

the Southern District as United States

Attorney in 1985.

Drug Related Prosecutions

Those who have received commissions

as the United States Attorney for the

Southern District of Texas have dedicated

themselves to protecting the interests of the

nation. In recent years, because of the

mounting drug problem in the nation,

coupled with the location of the Southern

District, that protection has taken the form

of drug-related prosecutions.

Moncada-Rua Organization

The trial of the Moncada-Rua

Organization resulted in the conviction of

seven individuals considered to be the major

suppliers of cocaine to criminal elements in

Houston, Corpus Christi, and Dallas. More

than $1.3 million in cash, 56 kilos of

cocaine, and 4 vehicles were seized in the

arrests. Two of the defendants were

juveniles who were deported to Colombia.

Four defendants pleaded guilty, two to

money laundering, and two to possession

with intent to distribute. They received

sentences ranging from 6 to 21 years.

Steward McGlinchey

Steward McGlinchey was a

well-entrenched local violator in the

Southern District who had extensive law

enforcement contacts. He had been

involved in the distribution of

multi-kilograms of cocaine in the

Galveston-Houston area for several years

prior to his arrest in 1987. McGlinchey

became the first continuing criminal

enterprise prosecution in the Galveston

Division of the Southern District of Texas.

Following a three-week trial, the defendant
Headquarters: Houston

Branch Offices: Laredo, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, McAllen

77 Assistant United States Attorneys

was convicted and received three concurrent

12-year sentences. The investigation took

almost three years and resulted in the

seizure of two houses and a large quantity of

jewelry.

Operation Whiteout

“Operation Whiteout” began in early

1987 and was directed at the activities of a

Colombian drug smuggling group, which

allegedly smuggled cocaine from Medellin,

Colombia into Houston, Texas, and other U.

S. cities. In May 1988, 20 defendants, most

of them Colombian nationals, were arrested

after searches were conducted at 23

residences and/or businesses. Eleven of

those arrested were accused of involvement

in a ring that allegedly smuggled cocaine

from Colombia to Houston and funneled

drug money back to Colombia. Seized as a

result of these arrests and searches were

large sums of cash and other assets totaling

more than $1 million.

Southwind

One of the largest investigations to take

place in the Southern District was

code-named “Southwind.” This case

focused on a drug smuggling organization

which had been transporting large quantities

of marijuana and cocaine with seeming

immunity for years. The organization was

very sophisticated in its smuggling

operation, using aircraft, vehicles with

concealed compartments, pagers, two-way

radios, night vision devices,

counter-surveillance teams, and monitoring

of law enforcement radio transmissions. As

a result of the work of the Southern District,

57 subjects have been prosecuted and 81

vehicles seized, with combined asset

seizures totaling $10,000,000.

Timothy Leary And Other Memorable Cases

One of the more publicized cases was

United States v. Timothy Leary, a drug case

against the popular Ivy League professor of

the 1960's counterculture.

The Southern District has also

prosecuted cases other than those related to

drugs. One of the most memorable cases

was the celebrated indictment of Cassius

Clay, later known as Muhammed Ali, for

draft evasion in 1964.

One of the most tragic cases occurred in

this District when the ship, Union Reliance,

collided with the Norwegian ship, Bureau.

The Chinese ship had been loaded with

acrylonitrile which caused a fiery explosion

that resulted in many sailors being burned

alive. This District prosecuted the

company, China Union Lines in 1963 for

causing the accident.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Helen M. Eversberg, United States Attorney

Assassination Of Judge Wood

On May 29, 1979, hired gunman Charles

Harrelson assassinated United States

District Judge John H. Wood, Jr. As a

result, the prosecution team of the United

States Attorney’s Office for the Western

District of Texas led what was at the time

the largest FBI investigation in history.

Popularly referred to as “Woodmur,” the

case spanned six years, involved millions of

documents and pieces of evidence, and cost

the government in excess of $5 million.

The assassination, the first of a federal

judge in over a century, was a bold act of

terrorism ordered by an El Paso drug lord,

Jimmy Chagra, a drug kingpin scheduled to

be tried in Judge Wood’s court on

continuing criminal Enterprise charges. Six

months earlier, Chagra also had hired a hitman, James Kearns, to assassinate Assistant

United States Attorney James Kerr. Kerr

narrowly escaped being killed on his way to

work when his car was sprayed with

machine gun fire from the back doors of a

van.

Through the tireless efforts of the United

States Attorney’s office, Harrelson was

convicted of conspiracy to kill Judge Wood

and received a life sentence. Harrelson’s

wife was convicted of perjury and

conspiracy to obstruct justice and received

a 28-year sentence. Also convicted was

Jimmy Chagra’s wife, who was sentenced to

30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit

murder. Chagra was acquitted on

conspiracy charges but was convicted of tax

violations which were added to his

mandatory 30-year sentence for the prior

drug violation. His brother, Joe Chagra, an

attorney, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to

murder and received a 10-year sentence. In

the attempt on Assistant United States

Attorney Kerr’s life, Jimmy Chagra pleaded

guilty. The hit-man, James Kearns, also

pleaded guilty once Chagra agreed to testify

against him. Both men received life

sentences from then United States District

Judge William S. Sessions.

Judge Sessions Heads FBI

The lengthy investigation and successful

prosecution of such a violent case reveal the

commitment of those who have served the

Office of the United States Attorney for the

Western District of Texas. The judge in the

Harrelson and Chagra case, William

Sessions, once served as United States

Attorney for the Western District from 1971

to 1974. The Western District takes great

pride in the fact that today Judge Sessions

serves as the Director of the Federal Bureau

of Investigation.

Early Years

Another well-known former United

States Attorney was Richard B. Hubbard,

the first to hold the office upon the creation

of the district in 1857. Hubbard, a native of

Georgia, graduated from Mercer University

at the age of 17. After serving as United

States Attorney, Hubbard was elected to the

state legislature in 1858, and in 1873 and

1876 as Lieutenant Governor. He became

the governor of Texas when Richard Coke

resigned the office to run for the United

States Senate. President Cleveland named

Hubbard the Minister to Japan in 1885. The

former United States Attorney was

extremely popular in Texas and forged a

reputation as an eloquent speaker. Accounts
Headquarters: San Antonio

Branch Offices: El Paso, Austin, Midland

52 Assistant United States Attorneys

of that time stated, “no occasion in Texas is

considered complete unless the ex-governor

is heard from.”

Hijacking Statute Approved

One of the most significant cases

prosecuted in the Western District occurred

in the early 1960's. According to newspaper

reports, the case was the “first crime of its

kind in world history.”

On August 3, 1961, Leon Bearden and

his son, Cody Bearden, boarded a

Continental Airlines Boeing 707 aircraft in

Phoenix, Arizona. Each had purchased a

ticket to El Paso under an assumed name.

During the flight, Bearden and his son

brandished firearms and announced to the

pilot and crew that they were taking

command of the aircraft. They ordered the

pilot to proceed to Mexico and eventually to

Cuba. The crew of the plane changed

course slightly but managed to return to

their original course within a few minutes

without detection. The pilot then convinced

the Beardens that the plane did not have

enough fuel to reach Mexico and persuaded

them to allow the plane to land in El Paso

before proceeding to Cuba.

When the plane landed, law enforcement

authorities directed that refueling

procedures be delayed intentionally.

Bearden panicked and ordered the plane

aloft before refueling had been complete.

Direct orders had come from President

Kennedy, however, that the plane not be

allowed to leave. As a result, police officers

in automobiles pursued the departing

airplane down the runway and shot out the

tires of the plane. Several officers then

boarded the aircraft and began six hours of

negotiations with the Beardens. Suddenly,

one of the hostages hit the older Bearden,

while an FBI negotiator jumped the

younger-one. The father and son were

arrested without further incident.

Leon Bearden was charged with having

violated federal kidnapping, theft, and

commerce obstruction charges. United

States Attorney Ernest Morgan personally

tried the case. Bearden was found guilty on

all three counts and sentenced to prison for

life, five years and twenty years on the

respective charges. As a result of this case,

on September 5, 1961, Public Law 87-197,

also known as the “Hijacking Statute,” was

approved. It defined “aircraft piracy” and

made it punishable by death or by

imprisonment for not less than 20 years.
DISTRICT OF UTAH

Dee V. Benson, United States Attorney

The early history of the United States

Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah is

intertwined with the early religious history

of the State of Utah. Although the first

United States Attorney, Seth Blair, was a

Mormon, the efforts of his successors

centered on combating the Mormon

Church’s belief in polygamy. Passage of an

anti-polygamy law by the United States

Congress, combined with the finding of

United States v. Reynolds in 1879, provided

enforcement power for United States

Attorneys to prosecute those who practiced

polygamy as a religious belief.

The fervor in prosecuting polygamy

began in earnest under the direction of

United States Attorney William H. Dickson,

who served from 1884 to 1887. Dickson

prosecuted numerous well-known and

respected Mormons for polygamy, which

resulted in their imprisonment in the Utah

Territorial Penitentiary. Another United

States Attorney, George Peters, who served

from 1887 to 1889, became famous for his

extensive work against the polygamists in

Utah prior to statehood. He was responsible

for the conviction of more than 600

Mormon leaders and instituted a suit which

resulted in the church’s dis-incorporation

and the annulment of its charter. His

successful prosecution also resulted in the

inclusion of an anti-polygamy article into

the code of law for the new State of Utah.

Peters’ success in the polygamy cases

brought him national recognition and

reputation. With the passage of Utah into

statehood, prosecutions for polygamy

abated and ended.

Moyle Modernizes Printing And Engraving

Another United States Attorney, Henry

Moyle, who served this district for a short

period of time in 1921, made his greatest

contribution while associated with the

United States Department of the Treasury.

As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and

later as Acting Secretary, Moyle was

responsible for the changeover in the

Bureau of Printing and Engraving from the

old hand presses to high speed printing

equipment. He also initiated the issuance of

smaller sized paper, currency and abolished

the use of national bank notes. Moyle was

the founder of the Democratic Party in Utah

and later became the Commissioner of the

United States Bureau of Customs. In an

interesting footnote to history, Moyle, the

son of the chief contractor of the Mormon

Temple in Salt Lake City, exerted great

effort in securing the construction of a

second temple in Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court Justice Attacked

In 1982, a rather unusual incident

occurred in this District when Newton C.

Estes was indicted for assaulting Supreme

Court Justice Byron White. White was

preparing to address a meeting of the Utah

State Bar in Salt Lake City when the attack

occurred. This was probably the first case

in memory where a United States Supreme

Court Justice had been attacked.
Headquarters: Salt Lake City

17 Assistant United States Attorneys

Among the polygamists confined in the Utah Territorial Penitentiary in the late

1880s were George Q. Cannon (wearing hat, standing in doorway), first counselor

in the LDS First Presidency, and Apostle Francis M. Lyman (wearing street

clothes).

Polygamists in the Utah Territorial Penitentiary in the late 1880s

Dial-A-Porn Prosecution

From the prosecution of polygamists to

white collar crime, the District of Utah has

experienced a wide range of cases. In the

first successful dial-a-porn prosecution in

the country, the United States Attorney’s

office for this District obtained guilty pleas

in 1987 by Adult Entertainment Network,

Inc. of Los Angeles, to federal charges of

distributing sexually-oriented dial-a-porn

services in 12 different cities from Los

Angeles to New York City. Records of the

company showed that up to 2.8 million calls

were being made each month to these

services. Investigation further showed that

the majority of the callers were children

ranging from 10 to 16 years of age. The

United States Attorney’s office initiated the

case when calls were placed in the summer

of 1986 by two young boys who were

residents of Utah.

Other cases prosecuted by the district

include those involving white collar crime.

The United States Attorney’s office has

secured the conviction of such notable

defendants as AFCO Enterprises,

International Clearinghouse, and other

well-known large multi-level pyramid

schemes.
DISTRICT OF VERMONT

George J. Terwilliger, III, United States Attorney

One of the first Districts to be created in

the years immediately following the

approval of the United States Constitution

and the formation of the new federal

government, Vermont has profited from the

services of 30 individuals as its United

States Attorneys. Many distinguished

individuals are included among this group,

and their record of public service is an

exemplary one. Of these 30 United States

Attorneys, 17 have been members of the

Vermont legislature, five served on the

Vermont Supreme Court, one as the state’s

Governor, and three were elected to the

United States Congress. Vermont’s first

United States Attorney, Stephen Jacob,

served from 1791 to 1797. In what ranks as

one of the longest tenures for a United

States Attorney, Joseph A. McNamara

served Vermont and the nation for 20 years

beginning in 1933.

Reflecting the key role that Vermont’s

international waterway, Lake Champlain,

played in commercial and military affairs in

the early history of the country, one of

Vermont’s most interesting United States

Attorneys, Cornelius P. Van Ness

(1810-1813), resigned his position in 1813

(during the War of 1812) to accept an

appointment as a Collector of Customs at

the Port of Burlington. Van Ness later

suggested the plan which led to the

country’s present system of choosing

Presidential electors. He was also one of

the commissioners responsible for settling

the boundary line between the United States

and British-held territory under the Treaty

of Ghent.

Titus Hutchinson served as Vermont’s

United States Attorney beginning in 1813.

Later he was elected Assistant Judge of the

state’s Supreme Court and was elected chief

judge in 1830. He served in that position

until 1833, when he was defeated due

largely to public disapproval of his conduct

in the murder case United States v.

Cleveland. In this case he sentenced the

defendant to be executed, and then

scheduled a hearing on the exceptions taken

during the trial--five months after the

execution had been scheduled.

Border Attraction

Vermont’s border with Canada and its

traditional commercial connections with the

City of Montreal have brought many

interesting cases to the Office’s docket.

These have ranged from a counterfeit

money smuggling case, described in 1950 as

a “dark tale of smuggling and passing

counterfeit bills,” to a case in the 1980's

involving the smuggling of a bomb into the

country by three members of a Middle

Eastern terrorist group operating in Canada.

The latter case was personally prosecuted by

George Terwilliger, III, the current United

States Attorney for the District of Vermont.

On October 18, 1987, three Lebaneseborn Canadians tried to smuggle a powerful

explosive device into the United States near

the port of entry at Richford, Vermont.

Testimony at the four-day trial in United

States District Court in Burlington revealed

that the three defendants had traveled from

Montreal to the rural Canadian-Vermont

border. One of the defendants, Walid

Kabbani, walked across the border upon the

Canadian-Pacific railroad tracks behind the

port carrying the explosive device, while the

other two defendants entered the United

States by van at the port. The Chief, and

only member of the Richford, Vermont,

Police Department, interrupted the crime
Headquarters: Burlington

Branch Office: Rutland

10 Assistant United States Attorneys

when he came upon the group reuniting

following their entry.

Following the arrest of the defendants,

the Chief recovered a black nylon bag

containing the explosive device, a black

hooded mask, surgical gloves and tools.

The prosecution of the three defendants

included videotaped depositions of

Canadian witnesses who refused to come to

the United States. The depositions were

taken at a library which straddles the

Vermont-Canada border. The parties sat at

a table within the United States and posed

their questions to the witnesses located in

Canada across the table. In addition, the

jury was shown a videotape test explosion

of the device reconstructed by the FBI’s

explosive device section. The device, which

consisted of two propane cylinders packed

with smokeless gunpowder, was capable of

causing death and destruction within its

general area. The three defendants were

convicted of violating federal explosives

laws and immigration laws.

The defendants were members of the

Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a Middle

Eastern group advocating the creation of a

Greater Syria and using terrorist activities to

further their political goals. While the

destination of the three was never revealed,

it was argued that the defendants undertook

their actions for ideological reasons. A

successful prosecution was obtained on all

three defendants as a result of the work done

by the United States Attorney’s Office for

the District of Vermont, with assistance

from the FBI’s Burlington Resident Agency

and the United States Border Patrol.

The District of Vermont conducts many

joint investigations with law enforcement

officials throughout the state. A typical

example is a recent case involving six

defendants indicted for drug conspiracy

violations and the operation of a continuing

criminal enterprise. This was a joint

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task

Force investigation involving the FBI, DEA,

and the Vermont State Police. The drug

operation brought 20 kilograms of cocaine

per month into Vermont for distribution.

This represented an investment of at least $2

million per month by Vermont users,

significantly more if some dilution of these

otherwise pure drugs is taken into account.
DISTRICT OF VIRGIN ISLANDS

Terry Halpern, United States Attorney

The District of the Virgin Islands was

created by Act of Congress in 1936, and in

1937 James A. Bough was appointed to

serve as the first United States Attorney.

Bough, a native of the Virgin Islands,

served until 1946 when he resigned to

accept a post at the newly created United

Nations as Chief of the Caribbean Area. In

1966, Bough was named Assistant Attorney

General for the Government of the Virgin

Islands. An accomplished author, Bough

was chosen in 1971 as Legal Counsel for the

Governor of the Virgin Islands.

“Kiko” - One Of The Youngest United

States Attorneys

Francisco Corneiro, or “Kiko” as he was

known to his friends, succeeded Bough as

United States Attorney. When he was

appointed by President Truman in 1947, he

was 28 years old and one of the youngest

United States Attorneys ever appointed.

Corneiro had been an attorney in the

Division of Territories and Possessions of

the Department of the Interior in

Washington, D.C., and had assisted in the

revision of the 1936 Virgin Islands Organic

Act. Following his appointment as United

States Attorney, Corneiro became the

Attorney General for the Virgin Islands, and

he was responsible for the Territory’s Civil

Rights Act, an act reputed to be one of the

toughest in the nation, and the model for

similar legislation in several other states.

In 1951, Cyril Michael was appointed as

United States Attorney for this District.

Michael previously had served in the United

States Navy for 16 years as an accomplished

musician with one of the highly acclaimed

Navy bands. In 1954, he resigned as United

States Attorney to begin a long career as a

jurist in the local courts for the government

of the Virgin Islands.

When Leon P. Miller arrived on St.

Thomas as Michael’s replacement, a rather

embarrassing situation occurred. Miller

discovered that word of his appointment had

not reached the United States District Judge

who would administer the oath. A quick

telegram settled the matter before the Judge

exercised his authority of appointing an

Acting United States Attorney. During

Miller’s tenure, the position of Attorney

General for the Virgin Islands was created,

which relieved the United States Attorney’s

office of tending to all cases occurring

within the territorial boundaries of the

Virgin Islands. During Miller’s service, he

was partially responsible for the codification

of the laws of the Islands.

President John F. Kennedy appointed

Almeric L. Christian as United States

Attorney for the Virgin Islands in 1962,

where he continued to serve until his

appointment as Judge of the United States

District Court of the Virgin Islands.

Christian later became Chief Judge in 1970

and Senior District Judge in 1988. Upon

Christian’s resignation, Vincent A. Colianni

became Acting United States Attorney.
Headquarters: St. Thomas

Branch Office: St. Croix

13 Assistant United States Attorneys

U.S. Attorney Wins Case And Resigns

Robert M. Carney was named United

States Attorney in 1969. Carney

experienced a court trial which received

such national and local attention that United

States Marshals were brought in from the

mainland for protection. The case involved

robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon,

assault on a member of the police force with

a dangerous weapon, and carrying a

dangerous weapon. The defendant, a native

from St. Croix, allegedly had committed the

above offenses on November 18, 1967, in

Washington, D.C., and was arrested on his

home island of St. Croix on an unlawful

flight warrant. The case was tried on St.

Thomas because of a change of venue from

St. Croix. The climate of unrest among the

young people in the states seemed to have

permeated the Virgin Islands. The trial

created tension and animosity never before

seen or felt on these Islands. United States

Attorney Carney was very apprehensive.

The trial drew hundreds of young people

from all Islands, including college students

on vacation break. The defendant was

convicted on his plea of guilty for robbery,

in violation of Section 22-2901 of Chapter

29 of the District of Columbia Code.

Carney resigned on January 5, 1971, less

than two months after the District Court

trial.

Fountain Valley Murders

Another widely publicized case in the

Virgin Islands occurred in 1973 in which

eight persons were murdered and four others

wounded at the Fountain Valley Golf

Course in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. The

incident occurred when United States

Attorney Joel Sacks was out of the country.

Responding to the immediate needs of the

investigation, Assistant United States

Attorney Julio Brady laid the groundwork

for the trial that followed. Not too long

before the trial and before a very important

suppression hearing, Sacks advised Brady

that he (Brady) would handle the trial

himself. At the same time, Sacks

announced his resignation. Subsequently,

Brady, without participating in the 1

1/2-month-long suppression hearing, was

handed one of the most important trials ever

processed in the Virgin Islands just one

week before commencement of trial. As a

result, Brady was nominated for the

Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished

Service for his successful prosecution of the

case.

Judge Ishmal Myers, who served as

Assistant to Brady, also received a Special

Achievement Award issued by the Attorney

General. The award was presented to Myers

for his outstanding performance as Assistant

United States Attorney in 1975, when

Myers was the only Assistant in the Virgin

Islands for several months. Myers followed

Brady as United States Attorney in 1978

serving until 1982 when he was appointed

as Judge of the Territorial Court of the

Virgin Islands.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Henry E. Hudson, United States Attorney

John Marshall

As one of the original 13 judicial

districts established in 1789, the State of

Virginia comprised one judicial district.

The terms of District Court were held in

both Richmond and Williamsburg, however.

In 1820 the capital of Virginia was moved

from Williamsburg to Richmond resulting in

the term of District Court also being moved

from Williamsburg. Norfolk became the

second location for District Court which

aided in the Court’s jurisdiction over

admiralty cases.

In 1871, the District of Virginia,

recently divested of its jurisdiction over

West Virginia, was divided into two

districts. At that time, the Eastern District

came into existence with terms of court

meeting at Richmond, Alexandria, and

Norfolk. Another term was added in 1948

in Newport News.

John Marshall

John Marshall appears in the records as

the first United States Attorney for the

District of Virginia. From all historical

accounts, President Washington offered

Marshall the post in 1789. Marshall never

took the oath of office, however, but

remained in Richmond to become the leader

of the Federalist Party. Later, John Adams

nominated Marshall as Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court. Marshall was confirmed by

the Senate in 1801 and served in that

position for 34 years.

Many prominent United States

Attorneys followed John Marshall as United

States Attorney for the District of Virginia.

William Wirt, who served from 1816 to

1817, was a most accomplished author

known in his time for his volume, Letters of

a British Spy. In 1807, he was appointed

counsel in the trial of Aaron Burr for

treason. During that trial, he delivered a

four-hour speech, the eloquence of which

gained him national attention. In 1817,

President Monroe appointed him United

States Attorney General, where he remained

until 1829. Wirt ran for President of the

United States on the anti-Masonic ticket in

1832.

John M. Gregory
EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Henry E. Hudson, United States Attorney

John M. Gregory became the United

States Attorney for the District of Virginia

in 1853. Prior to that time, he had been the

24th Governor of Virginia. Gregory

resigned as United States Attorney in 1860

when he was elected as judge of the Sixth

Judicial Circuit of Virginia. Gregory served

in that position until federal authorities

displaced him in 1866 after the war.

Two former United States Attorneys

from the Eastern District won election to the

United States Congress. John S. Wise, who

served from 1882 to 1883, was elected in

1882, and his successor, Edmund Waddill

was elected in 1890. Waddill, United States

Attorney for the district from 1883 to 1885,

was appointed in 1898 as the United States

District Judge for the Eastern District, and

elevated in 1921 to the United States Court

of Appeals.

Jefferson Davis Indicted For Treason

In 1866, the United States Attorney for

the Eastern District, Lucius H. Chandler,

indicted Jefferson Davis, former President

of the Confederacy, for treason. Davis had

been captured by Union troops near

Irwinville, Georgia, in 1865 and had been

held prisoner in Fort Monroe, Virginia, but

was released on bail in 1867. He was never

brought to trial, however, because of legal

difficulties.

Groner Appointed Three Times

Lawrence D. Groner was appointed

United States Attorney for the Eastern

District of Virginia three separate times.

His first appointment was from 1912 to

1914, his second in 1920, and a third in

1921, thus becoming both the predecessor

and successor of Julien Gunn, who served

from 1920 to 1921. Groner went on to

become District Judge in 1921, Judge to the

District of Columbia Court of Appeals in

1931, and in 1937 Chief Justice. While

District Judge, Groner presided over a case

involving the constitutionality of a

Richmond law that prohibited blacks from

purchasing property in areas dominated by

whites. Groner struck down the Richmond

law and later did the same to a voting law

which allowed political parties to deny

blacks voting access in primary elections.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

John Perry Alderman, United States Attorney

The State of Virginia was divided into

separate judicial districts in 1871, giving

rise to the Western District of Virginia. In

that year, Warren S. Lurty was

commissioned as United States Attorney.

Lurty, a cousin of Stonewall Jackson, had

begun the practice of law in Virginia in

1860 at the age of 21. Years later, Lurty

was appointed by President Grant to be the

first United States Marshal of Oklahoma.

Many other accomplished people

followed Lurty in the Office of the United

States Attorney for the Western District,

including Andrew J. Montague, who was

commissioned in 1893. He resigned office

in 1898 and won election as Attorney

General for the State of Virginia and from

1902 to 1906 served as the state’s governor.

Montague was very involved in other forms

of public service, such as serving as

President of the American Society for

Judicial Settlement of International Disputes

in 1917, Trustee of the Carnegie Institute,

and President of the American Peace

Society from 1920 to 1924.

Richard E. Byrd

From a historical standpoint, Richard E.

Byrd may well be the most noteworthy

United States Attorney from the Western

District of Virginia. His colorful

personality and skillful accomplishments

made him a prominent figure in Virginia’s

history. Shortly after graduating from law

school, Byrd won election as the

Commonwealth’s Attorney for Frederick

County and held that office for 20 years. In

1906, he was elected to the Virginia House

of Delegates, becoming Speaker of the

House two years later. In a daring move at

the Democratic National Convention in

1912, Byrd took a stand against both

Virginia Senators and other powerful

politicians by favoring Woodrow Wilson.

To demonstrate his gratitude, President

Wilson consulted Byrd about many federal

appointments, and in 1914 appointed him

United States Attorney for the Western

District.

Byrd was considered to be a most

competent trial attorney and eloquent

speaker. As a prosecutor, he was undaunted

by violence or social power. In two

separate incidents, Byrd assumed the

responsibility of prosecuting murder cases

involving first the “hill people” of Virginia,

and later a prominent family in the state.

Local and state officials had failed to

address the crimes, fearing the mountain

people as well as the political and social

influence of an eminent family. Byrd also

became known through the

accomplishments of two of his sons, Harry

F. Byrd, who became a United States

Senator, and Admiral Richard Byrd, Jr., the

first man to fly over the South Pole.

The “Franklin County Moonshine Trial”

One of the most significant cases for the

Western District of Virginia occurred in

1935. The jury for the “Franklin County

Moonshine Trial” returned a guilty verdict

against 20 of the 35 original defendants on

July 2, 1935. The trial lasted 50 days and

was reported to be at that time the second

longest trial ever held in Virginia. Only the

trial of Aaron Burr for treason had taken

longer. Frank S. Tavenner, Assistant United

States Attorney, prosecuted the case along

with Special Prosecutor Sterling Hutcheson,

United States Attorney for the Eastern
Headquarters: Roanoke

Branch Office: Abington

12 Assistant United States Attorneys

District of Virginia. Joseph Chitwood,

United States Attorney for the Western

District, removed himself from the case,

because he was from Franklin County.

The defendants were charged with

conspiracy to violate internal revenue laws

through the illegal manufacture,

transportation, and sale of liquor. At the

defense counsel’s table were a dozen

lawyers, one of the largest legal groups ever

assembled for one case at the time. The

United States Attorney’s Office produced

evidence showing that more than 35 tons of

yeast were consumed in Franklin County,

nine times that used in Richmond, a city

containing almost eight times as many

people. The level of corruption faced by the

prosecution was evident from the list of

defendants: a former sheriff of Franklin

County, three deputy sheriffs, state and

federal prohibition agents, a former Deputy

County Treasurer, a former member of the

Virginia General Assembly, and a

Commonwealth’s Attorney. The

prosecution and trial consumed 26 days

before the grand jury and 51 consecutive

days in the trial, costing between $25,000

and $50,000. In spite of open criticism of

the government concerning the expense of

prosecuting the case, it was the opinion of

the United States Attorney that “the

government itself was being defied and that

a successful conclusion must result

regardless of cost.” Fines imposed in the

case exceeded $50,000, and collection

efforts were given more than ordinary

attention due to the great cost of the trial.

Evangelist Mario Ivan “Tony” Levya

In 1987, the Roanoke Resident Agency

of the FBI, together with the United States

Attorney’s office, began an intensive multistate investigation into the activities of

traveling evangelist, Mario Ivan “Tony”

Levya. Information was received from the

Roanoke County Sheriff’s Department that

Levya was sexually molesting male minors

after persuading them to join his

organization and travel with him. Levya

and members of his ministry were convicted

as charged and received from 12 to 20

years’ imprisonment. Extensive publicity

surrounded the case, with coverage by such

diverse media as The New York Times, The

Globe, and Geraldo Rivera’s television

show.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

John E. Lamp, United States Attorney

When Congress established the Territory

of Washington in 1853, almost all of its

citizens resided on the west side of the

Cascade Mountains. Approximately 15

years later, when the Territory was divided

into two districts, the Eastern District

included that part of the state east of the

summit of the Cascades. John S. Clendenin

was appointed to serve as the first United

States Attorney for the Territory of

Washington on March 21, 1853. Since

Clendenin’s appointment, those who served

the district have exhibited committed

leadership and conducted a wide variety of

successful prosecutions.

John B. Allen was one of the last United

States Attorneys to serve the Eastern

District before statehood in 1889. Allen

received appointment as United States

Attorney in 1875 by President Grant, and

continued to serve the District through

reappointments by Presidents Hayes and

Garfield. He was elected to the United

States Congress in 1888, but before he could

take office, Washington was granted

statehood which resulted in Allen’s election

as the state’s first senator. Allen served in

the United States Senate until 1893.

Chief Of Yakima Indian Tribe

Francis A. Garrecht was elected to the

State House of Representatives in 1911,

thus beginning a distinguished career which

continued with his commissioning as United

States Attorney in 1914. He served the

district for seven years before returning to

private practice. In 1933, Garrecht became

the legal adviser to the governor of

Washington, and in that same year was

appointed judge of the United States Court

of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. During his

service as United States Attorney, Garrecht

became well known for his protection of the

rights of the American Indian.

In Northern Pacific Railway Company v.

Misner, Garrecht was responsible for the

restoration of 64,000 acres to the Spokane

Indian Reservation. In another case,

Garrecht argued against the State of

Washington concerning the prosecution and

conviction of Yakima Indians for violating

fishing rights in the Columbia River. The

convictions were upheld by the State

Supreme Court. During appeal, however,

the state legislature passed a law restoring

the fishing rights of the Indians under treaty,

a law due largely to the efforts of Garrecht.

For his role in securing their rights, the

Yakima Indians adopted the United States

Attorney as a brother and made him a chief

of their tribe-in 1921.

Near Miss

Not all United States Attorneys have

received such praise for their work. Frank

R. Freeman served the Eastern District from

1961 to 1965. In an incident stemming from

one of his cases, Freeman faced death when

a bomb constructed from dynamite, blasting

caps, and a spring-type rat trap was

delivered to his home. He opened the

delivered box which he thought was a trick

birthday gift. He narrowly escaped death

when he held down the top of the box

preventing the trap arm from striking the

blasting caps with full force. The bomb had

been delivered by a distraught father of a

young man Freeman had tried for draft

evasion. A jury later acquitted the father

because of his mental condition.
Headquarters: Spokane

Branch Office: Yakima

11 Assistant United States Attorneys

Davenport Hotel Case

Another case in which the United States

Attorney’s office took part involved the

Davenport Hotel of Spokane. The hotel was

nationally known for its practice of washing

silver dollars for its customers. Famous for

its architecture, the landmark hotel had long

been a prized possession of the people of the

district. Harlow Tucker, a local promoter,

formed a corporation and sold stock to the

public under the guise that the money would

be used for renovation of the old hotel. Of

course, many people were willing to support

such an effort, but few realized that the

corporation owned no equity in the

Davenport Hotel itself. What they thought

were ownership interests were in fact

unsecured loans for the rehabilitation of the

hotel. The public lost approximately

$5,000,000. Tucker pleaded guilty after

several weeks of trial after which he was

sentenced to prison.

Oxborrow Case

In another fraud case, Kenneth D.

Oxborrow sold commodity futures to a

thousand residents of the Eastern District

and surrounding states. Oxborrow

encouraged their investment through

guarantees of two percent per week in

profits. During the several years of

operation, the scheme brought in

$58,000,000. Oxborrow during that time

had returned some $40,000,000 to investors.

This classic “Ponzi” scheme ended when the

State of Washington and the Securities and

Exchange Commission began

investigations. Oxborrow went to the

United States Attorney’s office in 1984 and

arranged a plea, whereupon he was

sentenced to prison. Two confederates

pleaded guilty on the first day set for their

trial.

In recent years, narcotics cases have

dominated the district’s caseload, but major

securities and tax fraud cases also have

appeared. Civil cases have involved matters

such as malpractice defenses related to the

large Strategic Air Command base in the

District. Civil litigation also has included

large farm and forest areas and development

based on the Columbia River, which bisects

the district.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

Michael D. McKay, United States Attorney

The United States Attorney’s Office for

the District of Washington was formed in

1893, four years after Washington had

joined the Union. Located in Seattle’s

historic Pioneer Square, the Office was

comprised of United States Attorney W. H.

Brinker and one assistant who prepared

cases to be heard by the Honorable

Cornelius H. Hanford, the only district

judge in the state at the time. Twenty years

later, Washington State was divided along

the crest of the Cascade Mountains into the

Western and Eastern Districts.

During the Alaska gold rush, when

prospectors came to the area to prepare for

their difficult journey north, Seattle grew

from a sleepy lumber, fishing, and

fur-trapping town into a booming city. In

addition to prospectors, Seattle was the

destination of thousands of Chinese laborers

who were rushed into the area to build the

Burlington Northern Railroad system and

toil in tuna and salmon canneries.

Earlier Cases

One of the earliest civil matters brought

in federal court was a petition on behalf of

a Mr. Ah Yow, a prominent restauranteur

who had left Seattle to visit his homeland.

Upon return, he was denied entry into the

United States by the Collector of Customs.

The case focused on whether Mr. Ah Yow

was a member of the privileged “merchant”

class allowed entry into the United States, or

merely a laborer. United States Attorney

Brinker successfully argued that a

restauranteur is “a caterer, who keeps a

place for serving meals, and provides,

prepares, and cooks raw materials to suit the

tastes of his patrons,” whereas a merchant is

one who sells pre-manufactured goods. A

restauranteur is not a merchant but a laborer,

Brinker said, and Mr. Ah Yow was,

therefore, barred from coming into the

United States, as are “all Chinese persons

who follow such callings.” Judge Hanford

agreed, denied the petition, and Mr. Ah

Yow returned to China.

That same year, Judge Hanford quashed

an indictment charging a Mr. Jarvis with

sending, by mail, a private sealed letter of

an indecent character. Mr. Jarvis had

characterized the recipient of the letter as

“The Notorious” on the envelope. Judge

Hanford found that this epithet, “though

presumably offensive to the person

addressed, is not, per se, indecent.” He

went on to describe various circumstances

whereby the words could be used in a

noninjurious way: “A man may be a

notorious wit,” Judge Hanford said, and “the

epithet would be considered by those

acquainted with (the man’s) reputation as

being in bad taste, but not as implying any

bad imputation.”

The United States Attorney’s office was

thrust into the forefront of law enforcement

in Western Washington with the advent of

prohibition. Not only was Seattle a major

distribution center for smuggled Canadian

whiskey in the 1920's, but its dense forests

and rugged terrain were ideal for moonshine

distilleries. In a one-year period alone,

prohibition officers seized 361 cars, two

boats, 479 distilleries, 261 beer fermenters,

more than 13,000 gallons of beer, and

24,000 gallons of spirits. The citizens of

Seattle were not nearly as disturbed by this

bootleg activity as they were when two

agents set fire to a distillery and the flames

spread, eventually engulfing and destroying
Headquarters: Seattle

Branch Office: Tacoma

32 Assistant United States Attorneys

four nearby houses. Because the

homeowners had no recourse, the incident

became a topic of public outrage, requiring

an unprecedented visit to Seattle by the

Director of the United States Prohibition

Service, A. W. W. Woodstock. To the

dismay of Seattle’s citizenry, the Director

officially reprimanded, but did not dismiss,

the agents for their errors in judgment.

As the district grew in population

through the years, the Office expanded to

include 31 Assistants and 36 support

personnel. In addition, a small branch

office was established in Tacoma charged

with handling crimes committed south of

the King-Pierce County border. On

average, the Assistants have 12 years of

tenure with the office, and many have

served as government attorneys for more

than 20 years.

Strong Inter Agency Cooperation

Under the direction of Gene S.

Anderson, a career federal and state

government prosecutor who served one of

the longest terms as United States Attorney

in the district (1981-1989), the Office

directed much of its energy and resources to

prosecuting complex white collar crime,

gang-related drug crime, and environmental

crime. These task forces have been

successful due to the excellent working

relationship between the office and federal,

state, and local law enforcement agencies in

the district.

One direct result of this strong

inter-agency cooperation was the indictment

of a company charged with criminal

negligence. The Pennwalt Corporation had

stored toxic chemicals in rusted tanks which

subsequently collapsed, dumping their

contents untreated into the public sewer

system. Pennwalt’s officers entered guilty

pleas and agreed to pay $1.9 million in

fines. Another positive outgrowth of

inter-agency cooperation was the formation

in 1987 of the Los Angeles Street Gang

Task Force. This group, headed by the

Office’s then Criminal Division Chief and

later United States Attorney David E.

Wilson, is charged with responding to the

unprecedented increase in drug-related

crime and violence seen in metropolitan

areas due to the influx of Los Angeles-based

Crips and Bloods gang members.
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA

William A. Kolibash, United States Attorney

On July 1, 1901, Reese Blizzard was

appointed the first United States Attorney

for the Northern District of West Virginia.

He had been the last to serve as United

States Attorney for the unified District of

West Virginia.

Blizzard displayed abilities in a number

of professions before entering the field of

law. He was a school teacher, a newspaper

owner and editor, and true to his name,

dabbled in the manufacture of ice. He then

entered the study of law and eventually

became the United States Attorney for the

Northern District of West Virginia, a

position he held for nine years. Blizzard

later became Circuit Judge for the Fourth

Judicial Circuit of West Virginia. In 1931,

he was selected as a member of the

President’s Unemployment Commission.

Blizzard became the first of many who have

served the Northern District with

competence and dedication.

Other people have followed in the

Office of the United States Attorney for the

District and contributed their skills and

commitment to the protection of federal

interests. Stuart Walker served in the West

Virginia House of Representatives before

joining the unified District of West Virginia

as an Assistant United States Attorney in

1893. Walker later served the unified

District of West Virginia as United States

Attorney in addition to serving in the same

capacity for the Northern District. In 1912,

he became the Chairman of the West

Virginia Democratic Committee.

Arthur Arnold received commission as

United States Attorney for the Northern

District on March 1, 1926. He previously

had served as the Prosecuting Attorney for

Mineral County and later as Piedmont City.

Attorney. During his tenure as United

States Attorney from 1926 to 1934, he was

elected Vice President of the West Virginia

Bar. Former United States Attorney C. Lee

Spillers served in various capacities of local

government before coming to the Northern

District. From 1936 to 1940 he served as

the Prosecuting Attorney for Ohio County.

He also served as sheriff and court judge for

Ohio County, West Virginia. In 1935 he

was elected to the West Virginia State

Senate and was appointed United States

Attorney in 1947.

OCDETF Success

In recent years, the Northern District of

West Virginia has been the site of increased

drug traffic due to its geographical

proximity to both the East Coast and the

Midwest. In cooperation with the

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task

Force (OCDETF), the Northern District

prosecuted many significant drug cases in

the early 1980's, including that of Carl Lee

Gallo.

Gallo was indicted, along with 45 other

individuals, in a massive investigation into

a drug distribution and racketeering group in

Clarksburg, West Virginia. The first report

prepared by the Department of Justice for

the President and Congress on the

effectiveness of OCDETF cited the Gallo

case as an example of what the new

program could accomplish. The United

States Attorney’s office for this district and

OCDETF have prosecuted and put out of

business more than 500 individuals

convicted of drug trafficking.
Headquarters: Wheeling

Branch Offices: Elkins, Clarksburg

10 Assistant United States Attorneys

City Off Martinsburg Returned To The

People

 One of the most celebrated cases to

come out of the Northern District of West

Virginia occurred during the tenure of

United States Attorney William Kolibash.

The February 1989 edition of the popular

publication, Reader’s Digest, described the

cases in an article entitled, “Crack Invades

the Countryside.” With the help of a

reformed addict turned-informant, United

States Attorney Kolibash, OCDETF, the

FBI, and West Virginia State Police

returned the City of Martinsburg to the

people.

Before the investigation and subsequent

prosecutions, law-abiding citizens

complained of being unable to walk outside

their homes without hearing gunshots or

being approached by dealers with a ready

sales pitch. Drug dealers walked the streets

openly in Martinsburg displaying their guns

used for protection. As quoted in the article

(pp. 8081), the informant had once seen

basketball-size chunks of pure cocaine

stored in the “safe houses” in Martinsburg.

“There was so much coke lying around,” the

informant said, “your eyes stung when you

walked in.”

The investigation team sprung the trap

just before dawn on October 16, 1986.

Twenty five arrest teams and two SWAT

squads arrested 48 known drug dealers. The

United States Attorney’s Office lived up to

its responsibility in the investigation by

securing the conviction of 47 of the 48

defendants.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA

Michael W. Carey, United States Attorney

“Babies were Linda German’s

Obsession – Was She Crazy or Just Madly

in Love?” So read the headline in the March

1989 issue of People Magazine about a

most tragic case that occurred in the

Southern District of West Virginia. The

defendant in the case, Linda Lou German,

had stolen a day-old infant girl from its

hospital crib. In an elaborate scheme,

German claimed she was pregnant and had

given birth to the child. She had even

entered a Lamaze class just two months

before her crime. In the trial, the defense

claimed that German suffered from

pseudocyesis, a psychosomatic condition in

which physical symptoms of pregnancy

occur without conception. However, the

United States Attorney’s office argued

otherwise, pointing to the defendant’s

elaborate premeditation and obsession with

a former boyfriend which had led to her

crime. In less than one hour, the jury agreed

with the prosecution.

The United States Attorney’s office for

the Southern District of West Virginia

successfully prosecuted this and other cases

during its history. George W. Atkinson was

commissioned as the district’s first United

States Attorney. Atkinson had served as a

United States Marshal, in the United States

Congress, and in 1897 as the ninth governor

of the State of West Virginia. His

successor, Elliott Northcott, became

Minister to Colombia, as well as similar

diplomatic posts in Nicaragua and

Venezuela. Northcott returned to the United

States in 1922 and once again became the

United States Attorney for the Southern

District until 1927 when he was appointed

as judge for the United States Court of

Appeals for the Fourth Circuit where he

served for 12 years.

Harold A. Ritz was named to the

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

George Neal (1933) won election as Mayor

of the City of Huntington. Leslie E. Given

(1943) was named to the West Virginia

Supreme Court in 1950. Wayne A. Rich, Jr.

(1981) later became Acting Deputy Director

of the Executive Office for United States

Attorneys in Washington, D.C.

Varied Caseload

In 1968, under the leadership of Milton

Ferguson, this district began to focus on

public corruption. A well-known case

involved Cooney and Wig Preece, a small

town couple who ran Kermit, West Virginia,

like a business, a business that included

drugs. The situation was so corrupt that

when a state police officer was transferred

to the area, he described the situation as

“like I’d died and gone to hell” (November

14, 1988, People Magazine, p. 187). An

18-month investigation resulted in the

conviction of 68 people including police,

politicians, school board members, school

bus drivers, government employees, and

most of the Preece clan.

In 1974, Kanawha County was engulfed

in a school textbook protest against books

deemed by the protestors as secularistic,

immoral, and anti-law and order. The

protest included coal mine closings, school

boycotts, and the bombing of three

elementary schools and the County Board of

Education. A team of investigators from the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms,

the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, West

Virginia State Police, along with Assistant
Headquarters: Charleston

Branch Office: Huntington

19 Assistant United States Attorneys

United States Attorney Wayne A. Rich, Jr.,

prosecuted successfully the nine individuals

involved in the bombings, including

Reverend Marvin Horan, one of the

foremost leaders of the protest.

Two of the first continuing criminal

enterprise convictions in the country

occurred in this district. The cases involved

heroin drug kingpins Henry “Candyman”

Johnson and Donald “Precious” Whitaker in

Charleston during 1973. In Whitaker’s

operation, his customers were advised by

his dealers when heroin had arrived in town

by the code phrase, “the watermelon’s

cold.”

Under the supervision of United States

Attorney Warren Upton, five Logan County

officials were convicted in 1971 under the

first use of the federal civil rights statutes in

a vote fraud case. The defendants, widely

known as “the Logan County Five,”

included the county sheriff, deputy

sheriff/Democratic Party Chairman, two

elected clerks, and a state senator.

During 1978-1979, under United States

Attorney Robert B. King, 16 national liquor

companies and 25 of their executives were

convicted for illegally providing free liquor

primarily for West Virginia legislators and

the governor. One of those convicted was J.

Richard Barber, the West Virginia Alcohol

and Beverage Control Commissioner from

1970-1977. From 1971 through 1976

Barber illegally extracted more than 1,700

cases of liquor worth approximately

$67,000 from the state warehouse through

fraudulent withdrawal and breakage

schemes. He also received in excess of

$10,000 in bribes from certain liquor

companies for political purposes.

A 10-year investigation that spanned

four United States Attorneys (King, Rich,

David Faber, and Michael Carey) examined

fraudulent coal tax shelters resulting from

the mid-1970s oil crises. Under the name,

“Coalrel,” a team of IRS and FBI special

agents and federal prosecutors obtained

convictions of more than 30 individuals and

companies involved in the syndication of

tax shelters resulting in improper tax

deductions of approximately $375,000,000.

As a result of these convictions, the IRS

disallowed the deductions and commenced

collecting these monies, plus interest,

almost $750,000,000.

Former Governor William Wallace

Barron was convicted in 1971 of bribing the

jury foreman in his 1968 trial for bribery.

Of six individuals indicted, only Barron was

acquitted. Later investigation disclosed that

the governor had paid the jury foreman

$25,000 for the verdict. Ironically, the jury

at the time of the bribe had been the only

sequestered jury in the district for the last 30

years.
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

John E. Fryatt, United States Attorney

Headquartered in the City of

Milwaukee, the Eastern District of

Wisconsin has experienced the leadership of

very competent and dedicated individuals in

the Office of the United States Attorney.

From W. W. Chapman, the first United

States Attorney appointed to serve during

territorial days, the Office of the United

States Attorney has vigorously investigated

and prosecuted crimes committed against

the United States Government.

End Of Fee System For United States

Attorneys

One notable United States Attorney to

have served during the 19th Century was

John H. Wigman who was commissioned on

April 15, 1893. Born in Amsterdam,

Wigman came to America and settled in

Wisconsin. Early in his career he taught in

a mission school. The would-be school

teacher soon became interested in the law,

however, and began his studies to gain

admission to the Bar. Serving as United

States Attorney from 1893 to 1897, Wigman

successfully defended the government in a

locally popular case involving the right of

navigation on the Fox River. As a result of

his defense, he stopped the use by mill

owners of the water below a certain level

which would ultimately impede river traffic.

Wigman also was responsible to a great

degree for convincing Congress to end the

fee system used for years to pay United

States Attorneys and institute in its place a

fixed salary system. Wigman also assisted

in implementing the change to a fixed salary

for United States Marshals.

Guy D. Goff was the son of the

Secretary of the Navy under President

Hayes. Goff began his legal career as the

Prosecuting Attorney for the County of

Milwaukee. During that time, he became

known nationally for his relentless and

successful prosecution of a number of graft

cases. Goff was appointed as United States

Attorney for the Eastern District of

Wisconsin in 1911 and served until 1915

when he accepted the position of Special

Assistant to the Attorney General of the

United States.

As Special Assistant, he was put in

charge of prosecuting special cases that

occurred in the Northwest. When World

War I began in Europe, Goff became the

Assistant to the Judge Advocate General of

the Army, and as such served as a Colonel

on the staff of General “Blackjack”

Pershing. After the war, he again became a

Special Assistant to the United States

Attorney General responsible for handling

all cases submitted to the Department of

Justice by the Shipping Board. In the

1920's, he returned to his native West

Virginia where he was elected to the United

States Senate. Goff was highly respected

during his day. One report described him as

“a gifted orator, an untiring worker and a

man of inflexible integrity and outstanding

personality.”

President Herbert Hoover appointed

Edward J. Gehl as United States Attorney

on October 12, 1932. Gehl had proven

himself in World War I to be a person of

exemplary courage. He had fought in the

terrible Battle of the Argonne where he won

a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. In 1939,

Gehl became a Circuit Judge for the 13th

Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin and ten years

later was elevated to the Wisconsin

Supreme Court as an Associate Justice.
Headquarters: Milwaukee

22 Assistant United States Attorneys

Guy D. Goff

Most recently, former United States

Attorney for the Eastern District J. P.

Stadtmueller, who served from 1981 to

1987, became the United States District

Judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Tradition Off “Clean Government”

One of the distinctive features of the

Eastern District of Wisconsin over the years

has been the scarcity of public corruption.

Wisconsin’s tradition of “clean

government” deserves some of the credit for

this fact, but the Office of the United States

Attorney also has contributed to this record

through its determined efforts at

investigation and prosecution of the few

corruption cases that have been discovered.

In recent years, the Eastern District has

focused on multi-defendant drug

conspiracies aided by innovative

approaches. For instance, the Eastern

District of Wisconsin was the first in the

country to seize and operate an ongoing

business which was used by a defendant to

launder drug assets.

Through the use of such innovations and

the continuing hard work of the United

States Attorney’s Office, the Eastern

District of Wisconsin can expect its

reputation for clean government and life

style to continue for years to come.
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

Patrick J. Fiedler, United States Attorney

Wisconsin became the 13th state upon

its admission to the Union on May 29, 1848.

Twelve years prior to that time, however,

the United States Attorney’s Office had

been established during the territorial days

of Wisconsin with William Williams

Chapman appointed as the first United

States Attorney.

The Pioneering Spirit

Chapman, a native of Virginia, proved

to be a most interesting and adventurous

individual. One of the original settlers of

what is now Burlington, Iowa, he later

became one of the many pioneers who

trekked west to Oregon in 1847. Before

becoming United States Attorney for the

territory of Wisconsin in 1836, Chapman

had been the prosecuting attorney for the

territory of Michigan. He continued his

seeming habit of serving different states by

winning election in 1838 to the United

States Congress representing the Territory

of Iowa. Four years later, he was a delegate

to the constitutional convention for the State

of Iowa. After moving to Oregon, Chapman

became a member of the State’s House of

Representatives, thus becoming a leader in

four different states--Iowa, Oregon,

Michigan, and Wisconsin. Chapman is

remembered as the founder of the

Oregonian, the first newspaper established

in the Oregon territory, and he also served

as Surveyor General for that state in 1858.

Moses M. Strong succeeded Chapman

as United States Attorney for the Territory

of Wisconsin on July 5, 1838. He, too, was

a surveyor. He first served as Assistant,

then Deputy Surveyor for the State of

Vermont. He later received appointment as

Surveyor for the United States in

determining the boundaries of lands west of

the Mississippi River. Like Chapman,

Strong also served in a constitutional

convention and was elected as a delegate to

the Wisconsin Convention in 1846. He

went on to win a seat in the Wisconsin

Assembly in 1850 and 1857. In later years,

Strong became active in railroad promotion

and speculation.

The last United States Attorney to serve

during territorial days was William P.

Lynde, who left the Office of Attorney

General of Wisconsin in order to become

United States Attorney. He had quite a

career in state and national politics, having

been elected to the United States Congress

in 1848 and 1875. In 1860, Lynde was

elected Mayor of Milwaukee. Prior to his

second term in Congress, Lynde served both

in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate.

In recent years, Nathan S. Heffernan has

become one of the latest former United

States Attorneys to have a distinguished

career in government service.

Commissioned on January 10, 1962,

Heffernan previously had been the City

Attorney for the City of Sheboygan and for

three years the Deputy Attorney General for

the State of Wisconsin. Heffernan resigned

as United States Attorney in 1964 to

become Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme

Court for which he became Chief Justice in

1983.
Headquarters: Madison

11 Assistant United States Attorneys

Sterling Hall, University of Wisconsin

Anti-War Activities Shock Madison

 The peaceful nature that usually

characterizes the Western District of

Wisconsin was shattered in the predawn

hours of August 24, 1970. The spring and

summer of that year had shown a marked

increase in antiwar activities across the

country, including Madison, Wisconsin.

During that tragic night, a 33year old

physics researcher, Robert Fassnacht, was

hard at work in Sterling Hall on the campus

of the University of Wisconsin. Sterling

Hall was a six-story building that housed the

controversial Army Mathematics Research

Center. Fassnacht was trying to complete a

project in order to leave with his wife and

three children for vacation. At

approximately 3:00 a.m., a stolen van

loaded with crudely constructed explosives

was parked next to the building. The fuse

was lit, and the resulting explosion ripped

away one side of Sterling Hall, leaving a

pile of concrete and steel under which

Robert Fassnacht lay dead.

The explosion resulted in a worldwide

investigation conducted by hundreds of

federal, state, and local law enforcement

officers. Three of four suspects eventually

were arrested and convicted for their

participation in the bombing. The case,

known as “Wisbomb,” was the case of the

century in the Western District. It possessed

nationwide significance insofar as the

bombing of Sterling Hall was recognized by

some as the beginning of the end of the

active anti-Vietnam War movement.
DISTRICT OF WYOMING

Richard Allen Stacy, United States Attorney

The name “Wyoming” is an Indian

name that has been translated to mean

various things such as “large plains” or

“mountains and valleys alternating.” The

Wyoming constitutional convention met in

Cheyenne in September 1889, and drew up

a constitution which was adopted on

November 5, 1889. The next year,

Wyoming was admitted as the 44th state in

the Union. Carved from sections of Dakota,

Utah, and Idaho Territories, Wyoming had

come into existence as a territory by Act of

Congress on July 25, 1868. The territorial

government was officially created on May

19, 1869, and the first territorial governor

appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

In that first year of formal government,

the District of Wyoming received its first

United States Attorney when Joseph M.

Carey was commissioned in 1869 at the age

of 24. Two years later Grant appointed him

as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

of the Territory. He was elected mayor of

Cheyenne in 1880 for the first of three

terms. In 1890 Carey became Wyoming’s

first United States Senator. Melville C.

Brown was appointed United States

Attorney in 1882. He first came to the state

in 1868 and settled in Laramie City. Brown

was elected mayor of the town 12 days later

but resigned in disgust at the end of three

weeks. In 1890 he was appointed a federal

judge in Alaska. While Brown was United

States Attorney, the federal government

took the first step toward the regulation of

unlawful fencing of land in Wyoming.

John Riner succeeded Brown as United

States Attorney in 1884. After leaving

office, he won election to the Wyoming

legislature, and was appointed in 1890 to the

bench of the United States District Court

Albert D. Walton became United States

Attorney for the District of Wyoming in

1921. Walton became known for his

association with the special government

counsel in the famous “Teapot Dome” case.

The “Last Frontiersman”

One of the most colorful characters to

hold the Office of United States Attorney

for the District of Wyoming was Carl

Sackett who once described himself as the

“last frontiersman.” Sackett was appointed

in 1933 but his life of 96 years spanned a

time of great change in American life. In an

interview in 1970, he pointed out that he

was born before the Battle of the Little Big

Horn, where Custer and his men were

killed, and has lived into the jet age. He

told of meeting Calamity Jane in Cheyenne

once. “Some reports are out that discredit

her as a woman,” he said “but Warren

Richardson, who knew her those years, said

nobody should speak ill of that woman.”

John C. Pickett followed Sackett as

United States Attorney in 1949. Pickett was

characterized as having “an abundance of

common sense and was greatly respected by

all of his colleagues.” A semi-pro baseball

player in younger days, Pickett left office in

1950 to become a judge on the Tenth Circuit

Court of Appeals.

One of the most accomplished people to

serve the District of Wyoming was John J.

“Joe” Hickey, appointed United States

Attorney in 1950. Hickey left office in

1953 and later won election as Governor of

Wyoming. In 1961 he resigned in order to

be named to the vacancy in the United

States Senate seat from Wyoming. He was
Headquarters: Cheyenne

Branch Office: Casper

8 Assistant United States Attorneys

defeated for reelection but in 1966 was

named to the vacancy on the bench of the

Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Richard V.

Thomas, also a former United States

Attorney, was appointed to the Wyoming

Supreme Court in 1974. He was elevated to

Chief Justice of that court in 1985. His

successor as United States Attorney,

Clarence A. Brimmer, was appointed United

States District Judge for the District of

Wyoming in 1975 and became Chief Judge

in 1987.

Big Horn River Case

During the tenure of Charles E. Graves,

appointed in 1977, a case of great

significance known as the Big Horn River

case came before the court. This case was

important to the constituency of the people

of Wyoming as it worked out an agreement

between the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes

and the state concerning water rights.

Lightning Creek

A tragedy known as the Lightning Creek

Fight occurred in Wyoming between whites

and Indians, a fight that left five Indians and

two whites dead. Continuing confrontations

over hunting rights led to an attempted

arrest of an Indian party traveling in

Converse County. What resulted was the

death of people on both sides, and stories so

conflicting as to make investigation into the

incident nearly impossible. It took the

United States Attorney and the United

States Marshal to determine that the sheriff

in charge of the posse had overstepped his

jurisdiction. He had allowed an unruly

mob, which he had formed as a posse,

massacre innocent members of the Indian

party, including an eleven-year-old boy shot

through the back of the head. Many later

considered the incident a stain on the page

of Wyoming history. Worse yet was the

fact that the Lightning Creek Fight,

investigated by the United States Attorney’s

office, occurred not during the time of the

old West, but in 1903.

First Mufti-Million Dollar Fraud Case

Between the fall of 1982 and June of

1983, through a scheme involving massive

deception and misapplication of bank funds,

Anant Kumar Tripati acquired three banks

and five insurance companies and managed

to divert $28 million to his own accounts.

Under the guidance of Richard A. Stacy,

this district prosecuted Tripati which

resulted in his conviction and a 10-year

sentence in the federal penitentiary. The

litigation represented the first mufti-million

dollar fraud case ever handled in the District

of Wyoming, and a 10year sentence in the

federal penitentiary.

(This monograph gathered in part by the

Wyoming State Historical Research and

Publications Division.)
UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS*

1789 -1989

The following list is compiled from historical records maintained by the Offices of the United States Attorneys

and by the Department of Justice. The entries in the earlier record books are written in script and are often

incomplete or illegible. Every effort has been made to prepare an accurate list.

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

William Crawford . . . . . . . . . . 1820

Frank Jones . . . . . . . . . . 1824-1826

Harry J. Thornton . . . . . . 1826-1829

Joseph Scott . . . . . . . . . . 1829-1830

Byrd Brandon . . . . . . . . . 1830-1836

John D. Phelan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1836

Edwin R. Wallace . . . . . . 1836-1839

Jermiah Clemens . . . . . . . 1839-1840

Joseph A. S. Acklin . . . . . 1840-1850

Jefferson F. Jackson . . . . 1850-1853

George S. Walden . . . . . . 1853-1859

M. J. Turnley . . . . . . . . . 1859-1860

Charles E. Mayer . . . . . . . 1876-1880

William H. Smith . . . . . . . 1880-1885

George H. Craig . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

William H. Denson . . . . . . 1885-1889

Lewis E. Parsons, Jr. . . . . 1889-1893

Emmet O’Neal . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

William Vaughn . . . . . . . . 1897-1902

Thomas R. Roulhac . . . . . 1902-1907

Oliver D. Street . . . . . . . . 1907-1913

Robert N. Bell . . . . . . . . . 1913-1919

Erle Pettris .......... 1919-1922

Charles B. Kennamer . . . . 1922-1931

Jim C. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1931

John B. Isabell . . . . . . . . 1931-1933

Jim C. Smith . . . . . . . . . . 1933-1946

John D. Hilt . . . . . . . . . . 1946-1953

Frank M. Johnson, Jr. . . . . 1953-1955

Atley A. Kitchings, Jr. . . . 1955-1956

William L. Langshore . . . . 1956-1961

Macon L. Weaver . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Wayman G. Sherrer . . . . . 1969-1977

Jesse R. Brooks . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Frank W. Donaldson . . . 1981 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

John A. Minnis . . . . . . . . 1870-1874

N. S. McAfee . . . . . . . . . 1874-1875

Charles E. Mayer . . . . . . . 1876-1880

William H. Smith . . . . . . . 1880-1885

George H. Craig . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

William H. Denson . . . . . . 1885-1889

Lewis E. Parsons, Jr. . . . . 1889-1893

Henry D. Clayton, Jr. . . . . 1893-1896

George F. Moore, Jr. . . . . 1896-1897

Warren S. Reese, Jr. . . . . 1897-1906

Erastus J. Parsons . . . . . . 1906-1913

Thomas D. Samford . . . . . 1913-1924

Grady Reynolds . . . . . . . . 1924-1931

Arthur B. Chilton . . . . . . . 1931-1934

Thomas D. Samford . . . . . 1934-1942

Edward B. Parker . . . . . . 1942-1953

Hartwell Davis . . . . . . . . 1953-1962

Ben Hardeman . . . . . . . . 1962-1969

Leon J. Hopper . . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Ira DeMent . . . . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Barry E. Teague . . . . . . . 1977-1981

John C. Bell . . . . . . . . . . 1981-1987

James Eldon Wilson . . . 1987 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

Henry Hitchcock . . . . . . . 1825-1830

John Elliot . . . . . . . . . . . 1830-1835

John Forsyth, Jr. . . . . . . . 1835-1838

George W. Gayle . . . . . . . 1838-1842

George I. S. Walker . . . . . 1842-1846

Alexander B. Meek . . . . . . 1846-1850

Peter Hamilton ............ 1850

A. J. Requier . . . . . . . . . 1850-1858

John P. Southworth . . . . . . . . . 1869

George M. Duskin . . . . . . 1877-1885

John D. Burnett . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Morris D. Wickersham . . . . 1889-1893

Joseph N. Miller . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Morris D. Wickersham . . . . 1897-1904

William H. Armbecht . . . . 1904-1912

James B. Sloan . . . . . . . . 1912-1913

Alexander D. Pitts . . . . . . 1913-1922

Aubrey Boyles . . . . . . . . . 1922-1926

Nicholas E. Stallworth . . . 1926-1927

Alexander C. Birch . . . . . . 1927-1935

Francis H. Inge . . . . . . . . 1935-1943

Albert J. Tully . . . . . . . . 1943-1948

Percy C. Fountain . . . . . . 1948-1956

Ralph Kennamer . . . . . . . 1956-1961

Vernol R. Jansen, Jr. . . . . 1961-1969

Charles S. Spunner-White, Jr.1969-1977

William A. Kimbrough, Jr. . 1977-1981

William R. Favre, Jr. . . . . . . . . 1981

J. B. Sessions, III . . . . . 1981- present

DISTRICT OF ALASKA, SITKA

E. W. Haskett . . . . . . . . . 1884-1885

Mottrone D. Ball . . . . . . . 1885-1887

Whitaker M. Grant . . . . . . 1887-1889

John C. Watson . . . . . . . . . . . . 1889

Charles S. Johnson . . . . . . 1889-1894

Lytton Taylor . . . . . . . . . 1894-1895

Burton E. Bennett . . . . . . 1895-1898

Three Judicial Districts

Created: June 6, 1900

First District Juneau

Robert A. Frederick . . . . . 1898-1902

Thomas R. Lyons . . . . . . . 1902-1903

John J. Boyce . . . . . . . . . 1903-1910

John_Rustgard . . . . . . . . 1910-1914

John J. Reagan . . . . . . . . 1914-1915

James A. Smiser . . . . . . . 1915-1921

Arthur G. Shoup . . . . . . . 1921-1927

Justin W. Harding . . . . . . 1927-1929

Howard D. Stabler . . . . . . 1929-1933

William A. Holzheimer . . . 1933-1944

Lynn J. Gemmill . . . . . . . . . . . 1944

Robert L. Jernberg . . . . . 1944-1945

Robert L. Tollefson . . . . . 1945-1946

Patrick J. Gilmore, Jr. . . . 1946-1954

Theodore E. Munson .... 1954-1956

Roger G. Connor . . . . . . . . . . . 1956

C. Donald O’Connor . . . . . . . . . 1956

Second District Nome

Joseph K. Wood . . . . . . . 1900-1901

John L. McGinn . . . . . . . . 1901-1902

Melvin Grigsby . . . . . . . . 1902-1903

John L. McGinn . . . . . . . . 1903-1904

Henry M. Hoyt . . . . . . . . 1904-1908

George B. Grigsby . . . . . . 1908-1910

Bernard S. Rodey . . . . . . . 1910-1913

F. M. Saxton . . . . . . . . . . 1913-1917

G. B. Mundy .......... 1917-1918

Gudbrand J. Lomen . . . . . 1918-1919

J. M. Clements . . . . . . . . 1919-1921

Wm. Frederick Harrison . . 1921-1929

Julius H. Hart . . . . . . . . . 1929-1931

Leroy M. Sullivan . . . . . . . 1931-1933

Hugh O’Neill . . . . . . . . . . 1933-1939

Charles J. Clasky . . . . . . . 1939-1944

Frank C. Bingham . . . . . . 1944-1951

James A. von der Heydt . . 1951-1953

Russell B. Hermann . . . . . . . . . 1953

THIRD DISTRICT (successively)

* These lists include officials without the “United States Attorney” title, who nevertheless served under federal 

appointment to enforce the laws of the United States in federal territories prior to statehood and the creation of a federal 

judicial district.
Eagle, Fairbanks, Valdez, Anchorage

Alfred M. Post . . . . . . . . . 1900-1901

Nathan V. Harlan . . . . . . . 1901-1908

James J. Crossley . . . . . . 1908-1909

Corneilus D. Murane . . . . . 1909-1910

George R. Walker . . . . . . 1910-1914

William N. Spence . . . . . . 1914-1917

William A. Munly ....... 1917-1921

Sherman Duggan . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Frank H. Foster . . . . . . . . 1925-1926

William D. Coppernoll . . . 1926-1928

Warren N. Cuddy . . . . . . . 1928-1933

Joseph W. Kehoe . . . . . . . 1933-1942

Noel K. Wennblom . . . . . . 1942-1946

Raymond E. Plummer .... 1946-1949

Joseph E. Cooper . . . . . . 1949-1952

Seaborn J. Buckalew, Jr. . 1952-1953

William J. Plummer ..... 1953-1960

Fourth District, Fairbanks

James J. Crossley . . . . . . 1909-1914

Rhinehart F. Roth . . . . . . 1914-1921

Guy B. Erwin . . . . . . . . . 1921-1924

Julien A. Hurley . . . . . . . 1924-1933

Ralph J. Rivers . . . . . . . . 1933-1944

Harry O. Arend . . . . . . . . 1944-1949

Everett W. Hepp ....... 1950-1952

Robert J. McNealy . . . . . . 1952-1953

Theodore F. Stevens . . . . 1954-1956

George M. Yeager . . . . . . 1956-1960

ALASKA ADMITTED TO STATEHOOD

JANUARY 2, 1959

William T. Plummer ......... 1960

George M. Yeager . . . . . . 1960-1961

Warren C. Colver . . . . . . . 1961-1964

Joseph J. Cella, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1964

Richard L. McVeigh . . . . . 1964-1968

Marvin S. Frankel . . . . . . 1968-1969

A. Lee Preston . . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Douglas B. Bailey . . . . . . . 1969-1971

G. Kent Edwards . . . . . . . 1971-1977

James L. Swartz . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Alexander O. Bryner . . . . 1977-1980

Rene J. Gonzalez . . . . . . 1980-1981

Michael R. Spaan . . . . . . . 1981-1989

Mark R. Davis . . . . . . . 1988 - present

DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

John Titus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863

Almon Gage . . . . . . . . . . 1863-1864

C. W. C. Powell . . . . . . . . . . . . 1869

E. B. Pomroy . . . . . . . . . 1876-1882

James A. Zabriskie . . . . . 1882-1885

Owen T. Rouse . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Harry R. Jeffords . . . . . . . 1889-1891

Thomas F. Wilson . . . . . . 1891-1893

Everett E. Ellinwood .... 1893-1898

Robert E. Morrison . . . . . . 1898-1902

Frederick S. Nave . . . . . . 1902-1905

Joseph L. B. Alexander . . . 1905-1910

Joseph E. Morrison . . . . . 1910-1914

Thomas A. Flynn . . . . . . . 1914-1922

Frederick H. Bernard . . . . 1922-1925

John B. Wright . . . . . . . . 1925-1929

John C. Gung’1 . . . . . . . . 1929-1933

Clifton Mathews . . . . . . . 1933-1935

Frank E. Flynn . . . . . . . . 1935-1953

Edward W. Scruggs . . . . . . . . . 1953

Jack D. H. Hays . . . . . . . . 1953-1960

Charles A. Muecke . . . . . . . . . . 1960

Mary Anne Reimann . . . . . 1960-1961

Charles A. Muecke . . . . . . 1961-1964

JoAnn D. Diamos . . . . . . . 1964-1965

Witiam P. Copple . . . . . . 1965-1976

Richard C. Gormley . . . . . 1966-1967

Edward E. Davis . . . . . . . 1967-1969

Richard K. Burke . . . . . . . 1969-1972

William C. Smitherman . . . 1972-1977

Michael D. Hawkins . . . . . 1977-1980

Arthur B. Butler, III . . . . . 1980-1981

A. Melvin McDonald . . . . . 1981-1985

Stephen M. McNamee . . 1985 - present

DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS

Samuel C. Roane . . . . . . . 1820-1836

Thomas I. Lacey . . . . . . . . . . . 1836

Grandison D. Royston . . . . . . . . 1836

Samuel S. Hall . . . . . . . . 1836-1838

William C. Scott . . . . . . . 1838-1841

Absalom Fowler . . . . . . . 1841-1843

Grandison D. Royston . . . . 1843-1844

Samuel H. Hempstead . . . 1844-1850

Absalom Fowler . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS

Joseph Stillwell . . . . . . . . . . . . 1852

James W. McConaughey . . 1853-1854

Lafayette B. Luckie ......... 1856

John C. Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . 1856

Read Fletcher . . . . . . . . . 1856-1857

Charles A. Carroll . . . . . . . . . . 1857

John M. Harrell . . . . . . . . 1857-1858

Charles E. Jordan . . . . . . . . . . 1861

S. R. Harrington . . . . . . . 1871- 1876

Charles C. Waters . . . . . . 1876-1885

Joseph W. House . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Charles C. Waters . . . . . . 1889-1893

Joseph W. House . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Jacob Trieber . . . . . . . . . 1897-1900

William G. Whipple . . . . . 1900-1913

William H. Martin . . . . . . 1913-1919

June P. Wooten . . . . . . . 1919-1922

Charles F. Cole . . . . . . . . 1922-1930

Wallace Townsend . . . . . . 1930-1934

Fred A. Isrig . . . . . . . . . . 1934-1939

Samuel Rorex . . . . . . . . . 1939-1946

James T. Gooch . . . . . . . 1946-1953

Asro Cobb . . . . . . . . . . . 1953-1962

Robert D. Smith, Jr. . . . . . 1962-1967

Woodrow H. McClellan . . . 1967-1968

Wilbur H. Dillahunty .... 1968-1979

George W. Proctor . . . . . . 1979-1987

Kenneth H. Stott . . . . . . . . . . . 1987

Charles A. Banks . . . . . 1987 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS

Jessie Turner . . . . . . . . . 1851-1853

Alfred M. Wilson . . . . . . . 1853-1861

Granville Wilcox . . . . . . . 1861-1869

James H. Huckleberry . . . 1869-1872

Newton J. Temple . . . . . . 1872-1875

William N. H. Clayton . . . . 1875-1885

Monti H. Sandels . . . . . . . 1885-1889

William N. H. Clayton . . . . 1889-1893

James F. Read . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Thomas H. Barnes . . . . . . 1897-1898

James K. Barnes . . . . . . . 1898-1909

Lafayette W. Gregg ......... 1909

John I. Worthington . . . . . 1909-1913

J. Virgil Bourland . . . . . . 1913-1917

Emon O. Mahoney . . . . . . 1917-1920

James Seaborn Holt . . . . . 1920-1921

Steve Carrigan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

Samuel S. Langley . . . . . . 1921-1930

William N. Ivie . . . . . . . . 1930-1934

Clinton R. Barry . . . . . . . 1934-1946

Respess S. Wilson . . . . . . 1946-1953

Charles W. Atkinson . . . . . 1953-1961

Charles M. Conway . . . . . 1961-1969

Robert E. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Bethel B. Larey . . . . . . . . 1969-1973

Robert E. Johnson . . . . . . 1973-1977

Larry R. McCord . . . . . . . 1977-1982

W. Asa Hutchinson . . . . . . 1982-1985

J. Michael Fitzhugh . . . 1985 - present

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Calhoun Benham . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Samuel W. Inge . . . . . . . . 1853-1856

William Blanding . . . . . . . 1856-1857

Peter Delta Torre ...... 1857-1860

Calhoun Benham . . . . . . . 1860-1861

William H. Sharp . . . . . . . 1861-1864

Delos Lake . . . . . . . . . . . 1864-1869

F. M. Pixley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1869

CALIFORNIA (Continued)

Lorenzo D. Latimer . . . . . 1869-1873

Walter Van Dyke . . . . . . . 1873-1876
John M. Coghlan . . . . . . . 1876-1878

Phillip Teare . . . . . . . . . 1878-1883

Samuel G. Hilborn . . . . . . 1883-1886

John T. Carey . . . . . . . . . 1886-1890

Charles A. Garter . . . . . . 1890-1894

Samuel Knight . . . . . . . . 1894-1895

Henry S. Foote . . . . . . . . 1895-1899

Frank L. Coombe . . . . . . . 1899-1901

Marshall B. Woodworth . . . 1901-1905

Robert T. Devlin . . . . . . . 1905-1912

John L. McNab . . . . . . . . 1912-1913

B. L. McKinley . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1913

John W. Preston . . . . . . . 1913-1918

Mrs. A. A. Adams . . . . . . . 1918-1920

Frank M. Silva . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

J. T. Williams . . . . . . . . . 1921-1924

Sterling Carr . . . . . . . . . . 1924-1925

George J. Hatfield . . . . . . 1925-1933

I. M. Peckham . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1933

Harry H. McPike . . . . . . . 1933-1937

Frank J. Hennessy . . . . . . 1937-1951

Chauncey F. Tramutolo . . . . . . 1951

Lloyd H. Burke . . . . . . . . 1951-1958

Robert H. Schnacke . . . . . 1958-1959

Lynn J. Gillard . . . . . . . . 1959-1960

Laurence E. Dayton . . . . . 1960-1961

Cecil F. Poole . . . . . . . . . 1961-1969

James L. Browning, Jr. . . . 1969-1977

G. William Hunter . . . . . . 1977-1981

Rodney H. Hamblen . . . . . . . . . 1981

Joseph P. Russoniello . . 1981 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

J. M. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

Alfred Wheeler . . . . . . . . 1851-1853

Isaac S. K. Ogier . . . . . . . 1853-1854

Pacificus Ord . . . . . . . . . 1854-1858

J. R. Gitchell . . . . . . . . . 1858-1861

Kimball H. Dimmick . . . . . . . . . 1861

Billington C. Whiting . . . . . . . . 1861

J. Marion Brooks . . . . . . . 1887-1888

George J. Davis . . . . . . . . 1888-1889

Aurelius W. Hutton . . . . . 1889-1890

Willoughby Cole . . . . . . . 1890-1892

Matthew J. Allen . . . . . . . 1892-1893

George J. Denis . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Frank P. Flint . . . . . . . . . 1897-1901

L. H. Valentine . . . . . . . . 1901-1905

Oscar Lawler . . . . . . . . . 1905-1909

Aloysuis McCormick . . . . . 1909-1913

Albert Schoonover . . . . . . 1913-1917

John R. O’Connor . . . . . . 1917-1921

Joesph C. Burke . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Samuel W. McNabb . . . . . 1925-1933

John R. Layng . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1933

Pierson M. Hall . . . . . . . . 1933-1937

Benjamin Harrison . . . . . . 1937-1940

William F. Palmer . . . . . . 1940-1942

Leo W. Silverstein . . . . . . 1942-1943

Charles H. Carr . . . . . . . . 1943-1946

James M. Carter . . . . . . . 1946-1949

Ernest A. Tolin . . . . . . . . 1949-1951

Walter S. Binns . . . . . . . . 1951-1953

Laughlin E. Waters . . . . . . 1953-1961

Francis C. Whelan . . . . . . 1961-1964

Thomas R. Sheridan . . . . . . . . . 1964

Manuel L. Real . . . . . . . . 1964-1966

Edwin L. Miller, Jr. . . . . . 1966-1969

Harry D. Steward . . . . . . . 1969-1975

Terry J. Knoepp . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Michael J. Walsh . . . . . . . 1977-1980

M. James Lorenz . . . . . . . 1980-1981

William H. Kennedy . . . . . 1981-1982

Peter K. Nunez ........ 1982-1988

William Braniff . . . . . . 1988 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

John P. Hyland . . . . . . . . 1966-1970

Dwayne D. Keyes . . . . . . . 1970-1977

Herman Sillas, Jr. . . . . . . 1977-1980

William B. Shubb . . . . . . . 1980-1981

Francis M. Goldsberry II . . . . . . 1981

Donald B. Ayer . . . . . . . . 1981-1986

Peter A. Nowinski ...... 1986-1987

David F. Levi . . . . . . . 1987 - present

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Manuel L. Real . . . . . . . . 1965-1966

John X. Van de Kamp . . . . 1966-1967

William M. Bryne, Jr. . . . . 1967-1970

Robert L. Meyer . . . . . . . 1970-1972

William D. Keller . . . . . . . 1972-1977

Robert L. Brosio . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Andrea M. Sheridan-Orden 1977-1981

Alexander H. Williams, III . . . . . 1981

Stephen S. Trott . . . . . . . 1981-1983

Alexander H. Williams, III . 1983-1984

Robert C. Bonner . . . . . . 1984-1989

Gary A. Feess . . . . . . . 1989 - present

CANAL ZONE

William K. Jackson, Jr. . . . 1914-1915

Charles R. Williams . . . . . 1915-1919

A. C. Hindman . . . . . . . . 1919-1923

Guy H. Martin . . . . . . . . . 1923-1924

F. Edward Mitchell . . . . . 1924-1925

Charles Joseph Riley . . . . . . . . 1925

Joseph J. McGuigan . . . . . 1935-1940

Daniel E. McGrath . . . . . . 1940-1952

Rowland K. Hazard . . . . . 1952-1970

Wallace D. Baldwin . . . . . . . . . 1970

Lester Engler . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1970

Frank J. Violanti . . . . . . . . . . . 1976

DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Theodore D. Edwards . . . . . . . . 1861

James E. Dalliba . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Samuel E. Browne . . . . . . . . . . 1862

Lewis C. Rockwell . . . . . . 1870-1873

H. C. Alleman . . . . . . . . . 1873-1875

Charles D. Bradley . . . . . . 1875-1877

W. S. Decker . . . . . . . . . 1877-1880

Edward S. Johnson . . . . . . 1880-1882

Andrew W. Brazee . . . . . . 1882-1885

Henry W. Hobson . . . . . . . 1885-1889

John D. Fleming . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Henry V. Johnson . . . . . . 1893-1897

Greely W. Whitford . . . . . 1897-1901

Earl M. Cranston . . . . . . . 1901-1908

Thomas Ward, Jr. . . . . . . 1908-1912

Harry E. Kelly . . . . . . . . . 1912-1914

Harry B. Tedrow . . . . . . . 1914-1921

John F. Symes . . . . . . . . . 1921-1922

Granby Hillyer . . . . . . . . 1922-1924

George Stephan . . . . . . . 1924-1929

Ralph L. Carr . . . . . . . . . 1929-1933

Thomas J. Morrissey . . . . . 1933-1947

Ivor Wingren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947

Max M. Bulketey ....... 1947-1951

Charles S. Vigil . . . . . . . . 1951-1953

Donald E. Kelley . . . . . . . 1953-1958

Robert S. Wham . . . . . . . 1958-1959

Donald G. Brotzman . . . . . 1959-1961

Lawrence M. Henry . . . . . 1961-1969

James L. Treece . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Cathlin Donnell . . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Joseph F. Dolan . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Robert N. Miller . . . . . . . 1981-1988

Michael J. Norton . . . . 1988 - present

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT

Pierpoint Edwards . . . . . . . . . . 1789

Hesekiah Huntington . . . . 1806-1829

Nathan Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829

Asa Child . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829-1834

William S. Holabird . . . . . 1834-1841

Charles Chapman . . . . . . 1841-1844

Jonathan Stoddard . . . . . 1844-1849

Thomas C. Perkins . . . . . . 1849-1853

Elisha S. Abernethy . . . . . . . . . 1853

William D. Shipman . . . . . 1853-1860

Tilton E. Doolittle . . . . . . 1860-1861

Hiram Willey . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Calvin G. Child . . . . . . . . 1870-1880

CONNECTICUT (Continued)

Daniel Chadwick . . . . . . . 1880-1884

Lewis E. Stanton . . . . . . . 1884-1888

George G. Sill . . . . . . . . . 1888-1892

George P. McLean . . . . . . 1892-1896

Charles W. Comstock . . . . 1896-1900

Francis H. Parker . . . . . . . 1900-1908
John T. Robinson . . . . . . . 1908-1912

Frederick A. Scott . . . . . . 1912-1915

Thomas J. Spellacy . . . . . 1915-1918

John F. Crosby . . . . . . . . 1918-1919

Edward H. Smith . . . . . . . 1919-1923

Allan K. Smith . . . . . . . . . 1923-1924

John Buckley . . . . . . . . . 1924-1933

Frank S. Bergin . . . . . . . . 1933-1934

George H. Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . 1934

Robert P. Butler . . . . . . . 1934-1945

Adrian W. Maher . . . . . . . 1945-1953

Simon S. Cohen . . . . . . . . 1953-1958

Harry W. Hultgren, Jr. . . . 1958-1961

Robert C. Zampano . . . . . 1961-1964

F. Owen Eagan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964

Jon O. Newman . . . . . . . . 1964-1969

Stewart H. Jones . . . . . . . 1969-1974

Harold J. Pickerstein . . . . . . . . 1974

Peter C. Dorsey ........ 1974-1977

Richard Blumenthal . . . . . 1977-1981

Alan H. Nevas . . . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Stanley A. Twardy, Jr. . 1985 - present

DISTRICT OF DELAWARE

George Read, Jr. . . . . . . . 1789-1836

James A. Baynard . . . . . . 1836-1843

William H. Rogers . . . . . . 1843-1850

P. Sherwood Johnson . . . . 1850-1853

Thomas F. Baynard . . . . . 1853-1854

Daniel M. Bates . . . . . . . . 1854-1861

Edward G. Bradford . . . . . 1861-1866

John Lockwood Pratt . . . . 1866-1869

Anthony Higgins . . . . . . . 1869-1876

William C. Spruance . . . . . 1876-1880

John C. Patterson ...... 1880-1888

Alex B. Cooper . . . . . . . . 1888-1891

Beniah Watson . . . . . . . . 1891-1894

Lewis B. Vandergrift . . . . 1894-1899

W. Michael Byrne . . . . . . 1899-1902

John P. Nields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1902

W. Michael Byrne . . . . . . 1902-1903

John P. Nields . . . . . . . . . 1903-1916

Charles F. Curley . . . . . . . 1916-1920

James Hughes, Jr. . . . . . . 1920-1924

David J. Reinhardt . . . . . . 1924-1927

Leonard E. Wales . . . . . . 1927-1935

John J. Morris, Jr. . . . . . . 1935-1939

Charles S. Lynch . . . . . . . 1939-1944

John J. Morris, Jr. . . . . . . 1944-1948

William Marvel . . . . . . . . 1948-1953

Leonard G. Hagner . . . . . 1953-1961

Alexander Greenfeld . . . . 1961-1969

F. L. Peter Stone ....... 1969-1972

Norman Levine . . . . . . . . 1972-1973

Ralph F. Keil . . . . . . . . . . 1973-1975

W. Laird Stabler, Jr. . . . . 1975-1977

John H. McDonald . . . . . . . . . . 1977

James W. Garvin, Jr. . . . . 1977-1981

Joseph J. Farnan . . . . . . . 1981-1985

William C. Carpenter, Jr.1985 - present

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

John T. Mason . . . . . . . . . . . . 1801

Walter Jones, Jr. . . . . . . 1801-1821

Thomas Swann . . . . . . . . 1821-1833

Francis S. Key . . . . . . . . . 1833-1841

Philip R. Fendall . . . . . . . 1841-1845

James Hoban . . . . . . . . . 1845-1853

Philip B. Key . . . . . . . . . . 1853-1859

Robert Ould . . . . . . . . . . 1859-1861

Edward S. Carrington . . . . 1861-1876

Geoge P. Fisher . . . . . . . . 1870-1876

Harry H. Wells . . . . . . . . 1876-1880

George B. Corkhill . . . . . . 1880-1884

Augustus S. Worthington . . 1884-1888

John B. Hoge . . . . . . . . . 1888-1891

Charles C. Cole . . . . . . . . 1891-1893

Arthur A. Birney . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Henry E. Davis . . . . . . . . 1897-1899

Thomas H. Anderson . . . . 1899-1901

Ashley M. Gould . . . . . . . 1901-1903

Morgan H. Beach . . . . . . . 1903-1905

Daniel W. Baker . . . . . . . 1905-1910

Clarence R. Wilson . . . . . 1910-1914

John E. Laskey . . . . . . . . 1914-1921

Peyton Gordon . . . . . . . . 1921-1928

Leo A. Rover . . . . . . . . . . 1928-1934

Leslie C. Garnett . . . . . . . 1934-1937

David A. Pine . . . . . . . . . 1937-1940

Edward M. Curran . . . . . . 1940-1946

George M. Fay . . . . . . . . . . . . 1946

George E. McNeil . . . . . . . 1946-1947

George M. Fay . . . . . . . . 1947-1951

Charles M. Irelan . . . . . . . 1951-1953

Leo A. Rover . . . . . . . . . . 1953-1956

Oliver Gasch . . . . . . . . . . 1956-1961

David C. Acheson . . . . . . . 1961-1965

John C. Conliff, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1965

David G. Bress . . . . . . . . 1965-1969

Thomas A. Flannery . . . . . 1969-1971

Harold H. Titus, Jr. . . . . . 1971-1974

Earl J. Silbert . . . . . . . . . 1974-1979

Carl Raul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1979

Charles F. C. Ruff . . . . . . 1079-1981

Stanley S. Harris . . . . . . . 1981-1983

Joseph E. diGenova . . . . . 1983-1988

Timothy J. Reardon III . . . . . . . 1988

Jay B. Stephens . . . . . 1988 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

(No longer in existence)

Alexander Anderson . . . . . 1821-1822

Tipton B. Harrison . . . . . . 1822-1823

William F. Steele ....... 1823-1825

Benjamin D. Wright . . . . . . . . . 1825

Albert I. Clagett . . . . . . . . . . . 1825

Benjamin D. Wright . . . . . 1825-1831

John K. Campbell . . . . . . . . . . 1831

George Walker . . . . . . . . 1831-1838

William H. Brockenborough 1838-1840

James T. Archer . . . . . . . . . . . 1840

Walker Anderson . . . . . . . 1841-1842

George S. Hawkins . . . . . . 1842-1845

Chandler C. Yonge . . . . . . . . . . 1845

EASTERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

(No longer in existence)

John G. Bird . . . . . . . . . . 1821-1822

Alexander Hamilton . . . . . 1822-1823

Edgar Macon . . . . . . . . . . 1823-1826

Thomas Douglas . . . . . . . 1826-1842

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

(FORMER)

Adam Gordon . . . . . . . . . 1825-1827

William Allison McRea . . . 1827-1828

Jones G. Ringgold . . . . . . 1828-1831

James A. Dunlap . . . . . . . . . . . 1831

John K. Campbell . . . . . . 1831-1833

George K. Walker . . . . . . 1833-1837

Charles S. Sibley . . . . . . . 1837-1845

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Edward F. Boardman . . . . 1961-1969

John L. Briggs . . . . . . . . . 1969-1978

John J. Daley . . . . . . . . . 1978-1979

Gary L. Betz . . . . . . . . . . 1979-1982

Robert W. Merkle, Jr. . . . 1982-1988

Robert W. Genzman . . . 1988 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

William Allison McRea . . . 1828-1829

John G. Stower . . . . . . . . 1829-1830

John K. Campbell . . . . . . 1830-1831

Edward Chandler . . . . . . . 1831-1834

Adam Gordon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1834

Wylie P. Clark . . . . . . . . . 1834-1839

Charles Walker . . . . . . . . 1839-1840

L. Windsor Smith . . . . . . . 1840-1842

FLORIDA (Continued)

George W. Macrae . . . . . . 1842-1847

L. Windsor Smith . . . . . . . 1847-1850

William R. Hackley . . . . . 1850-1858

John L. Tatum . . . . . . . . 1858-1861

Thomas J. Boynton . . . . . 1861-1863

Homer G. Plantz . . . . . . . 1863-1869

Claiborn R. Mobley . . . . . 1869-1876

John Tyler, Jr. . . . . . . . . 1876-1877

George B. Patterson ..... 1877-1886
Livingstone W. Bethel . . . 1886-1890

G. Browne Patterson .... 1890-1894

Owen J. H. Summers ........ 1894

Frank Clark . . . . . . . . . . 1894-1897

Joseph N. Stripling . . . . . 1897-1902

John M. Chaney . . . . . . . . 1902-1912

Richard P. Marks . . . . . . . 1912-1913

Herbert S. Phillips . . . . . . 1913-1921

William M. Gober . . . . . . 1921-1929

Wilburn P. Hughes . . . . . . 1929-1933

John W. Holland . . . . . . . 1933-1936

Herbert S. Phillips . . . . . . 1936-1953

James L. Guilmartin . . . . . 1953-1959

E. Coleman Madsen . . . . . 1959-1961

Edward G. Boardman . . . . 1961-1963

William A. Meadows, Jr. . . 1963-1969

Robert W. Rust . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Vincent K. Antle . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Jacob V. Eskenazi . . . . . . 1977-1980

Attee W. Wampler, III . . . 1980-1982

Stanley I. Marcus . . . . . . . 1982-1985

Leon B. Kellner . . . . . . . . 1985-1988

Dexter W. Lehtinen . . . 1988 - present

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

George W. Call, Jr. . . . . . 1850-1853

Chandler C. Yonge . . . . . . 1853-1863

Culver P. Chamberlin . . . . 1863-1876

Horatio Bisbee, Jr. . . . . . 1869-1873

J. B. C. Drew . . . . . . . . . 1873-1876

John B. Stickney . . . . . . . 1876-1882

Edward M. Cheney . . . . . . 1882-1887

Rhydon M. Call . . . . . . . . 1887-1889

Joseph N. Stripling . . . . . 1889-1893

Owen J. H. Summers .... 1893-1894

J. Emmett Wolfe ....... 1894-1898

John Eagan . . . . . . . . . . 1898-1903

William B. Sheppard . . . . 1903-1907

Emmett Wilson ........ 1907-1909

Fred C. Cubberly . . . . . . . 1909-1913

Edward C. Love . . . . . . . . 1913-1915

John L. Neeley . . . . . . . . . . . . 1915

Phillip D. Beale . . . . . . . . . . . . 1915

John L. Healey . . . . . . . . 1915-1921

Fred C. Cubberly . . . . . . . 1921-1932

George P. Wentworth . . . . 1932-1933

George E. Hoffman . . . . . 1933-1953

George H. Carswell . . . . . 1953-1958

Wilfred C. Varn . . . . . . . . 1958-1961

Charles W. Eggart, Jr. . . . . . . . 1961

Clinton N. Ashmore . . . . . 1961-1969

William A. Stafford, Jr. . . 1969-1975

Clinton M. Ashmore . . . . . 1975-1976

Nicholas P. Geeker . . . . . 1976-1982

K. Michael Moore . . . . . . . 1982-1983

W. Thomas Dillard, III . . . . 1983-1987

K. Michael Moore . . . . . 1987 - present

DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Matthew McAllister . . . . . 1789-1797

Charles Jackson . . . . . . . 1797-1798

George Woodruff . . . . . . . 1798-1802

David B. Mitchell . . . . . . . 1802-1804

William B. Bullock . . . . . . 1804-1813

Charles Harris . . . . . . . . . 1813-1815

William Davies . . . . . . . . 1815-1819

Richard W. Habersham . . . 1819-1827

Matthew H. McAllister . . . 1827-1835

Robert M. Charlton . . . . . 1835-1836

William H. Stiles . . . . . . . 1836-1838

John E. Ward . . . . . . . . . 1838-1839

Robert M. Charlton . . . . . 1839-1840

Solomon Cohen . . . . . . . . 1840-1842

Alexander Drysdale . . . . . 1842-1844

Richard A. Cuyler . . . . . . . . . . 1844

Henry R. Jackson . . . . . . . . . . . 1844

Henry Williams . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

George S. Owens . . . . . . . 1853-1856

George A. Gordon . . . . . . 1856-1857

Joseph Ganahl . . . . . . . . 1857-1860

Hamilton Gouper . . . . . . . . . . . 1860

John D. Pope . . . . . . . . . 1870-1876

Henry P. Farrow . . . . . . . 1876-1880

John S. Bigby . . . . . . . . . 1880-1883

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Emory Speer . . . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

Ben H. Hill, Jr. . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Sion A. Darnell . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Joseph S. James . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Edgar A. Angier . . . . . . . . 1897-1905

Farish C. Tate . . . . . . . . . 1905-1913

Alexander Hooper . . . . . . 1913-1921

Clint W. Hager . . . . . . . . 1921-1934

Lawrence S. Camp . . . . . . 1934-1942

J. Ellis Mundy ............. 1942

M. Neil Andrews . . . . . . . 1942-1946

J. Ellis Mundy ......... 1946-1953

James W. Dorsey . . . . . . . 1953-1959

Charles D. Read, Jr. . . . . . 1959-1961

Charles L. Goodson . . . . . 1961-1977

William L. Harper . . . . . . 1977-1981

Robert J. Castellani . . . . . . . . . 1981

Dorothy Y. Kirkley . . . . . . . . . . 1981

James E. Baker . . . . . . . . 1981-1982

Larry D. Thompson . . . . . 1982-1986

Stephen S. Cowen . . . . . . . . . . 1986

Robert L. Barr, Jr. . . . . 1986 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Bascom S. Deaver . . . . . . 1926-1928

Scott Russell . . . . . . . . . . 1928-1929

William A. Bootle . . . . . . 1929-1933

T. Hoyt Davis . . . . . . . . . 1933-1945

John P. Cowart . . . . . . . . 1945-1952

Jack J. Gautier . . . . . . . . 1952-1953

Frank O. Evans . . . . . . . . 1953-1961

Floyd M. Buford . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Walker P. Johnson, Jr. . . . . . . . 1969

William J. Schloth . . . . . . 1969-1974

Ronald T. Knight . . . . . . . 1974-1977

D. Lee Rampey, Jr. . . . . . 1977-1981

Joe D. Whitley . . . . . . . . 1981-1987

Samuel A. Wilson . . . . . . . 1981-1988

Edgar Wm. Ennis, Jr. . . 1988 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

Sion A. Darnell . . . . . . . . 1882-1886

Dupont Guerry . . . . . . . . 1886-1901

Marion Erwin . . . . . . . . . 1901-1912

Alexander Akerman . . . . . 1912-1914

Earl M. Donalson . . . . . . . 1914-1919

John W. Bennett . . . . . . . 1919-1922

F. G. Boatright . . . . . . . . 1922-1927

Charles L. Redding . . . . . . 1927-1932

Walter W. Sheppard . . . . . 1932-1933

Charles L. Redding . . . . . . . . . . 1933

J. Saxton Daniel . . . . . . . 1933-1953

William C. Calhoun . . . . . 1953-1961

Donald H. Fraser . . . . . . . 1961-1969

R. Jackson B. Smith, Jr. . . 1969-1977

William T. Moore, Jr. . . . . 1977-1981

Hinton R. Pierce . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF GUAM

James G. Mackey . . . . . . . 1950-1952

John P. Raker . . . . . . . . . 1952-1954

Herbert G. Homme, Jr. . . 1954-1962

James P. Alger . . . . . . . . 1962-1969

Duane K. Craske . . . . . . . 1969-1975

Ralph F. Bagley . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

David T. Wood . . . . . . . . 1977-1986

K. William O’Connor . . 1986 - present
DISTRICT OF HAWAII

John C. Baird . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1900

J. J. Dunne .......... 1901-1902

Robert W. Breckons . . . . . 1902-1913

Jeff McCarn . . . . . . . . . . 1913-1915

Horace W. Vaughan . . . . . 1915-1916

S. C. Huber . . . . . . . . . . 1916-1922

William T. Carden . . . . . . 1922-1924

Fred Patterson ........ 1924-1925

Charles F. Parsons . . . . . . 1925-1926

Sanford B. D. Wood . . . . . 1926-1934

Ingram M. Stainback . . . . 1934-1940

Angus M. Taylor, Jr. . . . . . 1940-1943

Douglas G. Crozier . . . . . . 1943-1945

Edward A. Towse . . . . . . . . . . . 1945

Ray J. O’Brien . . . . . . . . 1945-1951

Howard K. Hoddick . . . . . 1951-1952

A. William Bartow . . . . . . 1952-1954

Louis B. Blissard . . . . . . . 1954-1961

Herman T. F. Lum . . . . . . 1961-1967

Yoshima Hayashi . . . . . . . 1967-1969

Robert K. Fukuda . . . . . . 1969-1973

Harold M. Fong . . . . . . . . 1973-1978

Walter M. Heen . . . . . . . . 1978-1981

Wallace W. Weatherwax . . 1981-1983

Daniel A. Bent . . . . . . 1983 - present

DISTRICT OF IDAHO

Richard Williams . . . . . . . 1863-1864

George C. Hough . . . . . . . 1864-1867

Joseph W. Huston . . . . . . . . . . 1869

Norman Buck . . . . . . . . . 1878-1880

James B. Butler . . . . . . . 1880-1881

Wallace R. White . . . . . . 1881-1885

James H. Hawley . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Willis Sweet . . . . . . . . . . 1889-1890

Fremont Wood . . . . . . . . 1890-1893

James H. Forney . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Robert V. Cozier . . . . . . . 1897-1904

Norman M. Ruick . . . . . . . 1904-1908

Curg H. Lingenfelter . . . . 1908-1913

James L. McClear . . . . . . 1913-1921

Edwin G. Davis . . . . . . . . 1921-1925

James F. Ailshie, Jr. . . . . . . . . 1925

Hoyt E. Ray . . . . . . . . . . 1925-1933

John A. Carver . . . . . . . . 1933-1953

Sherman F. Furey, Jr. . . . 1953-1957

Ben Peterson ......... 1957-1959

Kenneth G. Bergquist . . . . 1959-1961

Sylvan A. Jeppesen . . . . . 1961-1968

Jay F. Bates . . . . . . . . . . 1968-1969

Sherman F. Furey, Jr. . . . 1969-1971

Sidney E. Smith . . . . . . . . 1971-1975

Wilbur T. Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . 1975

Marion J. Callister . . . . . . 1975-1976

Wilbur T. Nelson . . . . . . . 1976-1977

Paul L. Westberg . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

M. Karl Shurtliff . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Guy G. Hurlbutt . . . . . . . 1981-1984

William Van Hale . . . . . . . 1984-1985

Maurice O. Ellsworth . . 1985 - present

DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

William Mears . . . . . . . . . 1813-1819

Jepthah Harden . . . . . . . 1819-1827

Sidney Breese . . . . . . . . . 1827-1829

Samuel McRoberts . . . . . . 1829-1831

David J. Baker . . . . . . . . 1831-1839

Ferris Forman . . . . . . . . . 1839-1841

Justin Butterfield ...... 1841-1844

Mark Skinner . . . . . . . . . 1844-1845

David L. Gregg . . . . . . . . 1845-1849

Archibald Williams . . . . . . 1849-1853

Thomas Hayne . . . . . . . . 1853-1855

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

William E. Troutman . . . . 1905-1910

Charles A. Karch . . . . . . . 1910-1914

James G. Burnside . . . . . . 1918-1922

W. O. Potter .......... 1922-1926

Harold G. Baker . . . . . . . 1926-1931

Paul F. Jones . . . . . . . . . 1931-1935

Arthur Roe . . . . . . . . . . . 1935-1942

Henry Grady Vien . . . . . . 1942-1943

William W. Hart . . . . . . . 1943-1953

Clifford M. Raemer . . . . . 1953-1957

Carl W. Feickert . . . . . . . 1957-1965

Henry A. Schwarz . . . . . . 1965-1977

Frederick J. Hess . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

James R. Burgess, Jr. . . . . 1977-1982

Frederick J. Hess . . . . . 1982 - present

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

A. M. Herrington . . . . . . . 1857-1858

Henry S. Fitch . . . . . . . . . 1858-1861

Edwin C. Larned . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Joseph O. Glover . . . . . . . . . . . 1869

Mark Bangs . . . . . . . . . . . 1875-1879

Joseph B. Seake . . . . . . . 1879-1884

Richard S. Tuthill . . . . . . 1884-1886

William G. Ewing . . . . . . . 1886-1890

Thomas E. Milchrist . . . . . 1891-1893

Sherwood Dixon . . . . . . . 1893-1894

John C. Black . . . . . . . . . 1894-1899

Solomon H. Bethea . . . . . 1899-1905

Charles B. Morrison . . . . . 1905-1906

Edwin W. Sims . . . . . . . . 1906-1911

James H. Wilkerson . . . . . 1911-1914

Charles F. Clyne . . . . . . . 1914-1922

Edwin Olson . . . . . . . . . . 1922-1927

George E. Q. Johnson . . . . 1927-1931

Dwight H. Green . . . . . . . 1931-1935

Michael J. Igoe . . . . . . . . 1935-1938

William J. Campbell . . . . . 1938-1940

J. Albert Woll . . . . . . . . . 1940-1947

Otto Kerner, Jr. . . . . . . . 1947-1954

Irwin N. Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . . 1954

Robert Tieken . . . . . . . . . 1954-1961

James P. O’Brien . . . . . . . 1961-1963

Frank E. McDonald . . . . . . 1963-1964

Edward V. Hanrahan . . . . 1964-1968

Thomas A. Foran . . . . . . . 1968-1970

William J. Bauer . . . . . . . 1970-1971

James R. Thompson . . . . . 1971-1975

Samuel K. Skinner . . . . . . 1975-1977

Thomas P. Sullivan . . . . . 1977-1981

Gregory C. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Dan K. Webb . . . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Anton R. Valukas . . . . . 1985 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

Wm J. Allen . . . . . . . . . . 1855-1859

Wm. K. Parish . . . . . . . . . 1859-1860

Elliott B. Herndon . . . . . . 1860-1861

Lawrence Weldon . . . . . . 1861-1866

John E. Rosette ........ 1866-1869

Bluford Wilson . . . . . . . . 1869-1874

John P. VanDorston . . . . . 1874-1876

James A. Connally . . . . . . 1876-1885

Gustavus Van Hoorebeke . 1885-1889

James A. Connally . . . . . . 1889-1893

Wm. E. Shutt . . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

J. Otis Humphrey . . . . . . 1897-1901

Thomas Worthington . . . . 1901-1905

Wm. A. Northcott . . . . . . 1905-7914

Edward C. Knotts . . . . . . 1914-1922

Thomas Williamson . . . . . 1922-1926

Walter M. Provine . . . . . . 1926-1931

Frank K. Lemon . . . . . . . . 1931-1935

Howard L. Doyle . . . . . . . 1935-1953

Marks Alexander . . . . . . . . . . . 1953

John B. Stoddart . . . . . . . 1953-1958

Marks Alexander . . . . . . . . . . . 1958

Harlington Wood, Jr. . . . . 1958-1963

Edward R. Phelps . . . . . . 1963-1965

Richard E. Eagleton . . . . . 1965-1969

Frank J. Violanti . . . . . . . 1969-1971

Donald B. Mackay . . . . . . 1971-1977

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

Gerald D. Fines . . . . . . . . 1977-1986

J. William Roberts . . . . 1986 - present
DISTRICT OF INDIANA

Elijah Sparks . . . . . . . . . 1813-1814

William Hendricks . . . . . . 1814-1817

Thomas H. Blake . . . . . . . 1817-1818

Alexander A. Meek . . . . . . 1818-1821

Charles Dewey . . . . . . . . 1821-1829

Samuel Judah . . . . . . . . . 1829-1833

Tilghman A. Howard . . . . 1833-1839

John Pettit ........... 1839-1841

Courtland Cushing . . . . . . 1841-1845

Daniel Mace . . . . . . . . . . 1845-1848

Lien Barbour . . . . . . . . . . 1848-1850

Hugh O’Neal . . . . . . . . . . 1850-1854

Benjamin Thomas . . . . . . 1854-1856

Alvin P. Hovey . . . . . . . . 1856-1858

Daniel W. Voorhees . . . . . 1858-1861

John Hanna . . . . . . . . . . 1861-1866

Alfred Kilgore . . . . . . . . . 1866-1869

Thomas Browne . . . . . . . 1869-1875

Nelson Trusler . . . . . . . . 1876-1880

Charles L. Holstein . . . . . 1880-1885

John E. Lamb . . . . . . . . . 1885-1886

David Turfire . . . . . . . . . 1886-1887

Emory B. Sellers . . . . . . . 1887-1889

Solomon Claypool . . . . . . . . . . 1889

Smiley N. Chambers . . . . . 1889-1893

Frank B. Burke . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Albert W. Wishard . . . . . . 1897-1901

Joseph B. Kealing . . . . . . 1901-1909

Charles W. Miller . . . . . . . 1909-1913

Frank C. Dailey . . . . . . . . 1913-1916

L. Ertus Stack . . . . . . . . . 1916-1918

Frederick Van Nuys . . . . . 1919-1921

Homer Elliott . . . . . . . . . 1922-1924

Alexander G. Cavins . . . . . . . . . 1925

Albert Ward . . . . . . . . . . 1925-1928

George L. Rulison . . . . . . . . . . 1928

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

Oliver Mullins Loomis . . . . 1928-1933

James R. Flemming . . . . . 1933-1941

Alexander Campbell . . . . . 1941-1949

Gilmore Haynie . . . . . . . . 1949-1953

Joseph H. Lesh . . . . . . . . 1953-1954

Phil M. McNagny, Jr. . . . . 1954-1958

Kenneth C. Raub . . . . . . . 1959-1962

Philip C. Potts . . . . . . . . . . . . 1962

Alfred Moellering . . . . . . 1962-1970

William C. Lee . . . . . . . . 1970-1973

John R. Wilks . . . . . . . . . 1973-1977

David T. Ready . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

R. Lawrence Steel, Jr. . . . 1981-1985

James G. Richmond . . . 1985 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

George Jeffrey . . . . . . . . 1929-1933

Van Nolan . . . . . . . . . . . 1933-1940

B. Howard Caughran . . . . 1940-1950

Matthew Welsh . . . . . . . . 1950-1952

Marshall Hanley . . . . . . . 1952-1953

Jack Brown . . . . . . . . . . 1953-1956

Don Tabbert . . . . . . . . . . 1957-1961

Richard P. Stein . . . . . . . 1961-1967

K. Edwin Applegate . . . . . 1967-1969

Stanley B. Miller . . . . . . . 1970-1974

John E. Hirschman . . . . . . 1974-1975

James B. Young . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Virginia Dill McCarty . . . . 1977-1981

Sarah Evans Barker . . . . . 1981-1984

Richard L. Darst . . . . . . . . . . . 1984

John D. Tinder . . . . . . . . 1984-1987

Bradley L. Williams . . . . . . . . . 1987

Deborah J. Daniels . . . . 1988 - present

TERRITORY OF IOWA (6/12/1838)

Cyrus S. Jacobs . . . . . . . . . . . . 1838

Isaac Van Allen . . . . . . . . 1838-1840

Charles Weston . . . . . . . . 1840-1843

John G. Deshler . . . . . . . 1843-1845

Edward Johnston . . . . . . . 1845-1847

Isaac M. Preston . . . . . . . 1847-1850

Stephen Whicher . . . . . . . 1850-1852

Joseph C. Knapp . . . . . . . 1852-1860

W. H. F. Gurley . . . . . . . . 1860-1863

Robert H. Gilmore . . . . . . 1863-1865

Caleb Baldwin . . . . . . . . . 1865-1867

Milton D. Browning . . . . . 1867-1869

William Fletcher Sapp . . . 1869-1873

James T. Lane . . . . . . . . 1873-1882

DeWitt C. Cram . . . . . . . . 1883-1883

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA

Maurice D. O’Connell . . . . 1883-1886

Timothy P. Murphy . . . . . 1886-1890

Maurice D. O’Connell . . . . 1890-1894

Cato Sells . . . . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Horace G. McMillan . . . . . 1898-1907

Frederick F. Faville . . . . . 1907-1913

Anthony Van Wageman . . . 1913-1914

Frank A. O’Connor . . . . . . 1914-1921

Guy P. Linville . . . . . . . . 1921-1927

Bennett E. Rhinehart .... 1927-1931

Harry M. Reed . . . . . . . . . 1931-1934

Edward G. Dunn . . . . . . . 1934-1940

Tobias E. Diamond . . . . . . 1940-1952

Michael L. Mason . . . . . . . 1952-1953

F. G. Van Alstine . . . . . . . 1953-1961

Donald E. O’Brien . . . . . . 1961-1967

Steve Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1967

Asher E. Schroeder . . . . . 1967-1969

Evan L. Hultman . . . . . . . 1969-1977

James H. Reynolds . . . . . . 1977-1982

Evan L. Hultman . . . . . . . 1982-1986

Robert L. Teig . . . . . . . . 1986-1986

Charles W. Larson . . . . 1986 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA

(7/20/1882)

John S. Runnels ........ 1882-1885

Daniel O. Finch . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Lewis Miles . . . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Charles D Fullen . . . . . . . 1893-1902

Lewis Miles . . . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Charles D. Fullen . . . . . . . 1893-1902

Claude R. Porter . . . . . . . 1914-1918

Edwin G. Moon . . . . . . . . 1918-1922

Ralph Pringle . . . . . . . . . 1922-1924

Edwin G. Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . 1924

Ross R. Mowry . . . . . . . . . 1924-1932

Robert W. Colflesh . . . . . 1932-1934

Edwin G. Moon . . . . . . . . 1934-1939

Cloid I. Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1939

John K. Valentine . . . . . . 1939-1940

Hugh B. McCoy . . . . . . . . . . . . 1940

Maurice F. Donegan . . . . . 1940-1949

William R. Hart . . . . . . . . 1949-1953

Roy L. Stephenson . . . . . . 1953-1960

Roy W. Meadows . . . . . . . 1960-1961

Donald A. Wine . . . . . . . . 1961-1965

Philip T. Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965

Donald M. Statton . . . . . . 1965-1967

Jerry E. Williams . . . . . . . . . . . 1967

James P. Rielly . . . . . . . . 1967-1969

Allen L. Donielson . . . . . . 1969-1976

George H. Perry . . . . . . . 1976-1977

Paul A. Zoss, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

James R. Rosenbaum . . . . . . . . 1977

Roxanne Barton Conlin . . . 1977-1981

Kermit B. Anderson . . . . . . . . . 1981

Richard C. Turner . . . . . . 1981-1986

Christopher D. Hagen . . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF KANSAS

Andrew J. Isaacs . . . . . . . 1854-1857

William Weer . . . . . . . . . 1857-1858

Alson C. Davis . . . . . . . . . 1858-1861

Thomas Means . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

John T. Burris . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Robert Crozier . . . . . . . . 1861-1864

James S. Emory . . . . . . . . 1864-1867

Samuel Riggs . . . . . . . . . 1867-1869

Albert H. Horton . . . . . . . 1869-1873

Cyrus I. Scofield . . . . . . . . . . . 1873

George R. Peck . . . . . . . . 1874-1879

James R. Hallowell . . . . . 1879-1885

William C. Parry . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Joseph W. Ady . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

William C. Parry . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Isaac E. Lambert . . . . . . . 1897-1901

John S. Dean . . . . . . . . . 1901-1905

KANSAS (Continued)

Harry J. Bone . . . . . . . . . 1905-1913

Fred Robertson . . . . . . . . 1913-1921
Albert F. Williams . . . . . . 1921-1930

Sardius M. Brewster . . . . . 1930-1934

Summerfield S. Alexander . 1934-1942

George H. West . . . . . . . . 1942-1945

W. Randolph Carpenter . . 1945-1948

Lester Luther . . . . . . . . . 1948-1952

Eugene W. Davis . . . . . . . 1952-1953

George Templar . . . . . . . 1953-1954

William C. Farmer . . . . . . 1954-1958

William C. Leonard . . . . . 1958-1961

Newell A. George . . . . . . 1961-1968

Benjamin E. Franklin . . . . 1968-1969

Robert J. Roth . . . . . . . . 1969-1975

E. Edward Johnson . . . . . 1975-1977

James P. Buchele . . . . . . 1977-1981

Jim J. Marquez . . . . . . . . 1981-1984

Benjamin L. Burgess, Jr. 1984 - present

DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

George Nicholas . . . . . . . . . . . 1789

James Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791

William Murry . . . . . . . . . 1791-1793

George Nicholas . . . . . . . . . . . 1793

John Breckinridge . . . . . . 1793-1794

William McClung . . . . . . . 1794-1796

William Clark . . . . . . . . . 1796-1800

Joseph Hamilton Davies . . 1800-1806

George M. Bibb . . . . . . . . 1807-1808

Robert Trimble . . . . . . . . 1813-1816

George M. Bibb . . . . . . . . 1819-1824

John J. Crittenden ...... 1827-1829

Thomas Bell Monroe . . . . . 1833-1834

Lewis Sanders, Jr. . . . . . . 1834-1838

P. S. Loughborough . . . . . 1838-1850

William H. Caperton . . . . 1850-1853

C. C. Rogers . . . . . . . . . . 1853-1861

Edward I. Buttock . . . . . . . . . . 1861

James M. Harlan . . . . . . . 1861-1863

Thomas E. Bramlette ........ 1863

Joshua Tevis . . . . . . . . . . 1863-1864

B. H. Bristow . . . . . . . . . 1866-1870

Gabriel C. Wharton . . . . . 1870-1876

H. F. Finley . . . . . . . . . . 1876-1877

Gabriel C. Wharton . . . . . 1877-1881

George M. Thomas . . . . . . 1881-1885

John C. Wickliffe . . . . . . . 1885-1889

George W. Jolly . . . . . . . 1889-1894

William M. Smith . . . . . . . 1894-1898

WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

Ruben D. Hill . . . . . . . . . 1898-1906

George Du Relle . . . . . . . 1906-1914

Perry B. Miller . . . . . . . . 1914-1919

W. V. Gregory . . . . . . . . . 1919-1922

Sherman W. Ball . . . . . . . 1922-1927

Thomas Sparks, Jr. . . . . . 1927-1935

Bunk Gardner . . . . . . . . . 1935-1938

Eli H. Brown, III . . . . . . . . 1938-1945

David C. Walls . . . . . . . . 1945-1953

Charles F. Wood . . . . . . . 1953-1954

J. Leonard Walker . . . . . . 1954-1959

William B. Jones . . . . . . . 1959-1961

William E. Scent . . . . . . . 1961-1965

Boyce F. Martin, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1965

Ernest W. Rivers . . . . . . . 1965-1970

John T. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1970

George J. Long, Jr. . . . . . 1970-1977

J. Albert Jones . . . . . . . . 1977-1980

John L. Smith . . . . . . . . . 1980-1981

Alexander T. Taft, Jr. . . . . . . . 1981

Ronald E. Meredith . . . . . 1981-1985

Alexander T. Taft, Jr. . . . 1985-1986

Joseph M. Whittle . . . . 1986 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

James H. Tinsley . . . . . . . 1901-1909

James N. Sharp . . . . . . . . 1909-1911

Edwin P. Morrow . . . . . . . 1911-1914

Thomas D. Slattery ..... 1914-1921

Sawyer A. Smith . . . . . . . 1921-1933

Mac Swinford . . . . . . . . . 1933-1937

John T. Metcalf . . . . . . . . 1937-1944

Claude P. Stephens . . . . . 1944-1953

Edwin R. Denney . . . . . . . 1953-1955

Henry J. Cook . . . . . . . . . 1955-1960

Jean L. Auxier . . . . . . . . 1960-1961

Bernard T. Moynahan, Jr. . 1961-1963

George I. Cline . . . . . . . . 1963-1970

Eugene E. Siler, Jr. . . . . . 1970-1975

Eldon L. Webb . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Patrick J. Molloy . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Joseph L. Famularo . . . . . . . . . 1981

Louis DeFalaise . . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

James Brown . . . . . . . . . 1805-1808

Philip Grymes . . . . . . . . . 1808-1810

Tully Robinson . . . . . . . . 1870-1811

John R. Grymes . . . . . . . . 1811-1814

Tully Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . 1814

John Dick . . . . . . . . . . . . 1814-1821

John W. Smith . . . . . . . . 1821- 1823

EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

John W. Smith . . . . . . . . 1821-1829

John Slidell . . . . . . . . . . 1829-1833

Henry Carlton . . . . . . . . . 1833-1836

P. K. Lawrence . . . . . . . . 1836-1837

Thomas Slidell . . . . . . . . 1837-1838

Benjamin F. Linton . . . . . 1838-1841

Balie Peyton . . . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Solomon W. Downs . . . . . 1845-1846

Thomas I. Durant . . . . . . . 1846-1850

Logan Hunton . . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

E. Warren Moise . . . . . . . 1853-1855

Thomas S. McCay . . . . . . . 1855-1856

Franklin H. Clack . . . . . . . 1856-1857

Thomas J. Semmes . . . . . 1857-1859

Henry C. Miller . . . . . . . . 1859-1863

Rufus Waples . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863

James R. Beckwith . . . . . . . . . 1870

Albert H. Leonard . . . . . . 1878-1885

Charles Parlange . . . . . . . 1885-1889

William Grant . . . . . . . . . 1889-1892

Ferdinand B. Earhart . . . . 1892-1896

J. Ward Gurley, Jr. . . . . . 1896-1900

William W. Howe . . . . . . . 1900-1907

Rufus E. Foster . . . . . . . . 1907-1909

Carlton R. Beattie . . . . . . 1909-1913

Walter Guion . . . . . . . . . 1913-1917

Joseph W. Montgomery . . 1917-1919

Henry Mooney . . . . . . . . . 1919-1921

Louis H. Burns . . . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Wayne G. Borah . . . . . . . 1925-1928

Edmond E. Talbot . . . . . . 1928-1933

William H. Norman . . . . . . . . . 1933

Rene A. Viosca . . . . . . . . 1933-1934

Warren Doyle . . . . . . . . . 1934-1937

Herbert W. Christenberry . 1937-1941

Robert Winestein . . . . . . 1941-1947

J. Skelly Wright . . . . . . . . 1948-1949

John M. McKay . . . . . . . . 1949-1950

George R. Blue . . . . . . . . 1950-1953

M. Hepburn Many . . . . . . 1953-1957

Kathleen Ruddell . . . . . . . 1957-1961

Louis C. LaCour . . . . . . . . 1967-1969

Gerald J. Gallinghouse . . . 1969-1978

John P. Volz . . . . . . . . 1978 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

Douglas M. Gonzales . . . . 1972-1976

Cheney C. Joseph, Jr. . . . 1976-1977

Donald L. Beckner . . . . . . 1977-1981

Stanford O. Bardwell, Jr. . 1981-7986

P. Raymond Lamonica . 1986 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

John Brownson . . . . . . . . 1823-1830

Benjamin F. Linton . . . . . 1830-1841

Henderson Taylor . . . . . . 1841-1842

Caleb L. Swayze . . . . . . . 1842-1849

Henry Boyce . . . . . . . . . . 1849-1850

Lawrence P. Crain . . . . . . 1850-1853

Joseph H. Kilpatrick . . . . . 1853-1854

Peter Alexander ....... 1854-1856

LOUISIANA (Continued)

Claiborne C. Briscoe . . . . . . . . 1856

Floyd Walton . . . . . . . . . 1856-1860

Leon D. Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1860

James R. Beckwith . . . . . . . . . 1870

H. B. Talliaferro . . . . . . . . . . . 1881
Milton C. Elstner . . . . . . . 1881-1885

Montfort S. Jones . . . . . . 1885-1889

Milton C. Elstner . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Charles W. Seats . . . . . . . 1893-1898

Milton C. Elstner . . . . . . . 1898-1910

E. H. Randolph . . . . . . . . 1910-1913

George W. Jack . . . . . . . . 1913-1917

Robert A. Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . 1917

Joseph Moore . . . . . . . . . 1917-1921

Yardell Boatner . . . . . . . . . . . . 1921

Hugh C. Fisher . . . . . . . . 1921-1922

Philip H. Mecom . . . . . . . 1922-1935

Benjamin F. Roberts . . . . 1935-1937

Harvey G. Fields . . . . . . . 1937-1945

Malcolm E. Lafargue . . . . 1945-1950

William J. Fleniken Sr . . . . . . . 1950

Harvey L. Carey . . . . . . . . . . . 1950

William J. Fleniken, Jr. . . 1950-1952

Thomas F. Wilson . . . . . . 1953-1962

Edward L. Shaheen . . . . . 1962-1969

Donald E. Walter . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Edward L. Shaheen . . . . . 1977-1979

Joseph R. Keene . . . . . . . 1979-1981

Joseph S. Cage, Jr. . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF MAINE

William Lithgow, Jr. . . . . 1789-1796

Daniel Davis . . . . . . . . . . 1796-1801

Silas Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . 1801-1814

William S. Preble . . . . . . 1814-1820

Ether Shepley . . . . . . . . . 1820-1833

John Anderson . . . . . . . . 1833-1837

Joseph Howard . . . . . . . . 1837-1841

John Holmes . . . . . . . . . . 1841-1843

Gorham Parks . . . . . . . . . 1843-1845

Augustine Haines . . . . . . . 1845-1848

George Shepley . . . . . . . . 1848-1849

Thomas A. Deblois . . . . . . 1849-1853

George Shepley . . . . . . . . 1853-1861

George F. Talbot . . . . . . . 1861-1870

Nathan Webb . . . . . . . . . 1870-1878

Wilbur F. Lunt . . . . . . . . 1878-1885

George E. Bird . . . . . . . . 1886-1890

Issac W. Dyer . . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

Albert W. Bradbury . . . . . 1894-1898

Issac W. Dyer . . . . . . . . . 1898-1906

Robert T. Whitehouse . . . 1906-1914

Stephen C. Perry . . . . . . . 1914-1915

John F. A. Merritt . . . . . . 1915-1922

Frederick R. Dyer . . . . . . 1922-1933

John D. Clifford, Jr. . . . . . 1933-1947

Edward J. Harrington . . . . . . . . 1947

Alton A. Lessard . . . . . . . 1947-1953

Peter Mills ........... 1953-1961

Alton A. Lessard . . . . . . . 1961-1965

William E. McKinley, Jr. . . . . . . 1965

Lloyd P. LaFountain . . . . . 1966-1969

Peter Mills ........... 1969-1977

George J. Mitchell . . . . . . 1977-1979

James W. Brannigan, Jr. . . 1979-1980

Thomas E. Delahanty II . . . 1980-1981

Richard S. Cohen . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

Richard Potts . . . . . . . . . 1789-1792

Zebulon Hollingsworth . . . 1792-1806

John Stephen . . . . . . . . . 1806-1810

Thomas B. Dorsey . . . . . . 1810-1812

Elias Glenn . . . . . . . . . . . 1812-1824

Nathaniel Williams . . . . . 1824-1841

Z. Collins Lee . . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

William L. Marshall . . . . . 1845-1850

Z. Collins Lee . . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

William M. Addison . . . . . 1853-1862

William Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1862

Archibald Sterling, Jr. . . . 1878-1886

Thomas G. Hayes . . . . . . . 1886-1890

John T. Ensor . . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

William L. Marbury . . . . . 1894-1898

John C. Rose . . . . . . . . . 1898-1910

John P. Hill . . . . . . . . . . 1910-1915

Samuel K. Dennis . . . . . . . 1915-1920

Robert R. Carman . . . . . . 1920-1922

Amos W. W. Woodcock . . . 1927-1931

Simon E. Sobeloff . . . . . . 1931-1934

Bernard J. Flynn . . . . . . . 1934-1953

George C. Doub . . . . . . . . 1953-1956

Walter E. Black, Jr. . . . . . 1956-1957

Leon N. A. Pierson . . . . . . 1957-1961

Joseph D. Tydings . . . . . . 1961-1963

Robert H. Kernon . . . . . . . . . . 1963

Thomas J. Kenney . . . . . . 1963-1967

Stephen H. Sachs . . . . . . . 1967-1970

George Beall . . . . . . . . . 1970-1975

Jervis S. Finney . . . . . . . . 1975-1978

Russell T. Baker . . . . . . . 1978-1981

Herbert Better ............ 1981

J. Frederick Motz . . . . . . 1981-1985

Catherine C. Blake . . . . . 1985-1986

Breckinridge L. Willcox . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Christopher Gore . . . . . . . 1789-1796

Harrison G. Otis . . . . . . . . . . . 1796

John Davis . . . . . . . . . . . 1796-1801

George Blake . . . . . . . . . 1801-1829

Andrew Dunlop . . . . . . . . 1829-1835

John Mills . . . . . . . . . . . 1835-1841

Franklin Dexter . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Robert Rantoul, Jr. . . . . . 1845-1850

George Lunt . . . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Benjamin F. Hallett . . . . . 1853-1857

Charles L. Woodbury . . . . 1857-1861

Richard H. Dana, Jr. . . . . 1861-1868

George S. Hillard . . . . . . . 1868-1870

David H. Mason . . . . . . . . 1870-1873

George P. Sanger . . . . . . 1873-1886

George M. Stearns . . . . . . 1886-1887

Owen A. Galvin . . . . . . . . 1887-1890

Frank D. Allen . . . . . . . . . 1890-1893

Sherman Hoar . . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Boyd B. Jones . . . . . . . . . 1897-1901

Henry P. Moultin . . . . . . . 1901-1905

Melvin O. Adams . . . . . . . 1905-1906

Asa P. French . . . . . . . . . 1906-1914

George W. Anderson . . . . 1914-1917

Thomas J. Boynton . . . . . 1917-1920

Danial J. Gallagher . . . . . 1920-1921

Robert O. Harris . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Harold P. Williams . . . . . . 1925-1926

Frederick H. Tarr . . . . . . 1926-1933

Francis J. W. Ford . . . . . . 1933-1938

John A. Canavan . . . . . . . 1938-1939

Edmund J. Brandon ..... 1939-1946

George F. Garrity . . . . . . 1946-1947

William T. McCarthy . . . . 1947-1949

George F. Garrity . . . . . . 1949-1953

Anthony Julian . . . . . . . . 1953-1959

Elliot L. Richardson . . . . . 1959-1961

W. Arthur Garrity . . . . . . 1961-1966

Paul F. Markham . . . . . . . 1966-1969

Herbert F. Travers, Jr. . . . 1969-1971

James N. Gabriel . . . . . . . 1971-1972

Joseph L. Tauro . . . . . . . . . . . 1972

James N. Gabriel . . . . . . . 1973-1977

Edward F. Harrington . . . . 1977-1981

William F. Weld . . . . . . . 1981-1986

Robert S. Mueller, III . . . . 1986-1987

Frank L. McNamara, Jr. . . 1987-1989

Jermiah T. O’Sullivan . . . . . . . . 1989

Peter A. Mullin ............ 1989

Wayne A. Budd . . . . . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

Solomon Sibley . . . . . . . . 1815-1824

Andrew G. Whitney . . . . . 1824-1826

Daniel LeRoy . . . . . . . . . 1826-1834

Daniel Goodwin . . . . . . . . 1834-1841

George C. Bates . . . . . . . 1841-1845

John Norvell . . . . . . . . . . 1845-1850

George C. Bates . . . . . . . 1850-1853

MICHIGAN (Continued)

Samuel Barstow . . . . . . . 1852-1853

George E. Hand . . . . . . . . 1853-1857

Joseph Miller, Jr. . . . . . . 1857-1861

William L. Stoughton . . . . 1861-1862

Alfred Russell . . . . . . . . . 1861-1863

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
Frederick O. Rogers . . . . . 1863-1869

John H. Standish . . . . . . . 1869-1877

Marsden C. Burch . . . . . . 1877-1882

John W. Stone . . . . . . . . 1882-1886

G. Chase Godwin . . . . . . . 1886-1890

Lewis G. Palmer . . . . . . . 1890-1894

John Power . . . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

George G. Coven . . . . . . . 1898-1910

Fred C. Wetmore . . . . . . . 1910-1914

Edward J. Bowman . . . . . . . . . 1914

Myron H. Walker . . . . . . . 1914-1922

Edward J. Bowman . . . . . 1922-1930

Fred C. Wetmore . . . . . . . 1933-1930

Joseph M. Donnelly . . . . . 1933-1937

Fred C. Wetmore . . . . . . . . . . . 1937

Francis T. McDonald . . . . . 1937-1940

Joseph F. Deeb . . . . . . . . 1940-1953

Wendell A. Miles . . . . . . . 1953-1960

Robert J. Danhof . . . . . . . 1960-1961

George E. Hill . . . . . . . . . 1961-1964

Robert G. Ouinn . . . . . . . 1964-1965

Harold D. Beaton . . . . . . . 1965-1969

John P. Milanowski . . . . . 1969-1974

Frank S. Spies . . . . . . . . . 1974-1977

James S. Brady . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Robert C. Greene . . . . . . . . . . 1981

John A. Smietanka . . . . 1981 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN

Aaron B. Maynard . . . . . . . . . . 1869

Sullivan M. Cutcheon . . . . 1877-1885

Cyrenius P. Black . . . . . . 1885-1890

Theodore F. Shepard . . . . 1890-1894

Jared W. Finney . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Alfred P. Lyon . . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Jared W. Finney . . . . . . . . . . . 1898

William D. Gordon . . . . . . 1898-1906

Frank H. Watson . . . . . . . 1906-1911

Arthur J. Tuttle . . . . . . . 1911-1912

Clyde I. Webster . . . . . . . 1912-1916

John E. Kinnane . . . . . . . 1916-1921

Earl J. Davis . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1924

Delos G. Smith . . . . . . . . 1924-1927

Ora L. Smith . . . . . . . . . . 1927-1928

John R. Watkins . . . . . . . 1928-1931

Gregory H. Frederick . . . . 1931-1936

John C. Lehr . . . . . . . . . . 1936-1947

Thomas P. Thornton . . . . . 1947-1949

Joseph C. Murphy . . . . . . . . . . 1949

Edward T. Kane . . . . . . . 1949-1952

Philip A. Hart . . . . . . . . . 1952-1953

Frederick W. Kaess . . . . . 1953-1960

George E. Woods, Jr. . . . . 1960-1961

Lawrence Gubow . . . . . . . 1961-1968

Robert J. Grace . . . . . . . 1968-1969

James H. Brickley . . . . . . 1969-1970

Ralph B. Guy, Jr. . . . . . . . 1970-1976

Frederick S. Van Tiem . . . . . . . 1976

Philip M. Van Dam . . . . . . 1976-1977

James K. Robinson . . . . . . 1977-1980

Richard A. Rossman . . . . . 1980-1981

Leonard R. Gilman . . . . . . 1981-1985

Joel M. Shere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1985

Roy C. Hayes . . . . . . . . . 1985-1989

Stephen J. Markman . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

Henry L. Moss . . . . . . . . . 1849-1853

Daniel H. Dustin . . . . . . . 1853-1854

John E. Warren . . . . . . . . 1854-1855

Norman Eddy . . . . . . . . . 1855-1857

Eugene M. Wilson . . . . . . 1857-1861

George A Nourse . . . . . . . 1861-1863

Henry L. Moss . . . . . . . . . 1863-1868

Cushman K. Davis . . . . . . 1868-1873

William W. Billson . . . . . . 1873-1882

D. B. Searle . . . . . . . . . . 1882-1885

George N. Baxter . . . . . . 1885-1890

Eugene G. Nay . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

E. C. Stringer . . . . . . . . . 1894-1989

Robert G. Evans . . . . . . . 1898-1901

Milton D. Purdy . . . . . . . . 1901-1902

Charles C. Houpt . . . . . . . 1902-1914

Alfred Jaques . . . . . . . . . 1914-1922

Lafayette French, Jr. .... 1922-1928

Lewis L. Drill . . . . . . . . . 1928-1933

George F. Sullivan . . . . . . 1933-1937

Victor E. Anderson . . . . . . 1937-1948

John W. Graff . . . . . . . . . 1948-1949

Clarence U. Landrum . . . . 1949-1952

Philip Neville . . . . . . . . . 1952-1953

George E. Mac Kinnon . . . 1953-1958

J. Clifford Janes . . . . . . . . . . . 1958

Fallan Kelly . . . . . . . . . . 1958-1961

J. Clifford Janes . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Miles W. Lord . . . . . . . . . 1961-1966

Hartley Nordin . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966

Patrick J. Foley . . . . . . . . 1966-1969

Jonathan E. Cudd . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Robert T. Renner . . . . . . 1969-1977

Thorwald H. Anderson, Jr. . . . . 1977

Andrew W. Danielson . . . . 1977-1979

Thorwald H. Anderson, Jr. 1979-1980

Thomas K. Berg . . . . . . . . 1980-1981

John M. Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

James M. Rosenbaum . . . . 1981-1985

Francis X. Hermann . . . . . 1985-1986

Jerome G. Arnold . . . . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

Thomas Anderson . . . . . . 1813-1814

William Crawford . . . . . . 1814-1818

Beta Metcalf . . . . . . . . . . 1818-1822

William B. Griffith . . . . . . 1822-1828

Felix Houston . . . . . . . . . 1828-1830

George Adams . . . . . . . . 1830-1836

Richard M. Gaines . . . . . . 1836-1838

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

Samuel F. Butterworth . . . 1838-1841

Oscar F. Bledsoe . . . . . . . 1841-1848

Andrew K. Blythe . . . . . . 1848-1850

Woodson T. Ligon . . . . . . 1850-1853

Nathaniel S. Price . . . . . . 1853-1854

John A. Orr . . . . . . . . . . 1854-1857

Flavius J. Lovejoy . . . . . . . . . . 1857

G. W. Wells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1870

Thomas Walton . . . . . . . . 1876-1878

Green C. Chandler . . . . . . 1878-1885

Charles B. Howry . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Henry C. Niles . . . . . . . . . 1889-1891

Mack A. Montgomery . . . . 1891-1893

Andrew F. Fox . . . . . . . . 1893-1896

Chapman L. Anderson . . . 1896-1897

Mack A. Montgomery . . . . 1897-1905

William D. Frazee . . . . . . 1905-1912

Lester G. Fant . . . . . . . . 1912-1914

Wilson S. Hill . . . . . . . . . 1914-1921

J. L. Roberson . . . . . . . . . . . . 1921

Samuel E. Oldham . . . . . . 1921-1925

John H. Cook . . . . . . . . . 1925-1929

Lester G. Fant . . . . . . . . 1929-1937

George T. Mitchell . . . . . . 1937-1942

James O. Day . . . . . . . . . 1942-1945

Chester I. Sumners ..... 1945-1951

Noel H. Malone . . . . . . . . 1951-1954

Chester L. Sumners ......... 1954

Thomas R. Ethridge . . . . . 1954-1961

B. Euple Dozier . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Hosea M. Ray . . . . . . . . . 1961-1981

Glen H. Davidson . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Robert Q. Whitwell . . . 1985 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI

Richard M. Gaines . . . . . . 1840-1850

Horatio J. Harris . . . . . . . 1850-1859

Carnot Posey . . . . . . . . . 1859-1866

R. Leachman . . . . . . . . . 1866-1869

G. Gordon Adam . . . . . . . 1869-1870

E. Phillip Jacobson . . . . . 1870-1873

Felix Branigan . . . . . . . . . 1873-1875

MISSISSIPPI (Continued)

William E. Dedrick . . . . . . 1875-1876

Luke Lea . . . . . . . . . . . . 1876-1885

J. Bowmar Harris . . . . . . . 1885-1888

A. H. Longino . . . . . . . . . 1888-1889

Albert M. Lea . . . . . . . . . 1889-1897

Robert C. Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897

Albert M. Lea . . . . . . . . . 1897-1903

Robert C. Lee . . . . . . . . . 1903-1915

Joseph George . . . . . . . . 1915-1919

Julian P. Alexander . . . . . 1919-1921

Edward E. Hindman . . . . . 1921-1929
Ben F. Cameron . . . . . . . 1929-1933

Robert M. Bourdeaux . . . . 1933-1938

Toxey Hall . . . . . . . . . . . 1938-1947

Joseph E. Brown . . . . . . . 1947-1954

Robert E. Hauberg . . . . . . 1954-1980

George Phillips . . . . . . 1980 - present

DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

John Scott . . . . . . . . . . . 1814-1817

Charles Lucas . . . . . . . . . 1817-1818

Robert Wash . . . . . . . . . . 1818-1819

James H. Peck . . . . . . . . 1819-1822

Joshua Barton . . . . . . . . . 1822-1823

Robert Wash . . . . . . . . . . 1823-1824

Edward Bates . . . . . . . . . 1824-1827

Beverley Allen . . . . . . . . 1827-1829

George Shannon . . . . . . . 1829-1834

Arthur L. Magennis . . . . . 1834-1840

Montgomery Blair . . . . . . 1840-1844

William M. McPherson . . . 1844-1845

Thomas T. Gantt . . . . . . . 1845-1850

John D. Cook . . . . . . . . . 1850-1852

John D. Coulter . . . . . . . . 1852-1853

Thomas C. Reynolds . . . . . . . . . 1853

EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

Calvin F. Burns . . . . . . . . 1857-1861

Asa S. Jones . . . . . . . . . . 1861-1862

William W. Edwards . . . . . 1862-1863

William N. Grover . . . . . . . . . . 1863

Chester H. Krum . . . . . . . 1870-1876

William H. Bliss . . . . . . . . 1876-1887

Thomas P. Bashaw . . . . . . 1887-1889

George D. Reynolds . . . . . 1889-1894

William H. Clopton . . . . . 1894-1898

Edward A. Rozier . . . . . . . 1898-1902

David P. Dyer . . . . . . . . . 1902-1907

Henry W. Blodgett . . . . . . 1907-1901

Charles A. Houts . . . . . . . 1901-1914

Arthur L. Oliver . . . . . . . . 1914-1919

W. L. Hensley . . . . . . . . . 1919-1920

James E. Carroll . . . . . . . 1920-1923

Allen Curry . . . . . . . . . . . 1923-1926

Louis H. Brewer . . . . . . . 1926-1934

Harry C. Blanton . . . . . . . 1934-1947

Drake Watson . . . . . . . . . 1947-1951

George L. Robertson . . . . 1951-1953

William W. Crowdis . . . . . . . . . 1953

Harry Richards . . . . . . . . 1953-1959

William H. Webster . . . . . 1959-1961

D. Jeff Lance . . . . . . . . . 1961-1962

Richard D. Fitzgibbon, Jr. . 1962-1967

Veryl L. Aiddle . . . . . . . . 1967-1969

James E. Reeves . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Daniel Bartlett, Jr. ......... 1969

James E. Reeves . . . . . . . 1969-1973

Donald J. Stohr . . . . . . . . 1973-1976

Barry A. Short . . . . . . . . . 1976-1977

Robert D. Kingsland . . . . . 1977-1981

Thomas E. Dittmeier . . 1981 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

M. M. Parsons . . . . . . . . . 1857-1858

Alfred M. Lay . . . . . . . . . 1858-1861

James J. Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

James O. Broadhead . . . . . . . . 1861

Robert J. Lackey . . . . . . . 1861-1864

Bennett Pike ............. 1864

James S. Botsford . . . . . . 1871-1878

Col. L. H. Waters . . . . . . . 1878-1882

William Warner . . . . . . . . 1882-1885

Ross Guffin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

Maecenas E. Benton . . . . . 1885-1889

Elbert E. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . 1889

George A. Neat . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

John R. Walker . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

William Warner . . . . . . . . 1898-1905

Arba S. Van Valkenburgh . . 1905-1910

Leslie J. Lyons . . . . . . . . 1910-1913

Francis M. Wilson . . . . . . 1913-1920

Sam O. Hargus . . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

James W. Sultinger . . . . . 1920-1921

Charles C. Madison . . . . . 1921-1925

Roscoe C. Patterson ..... 1925-1929

William L. Vandeventer . . 1929-1934

Maurice M. Milligan . . . . . 1934-1940

Richard K. Phelps . . . . . . . . . . 1940

Maurice M. Milligan . . . . . 1940-1945

Sam M. Wear . . . . . . . . . 1945-1953

Edward L. Scheufler . . . . . 1953-1961

F. Russell Millin . . . . . . . . 1961-1967

Calvin K. Hamilton . . . . . . 1967-1969

Bert C. Hurn . . . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Ronald S. Reed, Jr. . . . . . 1977-1981

J. Whitfield Moody . . . . . . . . . 1981

Robert G. Utrich . . . . . . . 1981-1989

Thomas M. Larson . . . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF MONTANA

Robert S. Anderson . . . . . 1877-1879

J. W. Andrews . . . . . . . . 1879-1880

James S. Dryden . . . . . . . . . . . 1880

James W. Walker . . . . . . 1880-1881

Frank M. Eastman . . . . . . 1881-1883

W. H. DeWitt . . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

Robert B. Smith . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Elbert D. Weed . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

Preston H. Leslie . . . . . . . 1894-1898

William B. Rogers . . . . . . 1898-1902

Carl Rasch . . . . . . . . . . . 1902-1908

James W. Freeman . . . . . 1908-1913

Burton K. Wheeler . . . . . . 1913-1918

Edward C. Day . . . . . . . . 1918-1920

W. W. Patterson ........... 1920

George F. Shelton . . . . . . . . . . 1920

John L. Slattery ........... 1921

Wellington D. Rankin . . . . 1926-1934

James H. Baldwin . . . . . . 1934-1935

John B. Tansil . . . . . . . . . 1935-1950

Dalton T. Pierson . . . . . . . . . . 1951

Krest Cyr . . . . . . . . . . . . 1953-1961

H. Moody Brickett . . . . . . 1961-1969

Otis L. Packwood . . . . . . . 1969-1975

Keith L. Burrows . . . . . . . 1975-1976

Thomas A. Olson . . . . . . . 1976-1977

Robert T. O’Leary . . . . . . 1977-1981

Robert L. Zimmerman . . . . . . . 1981

Byron H. Dunbar . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA

Experience Estabrook . . . . 1854-1859

Leavitt L. Bowen . . . . . . . 1859-1860

Robert A. Howard . . . . . . 1860-1861

David A. Collier . . . . . . . . 1861-1864

Daniel Gantt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864

James Neville . . . . . . . . . 1876-1878

Genio M. Lambertson . . . . 1878-1887

George E. Pritchett . . . . . 1887-1890

Benjamin S. Baker . . . . . . 1890-1894

Andrew J. Sawyer . . . . . . 1894-1898

Williamson S. Summers . . . 1898-1904

Irving F. Baxter . . . . . . . . 1904-1905

Charles A. Goss . . . . . . . . 1905-1910

Francis S. Howell . . . . . . . 1910-1915

Thomas S. Allen . . . . . . . 1915-1921

James C. Kinsler . . . . . . . 1921-1930

Charles E. Sandall . . . . . . 1930-1935

Joseph T. Votava . . . . . . . 1935-1954

Donald R. Ross . . . . . . . . 1954-1956

Harry W. Shackelford . . . . . . . . 1956

William C. Spire . . . . . . . 1956-1961

Theodore L. Richling . . . . 1961-1969

Richard A. Dier . . . . . . . . 1969-1972

William K. Schaphorst . . . 1972-1975

Daniel E. Wherry . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Edward G. Warin . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Thomas D. Thalkin . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Ronald D. Lahners . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF NEVADA

Benjamin Bunker . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Theodore D. Edwards . . . . 1863-1865

Robert M. Clarke . . . . . . . 1865-1866

William Campbell . . . . . . 1866-1870

W. S. Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1870

J. Seely . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1870-1875

Charles S. Varian . . . . . . . 1875-1883

Trenmore Coffin . . . . . . . 1883-1887

Thomas E. Haydon . . . . . . 1887-1889

John W. Whitcher . . . . . . 1889-1894

Charles A. Jones . . . . . . . 1894-1897
Sardis Summerfield ..... 1897-1906

Samuel Platt . . . . . . . . . . 1906-1914

William Woodburn . . . . . . 1914-1922

George Springmeyer . . . . 1922-1926

Harry H. Atkinson . . . . . . 1926-1934

E. P. Carville . . . . . . . . . 1934-1939

William S. Boyle . . . . . . . . . . . 1939

Miles N. Pike . . . . . . . . . 1939-1942

Thomas O. Craven . . . . . . 1942-1945

James W. Johnson, Jr. . . . 1953-1954

Madison B. Graves . . . . . . 1954-1955

Franklin P. R. Rittenhouse 1955-1958

Howard W. Babcock . . . . . 1958-1961

John W. Bonner . . . . . . . 1961-1966

Joseph L. Ward . . . . . . . . 1966-1969

Robert S. Linnell . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Bart M. Schouweiler . . . . . 1969-1972

Joseph L. Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . 1972

V. DeVoe Heaton . . . . . . . 1972-1975

Lawrence J. Semenza . . . . 1975-1977

B. Mahlon Brown . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Lamond R. Mitts . . . . . . . 1981-1985

William A. Maddox . . . . 1985 - present

DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Samuel Sherburne, Jr. . . . 1789-1794

Edwards St. Loe Livermore 1794-1797

Jermiah Smith . . . . . . . . 1797-1801

Edwards St. Loe Livermore . . . . 1801

John S. Sherbourne . . . . . 1801-1804

Jonathan Steele ........... 1804

Daniel Humphreys . . . . . . 1804-1827

William Plumer, Jr. . . . . . 1827-1828

Daniel M. Christie . . . . . . 1828-1829

Samuel Cushman . . . . . . . 1829-1830

Daniel McDurell . . . . . . . . 1830-1834

John P. Hale . . . . . . . . . . 1834-1841

Joel Eastman . . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Franklin Pierce . . . . . . . . 1845-1847

Josiah Minot . . . . . . . . . . 1847-1850

William W. Stickney . . . . . 1850-1853

John H. George . . . . . . . . 1853-1858

Anson S. Marshall . . . . . . 1858-1861

Charles W. Rand . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Henry P. Rolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . 1869

Joshua G. Halt . . . . . . . . 1878-1879

Ossian Ray . . . . . . . . . . . 1879-1881

Charles H. Burns . . . . . . . 1881-1885

John S. H. Frisk . . . . . . . . 1885-1890

Jas. W. Remick . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

Oliver E. Branch . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Charles J. Hamblett . . . . . 1898-1907

Charles W. Hoitt . . . . . . . 1907-1914

Fred N. Brown . . . . . . . . 1914-1922

Raymond U. Smith . . . . . . 1922-1934

Alexander Murchie . . . . . . 1934-1945

Dennis E. Sullivan . . . . . . 1945-1949

Robert D. Branch . . . . . . . . . . . 1949

John J. Sheehan . . . . . . . 1949-1954

Maurice P. Bois . . . . . . . . 1954-1961

William H. Craig, Jr. . . . . 1961-1963

John D. McCarthy . . . . . . . . . . 1963

Louis M. Janette ....... 1963-1969

David A. Brock . . . . . . . . 1969-1972

William B. Cullimore . . . . 1972-1973

Carroll F. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . 1973

William J. Deachman, III . . 1973-1977

William H. Shaheen . . . . . 1977-1981

Robert J. Kennedy . . . . . . . . . . 1981

W. Stephen Thayer, III . . . 1981-1984

Bruce Kenna . . . . . . . . . . 1984-1985

Richard Wiebusch . . . . . . . . . . 1985

Peter E. Papps ........ 1985-1989

Jeffrey R. Howard . . . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

Richard Stockton . . . . . . . 1789-1791

Abraham Ogden . . . . . . . 1791-1798

Lucius H. Stockton . . . . . . 1798-1801

Frederick Frelinghuysen . . . . . . 1801

George C. Maxwell . . . . . 1801-1803

William S. Pennington . . . 1803-1804

Joseph McIlvaine . . . . . . . 1804-1821

Lucius O. C. Elmer . . . . . . 1824-1828

Garrett D. Wall ........ 1829-1834

James S. Green . . . . . . . . 1835-1848

William Halstead . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Garrett S. Camon ...... 1853-1858

Anthony Q. Keasby . . . . . 1861-1882

Job H. Lippincott . . . . . . 1886-1897

Samuel F. Bigelow . . . . . . 1897-1888

George S. Duryee . . . . . . 1888-1890

Henry S. White . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

John W. Beekman . . . . . . 1894-1896

J. Kearny Rice . . . . . . . . 1896-1900

David O. Watkins . . . . . . . 1900-1903

Cortland Parker, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1903

John B. Vreeland . . . . . . . 1903-1913

J. Warren Davis . . . . . . . . 1913-1916

Charles F. Lynch . . . . . . . 1916-1919

Joseph L. Bodine . . . . . . . 1919-1920

Elmer N. Geran . . . . . . . . 1920-1922

Walter G. Winne . . . . . . . 1922-1928

James W. McCarthy . . . . . . . . . 1928

Phillip Forman . . . . . . . . 1928-1932

Harlan Besson . . . . . . . . . 1932-1935

John J. Quinn . . . . . . . . . 1935-1940

William F. Smith . . . . . . . 1940-1941

Charles M. Phillips . . . . . . 1941-1943

Thorn Lord . . . . . . . . . . . 1943-1945

Edgar H. Rossback . . . . . . 1945-1948

Isaiah Matlack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1948

Alfred E. Modarelli . . . . . 1948-1951

Grover C. Richman, Jr. . . . 1951-1953

William F. Tompkins . . . . 1953-1954

Raymond Det Tufo, Jr. . . . 1954-1956

Herman Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1956

Chester A. Weidenburner . 1965-1961

David M. Satz, Jr. . . . . . . 1961-1969

Donald Horowitz . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Frederick B. Lacey . . . . . . 1969-1971

Herbert J. Stern . . . . . . . 1971-1974

Jonathan L. Goldstein . . . 1974-1977

Robert J. Del Tufo . . . . . . 1977-1980

William W. Robertson . . . . 1980-1981

W. Hant Dumont . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Thomas W. Greelish . . . . . 1985-1987

Samuel J. Alito, Jr. . . . 1987 - present

TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO

Francis P. Blair, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1846

Elias P. West . . . . . . . . . 1851-1853

Miguel A. Otero . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

William W. H. Davis . . . . . 1853-1854

William C. Jones . . . . . . . 1854-1858

R. H. Tompkins . . . . . . . . 1858-1860

Theodore D. Wheaton . . . . . . . 1860

S. M. Ashenfelter . . . . . . . 1870-1872

Thomas B. Catron . . . . . . 1872-1878

Sidney M. Barnes . . . . . . . 1878-1883

George W. Pritchard . . . . 1883-1885

Joseph Bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1885

Thomas Smith . . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Eugene A. Fisk . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

John H. Hemingway . . . . . 1893-1896

George P. Money . . . . . . . . . . . 1896

William B. Childers . . . . . 1896-1905

W. H. H. Llwewllyn . . . . . 1905-1907

David J. Leahy . . . . . . . . 1907-1912

Stephen B. Davis, Jr. . . . . 1912-1913

S. Burkhart . . . . . . . . . . . 1913-1921

George R. Craig . . . . . . . 1921-1924

John W. Wilson . . . . . . . . 1924-1929

Hugh B. Woodward . . . . . 1929-1933

William J. Barker . . . . . . 1933-1937

Everett M. Grantham .... 1937-1942

NEW MEXICO (Continued)

Howard F. Houk . . . . . . . 1942-1946

Everett M. Grantham .... 1946-1951

Maurice Sanchez . . . . . . . 1951-1953

Paul F. Larrazolo . . . . . . . 1953-1957

James A. eourland . . . . . . 1957-1961

JohnFE. Quinn, Jr. . . . . . . 1961-1969

Ruth C. Streeter ........... 1969

Victor R. Ortega . . . . . . . 1969-1978

Rufus E. Thompson . . . . . 1978-1982

Don J. Svet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1982

William L. Lutz . . . . . . 1982 - present
DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Richard Harrison . . . . . . . 1789-1801

Edward Livingston . . . . . . 1801-1803

Nathan Stanford . . . . . . . 1803-1815

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Roger Skinner . . . . . . . . . 1815-1819

Jacob Sutherland . . . . . . 1819-1823

Samuel Beardsley . . . . . . 1823-1831

Nathan S. Benton . . . . . . . . . . 1831

Joshua A. Spencer . . . . . . 1841-1845

William F. Allen . . . . . . . 1845-1847

George W. Clinton . . . . . . 1847-1850

James R. Lawrence . . . . . 1850-1853

Henry A. Foster . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

John B. Skinner . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

Samuel B. Garvin . . . . . . . 1853-1858

James B. Spencer . . . . . . 1858-1861

William A. Dart . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Richard Crowley . . . . . . . 1875-1879

Martin I. Townsend . . . . . 1879-1886

Daniel N. Lockwood . . . . . 1886-1889

DeAlva S. Alexander . . . . . 1889-1893

William A. Poucher . . . . . 1893-1897

Emory E. Close . . . . . . . . 1897-1899

Charles H. Brown . . . . . . 1899-1900

George B. Curtiss . . . . . . 1900-1913

John H. Gleason . . . . . . . 1913-1916

Dennis B. Lucey . . . . . . . 1916-1921

Clarence E. Williams . . . . . . . . 1921

Hiram C. Todd . . . . . . . . 1921-1922

Earle HY. Gallufo . . . . . . . . . . 1922

Benjamin C. Mead . . . . . . 1922-1923

Oliver D. Burden . . . . . . . 1923-1936

Ralph L. Emmons . . . . . . . 1936-1943

Irving J. Higbee . . . . . . . . 1943-1951

Edmund Port ......... 1951-1953

Anthony F. Caffrey . . . . . . . . . 1953

Theodore F. Bowes . . . . . 1953-1961

Justin J. Mahoney . . . . . . 1961-1969

James M. Sullivan, Jr. . . . . . . . 1969

Samuel T. Betts, III ..... 1969-1973

James M. Sullivan, Jr. . . . 1973-1976

Paul V. French . . . . . . . . 1976-1978

George H. Lowe . . . . . . . 1978-1982

Gustove J. DiBianco . . . . . . . . . 1982

Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. 1982 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Benjamin D. Sillman . . . . 1865-1866

Benjamin F. Tracy . . . . . . 1866-1877

Asa W. Tenney . . . . . . . . 1877-1885

Mark D. Wilber . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Jesse Johnson . . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

John Oakey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

James L. Bennett . . . . . . 1894-1898

George H. Pettit ....... 1898-1902

William J. Young . . . . . . . 1902-1915

Louis R. Bick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1915

Melville J. France . . . . . . 1915-1919

James D. Bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1919

LeRoy W. Ross . . . . . . . . 1919-1921

Wallace E. J. Collins . . . . . . . . 1921

Ralph C. Greene . . . . . . . 1921-1925

William A. DeGroot . . . . . 1925-1929

Howard W. Ameli . . . . . . 1929-1934

Leo J. Hickey . . . . . . . . . 1934-1937

Harold St. Leo O’Dougherty 1937-1938

Michael F. L. Walsh . . . . . 1938-1939

Vine H. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1939

Harold M. Kennedy . . . . . 1939-1944

Vincent T. Quinn . . . . . . . 1944-1945

Miles F. McDonald . . . . . . . . . . 1945

Vincent T. Quinn . . . . . . . 1945-1946

Vincent J. Keogh . . . . . . . 1946-1950

Frank J. Parker . . . . . . . . 1950-1953

Leonard P. Moore . . . . . . 1953-1957

Cornelius W. Wickersham, Jr.1957-1961

Elliot Kahaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Joseph P. Hoey . . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Vincent T. McCarthy . . . . . . . . 1969

Edward A. Neaher . . . . . . 1969-1971

Robert A. Morse . . . . . . . 1971-1973

Edward J. Boyd, V . . . . . . 1973-1974

David G. Trager . . . . . . . 1974-1978

Edward R. Korman . . . . . . 1978-1982

Raymond J. Dearie . . . . . 1982-1986

Reena Raggi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1986

Andrew J. Maloney . . . 1986 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Charles H. Brown . . . . . . 1900-1906

Lymon M. Bass . . . . . . . . 1906-1909

John L. O’Brien . . . . . . . . 1909-1914

John D. Lynn . . . . . . . . . 1914-1915

Stephen T. Lockwood . . . . 1915-1922

William Donovan . . . . . . . 1922-1924

Thomas Penney, Jr. . . . . . 1924-1925

Richard H. Templeton . . . 1925-1934

George L. Grobe . . . . . . . 1934-1953

John O. Henderson . . . . . 1953-1959

Neil A. Farmelo . . . . . . . . 1959-1961

John T. Curtin . . . . . . . . 1961-1967

Thomas A. Kennelly . . . . . . . . . 1968

Andrew F. Phelan . . . . . . 1968-1969

Edgar C. NeMoyer . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Kenneth H. Schroeder, Jr. 1969-1972

John T. Elfvin . . . . . . . . . 1972-1975

Richard J. Arcara . . . . . . 1975-1981

Roger P. Williams . . . . . . 1981-1982

Salvatore R. Martoche . . . 1982-1986

Roger P. Williams . . . . . . 1986-1988

Dennis C. Vacco . . . . . 1988 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Jonathan Fisk . . . . . . . . . 1815-1819

Robert Tillotson . . . . . . . 1819-1828

John Duer . . . . . . . . . . . 1828-1829

James A. Hamilton . . . . . 1829-1834

William M. Price . . . . . . . 1834-1838

Benjamin F. Butler . . . . . 1838-1841

Ogden Hoffman . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Benjamin F. Butler . . . . . 1845-1848

Charles McVean . . . . . . . . . . . . 1848

Lorenzo B. Shepherd . . . . 1848-1850

J. Prescott Hall . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Charles O’Conner . . . . . . 1853-1854

John McKeon . . . . . . . . . 1854-1858

Theodore Sedgwick . . . . . 1858-1859

James I. Roosevelt . . . . . . 1859-1861

E. Delafield Smith . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Stewart L. Woodford . . . . 1861-1883

Elihu Root . . . . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

William Dorsheimer . . . . . 1885-1886

Stephen A. Walker . . . . . . 1886-1889

Edward Mitchell . . . . . . . 1889-1894

Henry B. Platt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Wallace Macfarlane . . . . . 1894-1898

Henry L. Burnett . . . . . . . 1898-1906

Henry L. Stevenson . . . . . 1906-1909

Henry A. Wise . . . . . . . . . 1909-1913

Marshall H. Snowden . . . . 1913-1917

Francis G. Coffey . . . . . . 1917-1921

William Hayward . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Emory R. Buckner . . . . . . 1925-1927

Charles H. Tuttle . . . . . . . 1927-1931

George Z. Medalie . . . . . . 1931-1933

Thomas E. Dewey . . . . . . . . . . 1933

Martin Conboy . . . . . . . . 1933-1935

Francis W. H. Adams . . . . . . . . 1935

Lamar Hardy . . . . . . . . . . 1935-1939

Gregory F. Noonan . . . . . . . . . . 1939

John T. Cahill . . . . . . . . . 1939-1941

Mathias F. Correa . . . . . . 1941-1943

Howard F. Corcoran . . . . . . . . . 1943

James B. M. McNally . . . . 1943-1944

John F. Y. McGohey . . . . . 1944-1949

Irving H. Saypol . . . . . . . . 1949-1951

Miles J. Lane . . . . . . . . . 1951-1953

NEW YORK (Continued)

J. Edward Lumbard . . . . . 1953-1955

Lloyd F. MacMahon . . . . . . . . . 1955

Paul W. Williams . . . . . . . 1955-1958

Arthur H. Christy . . . . . . . 1958-1959

S. H. Gillespie, Jr. . . . . . . 1959-1961

Morton S. Robson . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Robert M. Margenthau . . . 1961-1962

Vincent L. Broderick . . . . . . . . 1962

Robert M. Margenthau . . . 1962-1970

Whitney N. Seymour . . . . 1970-1973

Paul J. Canon . . . . . . . . . 1973-1975

Thomas J. Cahill . . . . . . . 1975-1976

Robert B. Fiske, Jr. . . . . . 1976-1980

William M. Tendy . . . . . . . . . . 1980

John S. Martin, Jr. . . . . . . 1980-1983

Rudolph W. Guiliani . . . . . 1983-1989

Benito Romano . . . . . . 1989 - present
DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

John Sitgreaves . . . . . . . . . . . . 1790

William Hill . . . . . . . . . . 1790-1795

Benjamin Wood . . . . . . . . 1795-1808

Robert H. Jones . . . . . . . 1808-1816

Thomas P. Devereux . . . . 1816-1817

James McKay . . . . . . . . . 1817-1821

Thomas P. Devereux . . . . 1821-1839

H. L. Holmes . . . . . . . . . 1839-1840

James B. Sheppard . . . . . . . . . 1840

William H. Haywood . . . . 1840-1843

Duncan K. McRae . . . . . . . 1843-1850

Hiram W. Husted . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Robert P. Dick . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH

CAROLINA

D. H. Starbuck . . . . . . . . 1870-1873

Richard C. Badger . . . . . . 1872-1878

J. W. Albertson . . . . . . . . 1878-1882

W. S. O. B. Robinson . . . . 1882-1885

Fabius H. Busbee . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Chas. A. Cook . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Charles B. Aycock . . . . . . 1893-1898

Claude M. Bernard . . . . . . 1898-1902

Harry Skinner . . . . . . . . . 1902-1910

Herbert F. Seawell . . . . . 1910-1913

Francis D. Winston . . . . . . 1913-1916

James O. Carr . . . . . . . . . 1916-1919

Thomas D. Warren . . . . . . 1919-1920

E. F. Aydlett . . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

Irvin B. Tucker . . . . . . . . 1921-1930

Walter H. Fisher . . . . . . . 1930-1934

James O. Carr . . . . . . . . . 1934-1945

Charles F. Rouse . . . . . . . 1945-1946

John H. Manning . . . . . . . 1946-1951

Charles P. Green . . . . . . . 1951-1953

Julian T. Gaskill . . . . . . . 1953-1961

Robert H. Cowen . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Warren H. Coolidge . . . . . 1969-1973

Thomas P. McNamara . . . . 1973-1976

Cart L. Tilghman . . . . . . . 1976-1977

George M. Anderson . . . . . 1977-1980

James L. Blackburn . . . . . 1980-1981

Samuel J. Currin . . . . . . . 1981-1987

J. Douglas McCullough . . . 1987-1988

Margaret P. Currin . . . . 1988 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH

CAROLINA

D. H. Starbuck . . . . . . . . 1870-1876

Virgil S. Lusk . . . . . . . . . 1876-1880

James E. Boyd . . . . . . . . 1880-1885

Hamilton C. Jones . . . . . . 1885-1889

Charles Price . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Robert B. Glean . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Alfred E. Holton . . . . . . . 1897-1914

William C. Hammer . . . . . 1914-1920

Stonewall J. Durham . . . . 1920-1921

Frank A. Linney . . . . . . . . 1921-1927

Thomas J. Harkins . . . . . . 1927-1931

Charles A. Jonas . . . . . . . 1931-1932

Frank C. Patton . . . . . . . . 1932-1933

Marcus Erwin . . . . . . . . . 1933-1939

W. Roy Francis . . . . . . . . 1939-1940

Theron L. Candle . . . . . . . 1940-1945

David E. Henderson . . . . . 1945-1948

Thomas E. Uzzell . . . . . . . 1948-1953

James M. Baley, Jr. . . . . . 1953-1961

Hugh E. Monteith . . . . . . . . . . 1961

William Medford . . . . . . . 1961-1969

James O. Israel, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1969

Keith S. Snyder . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Harold M. Edwards . . . . . . 1977-1981

Harold J. Bender . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Charles R. Brewer . . . . . . 1981-1987

Thomas J. Ashcraft . . . 1987 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

Frank Linney . . . . . . . . . 1927-1928

Edwin L. Gavin . . . . . . . . 1928-1932

John R. McCrary . . . . . . . 1932-1934

Carlyle W. Higgins . . . . . . 1934-1947

Bryce R. Holt . . . . . . . . . 1947-1954

Edwin M. Stanley . . . . . . . 1954-1957

Robert L. Gavin . . . . . . . . 1957-1958

James E. Holshouser . . . . 1958-1961

Lafayette Williams ......... 1961

William H. Murdock . . . . . 1961-1969

William L. Osteen ...... 1969-1974

N. Can ton Tilley, Jr. . . . . 1947-1977

Benjamin H. White, Jr. . . . 1977-1981

Henry M. Michaux . . . . . . 1977-1981

Kenneth W. McAllister . . . 1981-1986

Robert H. Edmunds, Jr. 1986 - present

TERRITORY OF DAKOTA

Harvey M. Vale . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

William E. Gleason . . . . . 1861-1865

James Christian . . . . . . . . . . . 1865

George H. Hand . . . . . . . 1866-1869

Warren Gowles . . . . . . . . 1869-1872

William Pound . . . . . . . . 1872-1877

Hugh J. Campbell . . . . . . 1877-1885

John E. Garland . . . . . . . 1885-1888

William E. Purcell . . . . . . 1888-1889

John C. Murphy . . . . . . . . . . . . 1889

North And South Dakota Admitted

To The Union November 2, 1889

DISTRICT OF NORTH DAKOTA

John F. Selby . . . . . . . . . 1890-1891

Edgar W. Camp . . . . . . . . 1891-1894

James F. O’Brien . . . . . . . . . . . 1894

Tracy R. Bangs . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Partick H. Rourke . . . . . . 1898-1911

Edward Engerud . . . . . . . 1911-1914

Melvin A. Hildreth . . . . . . 1914-1923

Seth W. Richardson . . . . . 1923-1929

Peter B. Garberg ....... 1929-1933

Powless W. Lanier . . . . . . 1933-1954

Ralph B. Maxwell . . . . . . . . . . . 1954

Robert Vogel . . . . . . . . . 1954-1961

John O. Garaas . . . . . . . . 1961-1968

Eugene K. Anthony . . . . . 1968-1969

Harold O. Bullis . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Eugene K. Anthony . . . . . . . . . 1977

James R. Britton . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Rodney S. Webb . . . . . . . 1981-1987

Gary H. Annear . . . . . . 1987 - present

DISTRICT OF OHIO

William McMillan . . . . . . . 1801-1803

Michael Baldwin . . . . . . . 1803-1804

William Creighton . . . . . . 1804-1810

Samuel Herrick . . . . . . . . 1810-1818

John C. Wright . . . . . . . . 1818-1823

Joseph S. Benham . . . . . . 1823-1829

Samuel Herrick . . . . . . . . 1829-1830

Noah H. Swayne . . . . . . . 1830-1839

Israel Hamilton . . . . . . . . 1839-1841

Charles Anthony . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Thomas W. Bartley . . . . . 1845-1850

Samson Mason . . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Daniel O. Morton . . . . . . . 1853-1857

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

R. P. Ranney . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1857

George W. Belden . . . . . . 1857-1861

Robert T. Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

George Willey . . . . . . . . . 1870-1877

John C. See . . . . . . . . . . 1877-1881

Edward S. Meyer . . . . . . . 1881-1883

E. H. Eggleston . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

Robert S. Shields . . . . . . . 1885-1890

Isaac N. Alexander . . . . . . . . . . 1890

Allan T. Brinsmade . . . . . 1890-1895

Ernest S. Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895

Samuel D. Dodge . . . . . . . 1895-1899

John J. Sullivan . . . . . . . . 1899-1908

William L. Day . . . . . . . . 1908-1911

Ulysses G. Denman . . . . . 1911-1915

Edwin S. Wertz . . . . . . . . 1915-1923

A. E. Bernsteen ........ 1923-1929

Wildred J. Marhon . . . . . . 1929-1933

Emerick B. Freed . . . . . . . 1933-1941

Francis B. Kavanagh . . . . . 1941-1942

Donald C. Miller . . . . . . . 1942-1952

John J. Kane, Jr. . . . . . . . 1952-1954
Sumner Canary ........ 1954-1959

Russell E. Ake . . . . . . . . . 1959-1961

Merle M. McCurdy . . . . . . 1961-1968

Bernard J. Stuptinski . . . . 1968-1969

Robert B. Krupansky . . . . 1969-1970

Robert W. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . 1970

Frederick M. Coleman . . . 1970-1977

William D. Beyer . . . . . . . 1977-1978

James R. Williams . . . . . . 1978-1982

J. William Petro . . . . . . . 1982-1984

William J. Edwards . . . . . . . . . 1984

Patrick M. McLaughlin . . . 1984-1988

William Edwards . . . . . 1988 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

Hugh I. Jewett . . . . . . . . 1855-1856

John H. O’Neill . . . . . . . . 1856-1858

Stanley Matthews . . . . . . 1858-1861

Flamen Batt . . . . . . . . . . 1861-1869

Channing Richards . . . . . . 1877-1885

Philip H. Kumler . . . . . . . 1885-1887

William B. Burnet . . . . . . 1887-1889

John W. Herron . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

Harlan Cleveland . . . . . . . 1894-1898

William E. Bundy . . . . . . . 1898-1903

Sherman T. McPherson . . . 1903-1916

Stuart R. Bolin . . . . . . . . 1916-1920

James R. Clark . . . . . . . . 1920-1922

Thomas H. Morrow . . . . . . 1922-1923

Benson W. Hough . . . . . . 1923-1925

Haveth E. Mau . . . . . . . . 1925-1934

Francis C. Canny . . . . . . . 1934-1939

James H. Cleveland . . . . . . . . . 1939

Leo C. Crawford . . . . . . . 1939-1944

Bryon E. Harlan . . . . . . . . 1944-1946

Ray J. O’Donnell . . . . . . . 1946-1953

Hugh K. Martin . . . . . . . . 1953-1961

Joseph P. Kinneary . . . . . . . . . 1961

Robert M. Draper . . . . . . 1966-1969

Robert J. Makley . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

William W. Mittigan . . . . . 1969-1977

James E. Rattan . . . . . . . 1977-1978

James C. Cissell . . . . . . . 1978-1982

Christopher K. Barnes . . . 1982-1985

Anthony W. Nyktas . . . . . 1985-1986

D. Michael Crites . . . . . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

Horace Speed . . . . . . . . . 1890-1894

Caleb R. Brooks . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Samuel L. Overstreet . . . . 1898-1899

John W. Scothorn . . . . . . 1899-1900

Horace Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1900

CENTRAL DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

John H. Wilkins . . . . . . . . 1901-1906

Thomas B. Lathone . . . . . . . . . 1906

EASTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

William Gregg, Jr. ...... 1907-1913

D. Hayden Linebaugh . . . . 1913-1917

W. P. McGinnis . . . . . . . . 1917-1919

C. W. Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1919

Archibald Bonds . . . . . . . 1919-1920

C. W. Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

Berry J. King . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

John T. Harley . . . . . . . . . . . . 1921

Frank Lee . . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1930

W. F. Rampendahl . . . . . . 1930-1934

Cleon A. Summers ...... 1934-1952

E Edwin Langley . . . . . . . 1952-1953

Frank D. McSherry . . . . . . 1953-1961

E. Edwin A. Langley . . . . . 1961-1965

Robert B. Green . . . . . . . 1965-1969

William J. Settle ....... 1969-1974

Richard A. Pyle . . . . . . . . 1974-1977

Julian K. Fite . . . . . . . . . 1977-1980

James E. Edmondson . . . . 1980-1981

Betty O. Williams ...... 1981-1982

Gary L. Richardson . . . . . 1982-1984

Donn F. Barker . . . . . . . . 1984-1985

Roger Hilfiger . . . . . . . 1985 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

William M. Mellette ..... 1902-1907

John Embry . . . . . . . . . . 1907-1912

Isaac D. Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912

Homer N. Boardman . . . . 1912-1913

Isaac D. Taylor . . . . . . . . 1913-1914

John A. Fain . . . . . . . . . . 1914-1920

Frank E. Randell . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

Robert M. Peck . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

W. A. Maurer . . . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Ray St. Lewis . . . . . . . . . 1925-1931

Herbert K. Hyde . . . . . . . 1931-1934

William C. Lewis . . . . . . . 1934-1938

Charles E. Dierker . . . . . . 1938-1947

Robert E. Shelton . . . . . . 1947-1953

Fred M. Mack . . . . . . . . . 1953-1954

Paul W. Cress . . . . . . . . . 1954-1961

Andrew B Potter ....... 1961-1969

William R. Burkett . . . . . . 1969-1975

David L. Russell . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

John E. Green . . . . . . . . . 1977-1978

Larry D. Patton . . . . . . . . 1978-1981

David L. Russell . . . . . . . . 1981-1982

John E. Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1982

William S. Price . . . . . . . 1982-1989

Robert E. Mydans . . . . 1989 - present

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

John M. Goldesberry . . . . 1925-1933

Clarence E. Bailey . . . . . . 1933-1937

Whitfield Y. Mauzv . . . . . 1937-1953

John S. Athens . . . . . . . . 1953-1954

B. Hayden Crawford . . . . . 1954-1958

Robert S. Riztey . . . . . . . 1958-1961

Russell H. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

John M. Imel . . . . . . . . . 1961-1967

Lawrence A. McSoud . . . . 1967-1969

Nathan G. Graham . . . . . . 1969-1977

Hubert A. Marlow . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Hubert H. Bryant . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Francis A. Keating, III . . . . 1981-1983

Layn R. Phillips . . . . . . . . 1983-1987

Tony M. Graham . . . . . 1987 - present

DISTRICT OF OREGON

Isaac W. R. Bromley . . . . . 1848-1850

Amory Holbrook . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Benjamin F. Harding . . . . 1853-1854

William H. Farrar . . . . . . 1854-1859

Andrew J. Thayer . . . . . . 1859-1860

James K. Kelley . . . . . . . 1860-1862

Erasmus D. Shattuck . . . . . . . . 1862

Edward W. McGraw . . . . . 1863-1865

Joseph M. Dolph . . . . . . . 1865-1868

J. C. Cartwright . . . . . . . 1868-1872

Addison C. Gibbs . . . . . . . 1871-1873

Rufus Mallory . . . . . . . . . 1873-1882

J. F. Watson . . . . . . . . . . 1882-1886

Lewis S. McArthur . . . . . . 1886-1890

Franklin P. Mays . . . . . . . 1890-1893

Daniel R. Murphy . . . . . . . 1893-1897

OREGON (Continued)

John H. Halt . . . . . . . . . . 1897-1905

Francis J. Heney . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

William C. Bristol . . . . . . 1905-1908

John McCourt . . . . . . . . . 1908-1913

Everett A. Johnson ......... 1913

Clarence L. Reames . . . . . 1913-1918

Robert R. Rankin . . . . . . . . . . . 1918

Bert E. Haney . . . . . . . . . 1918-1919

B. H. Goldstein . . . . . . . . . . . . 1919

Lester W. Humphreys . . . . 1919-1923

John S. Coke . . . . . . . . . 1923-1925

George Neuner . . . . . . . . 1925-1933

Cart C. Donaugh . . . . . . . 1933-1945

Henry L. Hess . . . . . . . . . 1945-1954

Clarence E. Luckey . . . . . 1954-1961

Sidney I. Lezak . . . . . . . . 1961-1982

Charles H. Turner . . . . 1982 - present

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

William Lewis . . . . . . . . . 1789-1791

William Rawle . . . . . . . . . 1791-1799

Jared Ingersoll . . . . . . . . 1800-1801
EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Alexander J. Dallas . . . . . 1801-1814

Charles J. Ingersoll . . . . . 1815-1829

George M. Dallas . . . . . . . 1829-1831

Henry D. Gilpin . . . . . . . . 1931-1937

John M. Reed . . . . . . . . . 1837-1844

William M. Meredith . . . . . 1841-1842

Henry M. Watts . . . . . . . . . . . . 1840

Thomas McKean Pettit . . . 1845-1849

John W. Ashmead . . . . . . . . . . 1849

John C. Van Dyke . . . . . . . . . . 1854

George M. Wharton . . . . . 1857-1860

George A. Coffey . . . . . . . 1861-1864

Charles Gilpin . . . . . . . . . 1864-1868

John P. O’Neil . . . . . . . . 1868-1869

Aubrey H. Smith . . . . . . . 1869-1873

William McMichael . . . . . . 1873-1875

John K. Valentine . . . . . . 1875-1888

John R. Read . . . . . . . . . 1888-1892

Ellery P. Ingham . . . . . . . 1892-1896

James M. Beck . . . . . . . . 1896-1900

James B. Holland . . . . . . 1900-1904

J. Whitaker Thompson . . . 1904-1912

John C. Smartley . . . . . . . 1912-1913

Francis F. Kane . . . . . . . . 1913-1920

Charles D. McAvoy . . . . . . 1920-1921

George W. Coles . . . . . . . 1921-1929

Calvin S. Boyer . . . . . . . . 1929-1930

Howard B. Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . 1931

Edward W. Wells . . . . . . . 1931-1933

Charles D. McAvoy . . . . . . 1933-1937

Guy K. Bard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1937

J. Cullen Ganey . . . . . . . 1937-1940

Edward A. Kallick . . . . . . . . . . 1940

Gearld A. Gleeson . . . . . . 1940-1953

Joseph G. Hildenberger . . . . . . 1953

W. Wilson White . . . . . . . 1953-1957

G. Clinton Fogwell, Jr. . . . . . . . 1957

Harold K. Wood . . . . . . . . 1957-1959

Joseph L. McGlynn, Jr. . . . 1959-1961

Walter E. Alessandroni . . . 1959-1961

Joseph S. Lord, III . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Drew J. T. O’Keefe . . . . . 1961-1969

Louis C. Bechtle . . . . . . . 1969-1972

Carl Joseph Melone . . . . . . . . . 1972

Robert E. J. Curran . . . . . 1972-1976

Jonas C. Undercofler, III . . . . . . 1976

David Marston . . . . . . . . . 1976-1978

Robert N. Deluca . . . . . . . . . . . 1978

Peter F. Vaira ......... 1978-1983

Edward S. G. Dennis . . . . 1983-1988

Michael M. Baylson . . . 1988 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

James Hamilton . . . . . . . 1801-1818

Andrew Stewart . . . . . . . 1818-1821

Alexander Brackenridge . . 1821-1830

George W. Buchanan . . . . 1830-1832

Benjamin Patton, Jr. . . . . 1830-1839

John P. Anderson . . . . . . 1839-1841

Cornelius Darragh . . . . . . 1841-1844

William O’Hara Robinson . 1844-1845

John L. Dawson . . . . . . . . 1845-1850

J. Bowman Sweitzer . . . . 1850-1853

Charles Shaler . . . . . . . . 1853-1857

Richard B. Roberts . . . . . . 1857-1861

Robert B. Carnahan . . . . . 1861-1870

Henry B. Swope . . . . . . . . 1870-1874

David Reed . . . . . . . . . . . 1874-1876

Henry H. McCormick . . . . 1876-1880

William A. Stone . . . . . . . 1880-1886

George A. Allen . . . . . . . . 1886-1889

Walter Lyon . . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

Stephen C. McCandless . . . . . . . 1893

Harry A. Hatt . . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Daniel B. Heiner . . . . . . . 1897-1902

James S. Young . . . . . . . . 1902-1905

John W. Dunkle . . . . . . . . 1905-1909

John H. Jordon . . . . . . . . 1909-1913

Edwin L. Humes . . . . . . . 1913-1918

R. Lindsay Crawford . . . . . 1918-1919

Edwin L. Humes . . . . . . . 1919-1920

Robert J. Dodds . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

D. J. Driscoll . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

Walter Lyon . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1925

John D. Meyer . . . . . . . . . 1925-1929

Louis E. Graham . . . . . . . 1929-1933

Horatio S. Dumbauld . . . . 1933-1935

Charles F. Uhl . . . . . . . . . 1935-1939

George Mashank . . . . . . . 1939-1941

Charles F. Uhl . . . . . . . . . 1941-1947

Owen McIntosh Burns . . . . 1947-1949

Edward C. Boyle . . . . . . . 1949-1953

John W. McIlvaine . . . . . . 1953-1955

D. Malcolm Anderson, Jr. . 1955-1957

Herbert I. Teitelbaum . . . 1957-1961

Joseph S. Ammerman . . . . 1961-1963

Gustave Diamond . . . . . . 1963-1969

Richard L. Thornburgh . . . 1969-1975

Blair A. Griffith . . . . . . . . 1975-1978

Robert J. Cindrich . . . . . . 1978-1981

J Alan Johnson . . . . . . . . 1981-1988

Charles D. Sheehy . . . . 1988 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Samuel J. M. McCarrell . . . 1901-1907

Charles B. Witmer . . . . . . 1907-1911

Andrew B. Dunsmore . . . . 1911-1913

Rogers L. Burnett . . . . . . 1913-1921

Andrew B. Dunsmore . . . . 1921-1934

Frank J. McDonnell . . . . . 1934-1935

Arthur A. Maguire . . . . . . . . . . 1935

Frederick V. Follmer . . . . 1935-1946

Arthur A. Maguire . . . . . . 1946-1953

Joseph C. Kreder . . . . . . . . . . . 1953

J. Julius Levy . . . . . . . . . 1953-1957

Robert J. Harrigan . . . . . . 1957-1958

Daniel H. Jenkins . . . . . . 1958-1961

Bernard J. Brown . . . . . . 1961-1969

John S. Cottone . . . . . . . 1969-1979

Carlton M. O’Matty, Jr. . . 1979-1982

David D. Queen . . . . . . . . 1982-1985

James J. West . . . . . . 1985 - present

DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

Noah B. K. Pettingill .... 1900-1903

Willis Sweet . . . . . . . . . . 1903-1905

A. G. Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

Frank Femille . . . . . . . . . 1905-1906

Jose R. F. Savafe . . . . . . . 1906-1907

Henry M. Hoyt . . . . . . . . 1907-1910

Foster V. Brown . . . . . . . 1910-1911

Byron S. Ambler . . . . . . . . . . . 1911

William N. Landers . . . . . . . . . 1912

Foster V. Brown . . . . . . . . . . . 1912

J. Henry Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . 1915

Miles M. Martin . . . . . . . . 1915-1921

Ira K. Wells . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1924

John L. Gay . . . . . . . . . . 1928-1931

Frank Bianchi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1931

Frank Martinez . . . . . . . . 1931-1932

Harry F. Besosa . . . . . . . . 1932-1933

A. Cecil Snyder . . . . . . . . 1933-1942

Walter L. Newsom, Jr. . . . . . . . 1942

Philip F. Herrick . . . . . . . 1942-1946

Francisco Pousa Feliu . . . . . . . . 1948

PUERTO RICO (Continued)

Harley A. Miller . . . . . . . . 1948-1953

Pascual A. Rivera . . . . . . . . . . 1953

Ruben D. Rodriguez-Antongiori1953-1958

Francisco A. Gil, Jr. . . . . . 1958-1969

Bias C. Herriro, Jr. . . . . . 1969-1970

Julio Morales-Sanchez . . . 1970-1979

Jose A. Quiles . . . . . . . . . 1979-1980

Raymond L. Acosta . . . . . 1980-1982

Jose G. Quiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1982

Daniel F. Lopez-Romo . 1982 - present

DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

William Channing . . . . . . 1790-1794

Ray Green . . . . . . . . . . . 1794-1797

David L. Barns . . . . . . . . . 1797-1801

David Howell . . . . . . . . . 1801-1812

Asher Robbins . . . . . . . . . 1812-1820

John Pitman . . . . . . . . . . 1820-1824

Dutee J. Pearce ....... 1824-1825

Richard W. Greene . . . . . 1825-1845

Walter S. Burges . . . . . . . 1845-1850

James M. Clark . . . . . . . . 1850-1853

George H. Browne . . . . . . 1853-1861

Wingate Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Nathan F. Dixon, Jr. . . . . 1877-1885
David S. Baker . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Rathbone Gardner . . . . . . 1889-1893

Charles E. Gorman . . . . . . 1893-1897

Charles A. Wilson . . . . . . 1897-1911

Walter R. Stiness . . . . . . . 1911-1914

Harvey A. Baker . . . . . . . 1914-1920

Peter C. Cannon ....... 1920-1921

Norman S. Case . . . . . . . . 1921-1926

Henry M. Boss, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . 1926

John S. Murdock . . . . . . . 1926-1929

Henry M. Boss Jr. . . . . . . 1929-1934

J. Howard McGrath . . . . . 1934-1940

George F. Troy . . . . . . . . 1940-1952

Edward M. McEntee . . . . . 1952-1953

Jacob S. Tenkin . . . . . . . 1952-1955

Joseph Mainelle . . . . . . . 1955-1961

Raymond J. Pettine ..... 1961-1966

Frederick W. Faerber, Jr. . 1966-1967

Edward P. Gallogly . . . . . 1967-1969

Lincoln C. Almond . . . . . . 1969-1973

Everette C. Sammartino ..........

Paul F. Murray . . . . . . . . 1978-1981

Lincoln C. Almond . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA

John J. Pringle . . . . . . . . 1789-1792

Thomas Parker . . . . . . . . 1792-1820

Robert Y. Haynes . . . . . . . . . . 1820

John Gadsden . . . . . . . . . 1820-1831

Edward Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1831

Robert B. Gilchrist . . . . . . 1831-1840

Edward McCrady . . . . . . . 1840-1850

William Whaley . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

James L. Petigru . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Thomas Evans . . . . . . . . . 1853-1856

James Conner . . . . . . . . . 1856-1860

John Phillips . . . . . . . . . . 1866-1867

David T. Corbin . . . . . . . . 1867-1877

L. C. Northrup . . . . . . . . 1878-1881

Samuel W. Melton . . . . . . 1881-1885

Leroy F. Youmans . . . . . . 1885-1893

Abial Lathrop . . . . . . . . . 1889-1893

William P. Murphy . . . . . . 1893-1896

Abial Lathrop . . . . . . . . . 1896-1901

John C. Capers . . . . . . . . 1901-1906

Ernest F. Cochran . . . . . . 1906-1914

Francis H. Weston . . . . . . 1914-1918

EASTERN DISTRICT OF SOUTH

CAROLINA

Francis H. Weston . . . . . . 1918-1922

D. Ernest Meyer . . . . . . . 1922-1930

Henry E. Davis . . . . . . . . 1930-1934

Claude N. Sapp . . . . . . . . 1934-1947

Benjamin S. Whaley . . . . . 1947-1953

N. Welsh Morrisette, Jr. . . 1953-1961

Terrell L. Glenn . . . . . . . 1961-1968

WESTERN DISTRICT OF SOUTH

CAROLINA

Francis H. Weston . . . . . . . . . . 1915

J. William Thurmond . . . . 1915-1921

Ernest F. Cochran . . . . . . 1921-1923

Joseph A. Talbert . . . . . . 1923-1933

Charles C. Wyche . . . . . . 1933-1937

Oscar H. Doyle . . . . . . . . 1937-1950

Edward P. Riley . . . . . . . . . . . 1951

John C. Williams . . . . . . . 1951-1954

Joseph E. Hines . . . . . . . . 1954-1961

John E. Williams . . . . . . . 1961-1968

DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Klyde Robinson . . . . . . . . 1968-1969

Joseph O. Rogers, Jr. . . . . 1969-1971

John K. Grisso . . . . . . . . . 1971-1975

Thomas P. Simpson . . . . . . . . . 1975

Mark W. Buyck, Jr. . . . . . 1975-1977

Thomas P. Simpson . . . . . . . . . 1977

Thomas E. Lydon, Jr. . . . . 1977-1981

Henry D. McMaster . . . . . 1981-1985

Vinton D. Lide . . . . . . . . . 1985-1989

E. Bart Daniel . . . . . . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA

Henry M. Vail . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

William E. Gleason . . . . . 1861-1865

James Christian . . . . . . . . . . . 1865

George H. Hand . . . . . . . 1866-1869

Warren Gowles . . . . . . . . 1869-1872

William Pound . . . . . . . . 1872-1877

Hugh J. Campbell . . . . . . 1877-1885

John E. Garland . . . . . . . 1885-1887

William E. Purcell . . . . . . 1888-1889

John Murphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1889

North And South Dakota Admitted

To The Union November 2. 1889

William E. Sterling . . . . . . . . . . 1890

Ezra W. Miller . . . . . . . . . 1890-1893

James D. Elliott . . . . . . . 1897-1907

William G. Porter . . . . . . . . . . 1907

Edward E. Wagner . . . . . . 1907-1913

Charles J. Morris . . . . . . . . . . . 1913

Robert P. Stewart . . . . . . 1913-1919

E. W. Fiske . . . . . . . . . . . 1919-1921

S. Wesley Clark . . . . . . . . 1921-1926

Olaf Eidem . . . . . . . . . . . 1926-1934

George Philip . . . . . . . . . 1934-1947

Leo P. Flynn . . . . . . . . . . 1947-1953

Clinton G. Richards . . . . . 1953-1961

Harold C. Doyle . . . . . . . . 1961-1969

William F. Clayton . . . . . . 1969-1977

David V. Vrooman . . . . . . 1977-1978

Robert D. Hiaring . . . . . . 1978-1979

Terry L. Pechota . . . . . . . 1979-1981

Jeffrey L. Viken . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Philip N. Hogen . . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

Andrew Jackson . . . . . . . 1790-1797

Thomas Gray . . . . . . . . . 1797-1798

William P. Anderson . . . . . 1798-1802

Thomas Stuart . . . . . . . . 1802-1803

WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

Thomas Stuart . . . . . . . . 1803-1810

John E. Beck . . . . . . . . . 1810-1818

Henry Crabb . . . . . . . . . . 1818-1827

Thomas H. Fletcher . . . . . 1827-1829

James Collingsworth . . . . 1829-1835

William T. Brown . . . . . . . 1835-1836

James P. Grundy . . . . . . . 1836-1838

Joseph H. Talbot . . . . . . . 1838-1838

Henry W. McCorry . . . . . . 1838-1850

Charles N. Gibbs . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Richard J. Hays . . . . . . . . 1853-1856

TENNESSEE (Continued)

Alexander W. McCampbell 1856-1861

John M. McCarmack . . . . . 1861-1877

W. W. Murray . . . . . . . . . 1877-1882

William F. Poston . . . . . . 1882-1885

Henry W. McCorry . . . . . . 1885-1889

Samuel W. Hawkins . . . . . 1889-1894

Julius A. Taylor . . . . . . . . 1894-1895

Charles B. Simonton . . . . . 1895-1898

George Randolph . . . . . . . 1898-1910

Casey Todd . . . . . . . . . . 1910-1914

Hubert F. Fisher . . . . . . . 1914-1917

William D. Kyser . . . . . . . 1917-1921

S. E. Murray . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1926

Tilmon A. Lancaster . . . . . . . . . 1926

Nugent Dodds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1926

Lindsay B. Phillips . . . . . . 1926-1931

Nelson H. Carver . . . . . . . 1931-1932

Dwayne D. Maddox . . . . . 1932-1933

William McClanahan . . . . . 1933-1948

John Brown . . . . . . . . . . 1948-1953

Mitsaps Fitzhugh . . . . . . . 1953-1960

Warner Hodges . . . . . . . . 1960-1961

Thomas L. Robinson . . . . . 1961-1969

Thomas F. Turley, Jr. . . . . 1969-1977

W. J. Michael Cody . . . . . 1977-1981

W. Hickman Ewing, Jr. . 1981 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

Edward Scott . . . . . . . . . 1805-1807

James Tremble . . . . . . . . 1807-1808

Hugh L. White . . . . . . . . . 1808-1809
James Tremble . . . . . . . . 1809-1810

John McCampbell . . . . . . 1810-1821

Prior Lea . . . . . . . . . . . . 1821-1828

John A. McKinney . . . . . . 1828-1840

George W. Churchill . . . . . 1840-1843

Crawford W. Hall . . . . . . . 1843-1844

Thomas C. Lyon . . . . . . . 1844-1850

Samuel R. Rogers . . . . . . 1850-1853

J. C. Ramsey . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

Richard J. Hays . . . . . . . . 1853-1857

J. C. Ramsey . . . . . . . . . 1857-1861

John L. Hopkins . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

John M. Fleming . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

E. C. Camps . . . . . . . . . . 1869-1876

George Andrews . . . . . . . 1876-1879

Xenophen Wheeler . . . . . 1879-1883

James M. Meek . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

James C. J. Williams . . . . 1885-1889

Hugh B. Lindsay . . . . . . . 1889-1893

James H. Bible . . . . . . . . 1893-1897

James E. Mayfield . . . . . . . . . . 1897

William D. Wright . . . . . . 1897-1905

James R. Penlaud . . . . . . 1905-1910

James B. Cox . . . . . . . . . 1910-1913

Lewis M. Coleman . . . . . . 1913-1917

Wesley T. Kennerly . . . . . 1917-1921

George C. Taylor . . . . . . . 1921-1928

Everett Greer ......... 1928-1930

William J. Carter . . . . . . . 1930-1933

James B. Frazier, Jr. . . . . 1933-1948

Otto T. Ault . . . . . . . . . . 1948-1953

John H. Reddy . . . . . . . . . . . . 1953

John C. Crawford, Jr. . . . . 1953-1961

John H. Reddy . . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Robert E. Simpson . . . . . . . . . . 1969

John L. Bowers, Jr. . . . . . 1969-1977

Robert E. Simpson . . . . . . . . . . 1977

John H. Cary . . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

William T. Dillard . . . . . . . . . . 1981

John W. Gill, Jr. . . . . . 1981 - present

MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

James P. Grundy . . . . . . . . . . . 1839

Return J. Meigs . . . . . . . . 1841-1842

John M. Lea . . . . . . . . . . 1842-1844

Thomas D. Mosley . . . . . . 1844-1850

W. F. Kercheval . . . . . . . 1850-1853

Thomas B. Childress . . . . . 1853-1861

Herman Cox . . . . . . . . . . 1861-1862

John Trimble . . . . . . . . . 1862-1863

Horace H. Harrison . . . . . . . . . 1863

R. McPhail Smith . . . . . . . 1869-1872

Horace H. Harrison . . . . . 1872-1873

Archetus M. Hughes . . . . . 1873-1877

James A. Warder . . . . . . . 1877-1882

Andrew McClain . . . . . . . 1882-1885

Ernest Pillow . . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

John Ruhm . . . . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

Tully Brown . . . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Abram M. Tillman . . . . . . 1898-1914

Lee Douglas . . . . . . . . . . 1914-1922

A. V. McLane . . . . . . . . . 1922-1933

Horace Frierson, Jr. . . . . . 1933-1947

Ward Hudgins . . . . . . . . . 1947-1952

Dick L. Johnson . . . . . . . . 1952-1953

Armistead O. Denning . . . . . . . 1953

Fred Ettedge, Jr. ...... 1953-1961

Kenneth Horwett . . . . . . . 1961-1964

James F. Neal . . . . . . . . . 1964-1966

Gilbert S. Merritt., Jr. . . . 1966-1969

Charles H. Anderson . . . . 1969-1977

Harold D. Hardin . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Joe B. Brown . . . . . . . 1981 - present

DISTRICT OF TEXAS

George W. Brown . . . . . . 1846-1848

Franklin H. Merriman . . . . 1848-1850

William P. Ballinger . . . . . 1850-1853

Samuel D. Hay . . . . . . . . . . . . 1853

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Marcus C. McLeuone . . . . 1899-1906

Lodowick McDaniel . . . . . 1906-1914

John E. Green, Jr. . . . . . . 1914-1919

David E. Simmons . . . . . . 1919-1922

Henry M. Holden . . . . . . . 1922-1934

Douglas W. McGregor . . . . 1934-1944

Brian S. Odem . . . . . . . . . 1944-1954

Malcolm R. Wilkey . . . . . . 1954-1957

William B. Butler . . . . . . . 1957-1961

Woodrow B. Seals . . . . . . 1961-1966

Morton L. Susman . . . . . . 1966-1969

Anthony J. P. Farris . . . . . 1969-1974

Edward B. McDonough, Jr. 1974-1977

James R. Gough . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Jose A. Canales . . . . . . . . 1977-1980

Carl Walker, Jr. . . . . . . . 1980-1981

Daniel K. Hedges . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Henry K. Oncken . . . . . 1985 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Richard B. Hubbard . . . . . 1857-1859

James F. Warren . . . . . . . . . . . 1859

C. T. Garland . . . . . . . . . 1871-1871

Andrew J. Evans . . . . . . . 1872-1885

Rudolph Kleberg . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Andrew J. Evans . . . . . . . 1889-1894

Robert U. Culberson . . . . 1894-1898

Henry Terrell . . . . . . . . . 1898-1906

Charles A. Boynton . . . . . 1906-1913

Sigismund Eugelking ......... 1913

J. L. Camp . . . . . . . . . . . 1913-1918

Hugh R. Robertson . . . . . . 1918-1921

John D. Hartman . . . . . . . 1921-1933

William R. Smith, Jr. . . . . 1933-1941

Ben F. Foster . . . . . . . . . 1941-1944

William R. Smith, Jr. . . . . 1944-1946

James McCollum Burnette . 1946-1947

Henry W. Moursund . . . . . 1947-1951

Charles F. Herring . . . . . . 1951-1955

Russell B. Wine . . . . . . . . 1955-1961

Ernest Morgan . . . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Marvin T. Butler . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

Segal V. Wheatley . . . . . . 1969-1971

William S. Sessions . . . . . 1971-1974

Hugh P. Shovlin . . . . . . . . 1974-1975

John E. Clark . . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Jamie C. Boyd . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Edward C. Prado . . . . . . . 1981-1984

Helen M. Eversberg . . . 1984 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Samuel D. Hay . . . . . . . . 1857-1858

George Mason . . . . . . . . . 1858-1876

D. J. Baldwin . . . . . . . . . 1876-1879

Andrew P. McCormick . . . . . . . 1879

W. K. Homan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879

TEXAS (Continued)

Edward Guthridge . . . . . . 1879-1883

George Paschal . . . . . . . . 1883-1884

Asa E. Stratton . . . . . . . . 1884-1885

John E. McComb . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Joseph H. Wilson . . . . . . . 1889-1890

Robert E. Hannay . . . . . . 1890-1895

Sinclair Taliaferro . . . . . . 1895-1899

Marcus C. McLemore . . . . 1899-1902

James W. Ownby . . . . . . . 1902-1914

Clarence Merritt . . . . . . . 1914-1920

E. J. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . 1920-1922

Randolph Bryant . . . . . . . 1922-1931

Sterling Bennett . . . . . . . 1931-1936

Steve M. King . . . . . . . . . 1936-1949

Warren G. Moore . . . . . . . 1949-1953

William M. Steger . . . . . . 1953-1959

Paul N. Brown . . . . . . . . . 1959-1960

Joe Tunnell .......... 1960-1961

William W. Justice . . . . . . 1961-1968

Richard B. Hardee . . . . . . 1968-1970

Roby Hadden . . . . . . . . . 1970-1978

John H. Hannah, Jr. . . . . . 1978-1981

Robert J. Wortham . . . 1981 - present

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

Fred W. Miner . . . . . . . . . 1879-1883

J. C. Bigger . . . . . . . . . . 1883-1885

C. H. Pearee . . . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Eugene Marshall . . . . . . . 1889-1894

W. Oscar Hamilton . . . . . 1894-1898

William H. Atwell . . . . . . 1898-1913

James C. Wilson . . . . . . . 1913-1917

William E. Allen . . . . . . . . . . . 1917

W. M. Odell . . . . . . . . . . 1917-1919
Jed Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1919

W. B. Harrell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

R. E. Taylor . . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

Henry Zweifel . . . . . . . . . 1921-1927

Norman A. Dodge . . . . . . 1927-1932

C. W. Johnson, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . 1933

Clyde O. Eastus . . . . . . . . 1933-1945

Frank B. Potter ............ 1945

Robert B. Young, Jr. . . . . 1945-1947

Frank B. Potter ........ 1947-1953

Heard L. Floore . . . . . . . . 1953-1958

William B. West, III . . . . . 1958-1961

H. Barefoot Sanders, Jr. . . 1961-1965

Melvin Diggs . . . . . . . . . . 1965-1968

Eldon Mahon . . . . . . . . . . 1968-1972

Frank McCown . . . . . . . . 1972-1976

Michael Carnes . . . . . . . . 1976-1977

Kenneth J. Mighell . . . . . . 1977-1981

James Rolfe . . . . . . . . . . 1981-1985

Marvin Collins . . . . . . . 1985 - present

DISTRICT Of UTAH

Seth Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850-1854

Joseph Hosmer . . . . . . . . 1854-1855

John L. Peyton . . . . . . . . 1855-1856

John M. Hockaday . . . . . . 1856-1858

Alexander Wilson . . . . . . 1858-1860

Thomas J. Kenny . . . . . . . 1860-1862

Hosea Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1862

Charles H. Hempstead . . . 1870-1871

George C. Bates . . . . . . . 1871-1873

William Cary . . . . . . . . . . 1873-1876

Summer Howard ....... 1876-1870

Philip T. Van Zile . . . . . . 1878-1884

William H. Dickson . . . . . . 1884-1887

George S. Peters ....... 1887-1889

Charles S. Varian . . . . . . . 1889-1893

John W. Judd . . . . . . . . . 1893-1898

Charles O. Whittemore . . . 1898-1902

Joseph Lippman . . . . . . . 1902-1906

Hiram E. Booth . . . . . . . . 1906-1913

William W. Ray . . . . . . . . 1913-1919

Isaac B. Evans . . . . . . . . . 1919-1921

Henry D. Moyle . . . . . . . . . . . . 1927

Charles M. Morris . . . . . . . 1921-1929

Charles R. Hollingsworth . . 1929-1933

Daniel B. Shields . . . . . . . 1933-1949

Scott M. Matheson . . . . . . 1949-1953

A. Pratt Kesler . . . . . . . . 1953-1961

William T. Thurman . . . . . 1961-1969

C. Nelson Day . . . . . . . . . 1969-1974

William J. Lockhart . . . . . 1974-1975

Ramon M. Child . . . . . . . . 1975-1977

Ronald L. Rencher . . . . . . 1977-1981

Frances Wikstrom . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Brent D. Ward . . . . . . . . . 1981-1989

Stewart C. Walz . . . . . . . . . . . 1989

Dee V. Benson . . . . . . 1989 - present

DISTRICT OF VERMONT

Stephen Jacob . . . . . . . . 1791-1794

Amos Marsh . . . . . . . . . . 1794-1797

Charles Marsh . . . . . . . . . 1797-1801

David Fay . . . . . . . . . . . . 1801-1809

Cornelius P. Van Ness . . . . 1810-1813

Titus Hutchinson . . . . . . . 1813-1827

William A. Griswold . . . . . 1827-1829

Daniel Kellogg . . . . . . . . . 1829-1841

Charles Davis . . . . . . . . . 1841-1845

Charles Linsley . . . . . . . . 1845-1849

Abel Underwood . . . . . . . 1849-1853

Lucius B. Peck . . . . . . . . 1853-1857

Henry E. Stoughton . . . . . 1857-1861

George Howe . . . . . . . . . 1861-1864

Dudley C. Denison . . . . . . 1864-1869

Benjamin F. Fifield . . . . . 1869-1880

Kittredge Haskins . . . . . . 1880-1887

Clarence H. Pitkin . . . . . . 1887-1889

Frank Plumley . . . . . . . . . 1889-1894

John H. Senter . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

James L. Martin . . . . . . . 1898-1906

Alexander Dunnett . . . . . 1906-1915

Vernon A. Bullard . . . . . . 1919-1923

Harry B. Amey . . . . . . . . 1923-1932

Joseph A. McNamara . . . . 1932-1953

Louis G. Whitcomb . . . . . 1953-1961

Joseph F. Radigan . . . . . . 1961-1969

George W. F. Cook . . . . . 1969-1977

William B. Gray . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Jerome F. O’Neil . . . . . . . . . . . 1981

George W. F. Cook . . . . . 1981-1987

George J. Terwilliger, III 1987 - present

DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

John Marshall . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1789

William Nelson . . . . . . . . 1789-1790

William Nelson, Jr. . . . . . 1790-1791

Alexander Campbell . . . . . 1791-1796

Thomas Nelson . . . . . . . . 1796-1801

John Monroe . . . . . . . . . . 1801-1803

George Hay . . . . . . . . . . 1803-1816

William Wirt . . . . . . . . . . 1816-1817

Robert Stanard . . . . . . . . 1817-1824

WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Edwin S. Duncan . . . . . . . 1824-1829

William A. Harrison . . . . . 1829-1834

Washington G. Singleton . . 1834-1842

William Kinney . . . . . . . . 1842-1843

Moses C. Good . . . . . . . . 1843-1846

George H. Lee . . . . . . . . 1846-1848

George W. Thompson . . . . 1848-1850

Benjamin H. Smith . . . . . . 1850-1853

Flaming B. Miller . . . . . . . 1853-1861

Thomas W. Harrison . . . . . . . . . 1861

Aquilla B. Caldwell . . . . . 1861-1862

Benjamin H. Smith . . . . . . . . . . 1862

Warren S. Lurty . . . . . . . . 1877-1882

D. S. Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . 1882-1885

Henry C. Allen . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

William E. Craig . . . . . . . 1889-1893

A. J. Montague . . . . . . . . 1893-1898

Thomas M. Alderson . . . . . 1898-1902

Thomas L. Moore . . . . . . . 1902-1910

Barnes Gillespie . . . . . . . 1910-1914

Richard E. Byrd . . . . . . . . 1914-1920

Joseph J. Chitwood . . . . . 1920-1921

Thomas J. Muncy ....... 1921-1922

Lewis P. Summers ...... 1922-1924

Joseph C. Shaffer . . . . . . 1924-1929

John Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . 1929-1932

Joseph C. Shaffer . . . . . . 1932-1933

Joseph H. Chitwood . . . . . 1933-1940

VIRGINIA (Continued)

Frank S. Tavenner, Jr. . . . 1940-1948

Howard C. Gilmer, Jr. . . . 1948-1953

John Strickler . . . . . . . . . 1953-1961

Thomas B. Mason . . . . . . . 1961-1969

Leigh B. Hanes, Jr. . . . . . 1969-1975

Paul R. Thomson, Jr. . . . . 1975-1979

E. Montgomery Tucker . . . 1979-1980

John S. Edwards . . . . . . . 1980-1981

John P. Alderman . . . . 1981 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Thomas E. Burfoot . . . . . . 1831-1833

Robert C. Nicholas . . . . . . 1833-1850

William T. Joynes . . . . . . 1850-1853

John M. Gregory . . . . . . . 1853-1860

Patrick H. Aylett . . . . . . . 1860-1861

A. Judson Crane . . . . . . . 1861-1863

Lucius H. Chandler . . . . . 1863-1878

H. H. Wells, Jr. . . . . . . . . 1870-1874

Lunsford S. Lewis . . . . . . 1874-1882

John S. Wise . . . . . . . . . . 1882-1883

Edmund Waddill ....... 1883-1885

John C. Gibson . . . . . . . . 1885-1889

Thomas R. Borland . . . . . 1889-1893

Francis R. Lassiter . . . . . . 1893-1896

William H. White . . . . . . . 1896-1898

Edgar Allan . . . . . . . . . . 1898-1902

Lunsford L. Lewis . . . . . . 1902-1905

Robert H. Talley . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

Lunsford S. Lewis . . . . . . 1905-1912

Laaawrence D. Groner . . . 1912-1914

Richard H. Mann . . . . . . . 1914-1919

Hiram M. Smith . . . . . . . . 1919-1920

D. Lawrence Groner . . . . . . . . . 1920

Julian Gunn . . . . . . . . . . 1920-1921

D. Lawrence Groner . . . . . . . . . 1921

Paul W. Kear . . . . . . . . . 1921-1931

Robert H. Talley . . . . . . . 1931-1932
Paul W. Kear . . . . . . . . . 1932-1933

Sterling Hutcheson . . . . . 1933-1944

Henry Holt . . . . . . . . . . . 1944-1947

George R. Humrickhouse . . 1947-1951

A. Carter Whitehead . . . . 1951-1953

Lester S. Parsons, Jr. . . . . 1957-1953

John M. Hollis . . . . . . . . . 1957-1959

Joseph S. Bambacus . . . . . 1959-1961

Claude V. Spratley, Jr. . . . 1961-1969

Brian P. Lettings ....... 1969-1974

David H. Hopkins . . . . . . . 1974-1975

William B. Cummings .... 1975-1979

Justin W. Williams . . . . . . 1979-1981

Elsie L. Munsell ........ 1981-1986

Justin W. Williams . . . . . . . . . . 1986

Henry E. Hudson . . . . . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF VIRGIN ISLANDS

James A. Bough . . . . . . . . 1937-1946

Croxton William . . . . . . . 1946-1947

Francisco Corneiro . . . . . . 1947-1951

Cyril Michael . . . . . . . . . 1951-1954

Leon P. Miller . . . . . . . . . 1954-1962

Almeric L. Christian . . . . . 1961-1969

Vincent A. Colianni . . . . . . . . . 1969

Robert M. Carney . . . . . . 1969-1971

Joel D. Sacks . . . . . . . . . 1971-1973

Julio A. Brady . . . . . . . . . 1973-1978

Ishmael A. Meyers . . . . . . 1978-1982

Hugh P. Mabe, III . . . . . . . 1982-1983

James W. Diehm . . . . . . . 1983-1987

Terry M. Halpern . . . . . 1987 - present

DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

John S. Clendenin . . . . . . 1853-1855

B. F. Kendall . . . . . . . . . 1855-1857

Joseph S. Smith . . . . . . . 1857-1859

J. S. M. Van Cleave . . . . . 1859-1860

Butler G. Anderson . . . . . 1860-1861

John J. McGilvra . . . . . . . . . . . 1861

Leander Holmes . . . . . . . . . . . 1870

Samuel C. Wingard . . . . . . . . . 1872

John B. Allen . . . . . . . . . 1875-1885

William H. White . . . . . . . 1885-1890

Patrick H. Winston . . . . . . . . . . 1890

William H. Brinker . . . . . . 1893-1897

Wilson R. Gay . . . . . . . . . 1897-1898

Jesse A. Frye . . . . . . . . . 1902-1906

EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

George A. Avery . . . . . . . 1905-1910

Joseph B. Lindsley . . . . . . . . . . 1910

Oscar Cain . . . . . . . . . . . 1910-1914

Francis A. Garrecht . . . . . 1914-1921

Frank R. Jeffrey . . . . . . . 1921-1925

Donald F. Kizer . . . . . . . . 1925-1926

Roy C. Fox . . . . . . . . . . . 1926-1934

James M. Simpson . . . . . . 1934-1937

Sam M. Driver . . . . . . . . . 1937-1940

Lyle D. Keith . . . . . . . . . 1940-1942

Edward M. Connelly . . . . . 1942-1946

Harvey Erickson . . . . . . . 1946-1953

William B. Bantz . . . . . . . 1953-1958

Ronald R. Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958

Dale M. Green . . . . . . . . . 1958-1961

Frank R. Freeman . . . . . . 1961-1966

Smithmoore P. Myers . . . . 1966-1969

Dean C. Smith . . . . . . . . . 1969-1977

Robert S. Linnell . . . . . . . . . . . 1977

James J. Gillespie . . . . . . 1977-1981

John E. Lamp . . . . . . . 1988 - present

WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON

Peter C. Sullivan ....... 1906-1907

Elmer E. Todd . . . . . . . . . 1907-1912

W. G. McLaren . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912

Beverly W. Coiner . . . . . . 1912-1913

Charles F. Riddell . . . . . . . . . . 1913

Clay Allen . . . . . . . . . . . 1913-1918

Ben L. Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1918

Robert C. Saunders . . . . . 1918-1921

Thomas P. Revelle . . . . . . 1921-1928

Anthony Savage . . . . . . . . 1928-1934

J. Charles Dennis . . . . . . . 1934-1953

Charles P. Moriarty . . . . . 1953-1961

Brockman Adams . . . . . . . 1961-1964

William N. Goodwin . . . . . 1964-1966

Robert C. Williams . . . . . . . . . . 1966

Eugene C. Cushing . . . . . . 1966-1969

Stanley G. Pitkin . . . . . . . 1969-1976

J. Ronald Sim . . . . . . . . . 1976-1977

John C. Merkel, Jr. . . . . . 1977-1981

Gene S. Anderson . . . . . . 1981-1989

David E. Wilson . . . . . . 1988 - present

DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA

Nathan Goff, Jr. . . . . . . . 1876-1882

W. H. H. Flick . . . . . . . . . 1882-1886

Corneilus C. Watts . . . . . . 1886-1889

George C. Sturgiss . . . . . . 1889-1893

Corneilus C. Watts . . . . . . 1893-1893

Stuart W. Walker . . . . . . . 1893-1897

Joseph H. Gaines . . . . . . . 1897-1901

Reese Blizzard . . . . . . . . . . . . 1901

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA

Reese Blizzard . . . . . . . . 1901-1910

Roy H. Waugh . . . . . . . . . 1910-1913

Stuart W. Walker . . . . . . . 1913-1921

Thomas A. Brown . . . . . . 1921-1926

Arthur Arnold . . . . . . . . . 1926-1934

Howard L. Robinson . . . . . 1934-1938

Joe V. Gibson . . . . . . . . . 1938-1947

Wayne T. Brooks . . . . . . . . . . . 1947

Charles L. Spillers . . . . . . 1947-1951

Howard Caplan . . . . . . . . 1951-1954

John R. Morris . . . . . . . . . 1954-1956

Albert M. Morgan . . . . . . . 1956-1961

Robert E. Maxwell . . . . . . 1961-1964

John H. Kamlowsky . . . . . 1964-1969

Leslie D. Lucas, Jr. . . . . . . . . . 1969

Paul C. Camilletti ...... 1969-1973

James F. Companion . . . . 1973-1976

Stephen G. Jory . . . . . . . 1976-1981

William A. Kolibash . . . 1981 - present

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA

George W. Atkinson . . . . . 1901-1905

Elliott Northcott . . . . . . . 1905-1909

Harold A. Ritz . . . . . . . . . 1909-1913

William G. Barnhart . . . . . 1913-1917

F. M. McCullough . . . . . . . . . . . 1917

Leonidas K. Kelly . . . . . . . 1917-1922

Elliott Northcott . . . . . . . 1922-1927

Bernard Pettigrew ...... 1927-1928

James Damron . . . . . . . . 1928-1932

David D. Ashworth . . . . . . 1932-1933

George I. Neat . . . . . . . . 1933-1938

Lemuel R. Via . . . . . . . . . 1938-1943

Leslie E. Given . . . . . . . . 1943-1950

A. Garnett Thompson .... 1950-1953

Duncan W. Dougherty . . . . 1953-1961

Harry G. Camper, Jr. . . . . 1961-1964

Cart W. Belcher . . . . . . . . . . . 1964

Donald P. Moore . . . . . . . . . . . 1964

George D. Beter ....... 1964-1965

Milton J. Ferguson . . . . . . 1965-1969

Wade H. Ballard, III . . . . . 1969-1970

Warren W. Upton . . . . . . 1970-1972

John A. Field, III . . . . . . . 1972-1977

Robet B. King . . . . . . . . . 1977-1981

Wayne A. Rich, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . 1981

David A. Faber . . . . . . . . 1981-1986

Michael W. Cary . . . . . 1986 - present

DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

W. W. Chapman . . . . . . . 1836-1838

Moses N. Strong . . . . . . . 1838-1841

Thomas W. Sutherland . . . 1841-1845

William P. Lynde . . . . . . . 1845-1848

Thoams W. Sutherland . . . 1848-8149

A. Hyatt Smith . . . . . . . . 1849-1850

George W. Lakin . . . . . . . 1850-1853

John R. Sharpstein . . . . . . 1853-1857

Don A. J. Upham . . . . . . . 1857-1861

John R. D. Coggswell . . . . . . . . 1861
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

Charles M. Webb . . . . . . . 1870-1878

H. M. Lewis . . . . . . . . . . 1878-1886

Allan R. Bushnell . . . . . . . 1886-1890

Samuel A. Harper . . . . . . . 1890-i894

Harry E. Briggs . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

David F. Jones . . . . . . . . 1898-1901

William G. Wheeler . . . . . 1901-1909

George H. Gordon . . . . . . 1909-1913

John A. Aylward . . . . . . . 1913-1916

Arthur Mulberger . . . . . . . . . . . 1916

William F. Wolfe . . . . . . . 1916-1917

Albert C. Wolfe . . . . . . . . 1917-1921

William H. Dougherty . . . . 1921-1927

Stanley M. Ryan . . . . . . . 1927-1944

John T. Boyle . . . . . . . . . 1935-1944

Francis A. Murphy . . . . . . . . . . 1944

Charles H. Cashin . . . . . . 1944-1951

Thomas E. Fairchild . . . . . 1951-1952

Frank L. Nikolay . . . . . . . 1952-1953

George E. Rapp . . . . . . . . 1953-1962

Nathan S. Heffernan . . . . 1962-1965

Michael J. Wyngaard . . . . 1965-1969

Edmond A. Nix . . . . . . . . . . . . 1969

John O. Olson . . . . . . . . . 1969-1974

Steven C. Underwood . . . . . . . . 1974

David C. Mebane . . . . . . . 1974-1977

Frank M. Tuerkheimer . . . 1977-1981

John R. Byrnes . . . . . . . . 1981-1987

Patrick J. Fiedler . . . . 1987 - present

EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

Levi Hubbell . . . . . . . . . . 1870-1875

Gerry W. Hazetton ..... 1876-1885

Arthur K. Delaney . . . . . . 1885-1887

William A. Walker . . . . . . 1887-1890

Elihu Colman . . . . . . . . . 1890-1893

John H. M. Wigman . . . . . 1893-1897

Milton E. Phillips . . . . . . . 1897-1901

H. K. Butterfield ....... 1901-1910

E. J. Henning . . . . . . . . . 1910-1911

Guy D. Goff . . . . . . . . . . 1911-1915

H. A. Sawyer . . . . . . . . . 1915-1923

Edward W. Miller . . . . . . . . . . . 1923

William O. Meilahm . . . . . . . . . 1923

Roy L. Morse . . . . . . . . . . 1923-1927

Levi H. Bancroft . . . . . . . 1927-1932

Edward J. Gehl . . . . . . . . 1932-1933

Berthold J. Husting . . . . . 1933-1944

Timothy T. Cronin . . . . . . 1944-1955

Edward G. Minor . . . . . . . 1955-1961

James B. Brennan . . . . . . 1961-1968

Robert J. Lerner . . . . . . . 1968-1969

David J. Cannon . . . . . . . 1969-1973

David B. Bukey . . . . . . . . 1973-1974

William J. Mulligan . . . . . 1974-1978

Joan F. Kessler . . . . . . . . 1978-1981

Joseph P. Stadtmueller . . 1981-1987

Patricia J. Gorence . . . . . 1987-1988

John E. Fryatt . . . . . . . 1988 - present

DISTRICT OF WYOMING

Joseph M. Carey . . . . . . . . . . . 1869

Edward P. Johnson . . . . . 1872-1876

John J. Jenkins . . . . . . . . 1876-1879

Lewis E. Payne . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879

Charles H. Seymore . . . . . 1879-1880

Melville C. Brown . . . . . . 1880-1884

J. A. River . . . . . . . . . . . 1884-1885

Anthony C. Campbell . . . . 1885-1890

Benjamin F. Fowler . . . . . 1890-1894

Gibson Clark . . . . . . . . . . 1894-1898

Timothy F. Burke . . . . . . 1898-1907

Benjamin M. Ausherman . . . . . . 1907

Timothy F. Burke . . . . . . 1907-1911

Hillard S. Ridgely . . . . . . 1911-1914

Charles L. Rigdon . . . . . . 1914-1921

A. D. Walton . . . . . . . . . . 1921-1933

Cart L. Sackett . . . . . . . . 1933-1949

John C. Pickett . . . . . . . . . . . . 1949

John J. Hickey . . . . . . . . 1949-1953

John F. Roper, Jr. . . . . . . 1953-1961

Robert N. Chaff in . . . . . . 1961-1969

Richard V. Thomas . . . . . . 1969-1974

Clarence A. Brimmer . . . . 1974-1975

James P. Castberg . . . . . . 1975-1977

Toshiro Suyematsu . . . . . . . . . . 1977

Charles E. Graves . . . . . . 1977-1981

Toshiro Suyematsu . . . . . . . . . . 1981

Richard A. Stacy . . . . . 1981 - present

U. S. COURT FOR CHINA (SHANGHAI)

(No longer in existence)

George-Sellett . . . . . . . . 1928-1934

Feltham Watson . . . . . . . 1934-1936

Leighton Shields . . . . . . . . . . . 1937
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Executive Office for United States Attorneys expresses its sincere appreciation to the

family of Mac Swinford for providing his photograph; the Idaho State Historical Society,

Boise, Idaho, for providing the photographs of James Hawley, Thunder Mountain Lawyers

and Chalis Idaho Streets; the Fall River Historical Society, Fall River, Massachusetts, for

providing the photograph of Lizzie Borden; the News and Record, Greensboro, North

Carolina, James Parker, photographer, for the loan of the photographs on the Greensboro

Courthouse fire; and to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., for providing

photographs of Jesse James; General George Custer; Susan B. Anthony; Sitting Bull;

Wyoming Territory; Al Capone; Franklin Pierce; John Dillinger; Geronimo; the Ku Klux

Klan, and the original Judiciary Act of 1789. The photograph of William Faulkner and

Lafayette Courthouse are by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

 Unless otherwise noted, all pictures, news articles and historical documents appearing in

this publication were received directly from the Offices of the United States Attorneys.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bonsteel Tachau, Mary K., Federal Courts in the Early Republic,

Kentucky 1789-1816 Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,

1978.

2. Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s

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3. Eisenstein, James. Counsel for the United States: US. Attorneys in

the Political and Legal System. Baltimore: The John Hopkins

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4. Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.,

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5. Lamar, Howard, R., The Readers Encyclopedia on the American

West. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York: Harpers & Row,

1977.

6. Levin, H., The Lawyer and Lawmaker of Kentucky. Chicago, Ill:

Lewis Publishing Company.

7. Seymour, Whitney North, Jr., United States Attorney. New York:

William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1975.

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The Historical Record Association, 1945.

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CT: Grolier, Inc., 1983.

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