Thomas
Dewey was
born in Owosso, Michigan, on 24th March, 1902. After graduating from
Columbia University in 1925 he practised law in New York.
In 1933 Dewey he was appointed as the attorney of the southern district
of New York. Fiorello La Guardia, the
new mayor of New York, instructed Dewey to investigate Dutch
Schultz, a man he believed was behind a large amount of crime
in the city. When Schultz heard the news, he began making plans to
have Dewey assassinated. This worried other gang leaders as they knew
that this would only increase La Guardia's determination to wipe out
New York gangsterism. In October 1935, Louis
Lepke Buchalter, one of New York's main gang leaders, paid to
gangsters, Charlie Workman and Emmanuel Weiss to kill Schultz.
Over a four year period Dewey obtained 72 convictions out of 73 prosecutions
of leading criminals. Elected district attorney of New York County
in 1937, he became the Republican Party
candidate for governor and won the post in 1942.
In office he earned a reputation for efficiency and honesty and in
1944 he was chosen as presidential candidate against Franklin
D. Roosevelt. The election took place during the Second
World War and Dewey had an impossible task against a popular wartime
leader and was beaten by 25,602,505 to 12,006,278.
In 1948 Dewey was once again the Republican
Party parliamentary candidate and was expected to defeat the Democratic
Party candidate, Harry Truman. The
situation was confused by the decision of Henry
Wallace to stand for the Progressive
Party. Dewey played safe and waged a non-committal campaign designed
to avoid offending any segment of the electorate. This was probably
a mistake and Truman won by 24,105,812 to 21,970,065.
Dewey did not stand in 1952 and instead helped Dwight
Eisenhower to win the Republican Party
nomination and then the presidential election. At the end of his third
term as governor of New York in 1955, Dewey retired from politics
and returned to his law practice. Thomas Dewey died on 16th March,
1971.
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