Matthew Brady (lawyer) explained

Office:20th District Attorney of San Francisco
Term Start:January 8, 1920
Term End:January 8, 1944
Predecessor:Charles Fickert
Successor:Pat Brown
Birth Date:April 1, 1876
Birth Place:San Francisco, California, U.S.
Death Place:San Francisco, California, U.S.
Resting Place:Holy Cross Cemetery (Colma, California)
Party:Democratic
Profession:Lawyer
Alma Mater:Hasting's School of Law

Matthew A. Brady (April 1, 1876 – August 5, 1952) was an American lawyer. He was the district attorney of San Francisco from 1920 to 1943.

Brady defeated previous district attorney Charles Fickert, who was responsible for the conviction of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings in the Preparedness Day bombing. By 1926, he was convinced that Mooney and Billings were unjustly convicted. In a letter to Governor Friend W. Richardson, Brady wrote "If these matters that have developed during the trials could be called to the attention of a court that had jurisdiction to grant a new trial, undoubtedly a new trial would be granted. Furthermore, if a new trial were granted, there would be no possibility of convicting Mooney or Billings." In 1935, he empaneled a grand jury and hired private investigator Edwin Atherton to report on police corruption in the San Francisco Police Department.

Brady presided over numerous high-profile cases in the 1920s and 1930s, including the three Fatty Arbuckle murder trials, and the arrest and roundup of Communists.

In 1936, Brady was D.A. during the infamous sterilization plot charged by Ann Cooper Hewitt, 21-year-old heiress, and daughter of Peter Cooper Hewitt, against her mother, Marion Jeanne Andrews, accused of sterilizing her daughter, Ann, to thwart an inheritance dependent on the young woman having children, in a climate of California Eugenics law, and aided by Dr. Tilton E Tillman and Samuel G. Boyd.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

He was defeated for reelection by Pat Brown in 1943, which was the second time the two had competed for the office.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: . 6 August 1952 . Beloved Jurist Dies in Sleep; Served Public 44 Years . The San Francisco Examiner . San Francisco . 5 March 2024.
  2. Web site: California Eugenics. www.uvm.edu. 19 October 2018.
  3. Currell, Susan, and Christina Cogdell. 2006. Popular Eugenics. Athens: Ohio University Press.
  4. News: The sordid story of the once-popular eugenics movement. Washington Post. 19 October 2018.
  5. Web site: Sterilizing The Heiress. Romeo Vitelli. Providentia. 19 October 2018.
  6. Web site: A new deal for the child: Ann Cooper Hewitt and sterilization in the 1930s. Kline. Wendy. repository.library.georgetown.edu. 19 October 2018.
  7. Web site: EUGENICS IN CALIFORNIA, 1896-1945 by Joseph W. Sokolik. txstate.edu. 19 October 2018.
  8. Book: Kline, Wendy. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom. 21 November 2005. University of California Press. 19 October 2018. Google Books. 9780520246744.
  9. Web site: History. University of Cincinnati. 19 October 2018.
  10. Web site: The Curious Case of Ann Cooper Hewitt . April 2010 . Payne . G.S. . History Magazine .
  11. Book: Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s. Susan. Currell. Christina. Cogdell. 19 October 2018. Ohio University Press. 19 October 2018. Google Books. 9780821416914.
  12. Web site: Kirsten Spicer. "A Nation of Imbeciles": The Human Betterment Foundation's Propaganda for Eugenics Practices in California. Chapman University.. chapman.edu. 19 October 2018.
  13. Web site: American Experience The Eugenics Crusade Premieres Tuesday, October 16 on PBS A Cautionary Tale About the Quest for Human Perfection . 2020-03-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181019063339/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mds9v6K2k0UJ:pressroom.pbs.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2FCA7F190ED076499BA837220EE20E47D3.ashx . 2018-10-19 . live .