Mulrooney for Whalen

Mulrooney for Whalen

Pressed by public dissatisfaction with the handling of the Rothstein murder case (TIME, Dec. 24, 1928), New York City's popular, publicity-loving Mayor James John ("Jimmy") Walker chose not a criminologist but a capable diverter of public opinion to be police commissioner. It was his longtime official greeter of distinguished guests, efficient and immaculate Grover Aloysius ("Gardenia") Whalen, general manager of Wanamaker's Department Store.

Immediately, newsworthy things happened to the police force, topping and eventually extinguishing the Rothstein headlines. Independent of everyone, Commissioner Whalen organized an Air Unit, a training college, a magazine, dressed his men in lapel uniforms with Sam Browne belts, sent them forth to apply new, efficient traffic regulations, and to raid notorious nightclubs. His recent "disclosure" to Congress of "Red" plots in the U. S., put him into the national news. He reduced major crime in the metropolis; at a banquet some 2,000 citizens begged him to remain in office.

However, such individualism as Mr. Whalen's in a Tammany (which means team-play, or machine-play) administration was unusual in New York. Even amid the cheers, newsgatherers scented friction, suggested the dapper mayor was jealous of his Commissioner's sartorial perfection, of his triumphant publicity, his possible eligibility for the mayoralty itself.

Last week newsgatherers were allowed to crowd around a City Hall table behind which stood Commissioner Whalen, police dignitaries and the Mayor. "Now, now," chided Mr. Walker, "this isn't Wanamaker's bargain counter." Then he announced that Mr. Whalen had resigned, was returning to Wanamaker's. In his place was put Assistant Chief Inspector of Detectives Edward Pierce Mulrooney, 57, a tightlipped, hardboiled police officer, who joined the force in 1896, answering an advertisement by then Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt Sr. Said the Mayor to Commissioner Mulrooney: "It was your devotion to duty which led you away from spectacle and sensation that prompted me to select you 'for this position."

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