William O'Dwyer

William O'Dwyer was the 100th Mayor of New York City, succeeding Fiorello La Guardia in 1946. O'Dwyer had previously been District Attorney in Brooklyn. Among other things, in 1940 he investigated the beaning of Joe Medwick of the Brooklyn Dodgers by former St. Louis Cardinals teammate Bob Bowman. On July 17, 1941, Page One of the Brooklyn Eagle featured a photograph of Walter O'Malley talking with the D.A., who was a Democratic candidate for Mayor, and John R. Todd, builder of the Rockefeller Center, at the Hotel Bossert. O’Dwyer, like O’Malley, graduated from Fordham University School of Law by attending night classes.

After serving as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army, O'Dwyer won the mayoral election in 1946. He established the Mayor's Trophy Game that year, and the trophy carried his name until he left office in 1950.

In 1987, upon the publication of O'Dwyer's memoirs, the New York Times encapsulated his career: "The poor immigrant from County Mayo who climbed the green hill from Brooklyn cop to crusading prosecutor of Murder, Inc., from high Federal posts to Mayor of New York - only to resign suddenly in 1950 amid a gathering squall of corruption charges, then slip into melancholy retreat as Ambassador to Mexico."

Dogged by his associations with organized crime, O'Dwyer resigned as ambassador in 1952 but continued to live in Mexico until 1960. He died in New York City in 1964. At the time of his death, the Times wrote that O'Dwyer appeared to have been "victimized by men he had trusted. His own excessively tolerant nature enabled grafters to reassert themselves in municipal affairs."

William O'Dwyer was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Related Sites

• Review of Beyond the Golden Door by William O'Dwyer, New York Times, August 16, 1987
• walteromalley.com