Patrick Crisp Whitaker (June 29, 1894 – September 14, 1965) was an American defense attorney who served in the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate including as Senate President.[1] He led the defense of six Tampa policemen and the police chief accused of involvement in a deadly 1935 attack on a political group known as the Modern Democrats. His brother-in-law, R.E.L. Chancey was the Mayor of Tampa.[2] His grandson is a lawyer in Sanford, Florida.
He was born in Franklin, Georgia, the eldest of five siblings born to Georgia state legislator Daniel Brittain Whitaker. He graduated with a law degree from Georgetown University in 1915. He set up a law firm in Tampa in 1917.
Whitaker was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1924 and the State Senate in 1926. He was re-elected in 1930 and served as Senate president from 1931 to 1933.[3] He lost his re-election campaign in 1934, but won again in 1938.
Whitaker argued the case Hale v. Bimco Trading, Inc. before the Supreme Court in 1939. The case involved a charge against the Florida State Road Department enforcing a statute regulating cement inspection.[4]
He liked scotch and cigars and was reputed to take out his false teeth during trials. In 1919 he famously got six young men cleared of a fishing violation by contending that since mullet have gizzards they are not fish, but some sort of aquatic fowl. As a result, state fishing regulations were reportedly revised to specifically mention mullet, regardless of whether fish or fowl.[5]