J. Howard McGrath and the Wiretapping Case of 1939-1940

The political scene in Rhode Island was eventful during the interwar years. Fractious competition between Democrats and Republicans throughout the 1920s and 1930s resulted in the passage of important legislation which expanded the electorate in the state and challenged the dominance of the traditional Republican bloc comprised of Gilded Age industrialists and rural Yankee aristocrats. Rivaling the old guard for political power, the new generation succeeded in capturing a number of seats in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Of Irish, French Canadian, and Italian descent, these young politicians, both in the Democrat and Republican parties endeavored to strengthen their new status and expand their constituency at all costs.

One of the main players in this bid for power was Rhode Island District Attorney J. Howard McGrath, who at nearly thirty-five years old in 1938, had already held five public offices, including city solicitor of Central Falls and Democratic state chairman. Because of the support of former governor and now senator, Theodore Francis Green (1936-1960) , McGrath had been able to secure a spot as district attorney for the state, surpassing more experienced politicians. McGrath would now find himself battling reform Republican William Henry Vanderbilt, who assumed the governorship after Democrat Robert Quinn failed to win reelection in November 1938. Their face-off, a much-publicized wiretapping case, would serve as a turning point in McGrath’s career, securing for him statewide recognition and paving the way for his run as governor in 1940.

The wiretapping case bared many of the intra and inter-party struggles that had been simmering during the interwar years. The scandal raised the issue of the right to privacy and the possible legal implications of using evidence obtained through electronic surveillance.  Also significant, the suit revealed a rift between the old and new guard within the Republican Party, while at the same time uniting competing forces within the Democratic Party.

Advances in technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century prompted serious debate among leading Constitutionalists about the federal government’s use of telecommunications. With the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, which banned the sale and consumption of intoxicating liquors, the public shifted its attitude toward law enforcement. After the First World War, America’s citizens began to demand more accountability from its public officials. The resulting Supreme Court decision in the 1920 case, Olmstead v. U.S., which ruled admissible evidence obtained through the use of wiretaps, served as a turning point in this debate.[1] It also provides historians with an example of how state and federal law enforcement worked together to regulate the use of this controversial method.

Rhode Island contributed to the discussion through the 1939 ruling on the wiretapping case, which pitted District Attorney McGrath against Republican Governor William Henry Vanderbilt. At the time of his election in November 1938, Republican William Henry Vanderbilt had been lauded in the state and throughout the country as a forward-thinking liberal whose goal would be to rid Rhode Island of corruption. A great-great grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, he suffered the effects of his parents’ divorce when he was just seven years old. After the split, Vanderbilt and his mother, the former Ellen Tuck French, moved to Newport, Rhode Island from New York City , to begin a new life. However, young William would endure another blow when his father, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, died aboard the Lusitania  in 1915.[2]

A liberal, he was introduced into the Rhode Island political scene in 1928 as a member of the state senate from the town of Portsmouth. A wealthy businessman in his own right, Vanderbilt organized the Short Line Bus Company, which greatly improved transportation in the state. Vehemently opposed to political nepotism and corruption, he threatened the Republican machine by vowing to eradicate graft in Rhode Island. As the chairman of the Committee on Finance, Vanderbilt refused to be manipulated by Republican power brokers who retaliated by denying him the 1936 gubernatorial nomination. Two year later, however, old guard Republicans were losing ground politically, thanks to the expansion of suffrage in the state and the consolidation of various boards and commissions that were controlled by them. Vanderbilt then emerged as a viable alternative to the Democrats. Capitalizing on the backlash against the economic recession nationally and Democrat Governor Quinn’s role in the “Racetrack War”[3] in 1937, Vanderbilt received his party’s endorsement by promising to eliminate voter fraud in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Providence.[4]

After he assumed the post as governor in 1939, Vanderbilt was determined to eradicate voter fraud and dual office holding. His target: Pawtucket mayor and city boss Thomas P. McCoy, who held multiple positions simultaneously, and had won the mayoral race through questionable means.[5] Sensing McCoy’s vulnerability, Vanderbilt set out to corner the Pawtucket boss by authorizing the hiring of a New York detective agency to investigate municipal corruption in Pawtucket. Under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Matthew Goring, the Bielaski Seaboard Detective Agency, owned and operated by Frank B. Bielaski, placed listening devices on the home and office telephone services of Mayor McCoy and Rhode Island attorney general Louis Jackvony.

The relationship between Vanderbilt and Jackvony had been strained ever since Governor-elect Vanderbilt replaced Jackvony ally Pierce Brereton of Warwick with J. Thornton Sherman of Middletown as Republican State Chairman. Like many of his old guard allies Brereton and Senator Jesse Metcalf, Jackvony opposed Vanderbilt’s civil service legislation, resenting Vanderbilt’s alienation of his party.

Nonetheless, Vanderbilt initially appointed his Republican Attorney General Louis Jackvony, elected in 1938, to head the investigation of election fraud throughout the state. Jackvony, like Vanderbilt, had a history of alienating influential Republicans. Well before the election in November 1938, Jackvony served as assistant attorney general from 1925-1930 under his ally, Attorney General Charles P. Sisson. Upon Sisson’s ouster in 1930, Jackvony accused powerful Republican State Chairman William Pelkey and Finance Commissioner Frederick Peck of influencing the decision against him.[6]

Vanderbilt, who defeated Quinn by a 38,846 plurality in 1938, interpreted his win as a mandate to embark upon a thorough house-cleaning in Rhode Island government. Nonetheless, many Republicans, who held the majority of seats in the General Assembly, refused to support his program, which included a mandate for civil service reform.[7]

On January 19, 1939 the General Assembly granted “special powers” to the recently elected attorney general, who in turn named Amos L. Lachapelle and Matthew W. Goring to assist him in his investigation. Additionally, he assured the legislature that a grand jury probe would be forthcoming.[8]

Although initially hopeful that Jackvony’s inquiry would expose graft in the 1938 election, Vanderbilt began to grow impatient at the slow pace of the investigation, and by the spring of 1939 began to lose confidence in Jackvony. Capitalizing on the Governor’s apprehension, special assistant Matthew Goring intimated to Vanderbilt that Jackvony had gaming interests in Pawtucket and therefore purposely stalled the investigation to protect officials with ties to racketeering.[9]

In his eagerness to expose McCoy, Vanderbilt indiscriminately accepted Goring’s accusations against the attorney general. Goring then persuaded the Governor to hire the New York Detective Agency run by Frank B. Bielaski, precipitously beginning the ill-fated eleven-month association between Vanderbilt and wiretapping.

After his fruitful meeting with Governor Vanderbilt in the spring of 1939, Special Assistant Goring approached Jackvony about hiring Bielaski’s agents to expedite the current examination of municipal corruption in Pawtucket and elsewhere. Their encounter was less encouraging, however, as Jackvony told Goring the fees quoted by the agency ($3,000 to $4,000 a month) were prohibitive for the Rhode Island Department of Justice. At the time, Attorney General Jackvony had allotted $3,000 for election fraud and preferred to work internally by using the state police to handle the operation. Although the General Assembly eventually allocated an additional $35,000 for the investigation, the funds would not be available until the bill’s passage in April 1939.  State police superintendent Jonathan Harwood, however, refused to authorize the use of his seventy-man force and in the end was persuaded by Jackvony to name three men outside of his department.[10]

Meanwhile, the grand jury probe, which was authorized to investigate alleged gambling and corruption in Pawtucket, commenced. Declaring that an “extensive picture of election fraud” existed in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Providence, they concluded that outmoded state laws had failed to protect the voter, thus encouraging flagrant abuse to continue without consequence.  The investigation revealed that of 101 Pawtucket officials slated to oversee the process in the city, nearly seventy five percent were chosen by the Pawtucket Board of Canvassers. These inequities resulted in, among other abuses, significant tampering with the newly installed voting machines. The grand jury report recommended that the investigation be extended to probe deeper into corruption in the city. A year later, the General Assembly complied and voted to extend the investigation to July 1940, granting them an additional $50,000.[11]

In the meantime, on November 24, 1939, Joseph M. Bennett, Jr. manager of the Pawtucket branch of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company answered an unusual call from Mayor Thomas P. McCoy, who suspected that his telephone wires of his home had been tampered with; Bennett then assigned Walter Gillis, one of his best workers, to the case. Tracing the origin of the tap to the residence of prominent businessman Edward L. Freeman, Gillis and his crew discovered that wires strung from Freeman’s second-story window to a telephone pole, which intersected East Avenue and Kenilworth Way in Pawtucket, was parallel to the McCoy residence.[12]

Charging the unwitting Freeman  with “aiding and abetting” in the “unlawful interruption of electric currents over electric wires” the police held him for allegedly violating Rhode Island General Law #608, Section #74. Authorities brought him in for questioning at 11:15 p.m. and grilled him relentlessly for over 12 hours. Freeman pled “not guilty” in the Tenth District Court, Pawtucket, and only then was he allowed to call his attorney, Edward T. Hogan.  Bail was posted at $2,000 and Freeman was released pending trial. He soon discovered that his transient boarder, Lee Edward Barton was an operative working undercover for the Frank B. Bielaski Detective Agency.[13]

Immediately after the raid on Freeman’s home, an all-points bulletin was issued for Lee Edward Barton. By January 4, 1939, Pawtucket city solicitor William A. Needham posted an official warrant for Barton’s arrest on conspiracy charges, but despite several “sightings,” he remained at large for the next two years.

In January 1940, Judge William M. Connell of the Tenth District Court found Freeman not guilty, since no evidence existed to implicate him for the tapping of Mayor McCoy’s phone. In his ruling, the judge took the opportunity to condemn wiretapping by repeating the oft-quoted statement of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s dissenting opinion in Olmstead (1928): “writs of assistance, and general warrants are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared with wiretapping.” Relieved by the verdict, Freeman announced that he was
“glad to live in the United States where truth and justice still prevail.”[14]

Upon discovering that his phone lines had been tampered with, Mayor McCoy called upon his former rival, District Attorney McGrath. Throughout the 1930s, McGrath had conspired to eliminate McCoy’s control of Pawtucket. McCoy resented this encroachment into his “city” and was noticeably upset when in 1932 McGrath opposed his legislation to implement city-owned public utilities. Now, McGrath and McCoy united to defeat the Republicans. If McGrath in his role as district attorney could clear McCoy of allegations of voter fraud, then McCoy might line up behind McGrath’s “program” to capture the Democratic nomination for governor in 1940.[15]

After receiving McGrath’s report, his boss, U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson, had ordered McGrath to investigate the situation so as to determine whether Bielaski’s use of electronic surveillance in Rhode Island fell within the jurisdiction of the federal government.  Although Jackson required McGrath to submit all evidence to the grand jury, the latter first informed Louis Jackvony that listening devices had been placed on his office and home phones as well. McGrath had also confirmed that Barton had established temporary headquarters across the street from Jackvony’s home and adjacent to his office on the twelfth floor of the Turks Head Building in downtown Providence. After thoroughly searching Jackvony’s office, Providence police confiscated a stepladder, telephone wire and snake, picture hooks, a typewriter, and six loose-leaf memo books.

It was soon made public that approximately 60 lines in the Turks Head Building had been tampered with; cuts were made so that the copper wiring was exposed, and the devices could be inserted. As Rhode Island’s principal legal officer, Attorney General Jackvony was dumbfounded by what the investigators discovered. He promptly deferred to McGrath, who as a federal officer had jurisdiction to conduct an investigation of this scope.[16]

Meanwhile, Governor Vanderbilt had been vacationing at his retreat in Williamstown, Massachusetts, apparently unaware of what had transpired in Rhode Island during his absence. Upon his return in December 1939, he informed reporters that “the investigation is in the hands of the Attorney General, and I have full confidence in him.”[17] The duplicity in the remark would become evident within a few months.

As a federal officer, McGrath had in the meantime obtained permission from his superior, United States Attorney General Robert Jackson, to travel to New York to secure logs from the telephone company and to question Bielaski about his connection with the wiretapping incident. From this investigation, McGrath was able to discover that Bielaski had stayed at the Crown, Narragansett, and Biltmore hotels in Providence. Telephone logs and testimony from hotel employees substantiated this evidence. More importantly, McGrath found that in late December the attorney general’s special assistant, Matthew Goring, was in constant contact with Bielaski. Ledgers indicated that Goring had been communicating with Lee Barton throughout the latter half of September and all of October.[18]

In early December, Jackvony demanded that Goring state in writing the nature of his connection with Bielaski and his agents, Barton and Davenport. In a written memorandum to the attorney general, dated December 4, Goring admitted to meeting with the detectives, but claimed to be ignorant of the tapping of McCoy’s or Jackvony’s phones, explaining that his meeting with Bielaski was “purely social.”[19]

Unaware of Goring’s secret agreement with Bielaski, Jackvony, frustrated by his deputy’s insubordination, publicly announced his decision to fire Goring on December 16, 1939.[20]

Meanwhile the Chaffee Committee, an ad hoc group established by the General Assembly and named for Republican Senator Alfred G. Chaffee from Scituate, worked diligently to uncover flagrant misuse of voter trust. Authorized by the General Assembly in direct response to Vanderbilt’s request for a legislative probe, the Chaffee group was granted additional funds.

What transpired, however, was a politically damaging dispute between the Governor and Chaffee over financial compensation for the ad hoc committee and resulted in an open breach that nearly cost Vanderbilt the nomination in 1940. The nature of the argument revealed a pattern in the way the governor handled politically explosive situations, and also exposed Vanderbilt’s disregard for compromise within his own party.

Chaffee claimed that Governor Vanderbilt had previously authorized a payment of $6,950 to the fourteen members of the Committee. In March, Vanderbilt replied that he was “extremely sorry for the unfortunate misunderstanding” since he was “under the impression” that each committee member would receive $1,500 for expenses incurred. To soothe their bruised egos, he offered to pay each member “out of his own pocket.”[21] This misstep instead exposed his weakness, flaunted his wealth, and alienated yet another important Republican.

In retaliation, Chaffee publicized his anger in the Providence Journal, asserting that he and the other members of the Committee should not be expected to work eight months without payment, especially since their position as part-time legislators only paid them a mere five dollars a day for a sixty-day period. He then presented the newspaper with an itemized list of duties performed by the Committee.[22]

Chaffee, under advisement from Attorney General Jackvony, rejected the governor’s offer of private payment, stating that “acceptance … would violate Chapter 612 of the General Laws of 1938.” According to Section 22 of the Chapter, “no person shall corruptly … offer any gift   or valuable consideration to any such agent, employee, servant, or public official as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do … any act in relation to the business of his principal, master or employer, or the state, city or town of which he is an official.” Vanderbilt interpreted the refusal as a mark against his integrity, and in a written exchange demanded that Jackvony retract his statement for the public record.  Jackvony refused to stand down, stating that as a public official Vanderbilt was not authorized to finance a legislative committee with private funds.[23]

Despite this bitter exchange, the Chaffee Committee conducted a thorough, professional investigation, and their subsequent report confirmed the findings of the grand jury. The fourteen members canvassed 33,766 out of 41,597 eligible voters in Pawtucket and 9,766 out of 12,363 voters in Central Falls. They found discrepancies of 12.6 percent in Pawtucket and 13 percent in Central Falls. The injustices reported by the committee, however, were more egregious than these figures indicate. As an example, in District 3, Ward 6, a garage, which stood across the street from the polls, served as a fitting room for floaters who, after voting once, changed their outer garments and rushed through the side door with their bogus “identification cards,” where policemen “in the know’ ushered them in to place multiple ballots, in some cases up to 20, for McCoy and his lieutenants. In the meantime, actual voters were turned away and forced to return to their homes after their civic rights had clearly been violated.[24]

Because voting machines had only recently been introduced in 1936, state and city officials had little time to prevent such inequities caused by misuse of the machines. Thus, according to the Chaffee Committee, “machines were jammed throughout the day; voters were prevented from voting; … Democratic election officials changed Republican votes to Democratic votes … [and] roving squads of policemen kept Republican workers away from polling places and prevented them from coming anywhere near the ward rooms.”[25]

The final report, submitted on January 23, 1940, recommended that a bipartisan election board be created to ensure that proper procedure be followed when conducting elections, and that a Financial Investigating Commission be established to hold Pawtucket officials accountable. Ironically, however, the Committee did not recommend prosecution for officers implicated in the report. Instead, its report concluded that although “elections in Pawtucket and Central Falls in November 1938 were clearly unfair,” the Committee could not recommend the removal of any officials since they had no “definite proof … that fraud is what elected them.”[26]

Nonetheless, the Chaffee report contributed to the return of 166 indictments by the grand jury in February 1940. Among those implicated were Public Works Commissioner Albert J. Lamarre, Probate Judge Lawrence A. Flynn, Director of Public Welfare William T. Flanagan, six members of the Pawtucket Police Force, and 75 city employees.[27]

In the meantime, after months of investigation, McGrath, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, finally discovered that Governor Vanderbilt had authorized and paid for the Bielaski Agency with his private funds. According to a memorandum submitted to Judge Francis Biddle, acting attorney general, on March 27, 1940, Whiting Willauer and McGrath proposed the following: “Due to the high position held by the Governor he should be apprised of the nature of the information in the possession of the Department of Justice before this information was presented to the Grand Jury.”[28]

Granting the governor the respect due to his high office, McGrath and Willauer, special assistant to federal Attorney General Robert Jackson, paid a visit to Governor Vanderbilt to confront him with the evidence, namely his personal $6,900 payment to BIelaski’s Seaboard Agency. The Senate subcommittee hearing would later disclose that from September 8, 1939 to November 25, 1939, $15,500 had been paid in total to the agency.[29]

In a closed-door session, Willauer and McGrath presented their evidence to the governor. Although Willauer had offered the governor time to confer with his lawyer, Vanderbilt, without hesitation, admitted that he paid for the “tapping.” Anxious to tell his side of the story, he continued, “I determined that it was my duty as chief law enforcement officer of Rhode Island to get at the bottom of the allegations of election frauds, and that I further felt that where these frauds were so rampant … I, personally, paid for his services.” He admitted that a detective agency was not his first choice, but since “state law enforcement agencies were not equipped to handle such widespread graft, he had no alternative.[30]

McGrath’s confrontation with the governor was his last official duty in the wiretapping inquiry. On April 9, 1940, Attorney General Robert Jackson publicly stated that he was relieving the Rhode Island district attorney of this assignment because he did not believe that the “Department of Justice can in good conscience prosecute persons in Rhode Island for a practice which was at the time engaged in by the Department itself …”[31]

On April 10, Governor Vanderbilt appeared before the press, justifying his actions by claiming that wiretapping “has been a usual method of getting information and obtaining leads in investigations.” Despite his public rhetoric, however, Vanderbilt knew that he had been beaten before he embarked on his bid for reelection. McGrath and his Democratic allies immediately capitalized on the governor’s complicity in the wiretapping incident. The following political volleying and finger pointing contributed to Vanderbilt’s political defeat in November 1940.

In disgust, the governor charged that McGrath whitewashed the election fraud case in Pawtucket by “turn[ing] to the political side of the picture,” thereby cheapening his august role as United States district attorney.[33]

McGrath responded to Vanderbilt’s accusations by stating, “it was my duty as U.S. attorney to conduct the investigation [of wiretapping], that I sincerely tried to avoid any act that justly could be charged as politically inspired.”[34] In turn, McGrath was also the driving force behind Senator Theodore Francis Green’s motion to conduct a Senate investigation of the whole affair. The request was approved on March 19, 1940, after the subcommittee met with McGrath and Jackvony to hear the evidence.

Because McGrath had traced the steps that led to a conviction involving wiretapping operations in eastern Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and Indiana, Green was able to persuade the Senate investigating body to support his proposal for a national hearing.  Green contended, “the activities of a detective agency in New York State,” which brought agents to Rhode Island to “tap the wires of elected public officials and private citizens holding responsible positions in the political and business world,” was rampant throughout the United States.[35]

In a confidential exchange between a “Father Deery” and Green’s executive secretary, Eddie Higgins, the latter corroborated the senator’s statement by stating, “I believe that those wire-tappers working out of the Bielaski Detective Agency in New York have tapped the wires of prominent persons in ten or eleven states.” Higgins also disclosed, “the investigators and the G-men have discovered … that all calls made from Cardinal [George William] Mundelein’s home in Illinois to the White House … have been recorded as a result of taps placed by agents of Bielaski.” He added, “a Buffalo newspaper has stated that this wiretapping investigation will be as scandalous as the Teapot Dome of the Harding days.”[36]

Although Senator Green had undergone two separate operations (one for a hernia and another to remove his appendix) and would be recovering during the scheduled meetings of the Senate Subcommittee, the group met as scheduled with Senator Thomas Stewart presiding and Sherman Minton serving as an alternate. Commencing on May 21, 1940, as mandated by S. Res. 224 of the 76^th Congress, which “authoriz[ed] and direct[ed] an investigation.” In his opening remarks, Senator Wheeler stated that “the dangers to personal liberty that may result from unrestricted use of wiretapping and similar practices have long been a subject of political argument and judicial controversy.”[37]

In August 1940, McGrath petitioned President Roosevelt and Attorney General Robert Jackson to accept his resignation, so that he could campaign for governor. In choosing to run, McGrath received letters from personal and professional alliances that he had formed while in public office.

According to an FBI agent conducting a secret probe on the situation, “much of the publicity [of the election] was released in such a manner as to make it appear that United States Attorney McGrath was directing personally the efforts of the Bureau’s agents in this investigation.” He continued, “Rumor has it that this case was political capital to him and it has been stated that it will be used as ammunition by the Democratic Party in the coming State elections which may result in the election of McGrath for Governor.”[38] While the agent’s revelation substantiates the political gossip that had been bandied about in Rhode Island, it is striking that the FBI was drawn into the 1940 gubernatorial race.

To the power brokers in the state,  McGrath was just what the Democratic Party needed: handsome, well dressed, politically and financially successful. More importantly, he as the federal district attorney from Rhode Island had succeeded in discrediting a liberal Republican whose investigation against fraudulent local elections would otherwise have threatened the Democrats. Thus, Eddie Higgins used his extraordinary political power as Senator Green’s right-hand man, to cajole, maneuver, and call in past political debts to secure financial backing for McGrath’s run for governor.

As a result, McGrath won the 1940 election handily, garnering 177,161 votes to Vanderbilt’s 139,820. The Democrats also carried the day in November, capturing 59 seats in the lower house to the Republicans’ 41.[39] Although the wiretapping incident has been directly linked to Vanderbilt’s defeat, his alienation of his party, and insistence that political disagreement could be solved by his signature on a check also contributed to his undoing. Had he researched Bielaski’s methods of investigation more thoroughly and played a more hands-on role in uncovering election fraud in Rhode Island, perhaps the tables would have turned against the Democrats. By the time Vanderbilt’s hand in the incident was exposed, his explanations appeared paltry.

Upon McGrath’s election that fall, he received a congratulatory note from F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover expressing his “heartiest congratulations over the vote of confidence” that he “received” from his “constituents.”[40]  Eventually, as attorney general, McGrath would give a nod to FBI agents in the use of electronic surveillance devices in their investigation.

One month after McGrath was sworn in as governor of the state of Rhode Island, Lee Edward Barton, mysterious operative for Frank Bielaski’s Seaboard Agency, contacted police officials. In a note to McGrath a year earlier, Eddie Higgins remarked, “strictly off the record Lieutenant Knox of the Naval Intelligence, gave me Barton’s address in Memphis.”[41] Barton now appeared willingly before the special session of the Senate subcommittee.[42] During the height of the scandal, this story would have been front-page news, but now the public grew weary of the case.  As war clouds loomed, more pressing international problems took precedent.

Nevertheless, Rhode Island stood at the vanguard of state and national legislation on wiretapping. National attention was drawn to the widespread application of electronic surveillance after Green’s petition for a Senate probe.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a letter to Representative Thomas H. Eliot of Massachusetts, a member of the Judiciary Committee, maintained that although “citizens of a democracy” must be “protected in their rights of privacy,” he emphasized the right of the federal government to employ this method against persons who “today are engaged in espionage or sabotage against the United States.”[43]

Over fifteen years later in 1956, Title XI, Chapter 35 Section 12 of the General Laws of Rhode Island officially declared that wiretapping was a felony, which carried a penalty of up to five years in prison. Other states, such as Massachusetts, also barred the use of electronic devices unless approved by the Attorney General.[44]

As this chapter of his political life ended, J. Howard McGrath was to embark upon four successful years as governor of the State of Rhode Island. In the public eye, he was viewed as a diligent and objective civil servant who had brought to light the corruption in the Vanderbilt administration. In reality, however, he had been instrumental in sweeping under the rug the graft that existed in Pawtucket. In the final analysis, his political ambition far outweighed his contribution to good government.

[Banner image:  J. Howard McGrath, then a U.S. Attorney, speaks at a news conference in Rhode Island in 1939 (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library)]

Credits:

First published as an article by the author, “Political Rivalry in Rhode Island: William H. Vanderbilt vs. J. Howard McGrath: the wiretapping case,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts XXXV (Winter): 52-77.

Parts of this article also culled from Chapter 6 of the author’s book:  Democratic Repairman: The Political Life of J. Howard McGrath (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2019)

Notes:

[1] Roy Olmstead, formerly a law enforcement officer, ran a bootlegging operation in Seattle, Washington. Local police suspected him of wrongdoing so installed electronic surveillance devices on his home telephone lines. Intercepted conversations between Olmstead and his clients revealed widespread illicit activities, but Olmstead argued that evidence obtained through the use of wiretaps violated his Fourth Amendment rights and was thus inadmissible in court. The court rejected Olmstead’s plea, so he appealed to the Supreme Court., which upheld the decision of the lower court, arguing that Seattle police used proper methods since “the evidence was secured by the use of the sense of hearing and that only.” Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928) http://supreme.justia.com, accessed October 27, 2017.

[2] “Vanderbilt, William Henry.” The Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives. Vol. 1. 1981-1985, 814-815.

[3] Walter O’Hara managed the Narragansett Racetrack, which opened in Pawtucket in the former “What Cheer Airport,” on August 1, 1934.  He soon came under investigation by the State Horse Racing Commission for allegedly misappropriating funds. In addition to his gambling interests, O’Hara also purchased Peter Gerry’s News Tribune and merged it with his Star Publishing Company. O’Hara joined forces with Thomas McCoy and subsequently the paper began publishing damaging articles on Governor Robert “Fighting Bob” Quinn of the Pawtuxet Valley faction. The row came to a head when Quinn imposed martial law, subsequently recruiting 87 National Guardsmen to bar O’Hara and McCoy from opening the Racetrack for the fall races. Quinn opponents charged that the governor had overreacted by allowing personal animosity for O’Hara cloud his judgment. Conley, Patrick T., Rhode Island in Rhetoric and Reflection: Public Addresses and Essays (Providence: Rhode Island Publication Society, 2002), 9.

[4] The Broomhead Civil Service Act, introduced into the General Assembly in 1939, required state employees, regardless of political affiliation, to sit for a merit examination. This legislation threatened political patronage in both parties. Thus, party leaders protested by claiming that the bill alienated the average loyal party workers by requiring that state employees be hired solely on merit. Folder, “Newspaper Clippings, Vanderbilt,” The Houston Post, September 12, 1939, 14; William Henry Vanderbilt Papers, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

[5] A grand jury investigation revealed that Walter O’Hara had financed Thomas McCoy’s mayoral race with earnings from pari-mutuel betting. “Risks Political Future to Block Track Manager: Names McCoy, Handy Pelkey as Recipients of Checks of up to $5000 Each,” Providence Journal, October 21, 1937, 1; William Jennings, Jr., “The Prince of Pawtucket: A Study of Politics of Thomas P. McCoy,” (PhD. diss., Providence College, 1985), 329-330.

[6] “Efforts to Probe Jackvony Charge Blocked in House,” Providence Journal, January 18, 1930, 1.

[7] William Jennings, Jr. “The Prince of Pawtucket: A Study of Politics of Thomas P. McCoy” (Ph.D. diss. Providence College, 1985), 329-330.

[8] Ibid., 335; “Senate Votes $50,000 in Pawtucket Probe; House to Act Friday,” Providence Journal, January 18, 1940, 1; “J.R. Espinosa, Wiretapping,” April 12, 1940, 1-2, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[9] U.S. Senate, “Testimony of William H. Vanderbilt,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee of Interstate Commerce. Part 1, Sen. Res. 224, 222, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[10] “Testimony of Jonathan H. Harwood,” “Investigation of Alleged Wire Tapping Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate Commerce,” United States Senate, 76th Congress, 3rd Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 224” Folder 26, “Wiretapping: Hearing Testimony, Photographs, Apr. 1940,” 126-127. Edward J. Higgins Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[11] “Senate Votes $50,000 in Pawtucket Probe: House to Act Friday,” Providence Journal, January 10, 1940, 1; “Jackvony to Get $50,000 to Probe Pawtucket Vote,” Providence Journal January 18, 1940, 1; J. R. Espinosa, “Wiretapping,” April 12, 1940, 1-2, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[12] According to the Pawtucket police report, Gillis complained that the work was not professional since the wire “lacks the usual twist.” Notes, “On November 27, 1939,” Folder, “Pawtucket Police Dept.- Miscellaneous Report,” Edward J. Higgins Collection, Special and Archival Collection, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[13] Freeman would later testify that his close friend Harold Shippee approached him about renting his upstairs room to Lee Edward Barton. Barton was identified as an employee of Shippee’s client, Walter Meiss. Freeman discussed the matter with his wife, who agreed to rent their room to Barton for $3.00/per day. Folder 40, “Pawtucket Police Dept. Miscellaneous Report, 1939;” “Freeman Denies He Aided Barton in Wiretapping,” Providence Journal, January 7, 1940, 1.

[14] Freeman brought simultaneous suits in April against the governor and the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company for $500,000 each. Vanderbilt and Freeman settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. “Writ is Served on Vanderbilt,” Providence Journal, April 11, 1940, 1; “Freeman Papers Accuse Governor,” Providence Journal, May 16, 1940, 2; “Governor Denies Freeman Claims,” Providence Journal, December 17, 1940, 1; “Freeman Absolved by Judge,” Providence Journal; The Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, 1964-1969, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[15] “J. Howard McGrath to Edward J. Higgins,” May 9, 1939, Folder, “Higgins,” J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[16] “Wiretapping Paraphernalia Seized in Turks Head Raid,” Providence Journal, December 2, 1939.

[17] The governor spent most of the year in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. “Jury to Receive Evidence Today on Wiretapping,” Providence Journal, December 5, 1939, 1.

[18] Memo to Louis V. Jackvony from Matthew Goring, December 4, 1939, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[19] Ibid.

[20] “Goring Talks, Urges Pawtucket Inquiry Be Carried Through,” Providence Journal, December 21, 1939; “Wiretapping Statement by Louis V. Jackvony,” May 22, 1940; “Jackvony Presents Goring Memo to Senate Wire-Tap Probe,” May 22, 1940, 9, Edward J. Higgins Papers, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[21] “Governor Vanderbilt to Meet Members of the Committee,” Providence Journal, March 12, 1940, William H. Vanderbilt Papers, Archival and Manuscripts. University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI; “Governor Offers to Pay Chaffee’s Probers Himself,” Providence Journal, March 13, 1940p “Chaffee Board Democrats Backs Governor in Row,” Providence Journal, March 14, 1940; “Pay by Governor Termed Illegal,” Providence Journal, March 21, 1940.

[22] “Salaries of State Officials,” Providence Journal Almanac, 1941: A Reference Book for the State of Rhode Island (Providence: Providence Journal, 1941), 196.

[23] “From Chairman Alfred G. Chaffee to Governor William Henry Vanderbilt,” March 20, 1940, William H. Vanderbilt Papers, Archival and Manuscripts. University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

[24] The act reads as follows: “An act authorizing the use of voting-machines at state, city, and town elections, and regulating the use of the same.” Chapter 2195, H 647. 1935-1936 Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (Providence: The Oxford Press, 1936), “Election Frauds 1938-1940;” Committee on Elections, Frauds and Corrupt Practices,” January 23, 1940, 9; “Charges of Fraud Reported Before,” February 13, 1940., 6. William H. Vanderbilt Papers, Archives and Manuscripts, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

[25] Ibid.

[26] “5277 Irregular Votes Charged,” Pawtucket Times, January 23, 1940, 1; “Tentative Jury Selected to Try Little and Others for Election Conspiracy: Many of Panel Challenged by State Defense,” Pawtucket Times, January 26, 1940, 1, 2; Jennings, “The Prince of Pawtucket,” 345-346.

[27] Meanwhile, a distraught Lee Barton, running from authorities since the story broke the previous year, requested (through an intermediary) a meeting with Senator Green and District Attorney McGrath. The intermediary, according to Eddie Higgins, revealed that Barton “was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and believes that he is to be made the goat and sent to jail.” The unnamed go-between also stated that Barton had been relieved of his duties at the detective agency. “Merits of Pawtucket Fraud Accusations are Undecide,” Providence Journal, June 19, 1941. Edward J. Higgins to J. Howard McGrath, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[28] Memorandum to Judge Biddle, Acting Attorney General of a Conference by J. Howard McGrath, United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, and Whiting Willauer, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, with Governor William H. Vanderbilt, Hist Secretary James B. Hart, and Horace Weller, Director of the State Department of Business Regulation, and Personal Counsel to the Governor, Folder 22, “Correspondence, J. Howard McGrath,” Edward J. Higgins Papers, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[29] “F.B. Bielaski Paid $13,597 for Probe,” Providence Journal, May 23, 1940, 1.

[30] According to Vanderbilt, Bielaski told him that the “people in Pawtucket” would “not be prosecuted on election frauds” because “Jackvony was connected with interests in Pawtucket,” and that McCoy allies “had been successful in reaching members of the State Grand Jury that was then considering election fraud matters.” Ibid.

[31] Despite Jackson’s statement, McGrath challenged his department’s position on wiretapping and vowed to alter existing laws. Accordingly, Order No. 3343 issued on March 15, prohibited the use of wiretapping by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Statement by U.S. Attorney J. Howard McGrath,” April 9, 1940: Memorandum to Judge Biddle, Acting Attorney General of a Conference Had at about 2;00 p.m. March 27, 1940: “McGrath Drops Wire Tap Probe,” Providence Journal, April 10, 1940, 11; Folder 22, “Higgins Correspondence, J. Howard McGrath, 1940,” Edward J. Higgins Papers, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[32] “Vanderbilt Says He Paid,” Providence Evening Bulletin, April 10, 1940, 1; “Goring Defends Probe Activities,” Providence Journal, May 29, 1940, 1.

[33] “Prosecutor Notes Executive’s Stand of Tap Plot Link,” Pawtucket Times, April 11, 1940, 1.

[34] Ibid.

[35] “Wiretapping: Statement of Theodore Francis Green on Introducing in the Senate a Resolution on Wiretapping,” J. Howard McGrath Collection; “Wiretap Hearings Start Tomorrow,” Providence Journal, January 3, 1940; “Wire Tap Inquiry asked in Senate,” Providence Journal, November 17, 1940.

[36] “Eddie Higgins to Father Deery,” May 2, 1940. Edward J. Higgins Papers, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[37] “Governor Takes Stand to Defend Wire Taps Role,” Pawtucket Times.

[38] Letter to the director from J. H. McGuire, Special Agent in Charge, Record Group 1, “J. Howard McGrath,” File #62-59475, August 19, 1940. Athan Theoharis Collection, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. Letter to the director from J. H. McGuire, Special Agent in Charge, Record Group 1, “J. Howard McGrath,” File #62-59475, August 19, 1940. Athan Theoharis Collection, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.

[39] “Elections,” Journal – Bulletin Almanac, 1942, 229-238.

[40] Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to J. Howard McGrath, 62-59475, November 9, 1940, “J. Howard McGrath,” Athan Theoharis Collection, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.

[41] Memo from Eddie Higgins to McGrath, February 25, 1940, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[42] “Barton Testifies in Wire Tapping,” Providence Journal, February 15, 1941, 5.

[43] “Letter from President Roosevelt to Hon. Thomas H. Eliot, M.C.” in Hearings before Subcommittee, No. 1. Of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives Seventy-Seventh Congress First Session: HR. 2266 and HR. 3099, 257, J. Howard McGrath Collection, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.

[44] Mario DiNunzio, Wiretapping, Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, 4. Rhode Island Constitutional Convention Papers, Special and Archival Collections, Providence College, Providence, RI.