Louis Piquett
{{Short description|20th-century American lawyer}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Louis Piquett (Piquette)
| image = Louis Piquett.png
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|09|24}}
| birth_place = Benton, Wisconsin, U.S.
| residence =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1951|12|12|1884|09|24|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| resting_place = Hillside Cemetery (Platteville, Wisconsin)
| alias =
| allegiance =
| motive =
| charge = Harboring a fugitive (John Dillinger)
Harboring a fugitive (Homer Van Meter)
| conviction = Acquitted
Convicted
| conviction_penalty = 2 years and $10,000 fine
| conviction_status = Pardoned in 1951
| occupation = Lawyer
}}
Louis Piquett (September 24, 1884 – December 12, 1951){{Cite book |last1=Girardin |first1=George Russell |title=Dillinger: the untold story |last2=Helmer |first2=William J. |date=2005 |publisher=Indiana Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-253-21633-5 |edition= |location=Bloomington, Ind.}} was an American lawyer notable for defending John Dillinger. He was also a prosecutor for the city of Chicago. He is depicted by Peter Gerety in the 2009 movie Public Enemies.
Early career
Piquett was a bartender active in Chicago Democratic politics. He studied law in night school.{{cite news|title=Piquett Gets Two Years for Harboring Killer|page=44|date=June 28, 1935|work=New York Times}} By 1915, he was chief clerk to the city prosecutor of Chicago.{{cite book|author=Chicago. Dept. of public welfare|title=Social service directory 1915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVsuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA176|accessdate=29 December 2012|year=1915|publisher=H. G. Adair, printing|page=176}} In the early 1920s, he was appointed city prosecutor by Mayor William Hale Thompson. He was indicted in 1923 on corruption charges, which were subsequently dropped.{{cite book|first=Bryan|last=Burrough|title=Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHkkSrRvCKoC|accessdate=29 December 2012|date=29 April 2009|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-311586-1|page=211ff}}
By the summer of 1923, Piquett was in private practice in Chicago. In August 1923, for instance, he represented James J. McGrath, who owned films showing a boxing match between Tommy Gibbons and Jack Dempsey. Piquett won a decision from the circuit court which stated that the films were neither immoral nor obscene, and enjoined the police from interfering with their exhibition.{{cite news|title=To Show Fight Films: Pictures of Dempsey–Gibbons Bout Passed by Chicago Judge|page=7|date=September 1, 1923|work=The New York Times}}
In 1931, Piquett unsuccessfully defended Leo Vincent Brothers against charges of murdering Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle.{{cite news|title=Testimony Closes in Brothers Trial|page=13|date=April 2, 1931|work=The New York Times}}
Defense of Dillinger
In 1934, Piquett defended Dillinger in Crown Point, Indiana. He successfully argued that Dillinger should be allowed to appear in court free of shackles and without armed guards present. After Dillinger's dramatic pre-trial escape, an investigation by the state of Indiana revealed Piquett's complicity.{{cite book | first=Claire Bond | last=Potter | title=War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cRF1jzIHYBIC&pg=PA145 | accessdate=29 December 2012 | year=1998 | publisher=Rutgers University Press | isbn=978-0-8135-2487-0 | page=145}}
Criminal charges
In January 1935, Piquett was charged with harboring the fugitive Dillinger and of conspiring with a number of others, including two doctors, to hide Dillinger while he underwent plastic surgery. He was acquitted after less than four hours of deliberation.{{cite news|title=Dillinger's Lawyer is Acquitted by Jury|page=10|work=The New York Times|date=January 15, 1935}} During this trial he was called "the brains of the Dillinger mob."{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Cahan|title=A Court That Shaped America: Chicago's Federal District Court from Abe Lincoln to Abbie Hoffman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALsW1pAD4A0C&pg=PT114|accessdate=29 December 2012|date=18 December 2002|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-1981-9|page=114}}
In May 1935, he was convicted of harboring Dillinger associate Homer Van Meter, fined $10,000, and served time in the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Piquett appealed his sentence all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States, which denied certiorari in 1936.{{cite news|title=Cutten Victory is Hinted: Various Other Decisions Handed Down by Supreme Court|page=14|date=April 28, 1936|work=The New York Times}} He was pardoned for this crime in 1951 by President Harry Truman.{{cite news|title=Louis Piquett|date=December 13, 1951|work=The New York Times|page=33}}
Early life
Born in Benton, Wisconsin, he hopped trains to California sometime around 1900 where he enrolled in Stanford University and was a stand out on the track team. He then had a successful stint as a professional boxer, using the prize money to open a cigar shop on Market Street in San Francisco. Wiped out by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire he returned home to Wisconsin, married and moved to Chicago.
Death
He died in Chicago in 1951. He is buried in Hillside cemetery in Platteville, Wisconsin.{{Cite web |last=Historical Society |first=Grant County |date=May 31, 2024 |title=ArticleonLawyerPiquette.pdf |url=https://grantcountyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ArticleonLawyerPiquette.pdf |archive-url= |website=ArticleonLawyerPiquette.pdf}}
References
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Category:American criminal defense lawyers