William Langdon

For the Episcopal clergyman and proponent of the YMCA, see William Chauncy Langdon.

William Henry Langdon (September 25, 1873 – August 10, 1939) was an American banker, lawyer and politician who served as Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court from 1927 to 1939. He previously served as District Attorney of San Francisco during the San Francisco graft trials.

William Henry Langdon
Langdon c. 1937
Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
In office January 4, 1927 – August 10, 1939
Preceded by	Jeremiah F. Sullivan
Succeeded by	Phil S. Gibson
Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, First District, Division Two
In office January 1, 1919 – January 3, 1927
Appointed by	William Stephens
Preceded by	New seat
Succeeded by	Joseph Koford
Judge of the Stanislaus County Superior Court
In office August 9, 1915 – December 31, 1918
Appointed by	Hiram Johnson
President of the California State Board of Education
In office September 10, 1913 – August 8, 1915
Preceded by	Hiram Johnson
Succeeded by	E. P. Clarke
Member of the California State Board of Education
In office August 29, 1913 – September 17, 1917
Appointed by	Hiram Johnson
18th District Attorney of San Francisco
In office January 8, 1906 – January 8, 1910
Preceded by	Lewis Francis Byington
Succeeded by	Charles Fickert
San Francisco Superintendent of Schools
In office January 8, 1903 – January 8, 1906
Preceded by	Reginald H. Webster
Succeeded by	Alfred Roncovieri
Personal details
Born	William Henry Langdon (1873-09-25)September 25, 1873 Alameda County, California, U.S.
Died	September 25, 1939(1939-09-25) (aged 66) Hillsborough, California, U.S.
Political party	Union Labor Independence Republican Democratic
Spouse	Myrtie Conneau McHenry ​ ​ (m. 1908)​
Children	3
Alma mater	California State Normal School (honorary B.A.)

Education and early career

Langdon was born near Dublin,^[1] Alameda County, California, to Irish immigrants William and Annie Langdon.^[2] Following the death of Langdon's father in 1875, his mother ran a cattle and wheat ranch.^[2] Langdon was educated in the public schools and Hayward High School. He graduated from the California State Normal School to become a teacher, while also studying law in the offices of future Supreme Court Justice John E. Richards. In 1896, Langdon was admitted to the state Bar.^[3] Langdon served as vice principal and principal at schools in San Leandro, Fresno, and San Francisco, eventually becoming the city's school superintendent in 1902.^[4][5][6]

Legal and judicial career

See also: San Francisco graft trials

Langdon in 1908

In November 1905, city voters elected Langdon as district attorney of San Francisco, and in 1907 re-elected him to a second term.^[7] A popular district attorney, Langdon was nominated by the Independence League as its choice for governor in the 1906 elections. Langdon's presence as a strong third party candidacy won over 14 percent of the vote, proving to be a spoiler vote in a tight race between Democrat Theodore A. Bell and Republican James Gillett. In 1907, one year after the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake, Langdon carried out the successful prosecutions both of Mayor Eugene Schmitz and political machine operator Abe Ruef for bribery and extortion, along with special assistants Francis J. Heney, Hiram Johnson and Matt Sullivan.^[8]

After his tenure as district attorney, Langdon entered banking, serving with several banks around Modesto and managing the property his wife had inherited from her first husband.^[6]

In 1913, Langdon was appointed to the State Board of Education by governor Hiram Johnson, his former colleague in the graft trials.^[9] He was elected president^[10] of the board,^[11] serving in the latter position until 1915^[12][13] and the former until 1917.^[14]

In 1915, he reentered law when Governor Hiram Johnson appointed Langdon a judge of the Superior Court of Stanislaus County.^[15] In December 1918, Governor William Stephens appointed Langdon presiding judge of the newly minted First District, Second Division, of the California Court of Appeal.^[16] In 1920, Langdon was elected to a full term.^[17]

Langdon c. 1924

In November 1926, Langdon won election to a 12-year term as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, where he served the next nineteen years until his death in 1939.^[18][6] Langdon filled the unexpired term of William P. Lawlor, who died in office in July 1926, and whose seat was filled for three months by the appointment of Jeremiah F. Sullivan. From 1930 until 1939, treatise author Bernard E. Witkin served as Langdon's law clerk.^[19] In October 1939, the vacancy in Langdon's seat was filled by Governor Culbert Olson with the appointment of Phil S. Gibson.^[20]

Among Langdon's notable opinions is his 1930 dissent in the denial of a commuted sentence of convicted double murderer Ernest A. Dias.^[21] The majority of the court upheld the death penalty, but in dissent Langdon urged the governor to grant executive clemency on the basis of Dias' mental incompetence at the time of the killings.^[21] Another dissent that year came when Warren K Billings, convicted of perpetrating the 1916 San francisco Preparedness Day bombing alongside Tom Mooney, appealed to the court for a pardon. Although the majority of the court denied his request, Langdon dissented on the grounds that Billings had no obligation to prove his innocence, but rather that the prosecution had an obligation to prove his guilt.^[22]

Personal life

On April 20, 1908, he married Stanford-trained school teacher Myrtie Conneau McHenry (December 2, 1878 – August 18, 1959), a wealthy widow from Modesto, California.^[7][23] They had one son: Lawton William Langdon (April 15, 1913 – September 23, 1960).^[7] His wife, Myrtie, also had two children from her first marriage: Lois Ann ("Annie") Langdon (Moran) (January 28, 1910 – May 11, 1973) and Merl McHenry (December 3, 1903 – January 3, 1994).^[6]

See also

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of California