Samuel J. Foley (1891 – May 14, 1951) was the

Bronx County District Attorney The Bronx County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for Bronx County, which is coterminous with the Borough of the Bronx, in New York City. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. (Fed ...

from 1933 to 1949, and a

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

County Court judge from 1949 until his death.

Early life

Foley was born on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. His father, also named Samuel J. Foley, was a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

from 1891 to 1895 and the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

from 1896 to 1906. The younger Foley graduated from

Manual Training High School The John Jay Educational Campus is a New York City Department of Education facility at 237 Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. Formerly the location of John Jay High School (origina ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and later graduated from

Georgetown University Law School The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and t ...

in 1914, where he was also quarterback of the football team and captain of the basketball team. He served in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was discharged as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Professional career

In 1924, Foley was named an assistant district attorney in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

by District Attorney

Edward J. Glennon Edward J. Glennon (November 4, 1884 – September 6, 1956) was the Bronx County District Attorney from 1920 to 1923, and a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in 1920 and from 1924 to 1954. Early life Glennon was born in Littleton, ...

, and participated in the extradition of

Bruno Hauptmann Bruno Richard Hauptmann (November 26, 1899 – April 3, 1936) was a German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnap ...

in the

Lindbergh baby kidnapping On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields, in East Amwe ...

case. When

Charles B. McLaughlin Charles B. McLaughlin (1884 – December 8, 1947) was the Bronx County District Attorney from 1930 to 1933 and a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1933 until his death in 1948. Early years McLaughlin was born on the Lower E ...

, who succeeded Glennon, resigned as

to become a

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

justice in March 1933,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Governor

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 194 ...

appointed Foley as the replacement. In his first election to the district attorney office in November 1933, Foley ran on the Democratic and Recovery Party lines, although he had previously been a Democrat. He won the election easily, and was subsequently re-elected three more times. In 1945, he was president of the District Attorneys Association of New York State. In a deal that was made in 1948 to create a fourth judgeship position on the Bronx County bench the following year, Judge Samuel Joseph, a Republican who was up for re-election for his judge position, obtained the endorsement of both the Republican and Democratic parties in the Bronx, with the understanding that in the following year, the Democratic nominee would also get the Republican nomination. That nominee was Foley. He won the election handily, and took office on December 23, 1949.

Death

Foley died of an unspecified brief stomach ailment in Union Hospital in the Bronx on May 14, 1951, and was survived by his wife Grace née McLaughlin; three children, Samuel J. Jr., Margaret Florence, and Michael; and a sister, Mrs. Margaret Hughes. On the day of his funeral, an estimated 10,000 people lined the streets from his home at 2201 Andrews Avenue to Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church at 1940 University Avenue, where the funeral was held. He is buried at

Gate of Heaven Cemetery Gate of Heaven Cemetery, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City, was established in 1917 at 10 West Stevens Ave. in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, as a Roman Catholic burial site. Among its famous residents is b ...

Valhalla, New York Valhalla is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name was in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Samuel J. 1891 births 1951 deaths Lawyers from New York City New York (state) Democrats Bronx County District Attorneys Georgetown University Law Center alumni 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Hawthorne, New York) People from the Lower East Side