Word: pecora
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...noisiest and dirtiest campaigns in decades, New York City elected the first independent mayor* in the history of its five boroughs: beaming, Sicilian-born Acting Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri, 50. His margin was almost a quarter of a million votes. Tammany Hall's hand-picked Judge Ferdinand Pecora was second, Republican Edward Corsi third...
With this assured, Tammany would have had only to aim its squat, greying Candidate Ferdinand Pecora in the right direction, let go of his ankles and watch him go bobbing off to glory. The Republican challenger, Edward Corsi, had a good Italian name too, and had gotten headlines for his welfare and labor work. But 68-year-old Justice Pecora was remembered as the fearless Government counsel of the senatorial investigation of Wall Street in 1933, which not only led to the Securities & Exchange Commission but produced a deathless picture of J.P. Morgan cuddling a midget...
Last week, as a result of Impy's unsporting conduct, the mayoralty campaign had become the noisiest, eye-gougingest free-for-all the city had witnessed for decades. (Said Columnist Walter Winchell: "The only dirty show in New York today is the election campaign.") Impy and Pecora stood toe to toe exchanging invective while Corsi-at whom each took occasional condescending swipes-belabored them both wildly from the rear...
During a fortnight of mudslinging, Pecora did his best to turn Democrats against Impy as 1) a turncoat who was simply in the race to split the vote for the G.O.P., and 2) a "cowardly" pretender with no talent for administration. When Impy said that he had spurned Tammany's offer of a $28,000 judgeship to stay out of the race, Pecora's backers lamely cried that just the opposite was true: that Impy had demanded four judgeships, one for himself and three for his friends...
...week he had the wit to jail hundreds of astoundingly puny hoodlums on the ground that they imperiled the sanctity of the polls. He announced that he had been forced to "take off the gloves." Tammany, he cried, was controlled, lock, stock & barrel, by Big Gambler Frank Costello, and Pecora was nothing but Costello's mouthpiece...