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 […]

Judge Jonathan Corwin (1640 - 1718)

Jurist. He was a judge in the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, assisting in conducting examinations of many of those accused of witchcraft, which helped create a hysteria in the coastal Massachusetts town. As a result of the witchcraft trials, 20 people from in and around Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts were hanged, and […]

David J. Cook (1840 - 1907)

Western Lawman and Detective. Began his career in the Rocky Mountain area tracking down Confederate Spies for the Colorado Cavalry during the Civil War. During the 1870’s he was a Denver City Marshall, Deputy U.S. Marshall, Arapahoe County Sheriff and General of the Colorado Militia. He started the Rocky Mountain Detective Association, the first formal […]

James Conner (1829 - 1883)

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. Born in Charleston, he was one of the best officers that South Carolina furnished the Confederacy. He was a graduate of South Carolina College, and became a distinguished lawyer and a United States district attorney before the outbreak of the Civil War. Serving as Captain of the Montgomery Guards, a […]

William Egan Colby (1920 - 1996)

United States Intelligence Service Officer. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of Elbridge Colby, an army officer and educator, and Margaret Mary Egan Colby, an ardent Catholic who guided her son in the path of that religion. His grandfather, Charles Colby, had been a professor of chemistry at Columbia University but had died prematurely. […]

Roy Cohn (1927 - 1986)

Renowned Attorney. Born in New York in 1927, Cohn graduated from Columbia Law School at 20, passed the bar at 21, and rose to become the youngest assistant U.S. attorney at the time. The case that launched his career was the 1951 trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, accused of leaking atomic secrets to the […]

Leslie William Coffelt (1910 - 1950)

Police Officer. Born to Will Coffelt and Effie Keller in the town of Oranda, Virginia. He was one of five children. Leslie grew up hunting and handling firearms, and was only the second in his family to graduate from high school. Leslie was described as an excellent shot with a gun and a quiet, good […]

Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr (1937 - 2005)

Legal Figure. He was best known for successfully defending Football star O.J. Simpson from 1994 to 1995 on double homicide charges as part of Simpson’s “Dream Team.” Cochran, who originally was from Shreveport, Louisiana, moved to Los Angeles, California, at a young age with his family. Cochran was a graduate of UCLA and received his […]

John Philip Clum (1851 - 1932)

Western Folk Legend. After completing his first year at Rutger’s College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, he entered the meteorological service of the United States Government. He was ordered to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and there opened a station for meteorological observations in November 1871. On February 27, 1874, President U.S. Grant signed his commission as […]

Sam Houston Clinton (1923 - 2004)

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Justice. He was a criminal defense attorney and he represented atheist leader Madeline Murray O’Hair and Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who allegedly shot and killed President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Clinton was able to get the guilty verdict against Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Oswald on […]

Royal C. Cline (1970 - 1938)

Alcatraz Prison Guard, Murder Victim. Hired as a prison guard in 1931, Cline was first assigned to the US Detention Farm at La Tuna, Texas. In 1934 he was transferred to the new Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where he rose up to the rank of Senior Custodial Officer. On May 23, 1938 he was assigned to […]

Claude Chauveau-Lagarde (1756 - 1841)

Lawyer. He was the lawyer of Queen Marie Antoinette and Charlotte Corday.

Lyle B. Chapman (1890 - 1966)

Law Enforcement Figure. He was one of the original members of Elliot Ness’ “The Untouchables.” A 1910 Colgate College football player and a World War I United States Army officer,  and being known to be a gifted investigator and physically strong, he was one of the first nine agents that Ness selected for his team, […]

Sir George-Étienne Cartier (1814 - 1873)

Statesman, Premier of Canada East, Father of Confederation. George-Étienne Cartier, son of Jacques Cartier and Marguerite Paradis, was baptized at Saint Antoine sur Richelieu, Vercheres County, in what would eventually become the province of Quebec, on September 6, 1814. He was named in honor of King George III. After completing his secondary education in 1831, […]