American Political Bosses from New Jersey - Frank Hague, Joe Ferriero, Enoch L. Johnson, Frank S. Farley, Leon Abbett, John A. Lynch, JR. (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Frank Hague, Joe Ferriero, Enoch L. Johnson, Frank S. Farley, Leon Abbett, John A. Lynch, Jr., Raymond Lesniak, George Norcross Iii. Excerpt: Nucky Johnson Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson (January 20, 1883 December 9, 1968) was an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss and racketeer. From 1911 until his imprisonment in 1941, he was the undisputed "boss" of the Republican political machine that controlled the Atlantic City and Atlantic County governments. His rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties, when Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity. The organization he led was also involved in bootlegging during Prohibition, gambling and prostitution, and he derived substantial income from those activities. Biography Nucky Johnson was born January 20, 1883 in Galloway Township to Smith E. and Virginia (Higbee) Johnson. His nickname "Nucky" was derived from the name Enoch. In 1886, Smith E. Johnson (1853 1917) was elected sheriff of Atlantic County for a three year term, and the family moved to Mays Landing, the county seat. Since the sheriff could not succeed himself, Smith Johnson spent the next two decades alternating between terms as sheriff and undersheriff. When he was not the sheriff living in Mays Landing, Smith Johnson was undersheriff and lived in Atlantic City. Smith Johnson was, along with Atlantic County Clerk Lewis P. Scott (1854 1907) and Congressman John J. Gardner, a member of the three-man group that dominated the governments of Atlantic City and Atlantic County prior to the rise to power of Louis Kuehnle. In 1905, Nucky Johnson became his father s undersheriff, and in 1906 he married his teenage sweetheart, Mabel Jeffries of Mays Landing. In 1908 he was elected sheriff when his father s term expired, a position he held until ousted by a court order in 1911...