Rudolph W. Giuliani | Biography

Rudolph W. Giuliani was born on May 28, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York. An only child raised in a part of Brooklyn known as East Flatbush, Giuliani was part of a strict Roman Catholic, Italian, working-class family. Giuliani attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn and, upon graduation in 1961, went on to complete his undergraduate work in political science and philosophy at Manhattan College in the Bronx. He attended New York University Law School, from which he graduated with high honors in 1968.

Giuliani became a law clerk for the Honorable Lloyd F. McMahon, a United States District Court judge sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After being in the clerkship for two years, Giuliani was hired to work as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His good work in this position led to his promotion at age 29 as the Chief of the Narcotics Unit within that office and the position of Executive United States Attorney.

In 1975, Giuliani served as the Associate Deputy Attorney General and the Chief of Staff for the Deputy Attorney General, Harold R. Tyler. Thereafter, Giuliani returned to New York to work in the private practice of law from 1977 until 1981 at a law firm named Patterson, Belknap, Webb, and Tyler. He was later named a partner.

Once again returning to public service, in 1981 Giuliani was appointed Associate Attorney General in the administration of President Ronald Reagan. In this position, the third highest in the United States Department of Justice, Giuliani acted as the supervisor for various federal agencies, including the U.S. Attorney Offices' federal law enforcement agencies, the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the United States Marshal Service. In 1982, Giuliani returned to the Southern District of New York, as United States attorney and served in this position for six years, during which time his aggressive prosecution of federal criminals led to an unprecedented record of 4,152 convictions.

In 1993, Giuliani was elected as the 107th Mayor of New York City. Facing high crime, poverty and poor educational system, the enthusiastic Giuliani was committed to changing things for the better. The first Republican mayor in over twenty years, Giuliani is perhaps best known as taking an extremely tough stance on crime, which was not without its critics.

Although crime was reduced, some critics pointed to several incidents of alleged brutality by the New York Police Department. For example, the then 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, in Brooklyn, New York, was arrested August 9, 1997, beaten, strip searched, and sodomized with a wooden stick, ripping his bladder and puncturing his lower intestine. The police officers then reportedly shoved the stick into Louima's mouth, breaking his front teeth.

Although Louima survived, others connected with alleged police misconduct during Giuliani's tenure were not so fortunate. In April 1999, an unarmed 22-year-old African street vendor, Amadou Diallo, was killed by police officers as he stood in the entrance to his apartment. A total of 41 bullets were fired at him. In events reminiscent of those that took place in the wake of the Rodney King incident, protests broke out which charged the police and Giuliani with aiming brutality toward minority communities. Amidst this adversity, Giuliani strongly defended the practices of the New York Police Department, which reduced his approval rating.

Recent Updates

May 19, 2004: Giuliani told the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that New York City was not advised of the intelligence briefing for President Bush, held one month before the attacks, that outlined al-Qaeda plans to strike within the United States. Source: CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/19/911.commission/index.html, May 19, 2004.

August 30, 2004: Giuliani, speaking at the Republican National Convention in New York, said President George W. Bush's speech at the scene of the terrorist attacks shortly after September 11, 2001, punctuated the need to re-elect him. Source: CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/30/gop.main/index.html, August 30, 2004.

September 11, 2004: Giuliani, at the former World Trade Center site on the three-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, read a letter from President Lincoln to a widow who was thought to have lost five sons in the Civil War. Source: New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/nyregion/12towers.html"th, September 12, 2004.

May 20, 2005: Giuliani was the commencement speaker at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. Source: Newsday, http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/bal-md.graduations21may21,0,7893469.story"coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines, May 21, 2005.