Scandals in Presidential History: David Walsh
There have always been gay politician throughout history. Prior to the last part of the 20th century, it was typical for these men to remain closeted and to keep their private lives private. The subject was off limits to the media, even when the politician's sexual preference was common knowledge. Occasionally the politician's private life became public knowledge if he happened to come to the attention of law enforcement. This is how Massachusetts Senator David Walsh was outed, when his name became implicated in a sensational sex and spy scandal uncovered at a Brooklyn male brothel for U.S. Navy personnel that had been infiltrated by Nazi spies.
David Ignatius Walsh was born in November 11, 1872 in Leominster, Massachusetts, the 9th of 10 children. He practiced law in Boston after graduating from the Boston University School of Law. Walsh served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1900 and 1901. On his second attempt he won election as the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1912, becoming the state's first Democratic lieutenant governor in seventy years. He served as governor of the state from 1914 to 1916 and won election to the Senate in 1918. He lost his re-election bid in 1924, but returned to the Senate when he won the 1926 special election to succeed Henry Cabot Lodge.
Walsh was an isolationist who was opposed to an activist government. He supported Al Smith over Franklin D. Roosevelt at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. Although both men were Democrats, Walsh gave lukewarm support to FDR's agenda.
Walsh was flamboyant, with a loud personaluty. A 1929 profile in Time magazine described him viewpoint on Prohibition, saying that he voted for the Jones Act of 1929 that increased penalties for the violation of Prohibition, but said Walsh "votes Wet, drinks Wet". It went on to describe Walsh as follows:
"A bachelor, he is tall and stout. A double chin tends to get out over his tight-fitting collar. His stomach bulges over his belt. He weighs 200 lbs. or more. Setting-up exercises every other day at a Washington health centre have failed to reduce his girth. He is troubled about it. His dress is dandified. He wears silk shirts in bright colors and stripes and, often, stiff collars to match. His feet are small and well-shod. Beneath his habitual derby hat his hair is turning thin and grey. Society is his prime diversion. Of secondary interest are motoring, sporting events, the theatre. In Washington he occupies an expensive suite of rooms at the luxurious Carlton Hotel on 16th Street. A good and frequent host himself, he accepts all invitations out, is one of the most lionized Senators in Washington."
The Time magazine store contrasted Walsh's political populism and his luxurious life style, describing his abilities as a speaker, as being a "gruff and bull-voiced debater" but that "in private conversation his voice is soft and controlled." The article went on to state that "His political philosophy is liberal and humane, except on economic matters (the tariff) which affect the New England industry, when he turns conservative. His floor attendance is regular, his powers of persuasion, fair."
Walsh won reelection in 1928, 1934 and 1940. In the Senate he held the posts of chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor and of the Committee on Naval Affairs. In 1932, he supported Al Smith against FDR for the Democratic nomination for president. When FDR picked Alabama Justice Hugo Black for the Supreme Court, Walsh criticized Black's failure to disclose his earlier membership in the Ku Klux Klan. He strongly supported the appointed of Justice Louis Brandeis, a longtime friend, to the court.
Though both men were Democrats, Walsh was a minimalist when it came to the size of government. He reluctantly supported President Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. In 1936, when some Democrats looked for an alternative presidential candidate, Walsh reluctantly supported Roosevelt, although he conceded that their relations were not good. One Boston newspaper wrote of Walsh, "he dissents from many of the policies of the New Deal, but he will stay on the reservation".
In 1937, he openly broke with Roosevelt and declared himself an opponent of the administration. He joined the opposition to FDR's plan to enlarge the Supreme Court and gave a speech at New York City's Carnegie Hall, making the case for the separation of powers, judicial independence, and the proper role of the executive. He accused Roosevelt of seeking "to destroy, the judicial independence of the Supreme Court".
Walsh was a vocal critic of antisemitism in Nazi Germany. But he was also a consistent isolationist. He supported American neutrality and was opposed to the American alliance with the United Kingdom. Speaking in the Senate on June 21, 1940, he criticized Roosevelt's plans to provide armaments to Great Britain.
At the 1940 Democratic National Convention, Walsh supported James Farley for president and not FDR. He and his fellow isolationist Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana proposed a plank for the party platform that read: "We will not participate in foreign wars and we will not send our army or navy or air force to fight in foreign lands outside of the Americas." When Roosevelt added the words "except in case of attack", they accepted the change. After the 1940 election in particular, he opposed any action that would compromise American neutrality. Walsh resiled from this position following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
The New York Post was a newspaper which had called for U.S. involvement in the European conflict. On May 7, 1942, the Post implicated Walsh in a sensational sex and spy scandal that centered around activity at a Brooklyn male brothel for U.S. Navy personnel. The Post alleged that the brothel had been infiltrated by Nazi spies. The charges went unreported by the rest of the press, but news of Walsh's implication soon became known through word of mouth made it. A police operation led to the arrest and conviction of three foreign agents. The brothel's owner-operator, Gustave Beekman, was promised leniency for his cooperation with the police. Despite this, Beekman received the maximum sentence of 20 years for sodomy and was not released from prison until 1963.
In the Post story, it was alleged that Walsh was a homosexual, and was a patron of the male bordello. It implied that he was a possible blackmail victim of these enemy agents. The Post did not immediately name Walsh, when it first broke news of the scandal. Over the course of several weeks it hinted an important person was involved, who it referred to as "Senator X", but it later identified Walsh by name.
Beekman, the brothel's owner, and several others arrested in the police raid, identified Walsh to the police as "Doc," a regular client. Walsh was not arrested in the raid. Beekman said that Walsh's visits ended just before police surveillance began. When President Franklin Roosevelt was told of the allegations, he told his advisors that he believed the charge that Walsh was homosexual was true. He told Vice President Henry Wallace and Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley that "everyone knew" about Walsh's homosexuality.
Although he did not discuss details, Walsh issued a brief statement calling the story "a diabolical lie". He also called for a full investigation. He then conducted his usual Senate business without reference to the charges. An FBI investigation produced no evidence to support the New York Post's specific charges against the Senator, though it accumulated a lot of rumor and innuendo implicating Walsh.
On May 20, 1942, with a full report from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in hand, Senator Alben Barkley addressed the Senate at length on the Post story. He called the New York Post "irresponsible". Barkley also praise the rest of the press for it's laudable restrain. He referred to the details of the FBI's report, and called for the Senate's affirmation of Walsh's "unsullied" reputation. Barkley did not file the FBI report in the Congressional Record, he said, "because it contains disgusting and unprintable things". But he did say that the report contained no evidence that Walsh ever "visited a 'house of degradation' to connive or to consort with, or to converse with, or to conspire with anyone who is the enemy of the United States". Barkley provided no specifics about the sexual activity at issue and said the details of the charges were "too loathsome to mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen".
Isolationist senators claimed that the charges were a thinly veiled attack on their political position. Senator Bennett Clark asserted that Morris Ernst, attorney for the New York Post, had contacted the White House trying to engage the administration in a smear of a fellow isolationist. Senator Gerald Nye went so far to claim that the incident represented a larger effort on the part of a "secret society" that for two years had been trying to discredit him and his fellow isolationists.
In response to Barkley's speech, the Post repeated its charges. It concluded its coverage: "The known facts made only one thing indisputable: either a serious scandal was being hushed up or a really diabolical libel had been perpetrated."
In 1945, Walsh voted in favor of the United Nations Charter. He was one of a group of twelve senators who protested the failure of the United Nations to invite a Jewish delegation to its founding San Francisco Conference.
The scandal resulted in a loss of support at home foe Walsh. In 1946 he lost his bid for re-election to Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the son of the man that he succeeded. Walsh never married, and he never acknowledged his sexuality. In the 1960s, former Attorney General Francis Biddle described Walsh as "an elderly politician with a soft tread and low, colorless voice whose concealed and controlled anxieties not altogether centered on retaining his job." Gore Vidal, interviewed in 1974, claimed that "There wasn't anybody in Massachusetts who didn't know what David Walsh was up to.
Upon his retirement from political office, Walsh resided in Clinton, Massachusetts, until his death following a cerebral hemorrhage in Boston on June 11, 1947. Walsh is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Clinton.
David Ignatius Walsh was born in November 11, 1872 in Leominster, Massachusetts, the 9th of 10 children. He practiced law in Boston after graduating from the Boston University School of Law. Walsh served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1900 and 1901. On his second attempt he won election as the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1912, becoming the state's first Democratic lieutenant governor in seventy years. He served as governor of the state from 1914 to 1916 and won election to the Senate in 1918. He lost his re-election bid in 1924, but returned to the Senate when he won the 1926 special election to succeed Henry Cabot Lodge.
Walsh was an isolationist who was opposed to an activist government. He supported Al Smith over Franklin D. Roosevelt at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. Although both men were Democrats, Walsh gave lukewarm support to FDR's agenda.
Walsh was flamboyant, with a loud personaluty. A 1929 profile in Time magazine described him viewpoint on Prohibition, saying that he voted for the Jones Act of 1929 that increased penalties for the violation of Prohibition, but said Walsh "votes Wet, drinks Wet". It went on to describe Walsh as follows:
"A bachelor, he is tall and stout. A double chin tends to get out over his tight-fitting collar. His stomach bulges over his belt. He weighs 200 lbs. or more. Setting-up exercises every other day at a Washington health centre have failed to reduce his girth. He is troubled about it. His dress is dandified. He wears silk shirts in bright colors and stripes and, often, stiff collars to match. His feet are small and well-shod. Beneath his habitual derby hat his hair is turning thin and grey. Society is his prime diversion. Of secondary interest are motoring, sporting events, the theatre. In Washington he occupies an expensive suite of rooms at the luxurious Carlton Hotel on 16th Street. A good and frequent host himself, he accepts all invitations out, is one of the most lionized Senators in Washington."
The Time magazine store contrasted Walsh's political populism and his luxurious life style, describing his abilities as a speaker, as being a "gruff and bull-voiced debater" but that "in private conversation his voice is soft and controlled." The article went on to state that "His political philosophy is liberal and humane, except on economic matters (the tariff) which affect the New England industry, when he turns conservative. His floor attendance is regular, his powers of persuasion, fair."
Walsh won reelection in 1928, 1934 and 1940. In the Senate he held the posts of chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor and of the Committee on Naval Affairs. In 1932, he supported Al Smith against FDR for the Democratic nomination for president. When FDR picked Alabama Justice Hugo Black for the Supreme Court, Walsh criticized Black's failure to disclose his earlier membership in the Ku Klux Klan. He strongly supported the appointed of Justice Louis Brandeis, a longtime friend, to the court.
Though both men were Democrats, Walsh was a minimalist when it came to the size of government. He reluctantly supported President Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. In 1936, when some Democrats looked for an alternative presidential candidate, Walsh reluctantly supported Roosevelt, although he conceded that their relations were not good. One Boston newspaper wrote of Walsh, "he dissents from many of the policies of the New Deal, but he will stay on the reservation".
In 1937, he openly broke with Roosevelt and declared himself an opponent of the administration. He joined the opposition to FDR's plan to enlarge the Supreme Court and gave a speech at New York City's Carnegie Hall, making the case for the separation of powers, judicial independence, and the proper role of the executive. He accused Roosevelt of seeking "to destroy, the judicial independence of the Supreme Court".
Walsh was a vocal critic of antisemitism in Nazi Germany. But he was also a consistent isolationist. He supported American neutrality and was opposed to the American alliance with the United Kingdom. Speaking in the Senate on June 21, 1940, he criticized Roosevelt's plans to provide armaments to Great Britain.
At the 1940 Democratic National Convention, Walsh supported James Farley for president and not FDR. He and his fellow isolationist Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana proposed a plank for the party platform that read: "We will not participate in foreign wars and we will not send our army or navy or air force to fight in foreign lands outside of the Americas." When Roosevelt added the words "except in case of attack", they accepted the change. After the 1940 election in particular, he opposed any action that would compromise American neutrality. Walsh resiled from this position following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
The New York Post was a newspaper which had called for U.S. involvement in the European conflict. On May 7, 1942, the Post implicated Walsh in a sensational sex and spy scandal that centered around activity at a Brooklyn male brothel for U.S. Navy personnel. The Post alleged that the brothel had been infiltrated by Nazi spies. The charges went unreported by the rest of the press, but news of Walsh's implication soon became known through word of mouth made it. A police operation led to the arrest and conviction of three foreign agents. The brothel's owner-operator, Gustave Beekman, was promised leniency for his cooperation with the police. Despite this, Beekman received the maximum sentence of 20 years for sodomy and was not released from prison until 1963.
In the Post story, it was alleged that Walsh was a homosexual, and was a patron of the male bordello. It implied that he was a possible blackmail victim of these enemy agents. The Post did not immediately name Walsh, when it first broke news of the scandal. Over the course of several weeks it hinted an important person was involved, who it referred to as "Senator X", but it later identified Walsh by name.
Beekman, the brothel's owner, and several others arrested in the police raid, identified Walsh to the police as "Doc," a regular client. Walsh was not arrested in the raid. Beekman said that Walsh's visits ended just before police surveillance began. When President Franklin Roosevelt was told of the allegations, he told his advisors that he believed the charge that Walsh was homosexual was true. He told Vice President Henry Wallace and Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley that "everyone knew" about Walsh's homosexuality.
Although he did not discuss details, Walsh issued a brief statement calling the story "a diabolical lie". He also called for a full investigation. He then conducted his usual Senate business without reference to the charges. An FBI investigation produced no evidence to support the New York Post's specific charges against the Senator, though it accumulated a lot of rumor and innuendo implicating Walsh.
On May 20, 1942, with a full report from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in hand, Senator Alben Barkley addressed the Senate at length on the Post story. He called the New York Post "irresponsible". Barkley also praise the rest of the press for it's laudable restrain. He referred to the details of the FBI's report, and called for the Senate's affirmation of Walsh's "unsullied" reputation. Barkley did not file the FBI report in the Congressional Record, he said, "because it contains disgusting and unprintable things". But he did say that the report contained no evidence that Walsh ever "visited a 'house of degradation' to connive or to consort with, or to converse with, or to conspire with anyone who is the enemy of the United States". Barkley provided no specifics about the sexual activity at issue and said the details of the charges were "too loathsome to mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen".
Isolationist senators claimed that the charges were a thinly veiled attack on their political position. Senator Bennett Clark asserted that Morris Ernst, attorney for the New York Post, had contacted the White House trying to engage the administration in a smear of a fellow isolationist. Senator Gerald Nye went so far to claim that the incident represented a larger effort on the part of a "secret society" that for two years had been trying to discredit him and his fellow isolationists.
In response to Barkley's speech, the Post repeated its charges. It concluded its coverage: "The known facts made only one thing indisputable: either a serious scandal was being hushed up or a really diabolical libel had been perpetrated."
In 1945, Walsh voted in favor of the United Nations Charter. He was one of a group of twelve senators who protested the failure of the United Nations to invite a Jewish delegation to its founding San Francisco Conference.
The scandal resulted in a loss of support at home foe Walsh. In 1946 he lost his bid for re-election to Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the son of the man that he succeeded. Walsh never married, and he never acknowledged his sexuality. In the 1960s, former Attorney General Francis Biddle described Walsh as "an elderly politician with a soft tread and low, colorless voice whose concealed and controlled anxieties not altogether centered on retaining his job." Gore Vidal, interviewed in 1974, claimed that "There wasn't anybody in Massachusetts who didn't know what David Walsh was up to.
Upon his retirement from political office, Walsh resided in Clinton, Massachusetts, until his death following a cerebral hemorrhage in Boston on June 11, 1947. Walsh is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Clinton.