Wicked Pittsburgh by Richard Gazarik

Author:Richard Gazarik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Federal and Allegheny County grand juries routinely issued sweeping indictments for voter fraud rolling up ward heelers, police officials and entire election boards. Coyne, along with 8 of his lieutenants, was among 107 indicted for voter fraud during the congressional election of Republican M.J. Muldowney of Pittsburgh. The defendants included Coyne’s brother, Tom; Hill District boss John Verona; Pat Maloney, a state lawmaker; and P.J. O’Malley, GOP leader in the Strip District.

The Democratic candidate, Anne Felix, cried after FDR and other Democratic candidates swept into office by landslides in 1932—except for Pittsburgh’s Thirty-Second Congressional District, which favored Muldowney through the help of Coyne and his cronies. In the city’s Thirteenth Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Twing Brooks charged that night riders swayed the race in favor of Republican Edmund Erb.

Felix accused city Democratic chairman David Lawrence of trying to block an investigation into voter fraud because Lawrence and Coyne were close friends and political cronies despite being in separate parties, according to the Pittsburgh Press. Lawrence called the allegations an “untruth.”

Her charges triggered a federal grand jury investigation that issued 1,100 subpoenas for politicians, election board officials, ward chairmen, constables and justices of the peace. Muldowney polled 24,875 votes to 18,986 for Felix. She said a large majority of voters voted straight Democrat by writing an X on the ballot. After the ballot boxes reached the office of the justice of the peace in the district, someone placed Xs besides Muldowney’s name.

Coyne’s rule as GOP boss in Pittsburgh was a “dark era in Pittsburgh politics,” the Pittsburgh Press noted. Vote fraud was rampant, and attempts to introduce social programs were crushed politically. “If these charges of fraud are found to be true, this is an opportunity for the greatest cleanup of crooked politicians in Pittsburgh history.”

On election night in 1932, Coyne and other GOP bosses huddled at the William Penn Hotel watching FDR and state and local Democrats winning by landslides. “The whole damn works is sunk,” lamented O’Malley. Coyne was busy making phone calls, and witnesses testified that Coyne gave his brother orders to send out the night riders to alter votes in specific wards. Nettie Llewellyn, an election board clerk, was counting ballots when she received a message that her mother was dying and quickly headed home before realizing she had been tricked.

Coyne’s first trial ended in a hung jury. He was acquitted following a second trial, but his political grasp was eroding. Out of the 106 individuals indicted, 59 were convicted of vote fraud and 17 were acquitted. The charges against the rest were dismissed.

Coyne came to the United States from Galway, Ireland, and drove a beer wagon pulled by a team of horses. He had little formal education but understood the science of ward politics. He later bought a saloon, a gathering spot for local politicians, and began his climb up the political ladder with the slogan “a vote is a vote.”

After Coyne was unseated in the state senate, he tried to make a political comeback by running for commissioner of Allegheny County.

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