Biased Justice: Ethnicity, Gender, and Justice in Progressive Era Milwaukee

Abstract

This capstone analyzes the relationships between the Irish, Italian, and German-Americans in Progressive Era Milwaukee in the context of the justice system. A particularly dramatic case, the 1914 trial of the Italian immigrant, Carmello Musso, for the murder of her husband, is analyzed. A closer examination of newspaper accounts, arrest records, trial transcripts, and the Wisconsin Governor’s pardon files reveal the local attitudes, alliances, and prejudices that existed in Progressive Era Milwaukee. Within the courtroom, tensions surfaced between German-American District Attorney, Edward Yockey, the Irish-American elected Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Lawrence McGreal, and the Italian immigrant community that fought to protect Carmello Musso. The Carmello Musso case exposes ethnic, religious, gender, class, and political conflicts which collectively resulted in a biased justice system in Milwaukee during the early twentieth century.