Background
Frank Smithwick Hogan was born on January 17, 1902 in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Michael F. Hogan, an Irish immigrant who worked in a watch factory, and Anne Smithwick.
Frank Smithwick Hogan was born on January 17, 1902 in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Michael F. Hogan, an Irish immigrant who worked in a watch factory, and Anne Smithwick.
Hogan entered Columbia College in 1920 and helped to pay for his education with summer jobs, including those of encyclopedia salesman and Pullman porter. He received a bachelor's degree in 1924, and four years later he graduated from the Columbia Law School. "I never liked law school, " he later recalled. "The law didn't excite me at all. " He even failed a course in criminal law.
In 1928 Hogan joined a law firm in Manhattan's financial district, but soon left to start his own practice, specializing in insurance and real estate law. In 1935 he changed course and joined the staff of Thomas E. Dewey, who had been appointed a special prosecutor to investigate organized crime. Dewey became famous for successfully prosecuting the notorious mobster Charles ("Lucky") Luciano on racketeering charges and the Democratic party leader, James Hines, for conspiracy to conduct a lottery. Dewey subsequently was elected Manhattan district attorney, and Hogan remained on his staff.
When Dewey ran for governor in 1941, Hogan was the only Democrat among four assistants he listed as qualified to succeed him. After gaining the support of the powerful Tammany Hall Democratic organization, Hogan was endorsed by all the major parties and elected district attorney at the age of thirty-nine. As district attorney, Hogan followed Dewey's innovative approach to prosecution. Bureaus that dealt with special areas such as fraud and organized crime were charged with investigating crimes and developing cases, rather than merely waiting for the police to take the initiative.
The Hogan office, as it was generally called, soon became a national model of aggressive, nonpartisan prosecution. Hogan's rackets bureau became particularly well known. Its targets included such prominent gangsters as Joseph ("Socks") Lanza, Frank Erickson, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello. Wiretaps requested by Hogan's office and approved by New York State judges "gave a vivid picture of [Costello] as a political boss and an underworld emperor, " according to a report by Senator Estes Kefauver's Select Senate Committee on organized crime. Such eavesdropping made it clear that Costello's financial contributions had won him significant influence with Tammany Hall, Hogan's political ally. Other taps obtained by Hogan's office established links between Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa and Midwestern mobsters.
The office also handled the college basketball point-shaving scandal in the early 1950s, the television quiz-shows scandal, and numerous celebrated murder cases. Although Hogan appeared in court occasionally at the beginning of his career, for most of his thirty-two years as district attorney he was almost entirely an administrator. He stressed to his assistants the importance of making certain that a case was supported by solid evidence before bringing it to court. To some, this quasijudicial posture seemed prudent; others derided it as overly cautious.
Although he was often referred to as the "New York district attorney, " Hogan only had jurisdiction over New York County, which is Manhattan. But that island generated sufficient crime to occupy hundreds of assistant district attorneys, investigators, and clerks--the largest nonfederal prosecutor's office in the nation. In 1958 Hogan ran for the U. S. Senate from New York, securing the Democratic nomination with the help of Tammany Hall leader Carmine DeSapio. Although Hogan's personal integrity was not an issue, his old links to the corrupt machine hurt him in upstate New York, and Republican Kenneth B. Keating won the general election.
Some of Hogan's prosecutions were controversial, including the obscenity case he brought against comedian Lenny Bruce in 1964. The conviction was later reversed by an appeals court that held that Bruce's nightclub material was not without social importance. In 1968 Hogan, a proud alumnus of Columbia and a leader in alumni affairs, insisted on prosecuting hundreds of students involved in protests at the university, even though his alma mater had dropped its complaints against most of them. The darkest shadow on Hogan's record fell toward the end of his tenure, when the Knapp Commission exposed systematic corruption in the New York City Police Department. The commission blamed local prosecutors, including Hogan, for a lack of initiative and recommended the appointment of a special prosecutor for police corruption. Despite evidence that corruption had in fact been allowed to flourish, Hogan condemned the special prosecutor's appointment: "It is unwarranted. It is unfair. It is unnecessary. "
In an effort to clear his office's reputation, Hogan ran for his ninth term in 1973, even though he had suffered a stroke that summer and had undergone surgery for removal of a lung tumor. He faced a serious opponent for the first time in years, William vanden Heuvel. In the Democratic primary, vanden Heuvel acknowledged that Hogan had been a great prosecutor but claimed his time had passed. The voters did not agree; even though illness had forced Hogan to turn the administration of his office over to aides, he was reelected by a two-to-one margin. The returns, a jubilant Hogan told supporters on election night, vindicated his office. It was Hogan's last hurrah. He never returned to work after the stroke and finally resigned as district attorney on the day after Christmas, seven weeks after his reelection. He died in New York City.
Hogan is remembered as a notable politician and lawyer. Known as "Mr. Integrity" or "Attorney For The People, " Hogan served as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New York for five terms, and Candidate for United States Senator from New York. Also a noted lawyer, he was a Member of the American Bar Association, and later served as the District Attorney for Manhattan. The street address of the main office of the New York County District Attorney is One Hogan Place in his honor. Hogan Hall, a dormitory at Columbia University, is also named for him. The New York Times obituary calls Hogan "a kind of conscience of his city and a monument of his profession. "
Hogan was a Roman Catholic.
Hogan was a member of the Democratic Party.
Hogan was a shy, courteous man who lived simply with his wife in a four-room apartment on Riverside Drive on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Hogan almost always ate lunch at his desk and almost always ate the same thing: a chicken salad sandwich, followed by an apple. On Fridays, Hogan substituted fish for chicken.
Hogan was married to Mary Egan; the couple had no children.
