Alvin J. Sutton, Jr. (b. 1918) was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in 1918. He attended Cleveland Heights High School, graduating in 1936, and John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, graduating in 1940. He also attended Georgetown University Law School, but never took the bar examination. Between 1940 and 1947 he worked throughout the United States as a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, spending the majority of that time in the Pittsburgh and Cleveland offices. In 1947 he was appointed Assistant Safety Director for the City of Cleveland by Mayor Thomas J. Burke and two years later, in 1949, became Safety Director, a position which he held until 1952. As Safety Director he fought actively against organized crime, gambling, and police corruption. He was particularly effective in the Ernest Molnar case which unearthed corruption within the Cleveland Police Department. Following his retirement as Cleveland's Safety Director he was employed in the transportation industry.
The Alvin J. Sutton, Jr. Papers, ca. 1933-1993 (1947-1952), consist of documents created while Sutton served as Assistant Safety Director and Safety Director for the City of Cleveland, as well as scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and a small amount of correspondence. Researcher access to this collection is restricted. Consult Curator of Manuscripts for details.
This collection is useful to researchers studying urban safety forces, police corruption, organized crime, gambling, or suspects involved with these activities, during the late 1940s and early 1950s in the United States, in general, and in Cleveland, Ohio, in particular. The collection contains transcripts of court cases and police investigation records which document the activities of the Cleveland Safety Forces as they worked to locate, identify, and prosecute persons involved with organized crime and police corruption. Of special significance to those researching organized crime are the case files, witness and suspect statements, and investigation files which describe the suspects and their alleged criminal activities.
The collection is arranged in four series. The researcher should be aware that material on a particular topic is likely to be located in more than one series.
Photographs that are integral to investigation and individual case files have been maintained within the collection. Other photographs as well as all editorial cartoons have been removed to the photograph and print collection.
Processed by Judy Walker in 1995
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4713 Alvin J. Sutton, Jr. Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Alvin J. Sutton, Jr., 1993
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.