homerscummings

US Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Stille_Cummings

pennylrichardsca: Thank you for the Wikipedia article to more information about US Attorney General Cummings. The photo in the article shows him at a later date. We will add more information to the image description when we update.

There is another Bain/LOC photograph of Homer S. Cummings here:

William H. Brennan (1865-1923), Chief of Police, Stamford, Connecticut, testified for the prosecution in the manslaughter trial of Mrs. Helen M. Angle in March, 1915. She was charged with causing the death of her friend Waldo R. Ballou in 1914. "Helen" and (Chief) "Bill" were on a first-name basis before the alleged murder, as she was the daughter of a former Stamford city councilman. William Brennan was appointed Chief in 1905 by then Mayor Homer S. Cummings. Cummings led the prosecution of Helen Angle as State's Attorney for Fairfield County. Waldo Ballou, the victim, was was a friend of Helen's father, and a leading Republican politician and Stamford business man. Waldo had served on the Stamford Police Committee from 1901-1904, and was appointed by the Stamford City Council. [1] [2] For more details of the trial see the Bain/LOC photo of Mrs. Helen Angle on Flickr. Note: For caption clarity ;-)  William Brennan was the Chief of Police in Stamford, (S't'm'f'd ?) Connecticut, where the victim died, and Helen Angle lived. The trial took place in the Superior Court of neighboring Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is the county seat, and is likely where this photo was taken -- and why "Bridgeport' (well, "B'd'g'p't") is in the caption.

Thanks for the clarification Pixel Wrangler. I'll talk to our catalogers and see if we can add a note to our record to clear up where he worked.

Connecticut State Attorney Homer Stille Cummings (1870-1956) prosecuted Mrs. Helen M. Angle in her March, 1915, trial for manslaughter in the death of her friend Waldo R. Ballou in Stamford, Connecticut in June, 1914. Cummings was assisted at trial by Albert Phillips of Stamford, former secretary of state for Connecticut (1913-1915).

Homer Cummings was appointed State's Attorney for Fairfield County, Connecticut, on July 1, 1914, and his first official act was to take up the inquiry into the death of Waldo Ballou. Cummings served as State's Attorney for ten years from 1914 to 1924.

The Government did not prevail in its case against Helen Angle. For more details of the Helen Angle trial see the Bain/LOC photo of Mrs. Helen Angle on Flickr.

 
In 1893, Cummings graduated from Yale Law School in New Haven. He was elected mayor of Stamford, Connecticut three times from 1900-1906. As mayor, in 1905, Cummings appointed William H. Brennan as Chief of Police for Stamford. Brennan would later investigate the case against Helen Angle and testify against her.

Homer Cummings founded the legal firm of Cummings & Lockwood in 1909. He later served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1919 and 1920. He went on to serve as United States Attorney General for Franklin Roosevelt from 1933 to 1939.

"In 1947 Hollywood made a motion picture called "Boomerang" about Cumming's early career as a prosecutor in Connecticut. This was a sensational murder case that also included a dramatic courtroom scene where Cummings had a live gun aimed at his head at a certain angle and fired. This was to show that the gun could indeed fire but not at the angle a witness said it was used. In this trial Cummings also turned around to prove the man he was prosecuting was innocent after he found evidence to that effect. "Boomerang" became a landmark motion picture for its fully dramatic but documentary style where Cummings real name was not announced till the end of the film which starred Dana Andrews as Cummings"  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

 
There is another Bain/LOC photograph of Homer S. Cummings here: