William J. Corrigan (1886-1961) was a prominent defense and labor lawyer in Cleveland, Ohio, from the 1920s until his death. He achieved his greatest fame as the defense attorney for Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard in the celebrated Sheppard murder case. He also defended the wealthy industrialist, Joseph Gogan, who was accused of murdering his wife with rat poison in 1950. Gogan was acquitted. Another noteworthy murder case he handled was the case of Eva Kaber, who was convicted of the contract murder of her husband Dan in 1921. While those murder cases got Corrigan the greatest attention, more of his time was spent as a lawyer for labor unions. He served for many years as an attorney for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and was eventually named as an honorary member. Other unions that frequently employed him as counsel included the Milk and Ice Cream Drivers and Dairy Employees Union, the Cleveland Federation of Labor, and the Building Trades Council. His reputation as a labor lawyer earned him the tag "organized labor's attorney." Corrigan was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1915 after receiving his law degree from Baldwin-Wallace College. He became assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County the same year, but in 1920 decided to go into private practice. His first affiliation was with the firm of Payer, Corrigan, Bleiweiss, and Cook. He later assisted in forming the firm of Corrigan, McMahon, and Corrigan with his nephew Timothy McMahon and Joseph Corrigan (no known relation). After Joseph Corrigan's death in 1957, William and his nephew separated and William became a member of the firm of Corrigan and Garmone which included his son, William H. Corrigan. He continued his practice until his death.
The William J. Corrigan Papers, 1917-1965 and undated, consist of files concerning the legal cases he and his partners handled, as well as a few personal items concerning him and his family.
This collection is an excellent source on labor unions and issues concerning organized labor in Cleveland, Ohio, from the 1920s until the 1960s. Unions such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Milk and Ice Cream Drivers and Dairy Employees Union are particularly well represented. It is also valuable for the material on the Sheppard murder case, and the Kaber and Gogan murder cases, as well as for certain other cases that concern particular events in Cleveland's history between 1920 and 1960. In the Sheppard murder case, the collection is particularly significant for Corrigan's precedent setting appeal of Sheppard's conviction on the grounds of prejudicial pretrial publicity.
The collection is arranged in three series: Corrigan Family Papers, Labor Cases, and Murder and Other Cases. The second series is arranged in two subseries: Labor Cases and Labor Issues. Each series is arranged alphabetically, first by the name of the person or organization Corrigan represented and secondly, by the name of the case.
Processed by Richard Hite and Robert Ray in 1989.
Access to Folders 242-271 is restricted. See Curator of Manuscripts for details. Access to remainder of collection is unrestricted.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4464 William J. Corrigan Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Faith Corrigan Refness, 1972 and 1982.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.