Musmanno, Michael Angelo

Musmanno, Michael Angelo

(1897–1968) judge, author; born in Stowe Township, Pa. He served in both World War I (infantryman) and World War II (lieutenant commander to rear admiral). He earned a total of seven academic degrees and was a successful, if controversial, lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pa. He tried to reverse the verdict that condemned Sacco and Vanzetti to death (1927), was a member of the team appointed to ascertain whether Adolf Hitler had died in Berlin, was a judge at the Nuremberg War Trials (1946), and was a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Adolf Eichmann (1961). He was judge of the court of common pleas in Allegheny County, Pa. (1934–40), and a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1951–68). A staunch anti-Communist, he cowrote the Communist Control Act of 1954. He also wrote Ten Days to Die (1956) and Columbus Was First (1966).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.