Homer Stille Cummings
| Homer Stille Cummings | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 55th United States Attorney General | |
|
In office March 4, 1933 – January 2, 1939 |
|
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | William D. Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | Frank Murphy |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 30, 1870 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | September 10, 1956 (aged 86) Stamford, Connecticut |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Profession | Law |
Homer Stille Cummings (April 30, 1870 – September 10, 1956) was a U.S. political figure who was United States Attorney General from 1933 to 1939. He also was elected mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, three times before, founding the legal firm of Cummings & Lockwood in 1909. He later served as chairman of Democratic National Committee between 1919 and 1920.
He was born on April 30, 1870 and graduated from the Heathcote School in Buffalo, New York, and earned a Ph.B. degree from the Sheffield School of Yale University in 1891, he then graduated from Yale Law School two years later. Practicing law in Stamford, he joined with Charles D. Lockwood in 1909 to form Cummings & Lockwood, remaining a partner in the firm until 1933.
Just three years after entering private practice, Cummings supported William Jennings Bryan's 1896 presidential bid, with Connecticut (Silver) Democrats then nominating him for Secretary of State. As a Progressive whose oratorical skills made him a dramatic trial lawyer, Cummings seemed a natural for the political arena.
In 1900, 1901, and 1904, Cummings was elected mayor of Stamford. At the time of his first election, he began a quarter-century of service as a committeeman from Connecticut with the national Democratic party. As mayor, he helped construct and improve streets and sewers, reorganized the police and fire departments, and secured a shorefront park that later was named for him.
Nominated for congressman-at-large in 1902 and for U.S. Senator in 1910 and 1916, he lost all three races by narrow margins. During the 1912 campaign, he directed the Democratic speaker's bureau from Washington, D.C., then served as vice-chairman of the national committee from 1913 to 1919 before becoming chairman for the next two years.
During the period from 1914 to 1924, Cummings served as the state attorney for Connecticut in Fairfield County and during Cummings' last year as county prosecutor, a vagrant and discharged army soldier, Harold Israel, was indicted for the murder of Father Hubert Dahme, a popular parish priest, on a street corner in Bridgeport. Despite evidence that included a confession and a .32 revolver in possession of the suspect from which a fired cartridge was consistent with the bullet in the deceased, Cummings conducted a thorough investigation and eventually found Israel innocent of the crime. In 1931, the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (the Wickersham Commission) praised this act, with a 1947 film Boomerang! (directed by Elia Kazan, with Dana Andrews as a Cummings stand-in) dramatizing the affair.
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