Leon Jaworski

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Leon Jaworski

Leon Jaworski (born September 19, 1905 in Waco , Texas , † December 9, 1982 in Wimberley , Texas) was an American lawyer. He succeeded Archibald Cox as a special investigator in the Watergate affair .

Life and accomplishments

Jaworski was born in Waco as the son of the Polish immigrants Joseph (Józef) and Marie (Mira) Jaworski, née Mira. His father was a Protestant pastor. He began his training at the Law School of Baylor University in Waco , where he received his 1925 Bachelor of Laws received. He then continued his law studies at the Law School of George Washington University in Washington , where he received his Master of Laws in 1926 . Already in 1925 was admitted to the bar. He was the youngest attorney ever to be admitted to the Texas bar. In 1931 he joined the law firm Fulbright, Crooker, Freeman, and Bates and became a partner in 1935. Jaworski was one of the country's leading lawyers and president of the American College of Trial Lawyers (1961–1962), the State Bar of Texas (1962–1963), and the American Bar Association (1971–1972).

During World War II he served as a lawyer in the US Army. After the war he investigated war criminals in Germany. In the Wiesbaden trial from October 8 to 15, 1945, he was chief prosecutor in the case of the murder of 476 Russian and Polish forced laborers in the Hadamar killing center . He left the army with the rank of colonel to work again in his Houston law firm, which was now called Fulbright and Jaworski. He gained importance through the representation of Lyndon B. Johnson in a procedure for the admissibility of the simultaneous membership in the US Senate and the Vice-Presidency. In 1962, Robert F. Kennedy , then the US Attorney General, appointed him special attorney in the case against Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett for violating the desegregation law. After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, Jaworski worked for the Warren Commission .

In October 1973, Watergate Special Counsel Archibald Cox was released in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre . He had tried to force President Richard Nixon to relinquish tape recorders from the Oval Office . On November 1, 1973, Jaworski was appointed special investigator in the Watergate affair by the American government under President Nixon. Nixon's expectation that Jaworski would not thwart his efforts to hamper the Watergate investigation was instrumental in his appointment. However, this assumption was wrong. Jaworski, who retained most of his predecessor's staff, continued investigating corruption in the Nixon government. He forced the White House tapes to be released before the Supreme Court . Including the famous "smoking gun tape", which proved that Nixon personally ordered to obstruct the judiciary's investigation.

Jaworski died on December 9, 1982 at the age of 77 on his ranch in Wimberley. He is buried in the "Memorial Oaks Cemetery Houston" in Texas.

Publications (selection)

  • Leon Jaworski, Dick Schneider: Crossroads. DC Crook, Elgin, Illinois 1981, ISBN 9780891912897 , German as In the name of the law. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1982, ISBN 3-417-12289-9 .
  • Leon Jaworski: The Right and the Power. The Prosecution of Watergate. Reader's Digest Press 1976, ISBN 0-883-49102-8 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Leon Jaworski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Newton Gresham and James A. Tinsley: JAWORSKI, LEON. Texas State Historical Association, June 10, 2010, accessed September 19, 2014 . (English)
  2. ^ The Hadamar Trial . Holocaust Encyclopadia, USHMM , accessed December 4, 2018.
  3. ↑ Should be transferred to Hadamar . Catalog for the memorial exhibition in Hadamar, Mabuse-Verlag 1989, ISBN 3-925499-39-3 , p. 108 ff.
  4. ↑ a b Leon Jaworski in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  5. ^ Leon Jaworski. Encyclopedia.com, 2005, accessed September 9, 2014 . (English)
  6. ^ Leon Jaworski Facts. Your Dictionary, 2005, accessed September 19, 2014 . (English)
  7. ^ Obituary for Leon Jaworski. Der Spiegel , December 20, 1982, accessed on September 19, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Jaworski, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Waco , Texas
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1982
Place of death Wimberley , Texas