Record
Case file
1945-04-10
National Archives Catalog, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, President's Secretary's File, "Justice - Biddle, Francis, 1944-1945"
Attorney General Francis Biddle to President Roosevelt, 10 April 1945, on Joseph Schenck and the Bioff and Browne prosecutions
Recommending against a pardon for Joseph Schenck, the Attorney General writes that after Bioff and Browne were convicted "they testified for the Government against a group of Chicago racketeers," that Judge Knox modified their sentences, and that "they were recently released."
- Date
- 1945-04-10
- Kind
- case-file
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 16618903
- Rights
- A letter of the Attorney General of the United States to the President. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The National Archives catalog marks use "Unrestricted."
A letter in the President’s Secretary’s File folder “Justice - Biddle, Francis, 1944-1945” at the Roosevelt Library. The research for this archive read the catalog’s extracted text of the folder and checked the letter’s place in the folder PDF (pages 191–192 of 193). The folder PDF is 25 MB and is not stored here.
Biddle answers the President’s memorandum of April 4 about Nicholas M. Schenck’s letter of April 2 concerning his brother Joe. He writes that Joseph Schenck, convicted in the Southern District of New York for violation of the income tax laws, “made false answers under oath to inquiries about the notorious Willie Bioff and George E. Browne, part of the ring which was engaged in the extortion of large sums of money from high ranking executives of the moving picture world.” After his conviction, “Schenck told the United States Attorney’s Office the story about the extortion racket. Browne and Bioff were indicted, and the men, whose names Schenck had given, were used as witnesses against them. Schenck did not testify.” Schenck later pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced on May 2, 1942 to a year and a day.
The letter continues: “Assistant United States Attorney Kostelanetz, who had charge of the prosecution, stated that Schenck’s disclosure of the names of prospective witnesses had been responsible for the success of the prosecutions. After Bioff and Browne had been convicted they testified for the Government against a group of Chicago racketeers, subsequently convicted; and, as a result of their testifying, Judge Knox of the U. S. District Court of New York modified their sentence (he had kept the term open presumably for this purpose) and they were recently released.” Biddle recommends against a pardon.
The letter gives no release date beyond “recently,” and it names the judge only as “Judge Knox.” Nicholas Schenck’s covering letter of April 2, 1945 follows in the folder.