Thomas C. T. Crain

Thomas Crowell Taylor Crain (May 25, 1860 New York City – May 29, 1942) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was New York County District Attorney from 1930 to 1933.

Crain was born on May 25, 1860 on 14th Street, near the old Tammany Hall in Manhattan. He was the son of Dunham Jones Crain who was appointed U.S. Consul in Milan in 1877. Thomas Crain accompanied his father to Italy but returned in 1881, and began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1884, and commenced practiced with Cockran & Clarke. Later he became a partner in Kenneson, Crain & Allen.

In 1887, he became a member of the Tammany General Committee, representing the 7th Assembly District. In 1889, Mayor Hugh J. Grant appointed him as his private secretary, and in February 1890 as City Chamberlain to succeed Richard Croker who had resigned. He remained in office until May 1893, when Mayor Thomas Francis Gilroy appointed Joseph J. O'Donohue to the office.

He was Tenement House Commissioner from 1904 to 1905 when he resigned following a dispute with Mayor George Brinton McClellan, Jr. in the wake of a fire at 105 Allen Street that killed 18 people, mostly children. Fire officials said windows and fire escapes were blocked. Charges were made that the department had not properly inspected it although Crain said the records showed inspections twice a month.

He was the presiding Judge in the 1911 trial of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris.

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