57 Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Governmental History Documentation Project Goodwin Knight/Edmund Brown, Sr. , Era Thomas Lynch A CAEEER IN POLITICS AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE An Interview Conducted by Amelia R. Fry in 1978 Copyright (cj 1982 by the Regents of the University of California All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and Thomas C. Lynch, dated August 26, 1982. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. During Mr. Lynch 's lifetime, access to the manuscript will require the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to granting access to the manuscript, the Director will notify Thomas C. Lynch. Requests for access should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include anticipated use of the work and identification of the user. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publica tion without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows : Thomas C. Lynch, "A Career in Politics and the Attorney General's Office," an oral history conducted 1978 by Amelia R. Fry, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1982. Copy No. Thomas C. Lynch in 1966 TABLE OF CONTENTS Thomas Lynch PREFACE i INTERVIEW HISTORY vlii I FAMILY BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, AND FIRST JOBS 1 Growing Up in San Francisco 1 A Jesuit Education 4 Work Experience and Law School 7 Lynch is Named Assistant U.S. Attorney for Northern District of California 9 Japanese-American Relocation 11 Wartime San Francisco: Restrictions on Germans and Italians 13 Counterfeiters and Gangsters 18 II CHIEF ASSISTANT TO PAT BROWN: THE SAN FRANCISCO DA'S OFFICE 22 Comments on Earl Warren as District Attorney 22 Meeting Pat Brown 24 Mat Brady: A Comparison 25 Plea Bargaining 31 Selecting Grand Jury Cases 33 The Lynch Family in Ireland 36 Jimmy Tarantino 40 Gambling, Frederick N. Howser, and the Crime Commission 47 Inez Burns and Abortion 57 Prostitution in San Francisco 63 Military Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office 66 Homosexuals: The View from Law Enforcement 67 III SAN FRANCISCO IN THE FORTIES: CAMPAIGNS AND POLITICS 69 Walter McGovern 69 Brown's First Bid for Attorney General, 1946 72 Democrats and Republicans: the Central Differences 73 Campaign Funding and Techniques 75 The Civic League of Improvement Clubs 81 Bloc Voting: Ethnics and Labor 84 Brown is Re-elected District Attorney, 1947 86 IV PAT BROWN AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, 1950-1958 89 The 1950 Statewide Election 89 Lynch 's Role in the Attorney General Campaign 89 The Earl Warren-Pat Brown Ad: "Our Choice" 94 Earl Warren's Relations with Nixon and Brown 95 Campaign Issues 98 Lynch is Appointed San Francisco District Attorney 101 Chairing the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner 103 Pat Brown: Thoughts on the U.S. Senate 106 Brown is Re-elected Attorney General, 1954 108 Frederick N. Howser and the Crime Commission 113 Lynch Defeats George V. Curtis for San Francisco DA, 1951 117 V THE EARLY CAMPAIGNS FOR GOVERNOR: 1958 AND 1962 122 Looking Towards the Governorship 122 The Brown-Lynch Relationship 126 The First Gubernatorial Race, 1958 129 Campaign Supporters 129 Lynch 1 s Role in the Campaign 130 The Big Switch 132 A Critique of Crime Statistics 134 Richard Nixon vs. Pat Brown, 1962 136 Staff Changes 136 Plans for a Campaign Debate Abandoned 138 An Election Eve Broadcast by Nixon 140 Bumper Strips and Billboards 142 Pat Brown and Jesse Unruh 145 Stumping the State 147 The Changing Political Geography of California 150 Interest Groups and Ethnic Minorities 152 Dick Tuck 154 Press Attitudes Towards Nixon 156 Concern from the Kennedys 158 Possible Appointments for Lynch 160 Run-ins with Goodie Knight 162 Bert Levit 164 Comments on Pat Brown 166 VI PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: 1960 AND 1968 169 Lynch Visits Joe Kennedy 169 The California Delegation Takes Shape 174 A Kennedy-Stevenson Split at the Convention 178 Friendship with the Kennedys 181 Black and Chicano Participation 185 John Kennedy Chooses Lyndon Johnson for Running Mate 187 Lynch Chairs the Uncommitted Delegation, 1968 189 White House Conferences with President Johnson 192 Johnson Announces He Will Not Run 193 Humphrey Bows Out of California Primary 197 VII CALIFORNIA'S CHIEF LAW OFFICER: AN OUTLINE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERALSHIP 200 Organization of the Staff 200 Legal Opinions 203 Miranda v. Arizona and Its Forerunners 209 VIII THOMAS LYNCH AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, 1964-1970 215 Working With Governors Brown and Reagan 215 Unrest at Berkeley 218 Watts Riots, 1965 221 The Death Penalty 226 A Clash With William Bennett 228 Para-military Groups in California 231 Enforcement of Narcotics Laws 238 Antitrust Actions 249 Regulating Charitable Trusts 251 Beginnings of Criminal Identification and Investigation 255 Organized Crime in California 259 Regulating Charter Airlines 265 Lynch' s Decision Not to Seek Re-election 266 IX CAMPAIGNING FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERALSHIP, 1966 269 The Demands of Campaigning 269 Newspaper and TV Support 271 Billboards As a Campaign Tool 275 The Primary Race: Lynch vs. William Bennett 277 The General Election: Lynch vs. Spencer Williams 279 More on William Bennett 287 Illnesses and Recoveries 292 Virginia Summers Lynch 294 X A NOTE ON RONALD REAGAN 298 TAPE GUIDE 300 APPENDIX Attorney General Lynch' s notes on "The Buffalo Hunters" 301 Newspaper Notes from California State Library Catalog 307 INDEX 314 PREFACE Covering the years 1953 to 1966, the Goodwin Knight-Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr., Oral History Series is the second phase of the Governmental History Documentation Project begun by the Regional Oral History Office in 1969. That year inaugurated the Earl Warren Era Oral History Project, which produced interviews with Earl Warren and other persons prominent in politics, criminal justice, government administration, and legislation during Warren's California era, 1925 to 1953. The Knight-Brown series of interviews carries forward the earlier inquiry into the general topics of: the nature of the governor's office, its relationships with the legislature and with its own executive depart ments, biographical data about Governors Knight and Brown and other leaders of the period, and methods of coping with the rapid social and economic changes of the state. Key issues documented for 1953-1966 were: the rise and decline of the Democratic party, the impact of the California Water Plan, the upheaval of the Vietnam War escalation, the capital punish ment controversy, election law changes, new political techniques forced by television and increased activism, reorganization of the executive branch, the growth of federal programs in California, and the rising awareness of minority groups. From a wider view across the twentieth century, the Knight-Brown period marks the final era of California's Progressive period, which was ushered in by Governor Hiram Johnson in 1910 and which provided for both parties the determining outlines of government organiza tion and political strategy until 1966. The Warren Era political files, which interviewers had developed cooperatively to provide a systematic background for questions, were updated by the staff to the year 1966 with only a handful of new topics added to the original ninety-one. An effort was made to record in greater detail those more significant events and trends by selecting key partici pants who represent diverse points of view. Most were queried on a limited number of topics with which they were personally connected; a few narrators who possessed unusual breadth of experience were asked to discuss a multiplicity of subjects. Although the time frame of the series ends at the November 1966 election, when possible the interviews trace events on through that date in order to provide a logical baseline for continuing study of succeeding administrations. Similarly, some narrators whose exper ience includes the Warren years were questioned on that earlier era as well as the Knight-Brown period. ii The present series has been financed by grants from the California State Legislature through the California Heritage Preservation Commission and the office of the Secretary of State, and by some individual donations. Portions of several memoirs were funded partly by the California Women in Politics Project under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, in cluding a matching grant from the Rockefeller Foundation; the two projects were produced concurrently in this office, a joint effort made feasible by overlap of narrators, topics, and staff expertise. The Regional Oral History Office was established to tape record autobio graphical interviews with persons significant in the history of California and the West. The Office is under the administrative direction of James D. Hart, Director of The Bancroft Library, and Willa Baum, head of the Office. Amelia R. Fry, Project Director Gabrielle Morris, Project Coordinator iii GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY DOCUMENTATION PROJECT Advisory Council Don A. Allen James R. W. Leiby James Bassett Albert Lepawsky Walton E. Bean* Dean McHenry Peter Behr Frank Mesple* William E. Bicker James R. Mills Paul Bullock Edgar J. Patterson Lou Cannon Cecil F. Poole Edmond Costantini A. Alan Post William N. Davis Robert H. Power A. I. Dickman Bruce J. Poyer Harold E. Geiogue Albert S. Rodda Carl Greenberg Richard Rodda Michael Harris Ed Salzman Phil Kerby Mortimer D. Schwartz Virginia Knight Verne Scoggins Frank Lanterman* David Snyder Mary Ellen Leary Caspar Weinberger Eugene C .