From the Past

With Pride We Present a Brief Sketch About Our Brother in Delta Chi The Man Who Taught “Scarface” Al Capone About Our Laws

BY SEXSON E. HUMPHREYS DEPAUW “E”

Not very long ago the fearlessness of the United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois in dealing with the most notorious criminal of the present day caused every lawbreaker in Chicago to wonder if he would not be the next to spend a term behind federal bars.

Soon after his graduation from DePauw University with the class of 1889, Brother James H. Wilkerson went to Hastings, Nebraska, as principal of the high school there. He soon returned to DePauw, however, as instructor of elocution. According to yellowed files of the old DePauw Record, on October 5, 1892, he put on the red and buff ribbons of the Delta Chi Fraternity. Early in the next year he was initiated into the Bond, the first faculty member of the DePauw Chapter.

When the law school of DePauw was moved to Northwestern, Brother Wilkerson went to Chicago to practice law. Nine years later he was a member of the IIlinois house of representatives, where he conducted the fight for a state civil service law and introduced and secured the passage of the constitutional amendment which gave the new charter to the City of Chicago.

In 1903, Brother Wilkerson became the county attorney for Cook County and in that office conducted important litigation involving questions of taxation of the capital stock of corporations.

From 1906 until 1911, Wilkerson was a special assistant to the attorney general of the United States. During the time he held that position he was active in cases involving violation of the interstate commerce and anti-trust acts. He conducted proceedings against the Standard Oil Company, Swift and Company, Armour and Company, and National Packing Company during these years. At the end of that time he became the district attorney for the court over which he now presides.

After a brief interim of private practice, once more he became the chief assistant attorney general of his state and counsel for it in the Illinois rate cases of 1917 and 1918. His work in that capacity brought him the appointment as Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Illinois.

In 1922, President Harding appointed Brother Wilkerson to the federal bench, where he has served with a dignity befitting that high rank. His fearless stand against organized crime in the Capone case has placed him at the forefront among American jurists today. To dare to tell the district attorney and gangland that he could not recognize any bargaining in regard to penalty was headline news in every daily in America.

But when finally, after the long, tedious trial was over, and he had retired to his Glencoe home to decide upon the sentence, he returned to the federal building to give Alphonse Capone the most severe penalty that the law will allow, Judge Wilkerson struck a greater blow at gangland than all the grand juries in the history of Chicago.

Brother James H. Wilkerson

Born December 1, 1869 • Died September 30, 1948

FEDERAL JUDGE SERVICE

Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1922-1948

EDUCATION

DePauw University, A.B., 1889

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

– Private Practice, Chicago, Illinois, 1893-1922 – Member, Illinois House of Representatives, 1902 – County Attorney, Cook County, Illinois, 1903-1904 – Special Assistant to the Attorney General of USA, 1906-1911 – U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, 1911-1914 – Chairman, Public Utilities Commission, State of Illinois, 1919-1921