American judge (1882?1971)
Ferdinand Pecora
(January 6, 1882 ? December 7, 1971) was an American
lawyer
and
New York State Supreme Court
judge
who became famous in the 1930s as Chief Counsel to the
United States Senate
Committee on Banking and Currency during its investigation of Wall Street banking and stock brokerage practices.
Early life
[
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]
Ferdinand Pecora was born in
Nicosia
,
Sicily
, the son of Louis Pecora and Rosa Messina, who
emigrated
to the United States in 1886. He grew up in
Chelsea, Manhattan
. After briefly studying for the Episcopal ministry, Pecora attended St. Stephen's College (now
Bard College
) and the
City University of New York
before he was forced to leave school when his father was injured in an industrial accident.
Career
[
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]
After securing a job as a clerk in a Wall Street law firm, Pecora eventually attended
New York Law School
and became a member of the New York bar in 1911.
New York City public prosecution
[
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]
Originally a Progressive Republican, he became a member of the Democratic Party and
Tammany Hall
in 1916. In 1918, he was appointed as an assistant
district attorney
in New York City. Over the next twelve years, he earned a reputation in the city as an honest and talented prosecutor. Although he had little experience with Wall Street, he helped shut down more than 100
bucket shops
.
In 1922, Pecora was named chief assistant district attorney, the number-two man in the office under the newly elected
Joab H. Banton
. In 1929, Banton chose Pecora as his heir apparent, but Tammany Hall refused to nominate him, fearing that the honest Pecora might bring prosecutions against its members. Pecora left the district attorney's office for private practice, where he remained until 1933.
Senate
[
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Ferdinand Pecora was appointed chief counsel to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking and Currency in January 1933 to replace
Irving Ben Cooper
by the outgoing committee chairman, Republican
Peter Norbeck
.
[1]
He continued under Democratic chairman
Duncan Fletcher
, following the 1932 election that swept
Franklin D. Roosevelt
into the
U.S. presidency
and gave the
Democratic Party
control of the Senate.
[2]
In fact, following a meeting with Senator Fletcher in March 1933, President Roosevelt publicly gave Pecora carte blanche to go wherever his investigations might lead him.
[3]
The Senate committee hearings that Pecora led probed the causes of the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
that launched a major reform of the American financial system. Pecora, aided by
John T. Flynn
, a journalist, and
Max Lowenthal
, a lawyer, personally undertook many of the interrogations during the hearings, including such
Wall Street
personalities as
Richard Whitney
, president of the
New York Stock Exchange
, George Whitney (a partner in
J.P. Morgan & Co.
) and
investment bankers
Thomas W. Lamont
,
Otto H. Kahn
,
Albert H. Wiggin
of
Chase National Bank
, and
Charles E. Mitchell
of National City Bank (now
Citibank
). Because of Pecora's work, the hearings soon acquired the popular name the
Pecora Commission
, and
Time
magazine featured Pecora on the cover of its June 12, 1933, issue.
[4]
[5]
Pecora's investigation unearthed evidence of irregular practices in the financial markets that benefited the rich at the expense of ordinary investors, including exposure of Morgan's "preferred list" by which the bank's influential friends (including
Calvin Coolidge
, the former president, and
Owen J. Roberts
, a justice of
Supreme Court of the United States
) participated in stock offerings at steeply discounted rates. He also revealed that National City sold off bad loans to Latin American countries by packing them into securities and selling them to unsuspecting investors, that Wiggin had shorted Chase shares during the crash, profiting from falling prices, and that Mitchell and top officers at National City had received $2.4 million in interest-free loans from the bank's coffers.
Spurred by these revelations, the
United States Congress
enacted the
Glass?Steagall Act
, the
Securities Act of 1933
and the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
. With the United States in the grips of the
Great Depression
, Pecora's investigations highlighted the contrast between the lives of millions of Americans in abject poverty and the lives of such financiers as
J.P. Morgan, Jr.
; under Pecora's questioning, Morgan and many of his partners admitted that they had paid no income tax in 1931 and 1932; they explained their failure to pay taxes by reference to their losses in the stock market's decline.
After Pecora closed his investigations, on July 2, 1934, President Roosevelt appointed him a Commissioner of the newly formed
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC).
New York State Supreme Court
[
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]
On January 21, 1935, Pecora resigned from the SEC (to be replaced by
James Delmage Ross
)
[6]
and became a judge of the
New York Supreme Court
, a position he held until 1950, when he ran unsuccessfully against
Vincent R. Impellitteri
for Mayor of New York City.
On October 17, 1950, Judge Pecora and US Senator
Herbert H. Lehman
(D-NY) gave radio addresses on behalf of the
CIO-PAC
during prime (10:30-11:15 P.M.).
[7]
National Lawyers Guild
[
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]
In 1937, Pecora was a founding member of the
National Lawyers Guild
(NLG).
[8]
On March 1, 1938, Pecora become NLG president, noted as a "forceful speaker."
[9]
Pecora resigned from the NLG during its third annual convention in 1939 after the vote against his resolution disavowing communists failed to carry in the national vote.
[8]
Private practice
[
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]
Returning to the practice of law, Pecora represented such major clients as
Warner Bros. Pictures Distributing Corporation
,
et al
. as respondents before the
United States Supreme Court
in the 1954 case,
Theatre Enterprises v.
Paramount
, 346 U.S. 537.
Personal life
[
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]
Pecora and his wife, Florence Louise Waterman, married in 1910 and had one son. He died at the
Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital
on December 7, 1971. He was 89.
[10]
Works
[
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]
In 1939, Pecora wrote a book about the Senate investigations titled
Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers
, which has been reprinted twice:
- Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers
(1939)
[11]
References
[
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]
- ^
"Pecora Appointed for Stock Inquiry"
.
The New York Times
. January 25, 1933. p. 23
. Retrieved
March 3,
2023
– via Proquest.
- ^
"Financial Inquiry Slated to Continue"
.
The New York Times
. February 26, 1933. p. 9
. Retrieved
March 3,
2023
– via Proquest.
- ^
"President Upholds Banking Inquiry"
.
The New York Times
. March 14, 1933. p. 1
. Retrieved
March 3,
2023
– via Proquest.
- ^
Moyers, Bill.:
Pecora Part II?
, "
Bill Moyers Journal
", Retrieved April 25, 2009.
- ^
Cover of the Time magazine, June 12, 1933.
Accessed November 19, 2010.
- ^
"PWA POWER ADVISER IS APPOINTED TO SEC; Ross, Advocate of Government Ownership of Utilities, to Succeed Pecora"
.
The New York Times
. 1935-08-24.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
"CIO Political Action Committee 1950-10-17 [sound recording]"
. Library of Congress. 17 October 1950
. Retrieved
20 May
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"Pecora Part walks out"
. National Lawyers Guild. Archived from
the original
on 2012-03-27.
- ^
Harris & Ewing (1 March 1938).
"Forceful speaker: A new informal photograph of Justice Ferdinand Pecora of the New York Supreme Court, who was recently elected President of the National Lawyers Guild, 3/1/38 [graphic]"
.
Harris & Ewing Photograph Collection
(photograph).
LCCN
2016873097
. Retrieved
20 May
2020
.
- ^
"Ex?Justice Ferdinand Pecora, 89, Dead (Published 1971)"
.
The New York Times
. 1971-12-08.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2020-10-23
.
- ^
Pecora, Ferdinand
(1973).
Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers
. A.M. Kelley.
LCCN
73163850
. Retrieved
20 May
2020
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
There is a brief entry for Pecora in the
Dictionary of American National Biography
(Oxford University Press, 1999).
External links
[
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]
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