ABSTRACT

The consequences of the politicization of organized crime and criminality were overwhelmingly evident in the fall of 1933. The evidence uncovered by Blanshard stimulated a number of civic organizations including the Society for the Prevention of Crime led by the Reverend George Drew Egbert, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Flushing, New York, to initiate another drive against organized crime. It signified that reform– minded New Yorkers had availed themselves of an effective method in combating organized crime and criminality—supersession, although in this instance it was employed as a threat to force a special prosecutor upon the incumbent District Attorney. The most spectacular single accomplishment during Dewey’s tenure as special prosecutor is the prosecution of Luciano for compulsory prostitution. The irony is that the most effective form of special prosecuting tends to lead the reformers into the traditional web of city politics where civic virtue is continuously assaulted.