John A. Hastings

John Ambrose Hastings (April 21, 1900 – December 8, 1964) was an American politician from New York.

He was born on April 21, 1900. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the All-American Brokers' Insurance Company. He married Margaret M. Crowley, and they had four children: John Barry Hastings, Warren T. Hastings, Marjorie Hastings and Virginia M. Hastings.

Hastings was elected to the New York State Senate (7th D.) in 1922, then the youngest New York state senator in history. He remained in the State Senate from 1923 to 1932, sitting in the 146th, 147th, 148th, 149th, 150th, 151st, 152nd, 153rd, 154th and 155th New York State Legislatures; and was Chairman of the Committee on Printed and Engrossed Bills from 1923 to 1924.

Early in 1923, he sponsored anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation. On March 27, 1923, a parcel with a large quantity of drugs was left for him at the Ten Eyck Hotel in Albany, and Hastings suspected that it was a frame-up by the Klan or some other enemies. On April 25, he accused Philip Francis and Samuel Woodrow, two New York City newspaper editorial writers, of having planted the drug package.

In October 1930, he suffered from acute appendicitis, was operated, and survived. Less than a year previously, the Democratic State Assembly minority leaders Maurice Bloch and Peter J. Hamill had died from appendicitis.

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