Wrecking Ball Series Episode 2: The Courthouse as a Character: Foley Square and Gotham’s “Justice Racket” of the 1930s — Podcast #20

Lower Manhattan's Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and Foley Square are now preserved and continue to define the aesthetic of justice in New York and the nation. But when the complex was still new, a greedy Chief Circuit Judge named Martin T. Manton orchestrated his campaign of judicial bribery from within the Courthouse's awe-inspiring halls — until the building itself served as an “inanimate character witness” in Manton’s downfall. On the second episode of the Wrecking Ball series, host Adrian Untermyer explores Manton's "justice racket" with attorney Gary Stein, author of the new book Justice for Sale, as they consider the power — and limitations — of using grand public buildings to inspire civic virtue.