Vincent Luke Palmisano (August 5, 1882 – after January 12, 1953) was an American politician from

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. Born as Vincenzo Palmisano in

Termini Imerese Termini Imerese (; scn, Tèrmini ) , grc, Θερμαὶ αἱ Ἱμερᾶαι , grc, Θερμαὶ Ἱμέραι , or grc, Θερμὰ (Ἱμεραῖα) ; la, Thermae Himerenses; literally "Himera's hot springs". is a town of the Metropo ...

, Palermo in the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

, to Cosimo Palmisano and Anna Maria Sansone Chiariano. Palmisano emigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled in

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in 1887. He attended parochial schools and studied law at the

University of Maryland, Baltimore The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1807, it comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1909 and commenced practice in Baltimore. Palmisano served as a member of the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

in 1914 and 1915, as a member of the Baltimore City Council from 1915 to 1923, as a member of the Democratic State central committee of Baltimore from 1923 to 1927, and as police examiner of Baltimore from 1925-1927. In 1926, he was elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth and to the five succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1927 to January 3, 1939. His re-election in 1928 was very close, winning by only 330 votes and was contested. While the committee report recommended that Palmisano was not elected due to irregularities in one precinct ("No attempt whatever was made by the election board to follow the law as to counting, recording, or certifying the vote in this precinct") and questions about his residency, the report was never acted on by the House. In Congress, Palmisano served as chairman of the Committee on Education (Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth Congresses), and as a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia (Seventy-fifth Congress). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1938. After his tenure in Congress, Palmisano resumed the practice of law and served on the Baltimore Zoning Board until his resignation in 1952. Palmisano had been in ill health after an emergency appendectomy in the summer of 1952. He disappeared from his home on January 12, 1953, and his gloves were soon discovered at a pier along the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Suspecting suicide, the police and

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dragged the frigid waters of the harbor in search of his remains. On March 5, 1953, a body was recovered from the harbor and confirmed to be Palmisano by his landlady. He is interred in the New Cathedral Cemetery of Baltimore.

References

* * "Palmisano's Body Found At Baltimore". ''

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''. March 6, 1953. Page 28. {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmisano, Vincent Luke 1882 births 1953 suicides Italian emigrants to the United States Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates Maryland lawyers University of Maryland, Baltimore alumni American politicians who committed suicide Italian-American culture in Baltimore Suicides by drowning in the United States Suicides in Maryland Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland 20th-century American lawyers Baltimore City Council members 20th-century American politicians American people of Italian descent