Politician. Samuel Hofstadter was an American lawyer during the first half of the 20th century, who became known as the chairman of the Hofstadter Committee or the Seabury Commission. Samuel Seabury was the actual lead investigator as the appointed legal counsel to the committee. Hofstadter was appointed to this task by New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to probe in the corruption of New York City, including the police force and elected officials as well as Lucky Luciano and other Organized Crime figures. This action was done as a result of a murder of the state witness Vivian Gordon and the unsolved mystery of the disappearance of Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Force Crater. The mayor of New York City, Jimmy Walker, resigned on September 1, 1932 as a result of the investigation. The committee was closed in December of 1932. Born into a Jewish family in what was the Austrian Hungarian Empire, his family left Poland to live briefly in London before he was brought at age five to the Lower East Side of New York City. With limited funding for education, he worked his way through New York Law School, from which he graduated in 1913 at the top of his class. He was the recipient of the Townsend Wandell Gold Medal for greatest proficiency in the law of real property. After practicing law for nearly ten years, he started his political career, serving as a deputy state attorney general from 1922 to 1924. He was elected as a Republican New York State Assemblyman from New York County's 15th District, serving from 1925 to 1928. He was elected to the New York State Senate's 17th District, serving from 1929 to 1932. While serving as a New York Senator, he was appointed to the Hofstadter Committee. The next year, he was a Republican candidate for the New York Supreme Court, and had the unwelcomed endorsement of the well-established, yet corrupted, Tammany Hall. He was the subject of negative political cartoons during the campaign. After winning the election, he was elevated to the New York Supreme Court 1st District from 1933 to 1964, serving in the Appellate Division from 1947. Upon reaching the constitutional age limit, he retired in December of 1969 and began a private law practice. He died at home of a heart attack six months after retirement. He married Rose Wohl on March 1, 1927. One of his surviving relatives is the Pulitzer Prize recipient historian, Richard Hofstadter, a nephew. He published "The Development of the Right of Privacy in New York" in 1954 and "The Fifth Amendment and the Immunity act of 1954" in 1955.