1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [26]
Corey, Giles (1612–1692) Accused during the infamous Salem witch trials of wizardry, Corey defiantly refused to enter a plea. English common law required a plea before a trial could proceed; to obtain the plea, the law prescribed pressing with weights until it was obtained. Corey, 80 years old at the time of his accusation, endured two days during which more and more rocks were laid on him. Reputedly, he refused to speak, except for his final words: “More weight.” Because he was not tried, his estate passed to his heirs and was not confiscated by Massachusetts. He figures as an early American example of refusal to yield to injustice. Coronado, Francisco (1510–1554) Coronado was a Spanish conquistador who explored the American Southwest in search of the fabled seven cities of gold. These he did not find, but he explored the vast magnificence of the American Southwest and was the first European to behold the Palo Duro Canyon of Texas and the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
Costello, Frank (1891–1973) Costello was four years old when his family emigrated from Italy and settled in New York. He became a gang member and, during Prohibition, engaged in bootlegging and gambling in New York, Florida, Louisiana, and elsewhere. He moved up the syndicate ladder during the 1930s and, after World War II, was instrumental in financing the newly developing Las Vegas casino industry. During this period, he moved freely among New York politicians and legitimate businessmen, whom he variously corrupted. Costello was targeted by Senator Estes Kefauver’s organized crime committee in the early 1950s and was convicted first of contempt of Congress and then of income tax evasion. While out on bail in 1957, a rival crime boss shot him, he recovered, served out his sentence, but never regained his power in organized crime.
Coughlin, Charles (1891–1971) Born in Canada, Coughlin was ordained a Catholic priest in Detroit and began in 1930 experimenting with radio-broadcast sermons and religious lessons for children. His popularity exploded, and he became the first electronic-media evangelist; however, his shows became increasingly political. At first he attacked President Herbert Hoover and supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, but then turned on Roosevelt with diatribes protesting the New Deal, warning against Communism, and railing against the influence of Jews in government and business. His magazine, Social Justice, was banned for violating the Espionage Act and closed down in 1942, the same year that Church authorities ordered him to stop broadcasting.
Cox, Archibald (1912–2004) A distinguished American jurist, solicitor general in the Kennedy administration, and law professor, Cox accepted appointment in May 1973 as the first special prosecutor assigned to investigate the Watergate affair. When Cox pressed to obtain Richard M. Nixon’s secret tapes of White House conversations, the president ordered Cox to be fired. Attorney General Eliott Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, both resigned rather than obey the order, which was carried out by Solictor General Robert Bork on October 20, 1973, in the so-called “Saturday Night Massacre.” Cox responded with simple dignity: “Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people to decide.”
Cox, Ida (1896–1967) Georgia native Cox sang in the choir of the African Methodist Church in Cedartown