The rapidly dwindling Nazi contingent in this country, reeling from the clubbing administered the cause at the recent election, was dealt what is being widely hailed here as the final coup de grace in King’s County Court yesterday.
Pleading guilty to criminal libel of former Magistrate Joseph Goldstein in an editorial in the Deutsche Zeitung on July 7, William McLaughlin, 35, managing editor of the Yorkville weekly which has been regarded as the chief Nazi mouthpiece in America, was sentenced to serve one year in city prison.
The sentence was handed down by County Judge Franklin Taylor.
Execution of the sentence, however, was suspended following a dramatic plea on McLaughlin’s behalf by a man who has frequently been the target of the publication’s most vicious shafts, Samuel Untermyer. This plea received the support of the plaintiff, Mr. Goldstein, and District Attorney William F. X. Geoghan of King’s County.
‘JEWS NOT VINDICTIVE’
In making his request for judicial clemency for McLaughlin, Mr. Untermyer said he was acting not only as counsel for Goldstein, but, “also in a sense as a representative of the Jewish people.”
“The Jews are not a vindictive people,” Mr. Untermyer, who is president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, told the court. “Over the years we have suffered much and suffering has made us a patient people.
“Now, in view of this defendant’s repentance and also in view of the changed attitude of his paper. I feel the ends of justice will be met by a suspension of sentence, and I so ask your honor.”
Mr. Geoghan expressed agreement with the sentiments of Mr. Untermyer, affirming his intention of prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law all such evidences of bigotry which, he said, is as offensive to Catholics as to Jews.
Judge Taylor agreed to suspend-
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
