Early Life
Rudolph Giuliani was born in an Italian-American enclave in East Flatbush in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the only child of working-class parents, Harold Angelo Giuliani (1908–1981) and Helen (née D'Avanzo; 1909–2002), both first-generation Americans, children of Italian immigrants. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Harold Giuliani had trouble holding a job and had been convicted of felony assault and robbery and served time in Sing Sing; after his release he served as an enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo D'Avanzo, who ran an organized crime operation involved in loan sharking and gambling at a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Early in life, Rudy Giuliani developed a lateral lisp which he still has to this day. In 1951, when Giuliani was seven, his family moved from Brooklyn to Garden City South, where he attended the local Catholic school, St. Anne's. Later, he commuted back to Brooklyn to attend Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, graduating in 1961 with an 85 percent average.
Giuliani attended Manhattan College in Riverdale, Bronx, where he majored in political science with a minor in philosophy. There he considered becoming a priest, after having studied theology for four years in college. Giuliani was elected president of his class in his sophomore year, but was not re-elected in his junior year. He joined the Phi Rho Pi fraternity, and was active in shaping its direction. He graduated in 1965. Giuliani eventually decided to forego the priesthood, instead attending New York University School of Law in Manhattan, where he made law review and graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 1968.
Giuliani started his political life as a Democrat. He has stated that he admires the Kennedy family, and volunteered for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. He also worked as a Democratic party committeeman on Long Island in the mid-1960s, and voted for George McGovern for president in 1972.
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