Word: finneganisms
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Long before Jim Finnegan moved into the headlines as a friend of Bill Boyle's, St. Louis knew him for a lawyer-politico with a bright-hued future. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt appointed him U.S. Collector of Internal Revenue in St. Louis. In the Truman era, Finnegan-an old and close friend of Harry Truman's-took more round trips to Washington than any other Democrat in town. He was talked about as possible mayor of St. Louis, federal judge or even U.S. Senator from Missouri...
Last week a St. Louis federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Jim Finnegan. He was charged with twice accepting bribes from a company that had a tax case pending in his office. And he faced three other counts of taking fees for representing private clients (including the notorious American Lithofold Corp.-TIME, Oct. 1) before Government agencies while he was getting a full-time Government salary...
There was a second Bill Boyle banquet in Kansas City. The President, the Vice President, four Cabinet members and most party bigwigs, including Jim Finnegan, were all there too. So was Kansas City Gangster Charlie Binaggio (who was riddled by bullets seven months later in a Kansas City Democratic clubhouse). Another expansive guest was American Lithofold's ubiquitous Robert J. Blauner. He paid for a whole table. It cost him, he told the Senate committee, "a thousand or twelve hundred dollars-I don't remember...
...Finnegan earn his money? Blauner testified that Finnegan was "a well-met fellow and I thought he could do us some good . . ." Finnegan's services included introducing Blauner to other Democratic politicians who then went on the Lithofold payroll. One of these was Cecil A. Green, onetime garbage collector, onetime saloonkeeper and a Missourian who had done some work for Democratic Chairman Bill Boyle. Green forthwith became Lithofold's Washington representative, at $10,000 a year...
Explained Finnegan: "I thought he knew the folks ... I would say to you that he did know Mr. Boyle, and he knew a lot of other folks around here because Missouri was starting to come into its own ... I will say to you that Green has been around here about eleven years and he knew a lot of folks, and so I ... recommended him. Anybody who has been in Washington for eleven years who doesn't know folks, why then, he should not be in Washington that long...