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and black tie. He had a markedly florid rhetorical style, on one occasion delivering an entire summing-up, two hours long, while on his knees before the jury box. One of his most remarked upon talents was an apparent ability to weep at will, although legal historian
Sadakat Kadri notes that his frequent opponent
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Howe and Hummel kept no records, actively courted publicity, and were much discussed in their day among the members of the legal profession. As such, many of the stories told about them have the aura of tall tales. Nevertheless, their decades of effective practise suggest that the partners were among
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The final collapse of the firm came in 1907, five years after Howe's death, when Hummel was convicted in New York of suborning perjury, disbarred, and sentenced to a year in jail. After his release, Hummel left the United States and lived chiefly in Paris. Howe, who died of a heart attack in 1902,
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trials in the course of his fifty-year career and winning a large but unstated proportion of them. He was noted for his extravagant dress, favouring bright waistcoats and large jewelled rings - although he steadily dressed down as a capital trial progressed, invariably ending it in a funereal suit
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William
Frederick Howe was born in Southwark, London, England on 20 August 1828, the eldest of three sons of working-class parents: Samuel and Mary Ann Howe. City of London records show that his early career was as a legal clerk but that in 1854 he was convicted with others at the Old Bailey for
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Bill Howe's persuasive abilities were the stuff of legend. Perhaps his most notable achievement was to get a client, Ella Nelson, acquitted on a charge of wilful murder. Howe admitted that the girl had been armed with a revolver, but successfully persuaded a jury that her trigger finger had
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headquarters on Centre Street, Howe and Hummel received fat retainers from a significant proportion of the criminals, brothel-keepers, and abortion providers of New York. All 74 madams rounded up during a purity drive in 1884 named Howe and Hummel as their counsel, and at one time the firm
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conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and served a short prison sentence. He then moved to the US and resumed his legal career, claiming to have been born in Boston, Massachusetts. He became a naturalised
American on 19 September 1863 in New York where he founded Howe and Hummel with
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136:"suspected that he used an onion-scented handkerchief to get in the mood". The less extrovert but more intelligent Hummel specialised in civil law and ran the firm's thriving
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coverage of the case, which riveted New York for several months, identifies one
William F. Howe as Dolan's attorney. In a noticeable omission, the
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represented 23 out of the 25 prisoners awaiting trial for murder in the city's Tombs prison and had an undeclared interest in the twenty-fourth.
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163:), convicted in the murder of merchant James H. Noe. Despite a desperate legal to save his life, Dolan went to the gallows on April 21, 1875.
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racket, representing chorus girls and thwarted lovers, threatening married men with exposure and well-off young bachelors with suits for
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married at least three times, once in the United
Kingdom and at least twice in the USA. Howe is interred at
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accidentally slipped not just once, but four times in the course of an argument with her married lover.
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127:(1849-January 21, 1926). Howe handled most of the firm's criminal work, participating in more than 600
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One of Howe's most notorious cases, however, may have been that of John Dolan (a.k.a.
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At its peak, operating from offices just across the road from
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True
Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office
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The Trial: A History, from
Socrates to O.J. Simpson
226:Howe and Hummel: Their True and Scandalous History
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259:'William F. Howe, Dean of Criminal Bar, Dead.'
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102:(1828 – September 2, 1902) was an American
77:Learn how and when to remove this message
266:'Decadence of New York's Criminal Bar.'
342:British emigrants to the United States
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175:the most effective and innovative
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296:Works by or about William F. Howe
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183:during the nineteenth century.
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142:breach of promise of marriage
245:Francis L. Wellman (1924).
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224:Richard H. Rovere (1948).
242:. New York: Random House.
228:. London: Michael Joseph.
287:Works by William F. Howe
32:This article includes a
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61:more precise citations.
249:. New York: Macmillan.
238:Sadakat Kadri (2005).
100:William Frederick Howe
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247:Gentlemen of the Jury
233:Gangland: The Lawyers
231:James Morton (2001).
213:Arthur Train (1908).
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