Oral Histories

Interview of Oscar Lawler

Assistant United States attorney general.
Subtitle:
Oscar Lawler: Los Angeles Attorney
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
Politics and Government
Biographical Note:
Assistant United States attorney general.
Interviewer:
Nunis, Doyce B. Jr
Interviewee:
Lawler, Oscar, $d 1875-1966
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Interviewee Retained Copyright
Abstract:
Family's move to Los Angeles, 1888; early contact with lawyers while working as hallboy at California Club, ca. 1890; federal district court at Commercial and Main streets; decision to enter legal profession; influence of Henry O'Melveny and Judge W. H. Clark; court reporter; admission to bar and early legal career; Blanton Duncan ranch and litigation over estate; Los Angeles and Santa Monica railroad; U.S. attorney for California, 1905-7, and assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, 1909-11; Imperial Valley land-fraud case; President William Howard Taft, Gifford Pinchot, Richard Ballinger, Louis Glavis, and Cunningham Coal case; return to private practice; involvement in trials of McNamara brothers following Los Angeles Times bombing, 1910, and Clarence Darrow's subsequent perjury trial; George Bixby's defense; injury when home bombed, 1919; reminiscences of early political activity in Los Angeles; "bloody eleventh precinct" of Los Angeles; American Protestant Association's anti-Catholic campaigns; relationship with Hiram W. Johnson; opinions of Frank Shaw's political career; friendship with Will Rogers.