John Joseph Sirica was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal. He rose to national prominence when he ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations. Sirica's involvement in the case began when he presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars. He did not believe the claim that they had acted alone, and through the use of strongly encouraged them to give information about higher-ups before final sentencing. One defendant, James W. McCord Jr., wrote a letter describing a broader scheme of involvement by people in the Nixon administration. For his role in uncovering the truth about Watergate, Sirica was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in January 1974.
Early life and education
Sirica was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Ferdinando Sirica, an immigrant from Italy, and Rose Sirica, whose parents were from Italy. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1918, where he attended Emerson Preparatory School and eventually transferred to Columbia Preparatory School. He went directly from high school to law school, which was possible in the District of Columbia at the time, and, after two false starts, entered Georgetown Law and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1926. Between 1910 and 1918, the Sirica family lived in various cities across the United States where Fred worked as a barber and made several unsuccessful attempts at running small businesses. In 1922, Fred was running a two-lane bowling alley and poolhall, which was raided by the police for violation of the Prohibition-era Volstead Act when liquor was found in the restroom. Fred was arrested, but the charges were dropped. He soon sold the business and moved away.
Career
Sirica fought as a boxer in Washington and Miami in the 1920s and 1930s. He was torn between a career as a fighter and the career in law that he followed after earning a law degree and passing the bar. Boxing champion Jack Dempsey became a close friend. Sirica was in private practice of law in Washington, D.C. from 1926 to 1930. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1930 to 1934, and subsequently returned to private practice from 1934 to 1957. He also served as general counsel to the House Select Committee to Investigate the Federal Communications Commission in 1944; his appointment was opposed by the two Republican members of the committee. However, Sirica resigned in protest over the committee's handling of the WMCA scandal that year, and re-entered private practice. In 1947, he joined the law firm of Hogan and Hartson in Washington, D.C..
Experienced as a trial lawyer, Sirica was known for his "no-nonsense" demeanor on the bench. Author Joseph Goulden, in The Benchwarmers, said that some lawyers thought Sirica made careless legal errors. He was nicknamed "Maximum John" for giving defendants the maximum sentence that guidelines allowed.
Book
In 1979, Sirica published a book, co-authored with John Stacks, detailing his participation in the Watergate cases under the title To Set the Record Straight.
Death
Sirica suffered a severe heart attack while at a speaking engagement on February 5, 1976. In the final years of his life, Sirica suffered from a wide range of ailments, both minor and severe. In the last few weeks of his life, he came down with pneumonia. He fell and broke his collarbone a few days before his death, and was hospitalized at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. He died in the hospital of cardiac arrest at 4:30 p.m. on August 14, 1992. He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland. Sirica was survived by his wife, Lucile Camalier Sirica, and his three children, John Jr., Patricia, and Eileen.
