Big Apple History . Business and Politics . Tammany Corruption

Tammany Hall, a long-standing Democratic political organization, controlled New York City government in the first years of the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, governor of New York State during the worst years of the Great Depression, 1932-33, gave money to the city to help those in need. However, these relief dollars didn't often reach the poor because corrupt city officials associated with Tammany Hall used the money for their own purposes.

This kind of corruption, compounded by economic crisis, led the city to borrow heavily from private banks. As the city's debt mounted the lenders dictated began dictating that the city must cut spending on public aid and public works programs and must lay off workers if it wanted to stay afloat. These harsh measures were being implemented at a time when joblessness was reaching its peak and the people of New York needed governmental aid more than ever.


Mayor James Walker shakes hands with a police officer.

The mayor of the city at this time was the charming James T. Walker, a former vaudeville performer and songwriter, who came to work at noon and left at three. Not only did he lack a work ethic, he was the wormiest apple on the rotten tree of city government. Then Governor Franklin Roosevelt, who was by 1930 planning to run for the presidency, wished to disassociate himself from Tammany Hall and the Walker government. He appointed the honorable and reform-minded judge, Samuel Seabury, to investigate corruption in Walker's administration.

Through his investigations, Seabury was able to connect the Walker government to a form of vice racketeering, an illegal scheme to profit from prostitution. He discovered a scam in which the police arrested prostitutes in order to get them to pay to be let go. The vice racketeering policemen also arrested innocent women who had broken no law and threatened to "expose" them as prostitutes unless they paid off the police.

Seabury presented evidence in court that Walker had accepted nearly one million dollars in kickbacks. Walker was such a charming man that Seabury had been advised before entering the courtroom not to look Walker in the eye, in case the eye contact weakened Seabury's resolve and softened up his attack on Tammany corruption. The trial convinced everyone that Walker was guilty but there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. Roosevelt forced Walker out of office. On September 1, 1932, Walker proclaimed his innocence and sailed off to Europe to join his mistress.