O’Brien, known for his mediocre talents as a surrogate court judge and his unswerving loyalty to Tammany Hall, was clearly under the thumb of two Tammany leaders, James J. Hines (then controlled by mobster Dutch Schultz, a member of the new Luciano-Lansky national crime syndicate) and Albert C. Marinelli (then directly dominated by Lucky Luciano). When reporters inquired if the mayor was going to name a new police commissioner, he said, “I haven’t had any word on that yet.”
In 1933, O’Brien was succeeded by Fiorello La Guardia, and underworld payoffs to the police commissioner’s office—during the reign of the supposedly reputable Grover Whalen it came to $20,000 a week delivered in a plain brown bag— ceased.
Under La Guardia’s first police commissioner, Major General John J. O’Ryan, who served briefly, and the incorruptible Lewis J. Valentine, who held the post for almost 11 years, the police department was to have its longest run of honesty in the city’s history.
