David
Schine was
born on 11th September, 1927. His father was the owner of the Schine
Hotel Corporation. Educated at Harvard University he produced a six
pamphlet on the dangers of Communism that was distributed free to
those staying at his father's hotels. In the Definition
of Communism, Schine argued that the Communist
Party was guilty of "stealing words, such as freedom, security,
and equality from the Bible, and other good covenants to confuse issues,
and deceive the mind into ensnarement."
Schine was very friendly with the anti-communist lawyer, Roy
Cohn. In 1951 Joseph McCarthy appointed
Cohn as the chief counsel to the Government Committee on Operations
of the Senate. Soon afterwards, Cohn recruited Schine to become his
chief consultant.
For some time opponents of Joseph McCarthy
had been accumulating evidence concerning his homosexual relationships.
Rumours began to circulate that Schine and Roy
Cohn were having a sexual relationship. Although well-known by
political journalists, it did not become public until Hank Greenspun
published an article in the Las Vagas Sun in 25th October,
1952.
Joseph McCarthy considered a libel suit
against Greenspun but decided against it when he was told by his lawyers
that if the case went ahead he would have to take the witness stand
and answer questions about his sexuality. In an attempt to stop the
rumours circulating, McCarthy married his secretary, Jeannie Kerr.
Later the couple adopted a five-week old girl from the New York Foundling
Home.
In October, 1953, McCarthy began investigating communist infiltration
into the military. Attempts were made by McCarthy to discredit Robert
Stevens, the Secretary of the Army. The president, Dwight
Eisenhower, was furious and now realised that it was time to bring
an end to McCarthy's activities.
The United States Army retaliated by passing information about Joseph
McCarthy to journalists known to be opposed to him. This included
the news that Roy Cohn had abused congressional
privilege by trying to prevent Schine from being drafted. When that
failed, it was claimed that Cohn tried to pressurize the Army to grant
Schine special privileges. The well-known newspaper columnist, Drew
Pearson, published the story on 15th December, 1953.
After serving in the United States Army
Schine returned to the family business. He married a former Miss Sweden
and became involved in show business. As well as acting in Batman
(1966) he produced two movies, The French
Connection (1971) and That's Action
(1977).
On 19th June, 1996, David Schine, his wife and son perished in an
air-crash in California. The single-engine plane, piloted by Schine's
son, crashed shortly after taking off from Burbank Airport.
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