Theodore Alfred Bingham (May 14, 1858 – September 6, 1934) was the New York City police commissioner from 1906 to 1909.[1]
Early life
Bingham was born at Andover, Connecticut on May 14, 1858, to Joel Foote Bingham (1827–1914), a clergyman, and Susan Elizabeth (née Grew) Bingham (1834–1908).[1]
Between 1879 and 1890, he served in various capacities as an engineering officer and as a military attaché in Berlin and Rome. He served as superintendent of the public buildings and grounds at Washington from 1897 to 1901 with the rank of colonel. He was transferred to Buffalo, New York on an engineering assignment where he suffered an accident which caused the loss of a leg, forcing his retirement from active service in the army in 1904 at the rank of brigadier general.[2]
He served as police commissioner of New York City from January 1, 1906, to July 1, 1909.[1]
Controversial actions
In 1907, while serving as police commissioner of New York City, he arranged with Immigration Commissioner Robert Watchorn to allow local New York detectives to search newly arriving immigrants,[3] who he publicly blamed for a “crime wave”.[4]
These anti-immigrant policies received wider attention when he published an article in North American Review on "Foreign Criminals" in which he asserted that half the criminals in the city were Jews.[5] In the controversy that followed,[6] he issued a statement denying any malice or prejudice, instead blaming incorrect statistics that “were not compiled by myself, but were furnished me by others”.[7]
Later life
Bingham was removed from his role as police commissioner on July 2, 1909, by Mayor McClellan after he refused to remove photos of individuals not convicted of any crime from his ‘Rogues Gallery’, in defiance of a New York Supreme Court ruling [Gow vs. Bingham].[1] Bingham, defending his refusal, wrote “the police report to me that Duffy [George B. Duffy, 19 y.o.] is a very disorderly person, with a bad reputation, and that some of his associates are degenerates.”[8]
In 1908 he was elected as a hereditary member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati. In 1911, he served for a few months as chief engineer of the Department of Highways, and from 1911 to 1915, he was a consulting engineer with the Department of Bridges. In 1917, he was recalled to active service in the army in command of the Second Engineering District, New York City. He was discharged from active service and returned to retirement on June 10, 1919.
Personal life
In 1881, Bingham married Lucille Zoe Rutherfurd (1859–1920), a daughter of Thomas Scott Rutherfurd of St. Louis, Missouri. Before her death in 1920 on board the army transport Northern Pacific, they were the parents of:[9]
In 1926, he was married to Addison Mitchell of New York in London. She died, suddenly, a year later on November 21, 1927.[14] Bingham died at his summer home in Chester, Nova Scotia on September 7, 1934, aged 76. He was buried in Chester according to his wishes.[1]
Dates of rank
Cadet - 1 September 1875
2nd Lieutenant - 13 June 1879
1st Lieutenant - 17 June 1881
Captain - 2 July 1889
Major - 5 July 1898
Colonel (temporary) - 9 March 1897 to 30 April 1903
^Bingham, Theodore A. (September 1908). "Foreign Criminals in New York". The North American Review: 383–394.
^Bentwich, Norman (1954) For Zion's Sake. A Biography of Judah L. Magnes. First Chancellor and First President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia. Library of Congress Number: 54 7440. Page 77.
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