MAIL FRAUD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 219, 28 June 1947, Page 5

MAIL FRAUD

BOSTON’S MAYOR GAOLED DRAMATIC APPEAL FOR MERCY (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) WASHINGTON, June 2G. Although asserting that he was being sent to his death, the Mayor of Boston, James Curley, was ordered to-day to serve six to 18 months' imprisonment for his part in a 60,000-dollar wartime mail fraud conspiracy. Curely, accompanied by a weeping group cf relatives and political henchmen, made a dramatic appeal for mercy in the Federal District Court, but Judge James Proctor brushed the appeal aside with the reminder that “justice is to all alike, to high and low, rich and poor.” Judge Proctor rejected medical evidence by which Curley’s lawyers sought to ‘show that the 72-year-old mayor was too old to survive a gaol term and said: Penal institutions are equipped to take care of that.” After the ruling Curley told Judge Proctor in a closed session: “You are inflicting a death sentence on me.” i Curely showed the court a petition for mercy signed by 100,000 Bostonians. He told the court he Avas the victim of “a professional confidence man” Avho had tricked him into lending his high prestige to a shady war contract procurement agency from which he had not profited one penny. He added that Boston elected him to his fourth term as mayor by a record majority even Avhile the indictment was hanging over him. He asked for time to complete certain city matters, but the judge said: “You can take them up with your keepers.”

Mayor Though in Gaol After his appeal failed, Curley’s lawyers told reporters that they Avould ask President Truman to intervene to save the mayor, from gaol. > Curley recently indicated that he would remain Mayor of Boston even while in gaol, but under Federal law he must relinquish the mayoralty for the duration of the sentence. He had twide unsuccessfully appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Curley had asked for the suspension of the sentence and for probation. The judge rejected the probation plea on the ground that it was Curley’s second conviction.

In 1903 Curley launched a meteoric political career which made him four times Mayor of Boston, three times a member of Congress and once Go\ rernor of Massachusetts. Curley A\ r as convicted in 1903 for taking the civil service examination on behalf of another man. While in gaol he campaigned for alderman and won Boston’s Irish voters by picturing himself as a Avarm-hearted man who perjured himself to obtain a job for a needy fellow citizen. f