ON ROY COHN'S FATHER

Roy Cohn's father was called Albert.

Albert married for money. He married Dorothy Marcus, the daughter of the President of the Bank of the United States.

Albert was powerful in the New York Democratic Party, and as a judge abused his power to sort things out for his Democrat mates.

As Roy remembers it, Al was the “chief lieutenant” for Edward J. Flynn, Democratic Party operative, New York’s Secretary of State from 1929 until 1939, and chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1940 until 1943. With the death of Tom Pendergrast, Flynn became “the most powerful political boss in the country” and was “a devoted friend of Franklin Roosevelt [whose] influence on Roosevelt on political matters exceeded that of anyone inside or out of the administration.”6 Flynn was instrumental in convincing Roosevelt to select Harry S. Truman as a running mate in 1944 and in quarterbacking Truman’s surprise victory in the 1948 presidential election.7 And it was Flynn who convinced then-Governor Roosevelt to appoint Al Cohn to a judgeship in 1929.

The favors Al performed for Ed Flynn and the Democratic Party were not confined to his judge’s chambers. The Cohn family apartment at 975 Walton Avenue in the South Bronx became a meeting-place for members of the borough’s Democratic machine. Roy remembers his address as “the building, where everyone lived. The district attorney, the most influential judges, the postmaster, the top businessmen.”

[source : The Neon Closet: Roy Marcus Cohn and McCarthyism, MA Thesis by Christopher Michael Elias, The Ohio State University, 2010]

And Hoover and Nixon celebrated Cohn's appointment as Chief Counsel to McCarthy:

Knowing McCarthy had already helped one of his sons secure additional power in Washington, Joseph Kennedy did not push the Senator to hire Robert, and the title of chief counsel went to Cohn.9 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Vice President Richard Nixon, and twenty senators attended a private party celebrating Cohn’s hiring.10