Vincent Hallinan

Vincent Hallinan (December 16, 1896 – October 2, 1992) was an American lawyer and candidate for President of the United States in the 1952 election on the Progressive Party ticket.

Vincent Hallinan
Personal details
BornDecember 16, 1896
San Francisco, California
DiedOctober 2, 1992 (aged 95)
San Francisco, California
Political partyProgressive
Children3, including Terence
Alma materSaint Ignatius College

Early life and education

Hallinan was born into a large immigrant Irish Catholic family in San Francisco. The son of Elizabeth (Sheehan) and Patrick Hallinan, he was raised in the city and in Petaluma, California.[1] His father was said to be a member of the Irish National Invincibles, a revolutionary organization that, among other activities, was reputed to have assassinated the Chief Secretary for Ireland and his secretary in 1881 (the infamous Phoenix Park Murders). Allegedly, the elder Hallinan had fled to the U.S. after the murders. The elder Hallinan became a streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and was one of the leaders of the Great Front Strike of 1899–1900.[2]

Trained by Jesuits in high school,[3] Hallinan passed the California Bar at the age of 22, after studies at Saint Ignatius College and Law School, (now the University of San Francisco). He passed the California Bar Exam on the first time and before he had graduated from law school. He was a militant atheist.[4]

Career

Hallinan's early successes in court included personal injury actions against the powerful Market Street Railway Company which ran most of the trolley lines on the streets of San Francisco and was a subsidiary of northern California rail interests. The rail company also owned the system whereby jurors' lists were kept and consulted by an appointed jury commissioner, in Hallinan's time an official of the railway, and he fought against this system for years before state law made the voter rolls the sole source of jurors.

Hallinan's years as a lawyer led to his selection in 1949, with a partner James Martin McInnis, to defend Harry Bridges of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on perjury charges arising from accusations that he had once been a Communist but had denied it.

After the trial, Hallinan spent six months in McNeil Island Prison for a contempt citation during the high-profile Bridges trial. He was subsequently disbarred by the State Bar of California but fought appealed his disbarment after his release from jail.

Hallinan ran for President of the United States in the 1952 election, as the candidate for Henry Wallace's Progressive Party and was the third highest polling candidate in the election receiving more than 140,000 votes.[5] His running mate, Charlotta A. Bass, was the first African American chosen by a party as a vice-presidential candidate.[5]

In 1953, he and his wife, Vivian (Moore),[6] were indicted on 14 counts of tax evasion. After a three-week trial, on November 14, 1953, Vincent was convicted on five counts of tax evasion, for evading $36,739 in federal income taxes after he reported only 20% of his income from 1947 to 1950. On December 8, 1953, he was sentenced to 18 months and a fine of $50,000 plus costs.[7] Vivian was acquitted.

Vincent visited U-2 pilot Gary Powers in Moscow soon after Powers’ conviction in the Soviet Union for espionage. He encouraged Gary to "study the Communist form of government, stating it was a "remarkable system...realizing the American system had grave flaws", and if he were to study it Gary "would learn a great deal."[8]

In his 1963 autobiography, Hallinan claimed that he was prosecuted by the IRS for his political views, and that the government did not differentiate between tax avoidance (legal) and tax evasion. Also in his autobiography he argued for prison reform and in favor of treating drug addiction as a medical condition and providing clean maintenance drugs to addicts, and legalizing prostitution; and against laws forbidding private consensual sex, contraception and abortion, and against imperialism and American foreign policy.[3]

Personal life

Hallinan was the father of writer Conn M. Hallinan, San Francisco attorney Patrick Hallinan, and politician Terence Hallinan. He had several grandchildren.

References
  1. "Current Biography Yearbook". H. W. Wilson Company. August 14, 1953 – via Google Books.
  2. Hallinan, Conn M. Vincent Hallinan, Irish History Grand Marshal's Journal.
  3. Hallinan, Vincent. A Lion in Court: The Uninhibited Autobiography of America's Most Controversial Lawyer. New York: Putnam, 1963. OCLC 1350083
  4. "He also served a two-year sentence for tax evasion in the 1950s, ran for US president for the Progressive Party, made a great deal of money, and as a militant atheist once pinned down a Catholic archbishop during cross-examination, forcing him to confess he could not prove Heaven existed." Christopher Reed, 'Obituary: Vincent Hallinan, A Brawler for Justice', The Guardian (London), October 6, 1992, Pg. 33.
  5. Karimi, Faith (2020-08-14). "More than half a century before Kamala Harris ran for Vice President, this Black woman did". CNN. Retrieved 2020-08-14.
  6. Lambert, Bruce (October 4, 1992). "Vincent Hallinan Is Dead at 95; An Innovative Lawyer With Flair" – via NYTimes.com.
  7. "Three-Time Loser", Time, New York, March 21, 1953.
  8. Powers, Francis (2004). Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 162–163. ISBN 9781574884227.

Further reading
  • Hallinan, Vivian, and Hallinan, Vincent (1960). A clash of cultures; Some contrasts in American and Soviet morals and manners. San Francisco: American Russian Institute. Foreword by Holland Roberts. Illus. with photos. 72 pp. OCLC 4398714
  • Hallinan, Vivian (1952). My Wild Irish Rogues Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY.

Walsh, James P. (1937- ). San Francisco's Hallinan: Toughest Lawyer in Town. Presidio Press, Novato, CA. Illus., 270 pp.

Party political offices
Preceded by
Henry A. Wallace		 Progressive Party nominee for
President of the United States
1952		 Succeeded by
None
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