Hallinan was born into a large immigrant Irish Catholic family in San Francisco. The son of Elizabeth (Sheehan) and Patrick Hallinan, he was raised in the city and in Petaluma, California.[1] His father was said to be a member of the Irish National Invincibles, a revolutionary organization that, among other activities, was reputed to have assassinated the Chief Secretary for Ireland and his secretary in 1882 (the infamous Phoenix Park Murders). Allegedly, the elder Hallinan had fled to the U.S. after the murders. The elder Hallinan became a streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and was one of the leaders of the Great Front Strike of 1899–1900.[2]
Trained by Jesuits in high school,[3] Hallinan passed the California Bar Examination at the age of 22, after studies at Saint Ignatius College and Law School, (now the University of San Francisco). He passed the bar exam on the first attempt and before he had graduated from law school.
Career
Hallinan's early successes in court included personal injury actions against the powerful Market Street Railway Company which ran most of the trolley lines on the streets of San Francisco and was a subsidiary of northern California rail interests. The rail company also owned the system whereby jurors' lists were kept and consulted by an appointed jury commissioner, in Hallinan's time an official of the railway, and he fought against this system for years before state law made the voter rolls the sole source of jurors.[4]
Hallinan's years as a lawyer led to his selection in 1949, with partner James Martin McInnis, to defend Harry Bridges of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on perjury charges arising from accusations that he had once been a Communist but had denied it.[5] Hallinan received a contempt of court citation during the high-profile trial, and afterward spent six months in McNeil Island federal prison in Washington state. He was subsequently disbarred for 3 years by the State Bar of California but appealed his disbarment after his release from jail.[6]
In 1953, Hallinan and his wife, Vivian (Moore),[8] were indicted on 14 counts of tax evasion. After a three-week trial, on November 14, 1953, Hallinan was convicted on five counts of tax evasion, for evading $36,739 in federal income taxes after he reported only 20% of his income from 1947 to 1950. On December 8, 1953, he was sentenced to 18 months and a fine of $50,000 plus costs.[9] His wife was acquitted.
Hallinan visited U-2 pilot Gary Powers in Moscow soon after Powers’ conviction in the Soviet Union for espionage. He encouraged Powers to "study the Communist form of government, stating it was a "remarkable system...realizing the American system had grave flaws", and if he were to study it Powers "would learn a great deal."[12]
In his 1963 autobiography, Hallinan claimed that he was prosecuted by the IRS for his political views, and that the government did not differentiate between tax avoidance (legal) and tax evasion. Also in his autobiography he argued for prison reform and in favor of treating drug addiction as a medical condition and providing clean maintenance drugs to addicts, and legalizing prostitution; and against laws forbidding private consensual sex, contraception and abortion, and against imperialism and American foreign policy.[13]
Personal life
Hallinan was the father of six sons,[14] including writer Conn M. Hallinan, San Francisco attorney Patrick Hallinan,[14] and politician Terence Hallinan.[14] He had several grandchildren.
Despite his Jesuit education, Vincent Hallinan was a militant atheist.[15]
^Powers, Francis Gary; Gentry, Curt (2004) [1970]. Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Washington, DC: Brassey's. pp. 162–163. ISBN9781574884227. OCLC755584088.
^Reed, Christopher (October 6, 1992). "Obituary: Vincent Hallinan, A Brawler for Justice". The Guardian. London. p. 33. He also served a two-year sentence for tax evasion in the 1950s, ran for US president for the Progressive Party, made a great deal of money, and as a militant atheist once pinned down a Catholic archbishop during cross-examination, forcing him to confess he could not prove Heaven existed.
Hallinan, Vivian; Hallinan, Vincent (1960). A clash of cultures; some contrasts in American and Soviet morals and manners. San Francisco, CA, US: American Russian Institute. OCLC4398714.
