{"id":1312,"date":"2013-10-11T04:01:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T04:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2015-01-09T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T20:36:16","slug":"feb-3-1958-michael-a-musmanno-shouts-i-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/10\/11\/feb-3-1958-michael-a-musmanno-shouts-i-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael A. Musmanno shouts, ‘I will be heard!’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Musmanno <\/a>
Musmanno on the bench at Nuernberg. (Dept. of Defense photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nuernberg <\/a>
Nuernberg courtroom scene, with Musmanno on bench at right. (Dept. of Defense photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Musmanno <\/a>
Musmanno quizzes Hitler secretary Traudl Junge, (Photo credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sword <\/a>
Sword presented to Navy veteran Musmanno, whose ship was sunk during a Nazi air attack. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Musmanno <\/a>
Musmanno relaxes and reads a Lincoln biography. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Following his election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1928, Michael A. Musmanno, 31, became its youngest member.\u00a0When he rose to address his fellow legislators for the first time, the presiding officer mistook him for a trespassing visitor.<\/p>\n

\n

“Are you, sir, a member of this House?” he asked Musmanno.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Speaker, I am,” he replied. “Furthermore, this is the first time and, I believe, the last time you will ever be in doubt of that.”<\/p>\n

That anecdote, showing both his self-confidence and his sense of humor, was one of many included in\u00a0Musmanno\u2019s\u00a0obituary in The Pittsburgh Press. It appeared Oct. 13, 1968, the day after his death at 71 from the effects of a stroke.<\/p>\n

In an\u00a0Oct. 14<\/span><\/span>\u00a0editorial, the Post-Gazette described him as \u201cone of the state\u2019s most colorful and controversial public figures [who] brought to every major public issue a passionate, if at times quixotic, concern for the underdog,\u201d<\/p>\n

A lifelong bachelor, he appeared to be married, in equal parts, to the law and to the limelight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As a young lawyer, he was part of the defense team that worked on ultimately unsuccessful appeals of the death sentences imposed on anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the 1920s. As a state legislator and as an author, he led the successful fight to ban the Coal & Iron Police, a private law-enforcement force accused of terrorizing workers. His efforts in that cause included writing a short story that became the basis for a 1935 Hollywood movie called \u201cBlack Fury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

After service with the U.S. Navy during World War II, he became a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremburg Trials.\u00a0Many years later, he was a prosecution witness during the trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann, who oversaw the deportation of Jews to death camps, was convicted for his role in carrying out the Holocaust and hanged in 1962.<\/p>\n

He served on the state Supreme Court from 1952 until his death in 1968.<\/p>\n

His flamboyant behavior regularly drew the attention of Pittsburgh reporters. In December 1936, for example, he issued an opinion backing the existence of Santa Claus, Jack Frost and Cupid. The Bulletin Index, a weekly journal of Pittsburgh society events and cultural commentary, described his courtroom activities as \u201cMusmanntics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He drew some of his biggest Pittsburgh headlines during the winter of 1936-37 when, as criminal court president judge for Allegheny County, he led a crusade against drunken driving. During his tenure in that position, everyone convicted of that offense went to jail, usually for 30 days.<\/p>\n

\n

A conservative Democrat, he was staunchly anti-communist during the Cold War of the 1950s and 1960s. He supported requiring loyalty oaths for public employees and backed measures to outlaw the Communist Party in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Among his dozen books was \u201cColumbus Was First,\u201d in which he argued against now generally accepted claims that Vikings had preceded the Italian navigator as the first Europeans to set foot in the New World. \u201c[N]othing aroused his volatile Italian temper so much as any claim that Christopher Columbus did not discover America,\u201d Post-Gazette reporter James Fetzer wrote on Oct. 14, 1968.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Musmanno\u00a0had been picked to be Grand Marshal of Pittsburgh\u2019s 1968 Columbus Day Parade. When the \u201cusually punctual\u201d justice did not show up for work on the day before the march, police were sent to his apartment in what is now Point Park University\u2019s Lawrence Hall. Officers found him unconscious, and he was taken to Mercy Hospital where he died on Columbus Day,\u00a0Oct. 12<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following his election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1928, Michael A. Musmanno, 31, became its youngest member.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesMichael A. Musmanno shouts, ‘I will be heard!’<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1066],"tags":[961],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/tumblr_mugimgZkEE1rr5swxo5_1280.jpg?fit=1087%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2380,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/10\/24\/oct-29-1929-if-stock-market-investors-thought\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":0},"title":"The Great Crash of 1929","date":"October 24, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"W.W. 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