Vincent R. Impellitteri

Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born Vincenzo Impellitteri; February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was an Italian-American politician and judge who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City from 1950 to 1953. He was elected as a Democrat as president of the City Council in 1945, and reelected in 1949. When Mayor William O'Dwyer resigned in 1950, he became acting mayor. He lost the Democratic primary for the nomination for a full term but was subsequently elected mayor on a new ticket, the "Experience Party". He lost the Democratic primary when he ran for reelection in 1953, and became a judge in 1954. Early life Born Vincenzo Impellitteri in Isnello, Sicily, and moved with his family to the United States as an infant in 1901. They settled in Ansonia, Connecticut, where Impellitteri spent most of his youth. He was a Catholic. He enlisted in the United States Navy for World War I and served as a radioman with the rank of petty officer third class on board the destroyer USS Stockton, which was based in Queenstown, Ireland and performed convoy escort and antisubmarine duty. He left the Navy after the war and became a U.S. citizen in 1922. Thereafter, Impellitteri attended the Fordham University School of Law (where he received his LL.B. in 1924) while working successively as a night bellboy and manager at a Broadway hotel. He married Elizabeth (Betty) Agnes McLaughlin in 1926. Start of career Following his admission to the bar, he worked in private practice alongside influential Democratic attorney Martin Thomas Conboy Jr.. He served as a state Assistant District Attorney from 1929 to 1938. After returning to private practice for three years as a specialist in criminal law, he served as legal secretary to New York Supreme Court Justice Peter Schmuck, later moving to the chambers of Joseph A. Gavagan in an analogous role. He was reportedly a close associate of gangster Tommy Lucchese, who helped Impellitteri's rise in politics. On the other hand, a report in the New York World-Telegram indicated that Impelliteri opposed organized crime and corruption, and had failed to rise through the city Democratic Party's ranks because he had "the injudicious good taste to snub Frank Costello", the gambler and racketeer who was said to control the Tammany Hall organization behind the scenes. In 1945, Mayor William O'Dwyer picked Impellitteri to run for President of the City Council on the Tammany Hall slate.