Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Thomas E. Dewey

Lawyer listed of counsel for the United States, under United States Attorney George Z. Medalie, in the 1933 income-tax prosecution of a defendant named Wexler in the Southern District of New York. A 1946 FBI teletype records that as Governor of New York he granted Charles Luciano parole on January 3, 1946, on condition of release to immigration custody.

Role
Of counsel for the United States in United States v. Wexler, Southern District of New York, 1933 (court record)
Source
United States v. Wexler, 6 F. Supp. 258 (S.D.N.Y. 1933)
Rights
Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.

On the record

  • 1933-07-17 — United States v. Wexler, 6 F. Supp. 258 (court record): "George Z. Medalie, U. S. Atty., of New York City (Thomas E. Dewey, Murray I. Gurfein, and Joseph E. Sharp, all of New York City, of counsel), for the United States." The trial was set for August 7, 1933.
  • 1946-01-03 — An FBI New York teletype of February 25, 1946 states: "GOVERNOR DEWEY, GRANTED PAROLE JAN THREE, FORTYSIX," to Charles Luciano, on condition that he be released to immigration custody and removed to Ellis Island (FBI teletype; the state papers were not opened).

This page records Dewey only as the filed records show him: as a government lawyer in a 1933 federal tax prosecution and, in an FBI teletype, as the governor who acted on Luciano’s sentence. The role line quotes the court record’s counsel listing.

His work as a state prosecutor in New York County, including the 1936 prosecution of Luciano, is a state matter. It belongs on this page only when a state court record that states it is filed and quoted here. The FBI’s Palace Chop House artifact page gives an account of what organized-crime leaders were said to have decided about him; that account is the FBI’s narrative and is not repeated here.

Records

itemUnited States v. Wexler, 6 F. Supp. 258 (S.D.N.Y. 1933)District Court opinion of July 17, 1933 denying a defendant named Wexler a bill of particulars before his income-tax trial, set for August 7, 1933. Thomas E. Dewey is listed of counsel for the United States.itemFBI New York teletypes on Luciano's custody and departure (February 25 to 27, 1946)Urgent teletypes from the FBI's New York office to the Director, February 1946: Luciano's 1936 conviction, Governor Dewey's grant of parole on January 3, 1946 on condition of release to immigration custody, his removal to Ellis Island, and the immigration service's account of his boarding the SS Laura Keene on February 8, 1946.