Word: dwyer
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...Mexico City, U.S. Ambassador William O'Dwyer acted out a memorable exhibition of how an ambassador should not act. He set the scene early in the morning by having a clerk telephone every U.S. correspondent in the capital, urging them to come to the embassy for a "very important" press conference...
...reporters arrived on the run. Among them was United Press Bureau Chief Robert Prescott, whose latest story was an interview with O'Dwyer and some of his friends on the ambassador's future plans. Prescott wrote that O'Dwyer was torn between returning to New York and remaining in his "adopted country" to practice law after his diplomatic tour of duty. Prescott's story stated that O'Dwyer "dropped hints to friends . . . that he may become a Mexican citizen when he puts away his diplomatic duds next January." Reporters realized that the ambassador was touchy...
When Irish-born Bill O'Dwyer arrived at the "press conference" his face was flushed with anger. He pointed to Prescott and in his oldtime policeman's voice bellowed, "There is the lying bastard!" The shocked silence was broken by Prescott, who calmly replied, "That's pretty strong, Mr. Ambassador." Said O'Dwyer, "I am calling you what you are in the English language," and repeated it several times, adding "deliberate liar." Then he ordered the reporter from the embassy...
While Prescott stood by his story and O'Dwyer by his denials, the Mexico City papers had front-page fun at the expense of ambassadorial dignity. There was even a reverberation in the magistrates court of faraway Brooklyn, where O'Dwyer used to be District Attorney. A trucker, who was hauled into court for calling a cop a bastard, found no sympathy from the bench. Said the judge: "Just because our Ambassador to Mexico used that word, it doesn't make it a good word, and anyone who uses that word is a hoodlum-the ambassador included...
...naming four of O'Dwyer's high police officials (all now retired) who had never been publicly accused in connection with the gambling scandal. Witness Gross testified that he had not only bribed Chief Inspector August W. Flath, Seventh Deputy Police Commissioner Frank C. Bals, onetime head of a special "mayor's squad," and Chief of Detectives William T. Whalen, but also former Police Commissioner William P. O'Brien, a man of whom O'Dwyer said in 1950: "I believe Bill O'Brien is as honest a man as I have ever known...