Robert L. Moran (Politician)
Encyclopedia
Robert Lawrence Moran was a Bronx politician who served as President of the Board of Alderman of New York City from 1918 to 1920, filling a vacancy left by Alfred E. Smith after Smith’s election as governor of New York. Nominated by the Democratic Party to succeed himself as board president, Moran faced Republican Representative Fiorello H. La Guardia in the election of 1919, losing by a plurality of 1,363 votes. Mr. Moran has the distinction of being the only citizen of The Bronx to ever exercise the authority of mayor of New York City, even though this honor came to him only in his capacity as acting mayor during Mayor Hylan’s absences from the city.
and for many years a sergeant in the New York Parks Police Department, died in the typhoid epidemic of 1912. After Eugene’s death, the family moved to 1486 St. Lawrence Street in The Bronx. The family would later move to 1565 Leland Avenue in The Bronx, where Moran would reside until his death in 1954.
Robert Moran was educated in the public schools of his native city. As a young man he attended Public School 100 in The Bronx before leaving to take a factory job. He took real estate courses at the Young Men’s Christian Association and attended night school at New York University
for two years. Moran entered the real estate business in The Bronx and among the many operations with which he was connected was the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Apartments on the Grand Concourse
.
as president of the Board of Aldermen, Moran was chosen to fill Mr. Dowling’s place as majority leader. When Alfred E. Smith, later Governor of New York, was elected president of the Board of Alderman in 1916, Mr. Moran was made vice-chairman by the votes of his fellow-members and was re-elected to this position upon the reorganization of the board in 1917. Moran automatically became president of the Board on January 1, 1918, when Mr. Smith resigned this position to assume the office of governor.
in Harlem, the construction of a public boathouse
at Central Park
, as well as public bathhouses at Pelham Bay Park
and Coney Island
;
He retained the Daylight Saving Law in New York City after it was repealed as a federal measure, amended the code of ordinances relating to prices charged by public carts and cartmen, prevented the erection of a garbage disposal plant in The Bronx and played a significant role on the Committee Appointed to Welcome Homecoming Troops of the American Expeditionary Force
and to ensure the re-employment of returning servicemen.
In addition, Moran led numerous attempts to dismantle the monopoly
in milk production and distribution held by the upstate Co-operative Association of Farmers and Dairymen and advocated for the establishment of a Municipal Department of Milk Supply and Distribution to be run by the City. He also testified before the Lockwood Committee of the Senate to relieve the housing situation and endorsed Governor Alfred E. Smith’s proposed legislation for the protection of workers, among them, for the establishment of a Minimum Wage Commission for women and minors and the creation of a health insurance system.
While an alderman, Moran served on the Finance Committee, Rules Committee, Markets Committee, Salaries and Grades Committee and the Legislature Committee. In the Board of Estimate, he was the chairman of the Transit Committee, the Assessment Committee, and the Salaries and Grades Committee, and was a member of the Finance and Budget Committee, Franchise Committee, Sinking Committee and Armory Board.
. Michael “Dynamite Mike” Kelly, the popular commander of New York’s Third “Shamrock” Battalion, also joined the race on the ticket of the Liberty Party. Kelly was a war hero and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross
and Croix de Guerre
. His campaign was supported by the notorious Jeremiah A. O'Leary and a small group of Irish Americans who opposed the League of Nations
and advocated recognition of the Irish Republic
. Tammany looked with alarm upon Kelly’s entrance into the campaign and tried to persuade him to withdraw his candidacy and throw his support behind Mr. Moran. When he refused, the Tammany chiefs went to the New York Supreme Court
to keep Kelly’s name off the ballot, pointing out that 547 of the 3,491 signatories to Kelly’s nomination petition had failed to register or otherwise comply with election laws. The Supreme Court agreed and ordered that Kelly’s name be stricken from the ballot, a ruling later upheld by the Appellate Division.
In the late summer of 1919, candidate Moran fell ill, attributing his abdominal pains to ptomaine poisoning. When the pain receded by late September, he assumed the ailment had passed and did not consult a physician. But on September 30, upon returning home from the funeral of Manhattan Borough President Frank L. Dowling, Moran told his mother that he felt decidedly worse, and the next day was rushed to Lincoln Hospital
where doctors discovered an acute gangrenous appendicitis
. Surgery was performed successfully by Moran's friend, the former health commissioner Dr. J. Lewis Amster and Moran left the hospital on October 26, 1919, carrying over 15,000 cards and letters sent to him by friends during his illness. He would recover completely, but the crucial last days of his election campaign against LaGuardia found him confined to a sickbed.
Although Moran had been the heavy favorite going into the election and despite the absence of Kelly’s name on the ballot, when Election Day arrived, more than 3,500 of Kelly’s supporters wrote his name on the ballot. This number was sufficient to defeat Moran, who lost to LaGuardia by only 1,363 votes. The election of 1919 was devastating to Tammany, and brought defeat as well to Edward F. Boyle in the contest for the Manhattan Borough presidency.
In 1929, Moran was elected sheriff
of the Bronx, taking office on January 1, 1930. As sheriff, Moran gained notoriety for refusing to jail members of the National Guard who had been sentenced to serve short prison terms for failing to appear at drill. The jail’s lack of accommodations for non-criminal prisoners meant that guardsmen, some just 17 years old, would have to be confined with violent felons. Moran argued that “in time of peace and especially now, with distress and unemployment, the military law should not be enforced to extremes” and that no consideration had been given as to whether the boy prisoners were ill, had dependents or might lose their jobs. So strongly did Moran object, that the situation could only be resolved by the issuance of a writ of mandamus compelling him to act.
At one point, in April 1933, the Bronx jail held 17 prisoners all charged with First Degree Murder and all doomed to die in the electric chair
. The most famous was Lottie Coll, the widow of gangland chief Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll who had been gunned down by a machine gun as he stood in an Eighth Avenue phonebooth.
, the Bronx Commissioner of Public Works since 1918, alleging that Flynn was using the influence of his office to steer city construction contracts to his political friends. The suit further alleged that Flynn, acting as Borough president during the frequent absences of Henry R. Bruckner, manipulated the issuance of construction contracts to establish himself as a “virtual dictator of the building trades in the Borough.” One such contract was a $100,000 contract on the new Bronx County Municipal Building awarded to United Sand and Gravel, a company owned by Sheriff Moran, waterfront power-broker William J. McCormack (businessman)
and former Assistant District Attorney, Edward J. Chapman.
Although the civil suit was ultimately dismissed, the allegations led to a citywide investigation of borough governments by Samuel Seabury
, counsel to the Hofstadter Committee. Thousands of public officials were called before the Commission to testify. Following the testimony of New York County Sheriff Thomas M. Farley, Seabury convened a Grand Jury
to investigate the alleged practice of retaining interest accrued on official deposits by county sheriffs. Farley and his predecessor Charles W. Culkin would stand accused of embezzling over $25,000 in interest.
Despite assertions by the Democratic minority on the investigating committee that sheriffs everywhere had always helped themselves to the interests accruals, in a private interview Sheriff Moran told investigators that it was his practice to turn any such interest over to the city chamberlain for disbursement. Moran also produced the books of his office showing that no interest had accrued to the $1,400 in official deposits he had made in the past two years. At the time, Seabury noted that Sheriff Moran appeared to be the only County Sheriff who doesn’t keep a tin box in his desk.
The Seabury investigation would continue for two years and lead to the indictment of Deputy City Clerk James J. McCormick, the arrest of State Senator John A. Hastings, and the eventual resignation of Mayor James Walker
.
on December 31, 1933. As commissioner, Moran was instrumental in the dredging and straightening of the Hutchinson River,, the construction of a new Bronx House of Detention and the construction of Major Deagan Boulevard, the easterly approach to the Triborough Bridge, in time for the 1939 Worlds Fair. This approach would later be expanded to become the Major Deagan Expressway.
Moran retired from his position as commissioner in May 1942, under fire from District Attorney Samuel J. Foley in the Edward J. Flynn
paving job investigation. Flynn, the Democratic National Chairman and Bronx party leader, had been nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
to be ambassador to Australia
. An investigation into his affairs revealed that timesheets of three employees of the Bronx Bureau of Sewer and Highway Maintenance had been altered to convey the impression that they were on “vacation” when in fact they were engaged in the construction of an antique Belgian courtyard at Flynn’s Lake Mahopac home, using second-hand city paving blocks. A grand jury would later clear everyone involved in the matter of any wrongdoing
, The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and The Bronx Rotary Club, where he was elected President. He also served as a member of the New York State Home Rule Commission, and helped to frame laws establishing Home Rule for the municipalities of the State.
Moran died in the Westchester Square Hospital on August 18, 1954 at the age of 69 and is buried in Queens, New York. He was survived by his wife and seven children.
Early life
Moran was born on October 3, 1884 in Manhattan on East Twenty-First Street. He was the second of six children born to Eugene (b.1856) and Delia Moran (formerly Fitzpatrick) (b. 1860). His father, a native of Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
and for many years a sergeant in the New York Parks Police Department, died in the typhoid epidemic of 1912. After Eugene’s death, the family moved to 1486 St. Lawrence Street in The Bronx. The family would later move to 1565 Leland Avenue in The Bronx, where Moran would reside until his death in 1954.
Robert Moran was educated in the public schools of his native city. As a young man he attended Public School 100 in The Bronx before leaving to take a factory job. He took real estate courses at the Young Men’s Christian Association and attended night school at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
for two years. Moran entered the real estate business in The Bronx and among the many operations with which he was connected was the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Apartments on the Grand Concourse
Grand Concourse
Grand Concourse can refer to:*Grand Concourse , a boulevard in New York City*Grand Concourse , an integrated walkway in Newfoundland and Labrador*Grand Concourse , owned by Landry's Restaurants...
.
Entry Into politics
Moran entered municipal politics in 1913, when Bronx Democrats selected him to run against the Fusionists in an aldermanic contest, which he won. When Frank L. Dowling succeeded George McAnenyGeorge McAneny
George McAneny was Manhattan Borough President from 1910 to 1913.-Biography:He was born in 1869 in Greenville, New Jersey and attended Jersey City High School and worked as a journalist after graduation. He became executive secretary of the New York Civil Service Commission then secretary of the...
as president of the Board of Aldermen, Moran was chosen to fill Mr. Dowling’s place as majority leader. When Alfred E. Smith, later Governor of New York, was elected president of the Board of Alderman in 1916, Mr. Moran was made vice-chairman by the votes of his fellow-members and was re-elected to this position upon the reorganization of the board in 1917. Moran automatically became president of the Board on January 1, 1918, when Mr. Smith resigned this position to assume the office of governor.
President of the Board of Aldermen and Acting Mayor 1918-1920
As president of the Board of Aldermen, Mr. Moran was acting mayor on many occasions. During his tenure, Moran organized the League for the Preservation of Sunday Recreation and presided over the amending of the New York City Code of Ordinances to allow for the playing of baseball games and showing of movies on Sunday. He made possible the condemnation and acquisition by the City of the principle street-surface railroad companies and he opposed the introduction of "transfer charges" and higher subway fares. He created the Bureau of Steam Heat Supply and established a municipal steam heating plant to supply heat at reasonable prices to the citizens of New York. Moran was also instrumental in approving construction of the 125th Street Bridge125th Street Bridge
The 125th Street Bridge, also known as the Rice Bridge, is a bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Minnesota.-See also:*List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River...
in Harlem, the construction of a public boathouse
Boathouse
A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats...
at Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, as well as public bathhouses at Pelham Bay Park
Pelham Bay Park
Pelham Bay Park, located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of The Bronx and extending partially into Westchester County, is at the largest public park in New York City. The section of the park within New York City's borders is more than three times the size of Manhattan's...
and Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
;
He retained the Daylight Saving Law in New York City after it was repealed as a federal measure, amended the code of ordinances relating to prices charged by public carts and cartmen, prevented the erection of a garbage disposal plant in The Bronx and played a significant role on the Committee Appointed to Welcome Homecoming Troops of the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
and to ensure the re-employment of returning servicemen.
In addition, Moran led numerous attempts to dismantle the monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
in milk production and distribution held by the upstate Co-operative Association of Farmers and Dairymen and advocated for the establishment of a Municipal Department of Milk Supply and Distribution to be run by the City. He also testified before the Lockwood Committee of the Senate to relieve the housing situation and endorsed Governor Alfred E. Smith’s proposed legislation for the protection of workers, among them, for the establishment of a Minimum Wage Commission for women and minors and the creation of a health insurance system.
While an alderman, Moran served on the Finance Committee, Rules Committee, Markets Committee, Salaries and Grades Committee and the Legislature Committee. In the Board of Estimate, he was the chairman of the Transit Committee, the Assessment Committee, and the Salaries and Grades Committee, and was a member of the Finance and Budget Committee, Franchise Committee, Sinking Committee and Armory Board.
1919 Aldermanic election
In 1919, Moran was chosen by Tammany to run as the Democratic candidate to succeed himself as president of the Board of Aldermen in the November election. Moran’s republican opponent was United States Congressman and former Deputy New York Attorney General Fiorello H. LaGuardiaFiorello H. LaGuardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia was Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a liberal Republican. Previously he was elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the three or...
. Michael “Dynamite Mike” Kelly, the popular commander of New York’s Third “Shamrock” Battalion, also joined the race on the ticket of the Liberty Party. Kelly was a war hero and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army, for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions that merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree...
and Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
. His campaign was supported by the notorious Jeremiah A. O'Leary and a small group of Irish Americans who opposed the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
and advocated recognition of the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
. Tammany looked with alarm upon Kelly’s entrance into the campaign and tried to persuade him to withdraw his candidacy and throw his support behind Mr. Moran. When he refused, the Tammany chiefs went to the New York Supreme Court
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
to keep Kelly’s name off the ballot, pointing out that 547 of the 3,491 signatories to Kelly’s nomination petition had failed to register or otherwise comply with election laws. The Supreme Court agreed and ordered that Kelly’s name be stricken from the ballot, a ruling later upheld by the Appellate Division.
In the late summer of 1919, candidate Moran fell ill, attributing his abdominal pains to ptomaine poisoning. When the pain receded by late September, he assumed the ailment had passed and did not consult a physician. But on September 30, upon returning home from the funeral of Manhattan Borough President Frank L. Dowling, Moran told his mother that he felt decidedly worse, and the next day was rushed to Lincoln Hospital
Lincoln Hospital
Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, founded in 1839, is in the South Bronx region of New York City, aggressively tackling issues such as asthma, obesity, cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis. It is known for innovative programs addressing the specific needs of the community it serves...
where doctors discovered an acute gangrenous appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
. Surgery was performed successfully by Moran's friend, the former health commissioner Dr. J. Lewis Amster and Moran left the hospital on October 26, 1919, carrying over 15,000 cards and letters sent to him by friends during his illness. He would recover completely, but the crucial last days of his election campaign against LaGuardia found him confined to a sickbed.
Although Moran had been the heavy favorite going into the election and despite the absence of Kelly’s name on the ballot, when Election Day arrived, more than 3,500 of Kelly’s supporters wrote his name on the ballot. This number was sufficient to defeat Moran, who lost to LaGuardia by only 1,363 votes. The election of 1919 was devastating to Tammany, and brought defeat as well to Edward F. Boyle in the contest for the Manhattan Borough presidency.
County Clerk And Bronx County Sheriff
On January 1, 1920, Governor Smith appointed Moran county clerk of the Bronx to fill the unexpired term of Joseph Callahan who had been elected City Court Judge. Governor Smith appointed Moran with the undederstanding that Moran would become a candidate for a full term as County Clerk in the upcoming November election. Moran's supporters had been urging him to seek the democratic nomination to succeed the ailing Henry Bruckner as Bronx Borough President. When Moran offered himself for re-election to a full term as County Clerk, he was elected by a large majority and was re-elected again in November, 1924. It was during his tenure as Bronx County Clerk, that Moran married Ms. Eileen Kelly, the daughter of prominent Bronx Attorney Peter C. Kelly.In 1929, Moran was elected sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of the Bronx, taking office on January 1, 1930. As sheriff, Moran gained notoriety for refusing to jail members of the National Guard who had been sentenced to serve short prison terms for failing to appear at drill. The jail’s lack of accommodations for non-criminal prisoners meant that guardsmen, some just 17 years old, would have to be confined with violent felons. Moran argued that “in time of peace and especially now, with distress and unemployment, the military law should not be enforced to extremes” and that no consideration had been given as to whether the boy prisoners were ill, had dependents or might lose their jobs. So strongly did Moran object, that the situation could only be resolved by the issuance of a writ of mandamus compelling him to act.
At one point, in April 1933, the Bronx jail held 17 prisoners all charged with First Degree Murder and all doomed to die in the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. The most famous was Lottie Coll, the widow of gangland chief Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll who had been gunned down by a machine gun as he stood in an Eighth Avenue phonebooth.
Seabury Commission investigations
In January 1932, a civil injunction suit was filed against William J. FlynnWilliam J. Flynn
William J. Flynn was the director of the Bureau of Investigation from July 1, 1919 to August 21, 1921.Born in New York City Flynn began his government career in 1897 after receiving a public school education. His first assignment was as an Agent in the United States Secret Service...
, the Bronx Commissioner of Public Works since 1918, alleging that Flynn was using the influence of his office to steer city construction contracts to his political friends. The suit further alleged that Flynn, acting as Borough president during the frequent absences of Henry R. Bruckner, manipulated the issuance of construction contracts to establish himself as a “virtual dictator of the building trades in the Borough.” One such contract was a $100,000 contract on the new Bronx County Municipal Building awarded to United Sand and Gravel, a company owned by Sheriff Moran, waterfront power-broker William J. McCormack (businessman)
William J. McCormack (businessman)
William J. McCormack , was a successful New York City businessman of the first half of the twentieth century. McCormack began life as a grocer's “wagon-boy” along the West Side docks, but went on to establish Penn Stevedoring, one of the most important produce handlers in the United States...
and former Assistant District Attorney, Edward J. Chapman.
Although the civil suit was ultimately dismissed, the allegations led to a citywide investigation of borough governments by Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He had been a leading Loyalist in New York City during the American Revolution.-History:Samuel Seabury was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1729...
, counsel to the Hofstadter Committee. Thousands of public officials were called before the Commission to testify. Following the testimony of New York County Sheriff Thomas M. Farley, Seabury convened a Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
to investigate the alleged practice of retaining interest accrued on official deposits by county sheriffs. Farley and his predecessor Charles W. Culkin would stand accused of embezzling over $25,000 in interest.
Despite assertions by the Democratic minority on the investigating committee that sheriffs everywhere had always helped themselves to the interests accruals, in a private interview Sheriff Moran told investigators that it was his practice to turn any such interest over to the city chamberlain for disbursement. Moran also produced the books of his office showing that no interest had accrued to the $1,400 in official deposits he had made in the past two years. At the time, Seabury noted that Sheriff Moran appeared to be the only County Sheriff who doesn’t keep a tin box in his desk.
The Seabury investigation would continue for two years and lead to the indictment of Deputy City Clerk James J. McCormick, the arrest of State Senator John A. Hastings, and the eventual resignation of Mayor James Walker
James Walker
-Politics:*James Walker , English MP for Exeter*Sir James Walker, 2nd Baronet , British MP for Beverley*Jimmy Walker , born James J...
.
Bronx Commissioner of Public Works
Moran was named Bronx Commissioner of Public Works by Borough President James J. LyonsJames J. Lyons
James J. Lyons was an American Democratic Party politician, who served as Borough President of the Bronx from 1934-1962.-Early life:...
on December 31, 1933. As commissioner, Moran was instrumental in the dredging and straightening of the Hutchinson River,, the construction of a new Bronx House of Detention and the construction of Major Deagan Boulevard, the easterly approach to the Triborough Bridge, in time for the 1939 Worlds Fair. This approach would later be expanded to become the Major Deagan Expressway.
Moran retired from his position as commissioner in May 1942, under fire from District Attorney Samuel J. Foley in the Edward J. Flynn
Edward J. Flynn
Edward Joseph Flynn was an American lawyer and politician. Flynn was a leading Democratic politician of the mid-1900s-Life:...
paving job investigation. Flynn, the Democratic National Chairman and Bronx party leader, had been nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
to be ambassador to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. An investigation into his affairs revealed that timesheets of three employees of the Bronx Bureau of Sewer and Highway Maintenance had been altered to convey the impression that they were on “vacation” when in fact they were engaged in the construction of an antique Belgian courtyard at Flynn’s Lake Mahopac home, using second-hand city paving blocks. A grand jury would later clear everyone involved in the matter of any wrongdoing
Later life and death
After his resignation, Moran returned to his previous occupation in real estate. His offices were in the Busher Building, 349 East 149th Street. Moran was an active member in The Bronx Board of Trade as well as The Bronx Catholic Club, The Knights of ColumbusKnights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
, The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and The Bronx Rotary Club, where he was elected President. He also served as a member of the New York State Home Rule Commission, and helped to frame laws establishing Home Rule for the municipalities of the State.
Moran died in the Westchester Square Hospital on August 18, 1954 at the age of 69 and is buried in Queens, New York. He was survived by his wife and seven children.