Eric Adams became the first sitting mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office but he’s not the first to have been probed over the last century – and two even resigned under scrutiny.
Jimmy Walker, who was mayor until 1932, and William O’Dwyer, who held office until 1950, both stepped down during investigations into their administrations, though neither was ever charged.
O’Dwyer was the last mayor to resign, though there was already growing pressure for Adams to vacate office before news of the indictment.
Eric Adams indicted: Live updates after NYC mayor hit with indictment
O’Dwyer, the 100th Big Apple mayor, cruised to reelection following his first term in office, but was embroiled in controversy after then-Brooklyn District Attorney Miles McDonald opened a probe in Dec. 1949 into a bookmaker who was running a $20 million betting operation without law enforcement caring, the Smithsonian Magazine wrote in 2019.
The investigation led to hundreds of cops retiring early, though 77 officers were indicted. Top officials in the NYPD also stepped down and a close confidante of O’Dwyer was also zeroed in on, the outlet reported.
O’Dwyer quit the mayor’s office and was appointed US Ambassador to Mexico in the summer of 1950 by President Harry Truman as the scandal dragged on.
While McDonald alleged O’Dwyer took a small cut of the protection money the bookie paid out through an intermediary, the former mayor denied any wrongdoing, the New York Times wrote in their obituary of the city leader.
Jimmy Walker, a Tammany Hall pol, resigned in 1932 while under investigation, but was never charged.
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He left office as he struggled to explain large sums of money in his bank account.
Administrations of recent mayors, including David Dinkins, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio have faced some type of criminal investigation, but those typically ended with aides being slapped with charges.
De Blasio was probed over fundraising practices by the US Attorney’s Office, but charges were never brought, CNN reported.
An assistant commissioner for the Department of Housing Preservation & Development under Bloomberg was charged with taking $2.5 million in bribes in exchange for approving several projects part of an affordable housing effort, The City reported.
Bernard Kerik was accused of accepting subsidized work on his Bronx apartment in the late 1990s when he was correction commissioner, the New York Times reported.
He later pleaded guilty to a pair of misdemeanors.
Giuliani was charged decades after leaving office over his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
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