PoliticalGraveyard.com

Politicians in Trouble or Disgrace

Politicians in Trouble or Disgrace: Smuggling and Immigration Offenses
Illegally crossing the border

See the trouble and disgrace main page, as well as the FAQ and the Political Graveyard privacy policy, for important explanations and disclaimers. in chronological order   David Brydie Mitchell (1760-1837) — of Savannah, Chatham County, Ga.; Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Ga. Born in Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland, October 22, 1760. Georgia state attorney general, 1795; member of Georgia state house of representatives, 1796; mayor of Savannah, Ga., 1801-02; U.S. Attorney for Georgia, 1802-04; Governor of Georgia, 1809-13, 1815-17; U.S. Indian Agent to the Creek Nation, 1817-21; resigned from this position following charges that he was smuggling African slaves into the country. Scottish ancestry. Died in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Ga., April 22, 1837 (age 76 years, 182 days). Interment at Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Ga.   Relatives: Son of John Mitchell.   See also National Governors Association biography — Wikipedia article   Peter R. Morrissey (1859-1895) — of St. Louis, Mo. Born in St. Louis County, Mo., August 14, 1859. Democrat. Saloon keeper; arrested in December 1886 on federal charges of vote fraud; found guilty in April 1887, but released because the indictment did not specify that the ballots were for a federal office; indicted again soon after, but the charges were dropped in November; indicted for naturalization fraud in 1889, but not convicted; member of Missouri state senate 31st District, 1893-95; died in office 1895. Catholic. Irish ancestry. While in bed, he was shot twice with his own pistol, and killed, by his mistress, Maud Lewis, in her "house of ill repute", in St. Louis, Mo., May 13, 1895 (age 35 years, 272 days). After a dramatic and highly publicized trial, Maud Lewis was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to fifteen years in prison; she was pardoned by Gov. Lon Vest Stephens in January 1901. Interment at Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo.   See also Find-A-Grave memorial   Luke Lea (1879-1945) — of Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn. Born in Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn., April 12, 1879. Democrat. Lawyer; newspaper editor and publisher; founder of the Nashville Tennesseean; U.S. Senator from Tennessee, 1911-17; delegate to Democratic National Convention from Tennessee, 1912 (speaker); colonel in the U.S. Army during World War I; in January 1919, after the war was over, he led a group of U.S. Army officers in an unauthorized attempt to seize former German leader Kaiser Wilhelm; they illegally entered the Netherlands (which was neutral territory) using forged passports; he and the others were reprimanded by the Army; following the collapse of the Asheville Central Bank and Trust, he and others were indicted in 1931 for bank fraud; convicted on three counts; sentenced to prison, served two years before being paroled; ultimately pardoned in 1937. Episcopalian. Member, Freemasons; Alpha Tau Omega; Phi Delta Phi; Elks; Knights of Pythias; Redmen. Died, in Vanderbilt University Hospital, Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn., November 18, 1945 (age 66 years, 220 days). Interment at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tenn.   Relatives: Son of John Overton Lea and Ella (Cocke) Lea; married, November 1, 1906, to Mary Louise Warner; married 1920 to Minnie Percie Warner; grandson of John McCormick Lea; great-grandson of Luke Lea (1783-1851); great-grandnephew of Major Lea, Hugh Lawson White and Frederick Bird Smith Cocke; second great-grandson of James White and John Alexander Cocke; third great-grandson of William Cocke; first cousin twice removed of Pryor Newton Lea, George McNutt White and Luke Lea (1810-1898); first cousin thrice removed of William Michael Cocke; second cousin once removed of Albert Major Lea and William Alexander Cocke.   Political family: Lea-Cocke family of Tennessee.   Cross-reference: John D. Erwin   See also congressional biography — Govtrack.us page — Wikipedia article — Find-A-Grave memorial   David C. Kerr — U.S. Vice Consul in Birmingham, as of 1917; arrested in Washington, D.C. in May 1924, and charged with accepting bribes while vice consul at Vancouver, to issue visas to Chinese, so they could enter the U.S. illegally. Burial location unknown.   Earl Russel Browder (1891-1973) — also known as Earl Browder — of Yonkers, Westchester County, N.Y. Born in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kan., May 20, 1891. Communist. As a result of his opposition to U.S. participation in World War I, he was convicted in 1917 of conspiracy against the draft laws and sentenced to sixteen months in prison; imprisoned again in 1919; pardoned in 1933; candidate for U.S. Representative from New York, 1930 (6th District), 1932 (20th District), 1940 (14th District); General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S., 1934-44; candidate for President of the United States, 1936, 1940; arrested in 1939 for a passport violation, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison (sentence commuted after fourteen months); expelled from the Communist Party, 1946. Died in Princeton, Mercer County, N.J., June 27, 1973 (age 82 years, 38 days). Burial location unknown.   Relatives: Son of William Browder and Martha (Hankins) Browder; married 1926 to Raissa Berkman.   Cross-reference: George E. Powers   See also Wikipedia article Edgar J. Lauer (1871-1948) — of Manhattan, New York County, N.Y. Born in New York, New York County, N.Y., November 10, 1871. Republican. Lawyer; Judge, New York City Municipal Court, 1906-33; Justice of New York Supreme Court 1st District, 1934-39; resigned 1939. In 1938, his wife pleaded guilty in Federal Court to charges that she smuggled expensive clothing and diamonds from Europe to the U.S.; she was fined and sentenced to three months in prison and fined. In 1939, the state legislature moved to investigate whether Judge Lauer had knowledge of his wife's smuggling activities; he denied this, but immediately resigned his seat. Died, in Mount Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, New York County, N.Y., November 9, 1948 (age 76 years, 365 days). Burial location unknown.   Relatives: Son of William Emanuel Lauer and Cecilia (Hornthal) Lauer; married to Elma M. Kramer.   Image source: Empire State Notables (1914) Oliver Laurence North (b. 1943) — also known as Oliver L. North; Ollie North — of Virginia. Born in San Antonio, Bexar County, Tex., October 7, 1943. Republican. Served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War; central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986; he was in charge of a secret (and illegal) government operation to sell weapons to Iran and provide the profits to the then-unrecognized Nicaraguan "contras", who were fighting a civil war against the "Sandinista" government there; convicted in 1989 on federal charges of obstructing Congress, destroying documents, and accepting an illegal gratuity; an appeals court later overturned the guilty verdict; candidate for U.S. Senator from Virginia, 1994; host of a radio talk show in 1995-2003, and is a television commentator. Member, National Rifle Association. Still living as of 2014.   Relatives: Married, November 13, 1968, to Betsy Stuart.   Cross-reference: Harry E. Bergold, Jr.   See also Wikipedia article — NNDB dossier — Internet Movie Database profile   Image source: Time Magazine, July 13, 1987   Tom Metzger — of California; Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Ind. Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative from California 43rd District, 1980; candidate in Democratic primary for U.S. Senator from California, 1982; convicted in 1991 of burning a cross (as a form of hate speech or intimidation) and sentenced to prison; in 1992, he was arrested in Canada for violating immigration laws. Member, John Birch Society; Ku Klux Klan. Still living as of 2012.   See also Wikipedia article

"Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard." Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872

The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 320,919 politicians, living and dead.
	The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.
	The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.
	Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.
	The official URL for this page is: https://politicalgraveyard.com/trouble/smuggling.html.
	Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.
	If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.
Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2023 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDL. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on March 8, 2023.