Lexow Committee
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The Lexow Committee inquiry, which took its name from the Committee's chairman, State Senator Clarence Lexow
Clarence Lexow
Clarence Lexow was a member of the New York Senate from 1894 to 1898.-Biography:He was born on September 16, 1852, in Brooklyn, New York City. His father was Rudolph Lexow who was born in Germany. His mother was born in England and had died prior to 1880. His siblings include: Charles K...
, was the widest-ranging of several such commissions empaneled during the nineteenth century. The testimony collected during its hearings ran to over 10,000 pages and the resultant scandal played a major part in the defeat of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
in the elections of 1894 and the election of the reform administration of Mayor William L. Strong
William L. Strong
William Lafayette Strong was the Mayor of New York from 1895 to 1897. He was the last mayor of New York before the Consolidation of the City of New York on January 1, 1898.-Biography:...
. The investigations were initiated by pressure from Charles Henry Parkhurst
Charles Henry Parkhurst
Charles Henry Parkhurst was an American clergyman and social reformer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Although scholarly and reserved, he preached two sermons in 1892 in which he attacked the political corruption of New York City government...
.
Police
Robert C. Kennedy writes:
The Lexow Committee, ironically headquartered at the Tweed CourthouseTweed CourthouseThe building is composed of a central section with two projecting wings, with an addition in the center on the south facade. The entry portico on the main Chambers Street facade rises three and a half stories from a low granite curb, supported by four Corinthian columns...
on Chambers Street, examined evidence from Parkhurst's City Vigilance League, as well as undertook its own investigations. The Lexow Committee uncovered police involvement in extortion, bribery, counterfeiting, voter intimidation, election fraud, brutality, and scams. Attention focused on [William] Devery, then a police captain, who stonewalled before the committee by only responding vaguely to questions: "touchin' on and appertainin' to that matter, I disremember." The state probe and Devery's impudent testimony prodded the police commissioners to clean house. Charged with accepting bribes, Devery feigned illness and his case never reached trial, although he was temporarily demoted.
Policy dealers
- Al Adams "Al has the most [...] sheets, and he is the biggest man, and has the most money, and has the biggest pile." "He is called the king of the policy dealers." "Al Adams has from Fourteenth street up on the west side mostly."
- Jake Shipsey
- Cornelius P. Parker
- Charles Frederick LindauerCharles Frederick LindauerCharles Frederick Lindauer I was involved in New York City corruption scandal of 1894 as a "policy dealer".-Birth:Charles was born in 1836 in Philadelphia to Oscar Arthur Moritz Lindauer and Sophia Weber...
aka Charlie Lindauer - William Meyers aka Billy Meyers "Billy Meyers is a backer on the east side, around the Hebrew district, and up about as far as Sixth street"
- Edward Hogan aka Ed Hogan
- Richard Gammon, aka Dick Gammon
- William Morton aka Billy Morton "he has mostly down about South and Broad streets."
External links
- Lexow Committee Transcript, Volume I at Google Books
- Lexow Committee Transcript, Volume III at University of Michigan Library's Making of America