Walter D. Corrigan, Sr. was the son of James Edward Corrigan, Jr. and Hellen Marr Dickson and the husband of 1) Jessie Ann Donaldson and 2) Libby Miller. His parents divorced when he was three. He was raised by his mother and his maternal grandfather, Walter Dickson.. He went to Grand Rapids, WI, high school. Then he entered college at sixteen, graduating from Iowa State University and Drake Law School. He was an athlete in baseball and football at Iowa State under famous coach Glenn 'Pop' Warner. He was a star pitcher on the baseball team.
Walter Corrigan was a prominent attorney who specialized in trial and appellate court work. He looked on U. S. Senator Robert La Follette, Sr as his mentor. Corrigan worked as an attorney in Waupaca in 1897, the year he graduated. Then he was an attorney in Plainfield, WI. He served as District Attorney of Waushara County from 1899-1901. He served as an assistant attorney general of Wisconsin from 1903-05 while La Follette was governor. Then he moved his young family to a large Victorian house near Lake Michigan in Whitefish Bay and set up a Milwaukee law practice. From 1906-1909 he was General Solicitor of the Wisconsin Central Railroad. About 1910 he became a partner in the influential Milwaukee law firm of Glicksman, Gold & Corrigan, and was with the firm until 1926/ In 1915 Walter served as President of the Wisconsin Bar Association. In 1920 he moved his family from Whitefish Bay to an apartment building on 14th street near Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee where the Corrigan family occupied one entire floor of the building. In 1926 after the death of his first wife he remarried and moved to a home in Mequon, Wisconsin which also had a large apple orchard. There he lived until his death in 1951.
He was an alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Wisconsin, 1924. He was very active in the Wisconsin Progressive Party, but did not enjoy the money-raising that went with running for office. He was unsuccessful in runs for Congress and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He taught several courses at the Marquette University Law School. Walter owned a summer home, called 'Birches,' located on Big Cedar Lake in Washington County, Wisconsin.
In 1918 the governor of Wisconsin appointed Corrigan special prosecutor in the then famous Grace Lusk murder case. From 'Grace Lusk Trial':
(Corrigan opening statement in court) Gentlemen - We expect to prove that Grace Lusk shot Mrs. Roberts twice with her Colt automatic pistol at the home of Miss Bianca Mills in this city...Mrs. Roberts was found by her husband in a dying condition within two or three minutes of the shooting...He called Dr. Davis who came and once and pronounced her dead. Miss Lusk was upstairs and two shots were then heard from there...She admitted the shooting and stated her reason...We expect to show as the subject of motive that Miss Lusk had been living on terms of intimacy and iillicit relations with the husband of the deceased..."
(Corrigan closing argument to jury) We have heard a great deal about sympathy. I do not know, gentlemen of the jury, of any man who has greater deeper or more abiding sympathy in his heart for any person who has done wrong, be it man or woman, than I have."
Walter D. Corrigan as special prosecutor succeeded in winning a verdict of guilty of second degree murder (see trial photo at right).
Walter D. Corrigan's most famous 'client' was a dead man. Over several decades he gave over 250 lectures before community groups on the subject 'A Lawyer's Defense of Aaron Burr.' He argued that former Vice President Aaron Burr was framed for treason by American General James Wilkinson, who was in the pay of a Spanish nobleman. He also argued that Burr was blameless in the 1800 Presidential election controversy and the duel with Alexander Hamilton, which resulted in Hamilton's death.
Concerning religion, Corrigan once said, "Like unto each and every man, I have my own religion." For almost fifty years he was a loyal member of Masons, Elks, and Odd Fellows.
In 1950 near the end of his life he wrote and published, "A History of the Town of Mequon, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin," which is now available online. Corrigan was also a part-owner of Liberty Montana Mines Co. (later Mammoth Mining Enterprises) in Cardwell, Madison, Montana.
Sources:
"The Trial of Grace Lusk for the Murder of Mary Newman Roberts," American State Trials, pp. 338-491.
Walter D. Corrigan, Sr. was the son of James Edward Corrigan, Jr. and Hellen Marr Dickson and the husband of 1) Jessie Ann Donaldson and 2) Libby Miller. His parents divorced when he was three. He was raised by his mother and his maternal grandfather, Walter Dickson.. He went to Grand Rapids, WI, high school. Then he entered college at sixteen, graduating from Iowa State University and Drake Law School. He was an athlete in baseball and football at Iowa State under famous coach Glenn 'Pop' Warner. He was a star pitcher on the baseball team.
Walter Corrigan was a prominent attorney who specialized in trial and appellate court work. He looked on U. S. Senator Robert La Follette, Sr as his mentor. Corrigan worked as an attorney in Waupaca in 1897, the year he graduated. Then he was an attorney in Plainfield, WI. He served as District Attorney of Waushara County from 1899-1901. He served as an assistant attorney general of Wisconsin from 1903-05 while La Follette was governor. Then he moved his young family to a large Victorian house near Lake Michigan in Whitefish Bay and set up a Milwaukee law practice. From 1906-1909 he was General Solicitor of the Wisconsin Central Railroad. About 1910 he became a partner in the influential Milwaukee law firm of Glicksman, Gold & Corrigan, and was with the firm until 1926/ In 1915 Walter served as President of the Wisconsin Bar Association. In 1920 he moved his family from Whitefish Bay to an apartment building on 14th street near Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee where the Corrigan family occupied one entire floor of the building. In 1926 after the death of his first wife he remarried and moved to a home in Mequon, Wisconsin which also had a large apple orchard. There he lived until his death in 1951.
He was an alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Wisconsin, 1924. He was very active in the Wisconsin Progressive Party, but did not enjoy the money-raising that went with running for office. He was unsuccessful in runs for Congress and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He taught several courses at the Marquette University Law School. Walter owned a summer home, called 'Birches,' located on Big Cedar Lake in Washington County, Wisconsin.
In 1918 the governor of Wisconsin appointed Corrigan special prosecutor in the then famous Grace Lusk murder case. From 'Grace Lusk Trial':
(Corrigan opening statement in court) Gentlemen - We expect to prove that Grace Lusk shot Mrs. Roberts twice with her Colt automatic pistol at the home of Miss Bianca Mills in this city...Mrs. Roberts was found by her husband in a dying condition within two or three minutes of the shooting...He called Dr. Davis who came and once and pronounced her dead. Miss Lusk was upstairs and two shots were then heard from there...She admitted the shooting and stated her reason...We expect to show as the subject of motive that Miss Lusk had been living on terms of intimacy and iillicit relations with the husband of the deceased..."
(Corrigan closing argument to jury) We have heard a great deal about sympathy. I do not know, gentlemen of the jury, of any man who has greater deeper or more abiding sympathy in his heart for any person who has done wrong, be it man or woman, than I have."
Walter D. Corrigan as special prosecutor succeeded in winning a verdict of guilty of second degree murder (see trial photo at right).
Walter D. Corrigan's most famous 'client' was a dead man. Over several decades he gave over 250 lectures before community groups on the subject 'A Lawyer's Defense of Aaron Burr.' He argued that former Vice President Aaron Burr was framed for treason by American General James Wilkinson, who was in the pay of a Spanish nobleman. He also argued that Burr was blameless in the 1800 Presidential election controversy and the duel with Alexander Hamilton, which resulted in Hamilton's death.
Concerning religion, Corrigan once said, "Like unto each and every man, I have my own religion." For almost fifty years he was a loyal member of Masons, Elks, and Odd Fellows.
In 1950 near the end of his life he wrote and published, "A History of the Town of Mequon, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin," which is now available online. Corrigan was also a part-owner of Liberty Montana Mines Co. (later Mammoth Mining Enterprises) in Cardwell, Madison, Montana.
Sources:
"The Trial of Grace Lusk for the Murder of Mary Newman Roberts," American State Trials, pp. 338-491.
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