In Boston: Confronting a Curley $65,000 Question

Do others or they will do you," was one of his mottos, and it was said that he won the 1921 election against fellow Roman Catholic John R. Murphy by accusing Murphy of eating a roast-beef sandwich, on a Friday, at a restaurant named Thompson's Spa. But many of Boston's Irish and Italians loved James Michael Curley for his charm and his chicanery, as well as for the free hand he had with public funds on behalf of the poor. Curley was famous for having insisted that the scrubwomen in city hall be given...