50 Facts About Cornelius Shea

Cornelius P Shea was an American labor leader and organized crime figure.

Cornelius Shea was the founding president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, holding the position from 1903 until 1907.

Cornelius Shea became involved with the Chicago Outfit, and although he was indicted many times, he usually escaped conviction.

Cornelius Shea was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 27,1872, to James and Mary Shea, Irish immigrants.

Cornelius Shea's father owned his own tipcart and collected garbage for a living.

Cornelius Shea attended public elementary school, then dropped out after the sixth grade to work for his father.

In 1900, Cornelius Shea helped organize TDIU Local 191 in Boston.

Cornelius Shea was elected the local's business agent in 1901, and president of the newly organized Boston Team Drivers' Joint Council in 1902.

Cornelius Shea was elected a delegate to the Boston Central Labor Council and the local building trades alliance.

Cornelius Shea's election as the first Teamster president was a tumultuous one.

Cornelius Shea was opposed by John Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago.

In 1903, Cornelius Shea moved his family to Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Teamsters had their headquarters.

Cornelius Shea was confronted by a crisis within the union in late 1903, a crisis which centered on the union's membership based in Chicago.

Some local Teamster leaders tried to lead the ice and market wagon drivers back out on strike, but Cornelius Shea denounced them and successfully appealed to the drivers to stay on the job.

Cornelius Shea was supported by about half the 200 delegates from locals outside Chicago, with the remaining delegates split among two other reform candidates.

Cornelius Shea won re-election on August 12,1905, by a vote of 129 to 121.

Turley was defeated for re-election as well, and members of Cornelius Shea's slate won every office on the international union executive board.

Cornelius Shea spent the fall of 1905 and the winter of 1906 solidifying his control over the Teamsters.

Cornelius Shea trusted their locals and placed his own supporters in charge of these unions.

Cornelius Shea pledged that, if acquitted, he would resign the presidency in favor of a unity candidate.

Cornelius Shea was re-elected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters by a vote of 157 to 14.

Cornelius Shea sent representatives to each local union meeting to lobby for continued affiliation.

Cornelius Shea's defense focused on his efforts to end the strike.

Cornelius Shea's attorneys argued that if Shea had taken bribes to lead the Teamsters out on strike, he would not have sought to end the strike in good faith.

But, they argued, Cornelius Shea had very strenuously sought an end to the labor dispute several times.

Cornelius Shea initially attempted to assert his power by replacing and blacklisting his opponents within the union as he had done before.

Subsequently, nearly all of Cornelius Shea's backers withdrew their support for his presidency.

At the Teamsters' international convention in Boston in August 1907, Shea lost re-election to Daniel J Tobin, president of Local 25 in Boston and president of the Teamsters' Joint District Council.

Cornelius Shea's supporters won only three of the seven slots on the executive board, as well as the offices of secretary-treasurer and auditor.

Cornelius Shea announced his full support for Tobin's presidency, and left office on October 1,1907.

Cornelius Shea was arrested on April 29,1909, in connection with a fistfight which occurred during the strike, but was released.

Cornelius Shea was released from prison in September 1914 and given two years' probation.

The final 15 years of Cornelius Shea's life were spent in Chicago, where he associated with gangsters, rose in the ranks of at least one gang, and engaged in labor racketeering.

Cornelius Shea joined Timothy D "Big Tim" Murphy's Irish American gang, and was allegedly involved in a number of crimes.

Cornelius Shea's cover was working as a bartender at the Halsted Street Hotel.

Cornelius Shea's co-employee was William Rooney, an ex-"slugger" for the Teamsters.

Rooney was tried in April 1917 for jury tampering, and Cornelius Shea defended Rooney in court in regard to the charge.

In May 1917, the saloon's license was revoked when Chicago officials learned that Cornelius Shea actually managed the saloon and may have invested in it in violation of the terms of his parole.

In November 1922, Chicago police alleged that Cornelius Shea led an auto theft ring, but no arrest was made.

Cornelius Shea allegedly conducted a wide range of labor racketeering and labor extortion rackets on Murphy's behalf.

Cornelius Shea organized the "Chicago Saloon Keepers' Local 1," a union which existed only on paper, and acted as the union's business agent as a means of seeking bribes from saloonkeepers.

On June 10,1918, Cornelius Shea was arrested for allegedly demanding bribes from scrap and junk dealers in exchange for not calling strikes against their businesses.

In 1921, Cornelius Shea became a staff representative with a Chicago junk dealers' union and stationary engineers' union.

Cornelius Shea was accused of providing the explosives and setting some bombs himself, but no charges were ever brought.

Some time between 1917 and 1921, Cornelius Shea became the secretary-treasurer and business agent for the Theatrical Janitors' Union.

Cornelius Shea allegedly used his union office to extort money from theater owners in exchange for refusing to call strikes against their businesses.

Cornelius Shea continued his career as an extortionist and bomber.

Cornelius Shea joined Sangerman's Bombers, a group of bomb terrorists which had emerged from the remnants of the James Sweeney gang, and did work for Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.

Unwilling to take sides in the gang war, Cornelius Shea continued to work as secretary-treasurer and business agent for the union and engaged in low-level extortion for the next five years.

Cornelius Shea died on January 12,1929, at Norwegian-American Hospital in Chicago from complications following an operation to remove gallstones.