James Michael Curley - Mayor of Boston

Mayor of Boston

With the city of Boston turning increasingly Irish American the power of the Irish mob also increased, resulting in the departure of a large number of the city's native American Yankee working and middle class to the suburbs. In turn, Curley's reign as kingpin of the Boston Irish Mob allowed him to win four terms as Mayor of Boston: 1914–1918, 1922–1926, 1930–1934 and 1946–1950.

As a result of the extensive corruption in city politics, and as part of federal and state government efforts to curb the mob, several investigations were finally conducted against Curley's machine. As World War Two got underway, Curley saw an opportunity to expand the Irish mob's influence in the defense industry. After several campaigns involving bribery, Curley finally faced felony indictment. Nonetheless, Curley's popularity with the Irish American community in Boston remained so high, that even in the face of this indictment he was re-elected on the slogan "Curley Gets Things Done" winning an unprecedented fourth term as mayor of Boston in 1945. A second indictment by a federal grand jury, for mail fraud, did not harm his campaign and Curley won the election with 45% of the vote.