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After graduating from U.City High School, I attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison for four years. I graduated in June of 1961 with a major in political science. One of the highlights of my time at Wisconsin was having an opportunity to hear Senator John F. Kennedy give a speech on campus; and he selected me to ask him a question after he gave his speech. I asked him, what if anything, he would do, if elected president to advance civil rights and improve the conditions of African Americans. After graduation from Wisconsin, I attended Washington University’s School of Law and graduated in June of 1964 with a J.D. degree. My first legal job after graduation was as an attorney with the State of Alaska’s Legislative Counsel’s office located in Juneau, Alaska working on proposed legislation for the members of the state legislature. After spending about nine months in Juneau, I decided to return to Missouri. In October of 1965, I was employed as an assistant prosecuting attorney with the St. Louis County’s Prosecuting Office located in Clayton, Missouri. It was a great experience in learning how to try criminal case because I was assigned a variety of cases to prosecute, including traffic cases, misdemeanors and finally some felonies. I left the prosecuting attorney’s office shortly after Gene McNary became the Prosecuting Attorney and in July of 1968 I joined a small law firm in Clayton and engaged in the general practice of law. I found the work less than interesting and decided to return to prosecutorial work. I was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) in July of 1969 where I remained until February 1973. The highlight of my career was being the lead prosecuting attorney in the prosecution of Martin McNally who skyjacked an American Airline from St. Louis Lindberg field and while in flight over Indiana, he parachuted into a rural part of Indiana where he was later apprehended by F.B.I. agents. He was convicted of air piracy and sent to a federal prison where he later tried to escape by using a helicopter that was flown into the prison yard. In March of 1973, I was hired by the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in Washington D.C. to investigate and prosecute radicals who were involved in the use of violent means to attain their political objectives. I was successful in prosecuting and convicting a number of members of the “Weathermen” who were responsible for a series of bombing against banks and other businesses in the metro Kansas City Missouri area. Because my work with the Department required extensive traveling and for other reasons, I decided to return to Kansas City, Missouri in the late summer of 1973 to join the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri to work on public corruption and white collar cases. I met my future wife, Mary A. Senner, who was also an assistant United States Attorney in the Kansas City office. We married in January of 1974. |