James Michael Curley (1874-1958)

Today marks the death of James Michael Curley, a Massachusetts politician who held nearly every major political office in the state.Born in Boston, he attended the city’s public schools before embarking upon a political career. In 1899 he was elected to the Boston Common Council, and held a number of local offices thereafter. A champion of the poor and the immigrants, he was jailed in 1904 because he took a civil service exam for a friend. In 1910, he was elected to Congress. He resigned his seat in 1914 after being elected Mayor of Boston. He ran for Mayor ten times in his career, becoming one of the great political bosses in Massachusetts politics. In 1934 he was elected Governor of the state and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1936. In 1942 he was reelected to Congress and in 1945 he was elected Mayor of Boston for the fourth time. Found guilty of defrauding the mails, he had to govern from a federal penitentiary until President Harry S Truman had him pardoned and released. He was the inspiration for novelist Edwin O’Connor’s The Last Hurrah.