Mabel Walker Willebrandt
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Mabel Walker Willebrandt (May 23, 1889-April 6, 1963), popularly known to her contemporaries as the "First Lady of Law", was the assistant U.S. Attorney General from 1921 to 1929, handling cases concerning violations of the Volstead Act, federal taxation and the bureau of federal prisons during Prohibition.
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[edit] Early career
Born in Woodsdale, Kansas, Willebrandt was an assistant public defender during her first years of her legal career working specifically with women charged with prostitution. Defending over 2,000 cases of prostitution, her efforts would change court procedure with presiding judges mandating the allowed testimony of both men and women.
During World War I, Willebrandt served as head of the Legal Advisory Board for draft cases in Los Angeles, California. After her tenure, Willebrandt was recommended by Senator Hiram Johnson as well as the entire member of the bench in southern California for the post of assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Warren G. Harding administration.
[edit] Prohibition
The second woman to receive an appointment to assistant Attorney General (as well as the first to serve an extended term), Willebrandt was officially appointed to the position in 1921. Among her duties, Willebrandt headed the division in the Justice department dealing with federal taxation, federal prisons and matters relating to the enforcement of the Volstead Act. Although a known opponent of Prohibition, Willebrandt not only aggressively upheld the Volstead Act but also later criticized the federal government's efforts to enforce the law in her book The Inside of Prohibition describing political interference, incompetent public officials and public indifference.
Willebrandt's insistence to other federal agencies to actively prosecute bootleggers, specifically the Prohibition Bureau and law enforcement agencies, were initially hampered by the skepticism of senior officials in the Justice and Treasury Departments who overlooked advice from the 32-year old woman.
Despite the unpopularity of the law, both among the general population and within the government, as well as the under funded Prohibition Bureau which resulting in bribery on a wide scale within the agency (indeed, many Prohibition agents were dismissed for corruption or resigned to go into bootlegging themselves), Willebrandt was not deterred in her efforts and instead focused on reviewing prosecution cases of U.S. attorneys’ concerning violations of the Volstead Act, whose authority did not extend to state and local law enforcement. Ranging cases from inefficient to obstructionist, Willebrandt actions earned her criticism among American attorneys throughout the United States dismissing several prosecutors, under US Attorney General Harlan Stone, hostile towards the prosecution of Volstead Act related cases.
During the early years of her administration, Willebrandt was successful in some of the biggest prosecutions during Prohibition including the 1923 prosecution of the Big Four of Savannah, reportedly the largest bootlegging ring in the US, as well as the bootlegging operations of Cincinnati bootlegger George Remus. By 1925, according to the annual report of the US Attorney General, Willebrandt's office had prosecuted 48,734 Prohibition related cases from June 1924 to June 1925, of which 39,072 resulted in conviction. In addition, Willebrandt submitted 278 cases of certiorari to the Supreme Court regarding the defense, clarification and enforcement of the Prohibition Amendment and the Volstead Act as well as arguing over 40 cases before the Supreme Court, one of the highest in the history of the American legal system, winning several victories in cases regarding the control of liquor sales on both American and foreign vessels.
Willebrandt both wrote extensively and gave public speeches to gain public support for the law, earning her the name "Prohibition Portia". She also argued for the federal prosecution of major bootleggers instead of speakeasies and others commenting was "...like trying to dry up the Atlantic Ocean with a blotter."
Among her efforts to enforce Prohibition, Willebrandt proposed the reallocation of federal judges to create more flexibly regarding prosecutions against Prohibition violations, the transfer of enforcement from the Treasury to Justice Department, better articulation and training for law enforcement personnel, longer sentencing for Prohibition violations and her recommendation of J. Edgar Hoover to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[edit] Later years
Resigning her post in 1929, Willebrandt noted the federal enforcement of Prohibition needed a serious commitment above federal funding and manpower. She would later become a counsel of California Fruit Industries, a major producer of grape concentrate which, ironically enough, was commonly transformed into a serviceable table wine.
[edit] Further reading
- Willebrandt, Mabel Walker. The Inside of Prohibition. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929.
[edit] References
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Updated Edition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-3016-2
