Ferdinand Pecora (January 6, 1882 – December 7, 1971) was an American
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...
and
New York State Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
who became famous in the 1930s as Chief Counsel to the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and po ...
Committee on Banking and Currency during its investigation of Wall Street banking and stock brokerage practices.
Early life
Ferdinand Pecora was born in
Nicosia
Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaori ...
,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, demographi ...
, the son of Louis Pecora and Rosa Messina, who
emigrated
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
to the United States in 1886. He grew up in
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its norther ...
. After briefly studying for the Episcopal ministry, Pecora attended St. Stephen's College (now
Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, ...
) and the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...
before he was forced to leave school when his father was injured in an industrial accident.
Career
After securing a job as a clerk in a Wall Street law firm, Pecora eventually attended
New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include ...
and became a member of the New York bar in 1911.
New York City public prosecution
Originally a Progressive Republican, he became a member of the Democratic Party and
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
in 1916. In 1918, he was appointed as an assistant
district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...
in New York City. Over the next twelve years, he earned a reputation in the city as an honest and talented prosecutor. Although he had little experience with Wall Street, he helped shut down more than 100
bucket shops.
In 1922, Pecora was named chief assistant district attorney, the number-two man in the office under the newly elected
Joab H. Banton
Joab Hamilton Banton (August 27, 1869 in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas – July 20, 1949) was New York County District Attorney from 1922 to 1929. (subscription required)
Early life and education
He was the son of Joab H. Banton, a judge in Wa ...
. In 1929, Banton chose Pecora as his heir apparent, but Tammany Hall refused to nominate him, fearing that the honest Pecora might bring prosecutions against its members. Pecora left the district attorney's office for private practice, where he remained until 1933.
Senate
Ferdinand Pecora was appointed chief counsel to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking and Currency in January 1933, in the last months of the
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...
presidency, by the committee's outgoing Republican chairman,
Peter Norbeck, and continued under Democratic chairman
Duncan Fletcher, following the 1932 election that swept
Franklin D. Roosevelt into the
U.S. presidency
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United ...
and gave the
Democratic Party control of the Senate.
The Senate committee hearings that Pecora led probed the causes of the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
that launched a major reform of the American financial system. Pecora, aided by
John T. Flynn
John Thomas Flynn (October 25, 1882 – April 13, 1964) was an American journalist best known for his opposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II. In September 1940, Flynn helped establish the America F ...
, a journalist, and
Max Lowenthal, a lawyer, personally undertook many of the interrogations during the hearings, including such
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...
personalities as
Richard Whitney, president of the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...
, George Whitney (a partner in
J.P. Morgan & Co.) and
investment bank
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
ers
Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas William Lamont Jr. (September 30, 1870 – February 2, 1948) was an American banker.
Early life
Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. His parents were Thomas Lamont, a Methodist minister, and Caroline Deuel Jayne. Since his father was ...
,
Otto H. Kahn,
Albert H. Wiggin
Albert Henry Wiggin (February 21, 1868 – May 21, 1951) was an American banker.
General Electric's Owen D. Young once described him as "the most colorful and attractive figure in the commercial banking world" of his time. Wiggin was the D ...
of
Chase National Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
, and
Charles E. Mitchell
Charles Edwin Mitchell (October 6, 1877 – December 14, 1955) was an American banker whose incautious securities policies facilitated the speculation which led to the Crash of 1929. First National City Bank's (now Citibank) abuses under his le ...
of National City Bank (now
Citibank
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
). Because of Pecora's work, the hearings soon acquired the popular name the
Pecora Commission
The Pecora Investigation was an inquiry begun on March 4, 1932, by the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The name refers to the fourth and final chief counsel for th ...
, and ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine featured Pecora on the cover of its June 12, 1933, issue.
Pecora's investigation unearthed evidence of irregular practices in the financial markets that benefited the rich at the expense of ordinary investors, including exposure of Morgan's "preferred list" by which the bank's influential friends (including
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Ma ...
, the former president, and
Owen J. Roberts, a justice of
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
) participated in stock offerings at steeply discounted rates. He also revealed that National City sold off bad loans to Latin American countries by packing them into securities and selling them to unsuspecting investors, that Wiggin had shorted Chase shares during the crash, profiting from falling prices, and that Mitchell and top officers at National City had received $2.4 million in interest-free loans from the bank's coffers.
Spurred by these revelations, the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
enacted the
Glass–Steagall Act, the
Securities Act of 1933
The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression and after ...
and the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (also called the Exchange Act, '34 Act, or 1934 Act) (, codified at et seq.) is a law governing the secondary trading of securities ( stocks, bonds, and debentures) in the United States of America. A land ...
. With the United States in the grips of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Pecora's investigations highlighted the contrast between the lives of millions of Americans in abject poverty and the lives of such financiers as
J.P. Morgan, Jr.; under Pecora's questioning, Morgan and many of his partners admitted that they had paid no income tax in 1931 and 1932; they explained their failure to pay taxes by reference to their losses in the stock market's decline.
SEC
After Pecora closed his investigations, on July 2, 1934, President Roosevelt appointed him a Commissioner of the newly formed
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
New York State Supreme Court
On January 21, 1935, Pecora resigned from the SEC (to be replaced by
James Delmage Ross
James Delmage Ross (November 9, 1872 – March 14, 1939) was the superintendent of lighting for Seattle for 28 years and was the first administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration. He was instrumental in developing the Cedar Falls and Skag ...
) and became a judge of the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
, a position he held until 1950, when he ran unsuccessfully against
Vincent R. Impellitteri
Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born Vincenzo Impellitteri; February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was an American politician and judge who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City, 1950–53. He was elected as a Democrat as president of the City ...
for Mayor of New York City.
On October 17, 1950, Judge Pecora and US Senator
Herbert H. Lehman
Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 1949 ...
(D-NY) gave radio addresses on behalf of the
CIO-PAC during prime (10:30-11:15 P.M.).
National Lawyers Guild
In 1937, Pecora was a founding member of the
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 19 ...
(NLG).
[
] On March 1, 1938, Pecora become NLG president, noted as a "forceful speaker." Pecora resigned from the NLG during its third annual convention in 1939 after the vote against his resolution disavowing communists failed to carry in the national vote.
[
]
Private practice
Returning to the practice of law, Pecora represented such major clients as Warner Bros. Pictures Distributing Corporation, ''et al''. as respondents before the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in the 1954 case, ''Theatre Enterprises v. Paramount'', 346 U.S. 537.
Personal life
Pecora and his wife, Florence Louise Waterman, married in 1910 and had one son. He died at the Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital
The Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital are a pair of historic buildings at 135 and 137 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The buildings house the Ottendorfer Branch of the ...
on December 7, 1971. He was 89.
Works
In 1939, Pecora wrote a book about the Senate investigations titled ''Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers'', which has been reprinted twice:
* ''Wall Street Under Oath: The Story of Our Modern Money Changers'' (1939)[
]
References
Further reading
*
*
There is a brief entry for Pecora in the ''Dictionary of American National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 1999).
External links
*Chernow, R
"Where Is Our Ferdinand Pecora?"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Retrieved on 2009-01-06.
*Lewis, Stephen
Investigating the Financial Crisis and My Passion for Borsalino Hats
recalling a personal encounter with Judge Pecora. Retrieved on 2009-01-09.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pecora, Ferdinand
1882 births
1971 deaths
United States Senate lawyers
People from Manhattan
Italian emigrants to the United States
New York (state) lawyers
New York Law School alumni
Members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
New York Supreme Court Justices
New York (state) Democrats
20th-century American judges
New York (state) Republicans
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration personnel
People from Nicosia, Sicily