Moses Annenberg
Moses "Moe" Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American newspaper publisher, who purchased "The Philadelphia Inquirer", the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States in 1936. "The Inquirer" has the sixteenth-largest average weekday U.S. newspaper circulation, and has won eighteen Pulitzer Prizes. He was the father of TV Guide creator Walter Annenberg. Early life. Moses Annenberg was born in East Prussia (German Empire) in 1877 to a Lithuanian Jewish family. He left Germany and immigrated to Chicago in 1900. Career. Annenberg began his career as a Chicago newspaper salesman at the  Chicago Tribune, then, for the Hearst Corporation. He eventually built a fortune and the successful publishing company that became Triangle Publications, Inc., owning, among other publications, the "Daily Racing Form". During the Roosevelt administration, he was indicted for tax evasion on August 11, 1939, for income tax evasion for the years 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936 totaling $3,258,809.97 in income taxes evaded. On April 4, 1940, Annenberg pleaded guilty to the 1936 income tax evasion count in the indictment that charged him with evading $1.2 million in taxes ($ million today). Judge James Herbert Wilkerson, the same  judge who previously sentenced Al Capone, sentenced Annenberg to three years in prison and a fine of $8.0 million ($ million today) "the largest single tax fraud penalty in history" at the time. Personal life, death and legacy. Annenberg married Sadie Cecillia Freedman (1879–1965). They had one son, the publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg and seven daughters; Diana Annenberg (1900–1905), Esther "Aye" Annenberg Simon Levee (1901–1992), Janet Annenberg Hooker (1904–1997), Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906–2005), Lita Annenberg Hazen (1909–1985), Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall (1911–2005), and Harriet Beatrice Annenberg Ames Aronson (1914–1976). Annenberg was released from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary prison June  3, 1942. Annenberg died in the Mayo Clinic July 20, 1942, after having surgery for a brain tumor. His Ranch A in eastern Wyoming is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.