Eyewitness 1937: Pittsburgh papers relished 'Musmanntics'
-
Judge Michael A. Musmanno
Share with others:
Headlines and enemies followed Judge Michael Angelo Musmanno in equal numbers through his long career as a lawyer, jurist and author.
Judge Musmanno, born in Stowe in 1897, was the son of Italian immigrants.
As a young lawyer, he defended anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. For the rest of his life, he contended that the pair had been denied fair trials on murder and robbery charges before their execution in 1927.
Angered at abuse of miners by Pennsylvania's private Coal and Iron Police, he worked as a state legislator to have the force disbanded. His efforts in that cause included writing a short story that became the basis for a 1935 Hollywood movie called "Black Fury."
After service with the U.S. Navy during World War II, he became a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremburg Trials.
He served on the state Supreme Court from 1952 until his death in 1968.
His flamboyant behavior regularly drew the attention of Pittsburgh reporters. In December 1936, for example, he issued an opinion backing the existence of Santa Claus, Jack Frost and Cupid. The Bulletin Index, a weekly journal of Pittsburgh society events and cultural commentary, described his courtroom activities as "Musmanntics."
He drew some of his biggest Pittsburgh headlines during the winter of 1936-37 when, as criminal court president judge for Allegheny County he led a crusade against drunken driving. During his tenure in that position, everyone convicted of that offense went to jail, usually for 30 days.
On Dec. 17, 1936, The Bulletin Index noted Judge Musmanno's release of two woman jailed on drunken-driving charges 10 days before their full sentences had been served. Women were so sensitive, he said in court, "their reaction to imprisonment and humiliation is so much more acute ... that it is unjust to impose the same penalty upon them as is visited upon men for the same transgression." As a result, women would serve just two-thirds of the time imposed on a man for an identical offense.
First Published March 7, 2010 12:00 am
