Waterbury Wash-Up

In 1930, hustling, industrial Waterbury, Conn, (watches, chemicals, brass) thought it was rid at last of a corrupt Democratic regime which had ridden it since 1921. Into the mayor's office marched a silver-haired bigboy named Thomas Frank Hayes, a Democrat of good family and much property who had made a name for himself in the Legislature. With him marched his friends Daniel J. Leary as comptroller and Thomas P. Kelly as executive secretary. They got a new "strong mayor" charter for the city instead of a city-manager plan, which had nearly been adopted. Taxes went up, relief necessitated a $2,000,000 bond issue, but the books of Mayor Hayes & Co. looked fine. Mr. Hayes got elected Lieutenant Governor in 1934 but retained his mayoral job just the same.

By 1936, Waterbury's newspapers, the Republican and American, smelled large rats. They campaigned to have Hayes & Co.'s books examined closely. When Comptroller Leary failed (by 33 votes) to get re-elected in 1937, the coalition man who replaced him soon found the rats: fat fees to favored contractors, inexplicable withdrawals from the city treasury, garbled records, false audits.

State's Attorney Hugh Mead Alcorn, the man who helped send famed Murderer Gerald Chapman to the gallows, was called in. Hayes & Co. were arraigned by a Grand Jury in 1938 on a blanket charge of conspiracy to loot Waterbury of better than $1,000,000. Last week a jury of Connecticut laborers, farmers and housewives, after a trial that had lasted nearly eight months (TIME, Dec. 26), finally cogitated the conduct of Hayes & Co. Eager crowds, including Cinemactress Rosalind Russell (home from Hollywood on vacation), packed in and around the courtroom to hear the verdict: "Guilty." Tears filled the hard eyes of Boss Hayes, 56. "It was in the cards," he gulped, but he strode out of court with his chin up. State's Attorney Alcorn broke his 30-year precedent of not commenting on verdicts. Said he: "No Connecticut jury has ever rendered a greater public service."

Summoned back to court early this week, the convicted men heard their fate: Mayor Hayes (who has not yet resigned) and Friend Leary, ten to 15 years in jail; for Aide Kelly, seven to twelve years.

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