Word: maestri
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...driver's seat now sits squat, swarthy Robert Sidney Maestri, Mayor of New Orleans. Grandson of an Italian immigrant, Maestri is one of the richest men in Louisiana. His father made a fortune selling furniture to the love-for-sale ladies in the cribs of the Vieux Carré. When the cribs were raided, old man Maestri repossessed the furniture, sold it over & over. Bob Maestri put his inheritance in real estate...
When death cut short the boisterous career of Huey Long, Maestri (who backed him long before he became the Kingfish) was his Commissioner of Conservation. New Orleans, the last rampart which held out against Huey's domination, gave up a few months later. Big-beaked Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley (known to Huey as old Turkey Head) resigned, and burly Governor Richard Webster Leche (rhymes with flesh) certified Candidate Bob Maestri to the job. Normally, Maestri would have come up for reelection in 1938. But Leche talked the Louisiana Legislature into giving Maestri a six-year term...
...National Guard in World War I. Then he hunted for oil in Texas - and found it, near Wichita Falls. He found more in Oklahoma and in California. In Louisiana he struck it really rich because he found not only plenty of oil around New Iberia but also Robert Maestri, cagey political boss of New Orleans...
...loneliest men in Louisiana last week was New Orleans' Mayor Robert Sidney Maestri. Gone were most of his henchmen, gone were most of his pals. Some 200 had been indicted by U. S. and Parish (County) Grand Juries, charged with sundry tricks of fraud, graft, income-tax evasion. Three had killed themselves. In U. S. courts five had pleaded guilty, five more had been tried and convicted. Among the head men of the Maestri machine (which once was Huey Long's), only Maestri himself and Huey's loud little brother, Governor Earl Long, were left untouched...
With the hard acumen which made him a multimillionaire, Bob Maestri still ran New Orleans last week, and what was left of his State organization. And Louisianans still wondered how long he would be immune. Assistant U. S. Attorney General Oetje John Rogge had his eye on Mr. Maestri and his sources of income. In addition to being the biggest realty owner in New Orleans, Boss Maestri was a part owner of an oil company. From July 1935 to August 1936, Mr. Maestri was also the State official in charge of regulating Louisiana oil production. One of his imprisoned henchmen...