James Edgar Engle (1970 - 1897)

Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. Served in the Civil War as a Sergeant in Company I, 97th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was awarded the CMOH for his bravery at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia on May 18, 1864. His citation reads “Responded to a call for volunteers to carry ammunition to the regiment on the […]

Overton Gentry Ellis (1970 - 1970)

Judge. He was chief justice of Washington supreme court and an associate justice for eight years. Judge Ellis left Kansas City in 1892, two years later he married Jennie Wilhite, a member of a pioneer Kansas City family. In 1910 Judge Ellis was appointed associate judge of Washington high court and in 1917 he assumed […]

Jake Ehrlich (1900 - 1971)

Trial lawyer. His slogan, “Never plead guilty”, was known throughout the legal profession and his courtroom skills, strategies and successes gave him national acclaim. His first major case was defending Alexander Pantages in 1931, and following his successful defense, Hollywood celebrities entrusted him with their legal problems. Actors, writers, directors, musicians, sports figures, and assorted […]

Francis Boardman “Pistol Pete” Eaton (1860 - 1958)

Folk Figure. A former deputy U.S. Marshall who claimed to have killed 11 men with the Colt .45 he wore strapped to his side. He served as deputy U.S. Marshall under Judge Isaac C. Paker “hanging judge” in the Indian Territory. Frank Eaton was known as “Pistol Pete,” a nickname he acquired at the age […]

Wyatt Earp (1848 - 1929)

American Frontier Law Officer. Born in Monmouth, Illinois, he grew up on a farm in Iowa.  He moved with his parents in 1864 to California.  His early youth found him working as a stagecoach driver, buffalo hunter and then as a police officer in Wichita, Kansas. On to Dodge City, Kansas where he established his […]

Virgil Walter Earp (1843 - 1905)

Western Lawman. Born in Hartford Kentucky, he was brother to James, Morgan and Wyatt Earp. After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, he was a freighter-teamster in Prescott, Arizona and was Deputy Marshal at Tucson, 1870 to 1879. In 1880, he was elected City Marshal of Tombstone and recruited brothers Wyatt and […]

Morgan Earp (1851 - 1882)

Western Lawman. The brother of Western figure Wyatt Earp, he is best known for the gunfight with Ike Clanton’s gang at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Born in Marian County, Iowa, he was the youngest of “Fighting Earps.” His father moved the family, to San Bernardino, California in 1864. He married Luisa Houston in […]

James Cooksey Earp (1841 - 1926)

Western Figure. Born in Harford, Kentucky, he was the oldest brother of Virgil, James and Wyatt Earp. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 17th Illinois Infantry, Union Army and was badly wounded in a battle at Fredericktown, Missouri, After the war, he traveled through different states before settling at Dodge […]

Gabriel Duvall (1752 - 1844)

US Supreme Court Justice,  US Congressman. He served as the Congressman from Maryland’s second district from November 1794 to March 1796. From 1796 to 1802 he was Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland. He served as First Comptroller of the US Treasury for the next five years. President James Madison appointed him to […]

Charles Morrison Durand (1811 - 1905)

Lawyer and author. He was convicted of complicity in the 1837 rebellion and, as a result, spent many years in exile in the United States.  Family links:  Spouses:  Sarah Bostwick Durand (1820 – 1855)*  Mary Ann Bradshaw Durand (1829 – 1918)*  Children:  Charles H. Durand (____ – 1847)*  Charles Albert Durand*  Helen Durand (1838 – […]

John Riley “Jack” Duncan (1850 - 1911)

Texas Ranger and Bounty Hunter. Born to James and Katherine Duncan. He was raised in a small farming community in Hardin County in north central Kentucky. He and his brothers tended to the family’s farm while his father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the war, the family engaged in several […]

Allen Welsh Dulles (1893 - 1969)

US Diplomat, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director. He was the first civilian Director of the CIA and served in that position from February 1953 until November 1961, its longest-serving director as of 2014. He is considered one of the essential creators of the modern US intelligence system and was an indispensable guide to clandestine operations […]

Sir James Dowling (1787 - 1844)

Judge. Born in London, a son of Vincent Dowling of Queen’s County, Ireland. He went to St Paul’s School, London, and then became a parliamentary reporter until he was called to the Bar in May 1815. He practised at the Middlesex Sessions and, with Archer Ryland, edited King’s Bench Reports 1822-31, in nine volumes, and […]

William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan (1883 - 1959)

World War I Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient, US Diplomat. Known by the sobriquet “Wild Bill”, he is most noted for founding and directing the United States Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which was the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency. A trained lawyer, he began the practice of law in Buffalo, […]

Martin Dies (1870 - 1922)

Congressman. Born in Jackson Parish, Louisiana and the son of David Warren and Sarah Jane (Pyburn) Dies. Martin attended public school in Texas, and acquired his law degree at the law department of the University of Texas at Austin and was admitted to the bar in 1893, practicing in Woodville, Texas. He edited a newspaper […]

Alvin Adams Dewey, II (1912 - 1987)

Law Officer. He was the Kansas Bureau of Investigations Special Agent who tracked down Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who had murdered the Clutter Family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959. The story around the Clutter murders and subsequent trial of their killers was made famous when they were depicted in writer Truman Capote’s […]

Uli Derickson (1944 - 2005)

American Folk Hero. She was a flight attendant aboard Trans World Airlines Flight 847 that was hijacked by Shiite Muslim terrorists in June 1985. The flight began in Athens, Greece and ended in Beirut, Lebanon, where the crew and 39 passengers were held for 17 days. She is credited with saving many lives by shielding […]

William Dowdell Denson (1913 - 1998)

Jurist.  His father was an established lawyer and politician in Birmingham AL and his paternal grandfather, William Henry Denson, was a Congressman from Alabama, 1893-1895.  He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating cum laude in 1934, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery of the United States Army. […]

Jean-Nicolas Démeunier (1751 - 1814)

Lawyer. President of the National Assembly. Keen Bonapartist, promoted by Napoleon to count in 1808. Entered Pantheon 1814. (bio by: David Conway)

Cartha “Deke” DeLoach (1920 - 2013)

Law Enforcement Figure. A 28 year veteran of the F.B.I., he rose from clerk to Deputy Director and is remembered as J. Edgar Hoover’s long time assistant. Raised in southeastern Georgia, he was a 1942 graduate of Florida’s Stetson University and at 21 became the youngest man ever accepted into the Bureau. Following his World […]

Gordon Evans Dean (1905 - 1958)

Lawyer/Government Official.  After beginning his career as a Duke University law professor, Dean joined the New Deal in 1934, serving in the U.S. Department of Justice.  Under Attorney General Homer S. Cummings and, to a lesser extent, his successor Frank Murphy, Dean was an important Criminal Division attorney and public spokesman.  Dean helped to draft […]

Raymond de Sèze (1748 - 1828)

Lawyer of French King Louis XVI.

Judge Ronald Norwood Davies (1904 - 1996)

Judge. Born in Crookston in Polk County in northwestern Minnesota. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1927.  In 1930, he attained a law degree from Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C. He practiced law in […]

Theodore Davie (1852 - 1898)

Lawyer, Judge, Politician, Premier of British Columbia. The brother of A.E.B. Davie, he was called to the bar in 1877 and elected to the British Columbia legislature in 1882. In 1889, when John Robson became premier, Theodore was chosen attorney general and in 1892 succeeded Robson as premier. In 1895 he resigned to become chief […]

Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)

Attorney and Social Activist. Clarence Darrow was the son of former Unitarian minister Amirus Darrow, a freethinking iconoclast who sheltered escaping slaves in the Darrows’ Kinsman, Ohio home. Atrracted to debate by his father’s continual need to defend his political and religious positions, Darrow trained for one year as an undergraduate at Allegheny College and […]

Jesse Edward Curry (1913 - 1980)

Kennedy Assassination Figure, Police Officer. A native of Dallas, Texas, Curry was the Chief of the Dallas Police Department at the the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Born in 1913, Curry was educated at the Dallas Technical High School, and later worked for the Vitalic Battery Company. […]

George Walker Crawford (1798 - 1872)

Governor. Born in Columbia County, Georgia. He was the fourth son of Peter and Mary Ann Crawford. His father was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War from Virginia who had settled in Georgia to claim a land share, known as a bounty grant which the state of Georgia had set aside for those who […]

Joseph Force Crater (1889 - 1930)

New York Supreme Court Judge.  Born in Easton, Pennsylvania. Joseph was one of four children born to his father, Frank E. Crater, an orchard owner and operator of a produce market and the former Leila Virginia Montague. Joseph began to show a passion for music during his youth, and was encouraged by his mother to […]

Samuel Parkinson Cowley (1899 - 1934)

FBI agent. He was educated at the Utah State Agricultural College and George Washington University Law School. After graduation in 1929 he joined the FBI. Promoted to Inspector in July 1934 he directed the operation to apprehend John Dillinger. In an attempt to capture George “Baby Face” Nelson (Lester Gillis) he was mortally wounded. Nelson […]

Timothy “Longhaired” Courtright (1970 - 1887)

Western Lawman. Born Timothy Isaiah Courtright, in 1848 at Sangamon County, Illinois, he had a reputation as being fast with a gun. He was at various times a jailer, hired killer, private detective and racketeer. In 1876, he was elected the first US Marshal of Fort Worth, Texas and inherited the task of cleaning up […]