Whitman Knapp
| P. Whitman Knapp | |
|---|---|
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| Personal details | |
| Born | February 24, 1909 |
| Died | June 14, 2004 (aged 95) New York, New York |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Fallert Knapp |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
Percy Whitman Knapp (February 24, 1909 – June 14, 2004) was a federal judge who led a far-reaching investigation into corruption in the New York City Police Department from 1970 to 1972.
Whitman Knapp was the son of Wallace Percy Knapp, a wealthy German American lawyer in New York. His mother was killed in a horse riding accident in Central Park when he was only three years old. He attended The Browning School, graduating in 1927, The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall), graduating in 1927, and Yale University, graduating in 1931. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, graduating in 1934. He married Elizabeth Mercer shortly after graduation.
After his graduation from law school, he started working with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Manhattan. He remained there until 1938, when he left to become an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan under the newly elected racket-busting District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey.
In 1941, Knapp returned to private life and joined the law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Lumbard. Within a year Frank S. Hogan, Manhattan's new District Attorney, persuaded him to return to the fold. At one point Mr. Knapp was chief of three bureaus: appeals, indictments, and fraud.
In 1950, Knapp left Mr. Hogan's office to again enter private practice. In the next few years he served as a special counsel to Mr. Dewey, who had become governor of New York State, and was a member of the commission that revised the state's criminal code.
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