James M. Ragen, Jr.
Named general manager of Continental Press in 1940, according to 1950 testimony; convicted in the Consensus Publishing tax case in 1940, a conviction reversed on appeal; sold his interest in Continental to Edward J. McBride in 1947.
- Aliases
- Ragen, Jr., Junior Ragen
- Role
- General manager of Continental Press from 1940, by the testimony of Thomas F. Kelly (Kefauver Part 5, 18 October 1950).
- Source
- Kefauver Committee, Part 5: testimony of Thomas F. Kelly (18 October 1950), via Internet Archive
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited records state. Testimony and staff exhibits are labelled as such; they are not findings.
On the record
- 1940 — Thomas F. Kelly testified that Arthur McBride "announced that James Ragen, Jr., was the general manager of Continental Press" (Kefauver Part 5, 18 October 1950).
- 12 September 1940 — Convicted with four others in the Consensus Publishing tax case; the Seventh Circuit reversed on 26 February 1941 (United States v. Molasky, 1941).
- 1942 — The Supreme Court notes that the Government did not seek review of the reversal of his conviction (United States v. Ragen, 1942, footnote 4).
- 1942 — Kelly testified that Arthur McBride sold his interest to "Junior Ragen"; counsel stated the date as 1942. The staff's Annex A to Exhibit 40 records the sale with a garbled year (Kefauver Part 5).
- May 1947 — Edward J. McBride testified that he paid $130,000 to "young Ragen, Jr." over ten years for his share, with a separate noncompetition contract (Kefauver Part 5, 7 October 1950); Annex A lists the purchase "from James M. Ragen, Jr." (staff exhibit).
The role line is taken from Thomas F. Kelly’s testimony. Ownership dates come from the committee staff’s Annex A to Exhibit 40, several of whose years are garbled in the OCR; only the legible entries are used.
Records
itemKefauver Part 5: testimony of Thomas F. Kelly, general manager of Continental Press (18 October 1950), pp. 691-699Continental's general manager told the committee how he worked for James Ragen and Moses Annenberg's news bureaus, how in 1939 Annenberg "was going to give up the news business," and how Arthur McBride took the business over with most of Annenberg's staff.itemUnited States v. Molasky, 118 F.2d 128 (7th Cir. 1941)Seventh Circuit decision of 26 February 1941 reversing the tax-evasion convictions of William Molasky, the two James Ragens and the two Kruses in the Consensus Publishing Co. case, on an indictment of 22 August 1939 that had also named Moses L. Annenberg.itemUnited States v. Ragen, 314 U.S. 513 (1942)Supreme Court decision of 5 January 1942 reinstating the tax-evasion convictions of James Ragen, Sr. and Arnold and Lester Kruse in the Consensus Publishing Co. case, and describing Moses Annenberg as "the dominant figure" in several horse-race betting enterprises.itemKefauver Part 5: testimony of Edward J. McBride, owner of Continental Press (7 October 1950), pp. 437-447A 26-year-old law student testified "I own the Continental Press Service," that his uncle Tom Kelly ran it as general manager, and that he had bought it in stages from the Ragens.itemKefauver Part 5, Exhibit 40: staff summary of evidence on Continental Press, with Annex A ownership dates (December 1950)A committee staff memorandum, printed at pp. 1386-1390 of the Part 5 appendix, on how Continental was formed after Annenberg left the wire business in 1939, its distributors, the 1946-47 contest with Trans-America, and a dated list of its changes of ownership.itemKefauver Part 5, Exhibit 43: chronology of the wire service since 1945 (December 1950)A committee table, printed at pp. 1391-1394 of the Part 5 appendix, tracking Continental, Trans-America, Midwest, Illinois Sports News and the Chicago scratch sheets from July 1945 to June 1950.