U.S. At War: That Lepke

The State of New York wants to electrocute a grubby little murderer named Louis (“Lepke”) Buchalter, but cannot: he is safe in Federal custody on a 14-year dope-peddling sentence (TIME, Dec. 13).

Governor Tom Dewey has hinted broadly that the U.S. Government has sinister reasons for not giving Lepke up. U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle has retorted that Tom Dewey has never asked for the prisoner—in quite the exact, technically legal way Mr. Biddle requires.

Roosevelt-hating Columnist Westbrook Pegler bluntly “explained” this genteel, political tug of war in a way that reflected no particular credit on anyone: “Lepke was the boss of a local of Sidney Hillman’s Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America … the union of a man who is one of the President’s favorite unioneers. … If Dewey could get possession of Lepke, he might persuade him to tell the whole story of his murderous, racketeering career in exchange for a commutation of his death sentence to life in prison. . . .”

Last week Governor Dewey had to set a new date (the fourth) for the execution of Lepke. The occasion reminded him once again, and he duly reminded reporters, of “the failure of the President of the United States to grant the customary conditional pardon.”

Tom Dewey appeared to be taking extraordinary pains to harry Franklin Roosevelt about a murderer. But gangbusting, a field he knows and loves, was what first attracted the admiring glances of voters in Dewey’s direction. His hat is still not officially in the 1944 Presidential ring. But his careful buildup of this situation made politicos wonder whether Tom Dewey was more interested in getting Lepke or Franklin Roosevelt.