Justice for Sale: Graft, Greed, and a Crooked Federal Judge in 1930s Gotham

Summary

The never-before-told story of Martin T. Manton, a corrupt federal appeals court judge in New York who was convicted in 1939 and sent to prison. From his misconduct, to his co-conspirators, to the sensational prosecution and trial, this is the exhaustively researched account of a discovery that shocked the nation.

Martin T. Manton was a corrupt federal appeals court judge in New York who was convicted in 1939 and sent to prison. At the time, this was a hugely important story: Manton was considered the highest-ranking judge in the United States after the nine Justices of the Supreme Court and was nearly appointed to that august body in 1922. Yet his story has never been told in book-length form before, and never with the benefit of such exhaustive research.

More than just a biography, this book examines Manton’s misconduct in the context of the culture of corruption and organized crime that permeated New York City in the first part of the twentieth century. Dozens of others—prominent business executives, leading Wall Street lawyers, accountants, bankers, fixers, con men, another federal judge—participated in Manton’s crimes. The book profiles these unscrupulous and often colorful characters as well.

Manton and his corrupt schemes were finally brought down but not until Manhattan district attorney and future presidential candidate Thomas Dewey’s successful pursuit of Manton, a federal grand jury investigation, and a sensational prosecution and trial in federal court that shocked the nation.