Max F. Schmittberger
Maximillian F. Schmittberger | |
|---|---|
Chief police inspector for the New York City Police Department; his testimony before the Lexow Committee helped expose police corruption within the NYPD. | |
| Spouse |
Sarah Golden (m. 1873–1905) |
| Children | 8 |
Maximilian Frances Schmittberger (July 27, 1851 – October 31, 1917) was an American
Biography
Schmittberger was born in Würzburg in the Kingdom of Bavaria on July 27, 1851.[3] Four years after his birth, his family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. He was educated in public schools and was employed in two or three other occupations prior to joining the Municipal Police Department on January 8, 1874. He reportedly had "a quiet demeanor and dislike of publicity", traits which he held from his days as a patrolman until his last days on the force. He gradually rose through the ranks becoming a roundsman on April 2, 1880, a sergeant on March 6, 1883, and a captain on December 8, 1890.[1]
He was assigned to the "Broadway squad" during the 1870s and 1880s where he and John Price became closely associated with the then head of the Tenderloin district Captain Alexander "Clubber" Williams. Schmittberger later testified before the Lexow Committee, agreeing to turn state's evidence, and implicated a number of high-level police officials involved in police corruption. Among these officials included Williams, now a police inspector, who Schmittberger claimed he had collected bribe money from gambling resorts and brothels, amounting to between $180–200 a month, then turning the money over to Williams.[4] He also claimed to have carried out similar activity during his involvement with the "steamboat squad" and in other posts. Schmittberger was the only police official to emerge unscathed from the Lexow inquiry; his former colleagues were either allowed to retire or were dismissed from the force, and was called a "squealer" by members of the NYPD.[1]
On May 2, 1903, Schmittberger was finally made a police inspector by Commissioner
In mid-August 1917, he became ill and received a six-month leave of absence from the force. Although it was presumed his condition was improving, he caught a severe cold two months later after leaving his home. His cold quickly turned into pneumonia and he died at his East 61st Street home on the night of October 31, 1917. His seven children, six sons and one daughter, were at his bedside at the time of his death. Upon news of his death, the flags of all the police stations in New York were ordered to be lowered to half-mast and remained so until his funeral.[1]
References
- ^ New York Times. November 1, 1917. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
Max F. Schmittberger, Chief Inspector of the Police Department of the City of New York since 1909 and the principal survivor of Lexow's fight against Tammany to end graft twenty-three years ago, died last night of pneumonia at ...
- New York Times. October 12, 1894. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
- better source needed]
- ISBN 1-56025-275-8
- New York Times. August 1, 1905. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
Further reading
- Costello, Augustine E. Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. New York: A.E. Costello, 1885.
- Garcia, Robert The Descendants of Max F. Schmittberger Chief Inspector of the NYPD. 2008.
- Marcuse, Maxwell F. This Was New York!: A Nostalgic Picture of Gotham in the Gaslight Era. New York: LIM Press, 1969.
- Morris, Lloyd R. Incredible New York: High Life and Low Life of the Last Hundred Years. New York: Random House, 1951.
- Stead, William Thomas. "Satan's Invisible World Displayed, Or, Despairing Democracy: A Study of Greater New York". Politics and People: The Ordeal of Self-Government. New York: Arno Press Inc, 1974. ISBN 0-405-05901-9
- H. Paul Jeffers". Commissioner Roosevelt The Story Of Theodore Roosevelt and the New York City Police. 1895 - 1897" John Wiley & Sons. Inc. 1994. ISBN 0-471-14570-X