19 Facts About John Sirica

John Joseph Sirica was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal.

Between 1910 and 1918, the John Sirica family lived in various cities across the United States, while Fred worked as a barber and made several unsuccessful attempts at running small businesses.

The family moved to Washington, DC, in 1918, where John Sirica attended Emerson Preparatory School and eventually transferred to Columbia Preparatory School.

Meanwhile, John Sirica went directly from high school to law school, which was possible in the District of Columbia at the time, and, after two false starts, entered Georgetown Law and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1926.

John Sirica fought as a boxer in Washington and Miami in the 1920s and 1930s.

John Sirica was torn between a career as a boxer and the career in law that he followed after earning a law degree and passing the bar.

John Sirica was in private practice of law in Washington, DC from 1926 to 1930.

John Sirica was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1930 to 1934, and returned to private practice from 1934 to 1957.

John Sirica served as general counsel to the House Select Committee to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission in 1944; his appointment was opposed by the two Republican members of the committee.

John Sirica resigned in protest over how the committee dealt with the WMCA radio scandal that year and re-entered private practice.

John Sirica was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 26,1957, and received his commission on March 28,1957.

John Sirica served as Chief Judge and a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1971 to 1974.

John Sirica's service terminated on his death on August 14,1992.

John Sirica rose to national prominence when he ordered President Richard Nixon to surrender his recordings of White House conversations to Federal prosecutors.

John Sirica did not believe the claim that they had acted alone, and through the use of provisional sentencing strongly encouraged them to give information about higher-ups before final sentencing.

John Sirica was nicknamed "Maximum John" for giving defendants the maximum sentence that guidelines allowed.

In 1979, Sirica published a book, co-authored with John Stacks, detailing his participation in the Watergate cases under the title To Set the Record Straight.

John Sirica suffered a severe heart attack while at a speaking engagement on February 5,1976.

John Sirica was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.