Part 1: The Early Years and WW II Service
Chapter1. Introduction: An Overview
Few people alive today know about Eliot Howland Lumbard or the names of those of his associates who worked with him to establish an academic field that is now taught in thousands of colleges and universities throughout the world and a number of other substantial projects concerned with the administration of justice. He never became a judge, elected official, police commissioner, or college president. Nonetheless, in the latter half of the 20th century, he was particularly active and received substantial notoriety for his crime control programs during the late fifties, the sixties and early seventies. Moreover, his achievements are all the more remarkable because his formative years showed little indication of his future pursuits in the fields of justice administration and policy formation. It is an unfortunate fact that Lumbard's official appearance on this stage was so brief since many of his areas of concern still plague our system of justice. This chapter traces significant American historical and political events leading-up to the period oftin1e when Lumbard took center stage pursuing New York's criminal justice policy-making during the mid-1960s. An overview of Lumbard's career is presented as well as brief sketches of earlier reformers, including Asser Levy, Rev. Charles Henry Parkhurst, and August Vollmer.
Chapter 2.Growing-Up in Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Lumbard grew up during the late twenties and thirties. It was the era of the Great Depression, but Eliot's dad was able to earn a living as a foreman in nearby factories. It was also the age before television when radio listening was a major pastime. His hometown of Fairhaven is located in a waterfront area surrounded by small inlets and river coves with outlets to the sea, the perfect landings for the fast motor-crafts favored and used by rumrunners and bootleggers in the era of Prohibition which ended in 1933. Lumbard's family owned a 25 foot catboat whose distinguishing feature is an enorn1ous sail that is attached to a high mast in the bow of the boat. During his legal career, and towards the end of his life, seafaring and maritime law was to play major roles in his life. His brother Roger, five years older than Eliot, was an avid sailor, but at age 17 died in an accident in a laboratory at the New Bedford Textile School while engaged in a chemistry experiment. This event traumatized Lumbard's mother and was a severe blow for young Eliot who idolized his brother. The brothers had a passion for making model boats, that would be mounted and displayed cut lengthwise and Eliot had an early love for boyhood adventure books which he shared with other children in his neighborhood by organizing his own lending library.
The chapter includes information about Eliot's ancestor John Howland. The latter was a distant relative on his mother's side who was born about 1599 and came on the Mayflower in 1620 as an indentured manservant of John Carver, Plymouth Colony's first elected governor. Eliot's mother was interested in genealogy and named her youngest son after John Alden and bestowed the nan1e "Howland" as Eliot's middle name. Other topics covered include details concerning the beautiful architecture of Fairhaven's high school and library. These splendid public facilities came into being due to Henry Huttleston Rogers, the town's wealthiest and most illustrious citizen and benefactor who made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil. Such surroundings may have contributed to Lumbard's desire to become a published author.
Chapter 3. Merchant Marine Officer Training
This chapter provides an overview of merchant marine officer training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, during peacetime and wartime as well as the nature of the emergency shipbuilding program that was established during World War II. It highlights Lumbard's experience as a cadet in the abbreviated wartime Academy program. Discussion also centers on various historical points related to the period such as: the importance of "Liberty ships;" the significance of the Morro Castle disaster in 1934; the litigation involving whether active merchant marine service during the period December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945 qualified U.S. merchant seamen for the purposes of benefits administered by the Veterans Administration (VA); as well as the nature of the Seamen's Act of 1915,abolishing imprisonment for desertion on American ships anywhere at sea. The law required the U.S. to abrogate treaties that allowed the practice and helped drive up wages around the globe, leading foreign ship owners to pay American pay scales to replace crews that quit in U.S. ports.
Chapter 4. Midshipman and Merchant Marine Ship's Officer
In this chapter the various voyages undertaken, usually in convoys, by Lumbard as part of his midshipman training are narrated. His first training cruise assignment was undertaken in
early October 1943 when he reported to the United States Army Transport (USAT) Thomas H
Barry, the former Oriente, the sister ship of the Morro Castle. This chapter also includes information about how Lumbard earned his Second Mate's rating while his ship was anchored off the city of Seattle and various facts about the history of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (located at Kings Point, NY); for example, that it is the only institution among the nation's five federal service academies to be authorized to carry a "Battle Standard Pennant" as part of its color guard. The "Battle Standard" perpetuates the memory of the 142 Cadet-Midshipmen who died during World War II. Kings Point is the only federal academy that sent its students into "harm's way" during their training.
Chapter 5. Pursuit of Higher Education and Family Life
Lumbard had available very limited funds to pay for his educational expenses at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia. He took on a variety of odd jobs to pay his expenses and condensed his studies into three years. At Penn, he joined a fraternity and washed the dishes for sixty frat brothers at lunch and dinner in exchange for his room and board. While an undergraduate student, Lumbard also sold life insurance, became a professional blood donor, modeled for Army recruiting posters, sold fme upholstery, and supervised college parking lots. He even agreed to participate in a drug texting arrangement in exchange for medical care. At that time, merchant marine veterans did not qualify under the Gl Bill for any benefits. At the same time, Lumbard's personality made him quite popular on campus and he was elected president of his freshman class.
Part II: Criminal Justice Public Service
Chapter 6. Federal Prosecutor
The chapter provides initial details regarding the start of the nuclear age and the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy to root out Communists in the U.S. Government. In this atmosphere, Lumbard undertook the role of an assistant federal prosecutor in order to obtain direct experience about America's criminal justice system and to gain invaluable preparation for the private practice of law. However, he had to first learn if he had passed the tests for admission to the New York State Bar. It was to be the first in a series of public service appointments involving the administration of justice. He gained immense experience over a three year period working on cases under federal Jaw concerning: veterans reemployment rights claims; Social Security benefits; the Water Pollution Act; taxes (e.g., IRS, Alcohol Tax Unit); U.S. Customs Service seizures (including obscene articles); seizures by the Bureau of Narcotics; the Gold Reserve Act of 1934; and various government contracts.
Chapter 7. Chief Counsel
Established from 1958 to 2009, the Temporary State Commission of Investigation has served as a bipartisan fact-finding agency, investigating and reporting on organized crime and racketeering, the conduct of public officers and other matters affecting public peace, safety and justice. The Commission initially had four commissioners and its main office was in New York City. Its existence was made contingent on periodic state legislative renewals (typically, for three years), hence the use of term "temporary" in its official title. The occurrence of earlier crime investigations and the details surrounding the discovery of the Appalachian, NY meeting of organized crime bosses are examined. In addition, reference is made to the work of the U.S. Senate's Kefauver Committee which traveled to fourteen cities during 1950 and 1951, compiling voluminous amounts of testimony. Lumbard was appointed the Commission's first chief counsel and he played a large role in establishing the staff of the Commission and organizing its first office as well as developing its earliest cases.?
Chapter 8. The Governor's Representative: Part One
In this chapter Lumbard's efforts to develop a more efficient system of factual interchange among the various stakeholders concerned with crime control issues is addressed.
The School of Criminal Justice at the University of Albany did this through the development of a graduate level curriculum (known as the "Albany Model") as well as the subsequent research produced by its faculty and alumni. While on Rockefeller's staff, Lumbard proposed the creation of a School of Criminal Justice, eventually established at the State University of New York in Albany. He brought the major stakeholders together in this endeavor and shepherded their efforts to bring it into being. The day to day struggles to create the first dedicated doctoral level program in the field of criminal justice is unraveled, demonstrating how Lumbard was involved in every aspect of the planning for the creation of the school. Ultimately, its creation paved the way for the field of criminal justice to be recognized as a stand-alone academic discipline, rather than merely as a subdivision of criminology or public administration. In addition, Lumbard also led the effort for the establishment of the New York State Identification and Intelligence System (NYSIIS), including meeting with experts on the West Coast. NYSIIS soon became a model for how best to use computer technology for sharing information about criminal histories and activities. NYSIIS brought law enforcement information sharing into the computer "age. His efforts to create both institutions are considered in detail.
Chapter 9. The Governor's Representative: Part Two
This chapter explores the events surrounding and the discussions which took place when Lumbard convened and chaired meetings of the Oyster Bay Conferences on Organized Crime. The meetings were of such importance to national security that a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative quietly observed the proceedings. The day to day and behind the scenes activities of Lumbard are explored as he continues to expand upon his initial job mandate and how soon he became recognized as the governor's primary representative and advisor for crime control matters. Emphasis focuses on Lumbard's fan1iliarity with the issues concerning
organized crime enforcement and his initiation and coordination of the series of meetings known as the "Oyster Bay Organized Crime Conferences." There were a total of six Oyster Bay
conferences. The Sixth Conference was organized by the new School of Criminal Justice at Albany after Lumbard had been forced out of the Rockefeller Administration. The conferences held at Oyster Bay in Long Island, New York, contributed to the formation of a federal task force on organized crime in President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. The chapter concludes with a section about the task force and provides some of the facts surrounding Lumbard's departure from his "part-time position" as the Governor's Speci.al Assistant Counsel for Law Enforcement. The period is the spring of 1967 and Lun1bard's leave-- taking was decidedly unceremonious.
Part III: Post-Executive Chamber Pursuits
Chapter 10. A Crime Control Book Project
In the turbulent sixties, crime seemed to be on everyone's minds. This was especially true of President Lyndon Johnson. One of President Johnson's earliest initiatives concerned crime and his singular achievement was the establishment of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (often referred to simply as "the President's Crime Commission"). Lumbard was well aware of the work of the Commission, having been appointed to one of its task forces while stiJI working in Rockefeller's Administration. This chapter highlights the steps undertaken by Lumbard to comply with edits of his publisher and when the process dragged and deadlines passed by, the inevitable happened. His efforts were found wanting and ultimately his various efforts to find an alternative publisher were stymied. The give and take of these efforts is chronicled including the critiques he received from various editors, especially the editor in chief at Harper & Row, Evan Thomas. The chapter also concludes the narrative of why Lumbard resigned his position in the Rockefeller Administration. He had no choice since he was told to do so by Rockefeller's chief counsel, Robert (Bobby) Douglass, who was acting on behalf of Governor Rockefeller. Additionally, some attention is given to the main reason why Lumbard's idea for a Department of Crime Control failed to be approved by the State of New York's 1967 Constitutional Convention.
Chapter 11. The New York City Police Foundation
In a variety of ways, the origins of the independent New York City Police Foundation, Inc. (NYCPF) are rooted in the history of policing. In the U.S., policing during the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth was, at times, particularly corrupt and it was not uncommon to discover that many local governments were steeped in illegal activities. Payoffs for police to look the other way were a matter of routine. In New York City, it became necessary to establish the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp). It was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department. Community support for policing was thrown into tatters by the revelations of the Knapp Commission's sensational hearings. Lumbard's concern and his working knowledge of police conuption gained while serving as chief counsel for the State Investigation Commission inspired him to undertake the necessary steps to create the NYCPF and to achieve its incorporation as a non-profit organization in New York State by November 1971. This chapter reveals for the first time how Lumbard with the assistance of attorney Richard M. Estes was able to work with Patrick Murphy, the city's police commissioner and recruit the necessary board members so that an ethical alternative would be available for persons freely desirous of contributing to local public safety initiatives. Later, Murphy would head up a national police foundation, through the generosity of the Ford Foundation. A wide range of funded NYCPF projects are summarized as well as some criticism of its work. Lumbard actively served as a director or trustee of the NYCPF for more than two decades.
Chapter 12. Teaching at John Jay College
In the second half of the 1970s, Lumbard became seriously interested in a possible career in college administration and teaching. Previously, Lumbard had worked as a part-time lecturer at the New York University Law School from 1963-1965. In addition, he occasionally served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice from
1975-1985. Whether his motivation for working at John Jay College was intentional or accidental is somewhat uncertain since his first teaching duties at the college came about on the eve of a proposal to close the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The college is one of several branch campuses of the City University of New York. Certainly, Lumbard was no stranger to the academic world having already earned three college degrees and having spent years working towards the creation of the State University of New York's School of Criminal Justice at Albany. This chapter explores: the history of John Jay College of Criminal Justice; how and when the college was saved from closure: and the activities and efforts Lumbard undertook to teach his graduate level courses. Due to his network of contacts, Lumbard was able to routinely invite a variety of high level criminal justice practitioners to his classes dealing with public policy
making in the field of crime control.
Chapter 13. Crime Control Consultant
Lumbard undertook an extraordinary assignment in the spring of 1968--the reform of the criminal justice system in the state of New Jersey. His efforts in this regard are explained. Lumbard was hired as a fifty dollar an hour chief criminal justice consultant to the newly established "Special Joint Legislative Committee to Study Crime and the System of Criminal Justice in New Jersey." The Committee was established by law on a temporary basis and chaired by Edwin Forsythe. In the fall of 1968, Lumbard resumed his efforts and served as counsel to the New Jersey Senate Committee on Law, Public Safety and Defense. The most significant recommendations resulted in the creation of a state-level Division of Criminal Justice under the control of the Attorney General, and the establishment of an independent Commission of Investigation. The Division was empowered to conduct and supervise criminal investigations and prosecutions. The Commission, meanwhile, was designed to conduct fact-finding investigations, bring the facts to the public's attention, refer findings to appropriate law enforcement agencies for possible prosecution and make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature for improvements in laws and in the operations of government. Ten years later, Lumbard's law firm (Lumbard and Phelan) was retained for advice regarding the organization of a new non-profit corporation to be known as "the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.'' In 1978, the process of incorporation involved the same types of efforts undertaken to incorporate the New York City Police Foundation.
Chapter 14. Legal Practice and in the Matter of Roy M. Cohn
Lumbard's full potential in civil law practice was not realized until after the era of the
'60s had ended. The types of cases which Lumbard dealt with in his private practice are summarized and the greater part of these involved his work as a litigator in maritime law cases and as a trustee in large and complex bankruptcies. Lumbard played a significant role in the lengthy disbarment proceedings of the mid-1980s concerning Roy Cohn. Cohn's legal troubles drew national attention, when in an unusual and rare action, the five-Judge panel of the Appellate Division tribunal decided to release the voluminous pages of Lumbard's hearing panel nearly a year before the fmal decision was made regarding Cohn's disciplinary case. Typically, disciplinary proceedings are kept confidential, but a lawsuit was initiated by The New York Times and The Daily News for the release of information. In justification of its decision the court concluded that Cohn had in effect waived his right to confidentiality by publicly accusing the court-appointed disciplinary hearing committee of which Lumbard was a member of "having been constituted of incompetents who prosecuted him for a political purpose, upon meritless charges, with the intent of 'smearing' him" (Simon 2005).
Part IV: More Literary Pursuits: Failure and Success
Chapter 15. World Criminal Justice Systems
Wartime service as a world mariner, specific concerns regarding threats from the nations under communist rule, and professional knowledge of international commerce and affairs, probably contributed to Lumbard's readiness to consider a new venture in publishing involving international justice systems. This chapter considers the second serious attempt by Lumbard to add to the formation of the criminal justice education canon. An opportunity arose to advance a reference book idea which would require the services of research assistants when Lumbard happened to meet Dr. Philip J. Stead at a John Jay College event. Within a very short time, Lumbard had prepared a preliminary outline, indicating that the proposed work would also include: definitions of key terms; a general bibliography; maps; and various appendices such as a United Nations docwnent entitled Proposed Code of Ethics for Law Enforcement Officials. The planned book was tentatively entitled World Criminal Justice Systems.
Chapter 16. Merchant Marine History Project
The maritime industry as a whole is much more than the deep-sea merchant fleet. Ever since his World War II experiences as a Cadet-Midshipman, Lumbard had continued his steadfast interest in this field by having specialized in maritime law and by maintaining ties to the alurrmi association of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy as well as the Academy's museum. This chapter also considers Lumbard's views on America's maritime policies, the status of the American maritime industry, and its history including the unsuccessful attempt by President Eisenhower to introduce atomic-powered shipping to the American commercial fleet which began with the construction and voyages of the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo--passenger ship.
Chapter 17.The Legacy of a Renaissance Lawman
Lumbard had a unique ability to bring together knowledgeable and successful business and public figures in order to establish a variety of new intuitions and in one final instance a team to prepare a series of volumes devoted to the maritime industry. Time and again he
demonstrated this trait in the interests of public safety and a more stable society. While not all of his goals were fulfilled, especially with regard to criminal justice literary works, near the end of his life he harnessed all of his strength to retwn to his first college in order to pursue the publication of works devoted to the unsung heroes of the merchant marine. This chapter briefly summarizes Lumbard's contributions in crime control and on behalf of the maritime services. It also provides several new details regarding his involvement in the organized crime conferences held at Oyster Bay, Long Island as well as his establishment of a scholarship at the University at Albany. Hopefully, this retelling of Eliot Lumbard's public service activities and those of a few of his generation whom he encountered along the way may serve to inspire other persons to engage in similar good deeds.
