# Morgenthau Diaries, Volume 393: Treasury conference of April 30, 1941 on "the Nucky Johnson cases"

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-28276674-morgenthau-diaries-vol-393-1941-04-30/

In a Treasury staff conference, general counsel Edward Foley reports that two circuit judges have been sent into New Jersey to hold "a special criminal panel on the Nucky Johnson cases," and Herbert Gaston says Nucky "really thought that they just couldn't get him."

Volume 393 of the diaries of Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. holds typed transcripts of his staff meetings. The stored image is page 5 of the conference transcript (page 8 of the NARA PDF). The speakers are labelled "H.M.Jr." (Morgenthau), "Foley" (the general counsel, Edward Foley), "Gaston" and "Bell."

Foley says: "This may be ancient history to you, but our request that two Circuit Court of Appeals judges be sent into New Jersey to hold a special panel has been granted." He continues: "The Senior Circuit Judge and one of the associate judges who is really tough. They are going to hold a special criminal panel on the Nucky Johnson cases. They started yesterday." On the next page Gaston says "Biddle did it," and adds: "It is pretty doggoned important, because Nucky really thought that they just couldn't get him, that he could control those courts." Foley names Judge Biggs as "the Senior Circuit Judge in the Third Circuit" and a Judge Clarke as the other.

These are officials' remarks in a meeting, not findings. The transcript gives no first name for "Nucky Johnson." Judge Biggs wrote the Third Circuit's 1942 opinion in [United States v. Johnson](/items/courtlistener-us-v-johnson-129-f2d-954/). The PDF's OCR is rough; the quotations here were checked against the page images.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Papers, Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (National Archives): https://catalog.archives.gov/medialive/74/2766/28276674/content/presidential-libraries/roosevelt/FDR-MORGEN/589213/md0527.pdf