Edward Bennett Williams

Edward Bennett Williams (May 31, 1920 – August 13, 1988) was an American lawyer, businessman, and sports team owner. He received his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross before studying law at Georgetown University. He worked for Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C., beginning in the 1940s and later co-founded the law firm of Williams & Connolly in 1967. Williams worked as the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee in the mid-1970s.

Edward Bennett Williams
Williams in 1970
Born	(1920-05-31)May 31, 1920 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	August 13, 1988(1988-08-13) (aged 68) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	College of the Holy Cross (BA) Georgetown University (JD)
Occupations	Lawyer sports team owner
Employer	Hogan & Hartson (1945–1949)
Organizations	Williams & Connolly District of Columbia Bar
Title	President, Washington Redskins (1966–1984) Owner, Baltimore Orioles (1979–1988)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Agnes Neill Williams
Children	7
Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee
In office October 18, 1974 – January 21, 1977
Preceded by	Charles Peter McColough
Succeeded by	Joel McCleary

Williams also worked in professional sports, serving as the controlling owner of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1965 to 1979 and as its president from 1966 to 1984. He later owned the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1979 until his death in 1988.

Career

Air Force

Williams received a degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1941 before serving in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II.

Law and politics

Williams represented many high-profile clients, including Sam Giancana, John Hinckley Jr., Frank Sinatra, former Governor of Texas and Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally Jr., financier Robert Vesco, Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, Jimmy Hoffa, organized crime figure Frank Costello, oil commodity trader Marc Rich, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, corporate raider Victor Posner, Michael Milken, The Washington Post newspaper, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, former CIA director Richard Helms, Bobby Baker, various FBI agents accused of bag jobs in New York, and Aldo Icardi, an OSS agent accused of killing his commander. He also defended Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Williams was both a friend of and lawyer for Senator Joseph McCarthy. They first met before McCarthy gained notoriety during the House Un-American Activities Committee proceedings. He represented McCarthy in a variety of cases, including in his libel suit against Senator William Benton and in his legal dispute with the IRS over underpaid taxes. He continued to represent him during the committee hearings which led to his formal censure by the US Senate.

In June 1956, Williams was hired by mobster Frank Costello in his tax evasion and denaturalization cases. He succeeded in getting Costello released from prison on a $20,000 bail. However, he was unsuccessful in his attempts to overturn Costello's tax evasion conviction.

In May 1957, Williams was hired by the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Dave Beck to advise him during his testimony before the US Senate's McClellan Committee on organized crime within the trade unions. Williams won an acquittal for then-Vice President of the Teamsters Jimmy Hoffa in his 1957 bribery trial. This came as a surprise, as Hoffa was expected to be convicted. Afterwards, he was made general counsel for the Teamsters and kept on a $50,000 per annum retainer. He ws portrayed by José Ferrer in the 1983 television film Blood Feud.

Williams defended Bernard Goldfine when he was investigated for his expensive gifts to Sherman Adams, the White House Chief of Staff who resigned due to the fallout from the public disclosure. In 1959, Vito Genovese, the boss of the Genovese crime family in New York, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. When the Supreme Court declined to review his case he hired Williams. In October 1963, Williams appeared before the Court of Appeals, which rejected his appeal.

In 1965, Sam Giancana hired Williams for his summoning before a grand jury that was probing organized crime in Chicago. Against Williams' advice, Giancana refused to testify and was prosecuted for contempt of court. Giancana did not believe he would be prosecuted as he had helped the CIA in their attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Another Chicago mafia client of Williams was Felix Alderisio, who he defended during his extortion trial. In 1967, he represented Lyndon B. Johnson's aide Bobby Baker, who was convicted of larceny, fraud and tax evasion, being sentenced to one-to-three years in prison. A subsequent 1970 appeal was unsuccessful. Williams represented Baker's friend Ed Levinson, a gambling operator in Las Vegas, when he was charged with evading taxes owed on profit he had skimmed from his Fremont casino. The FBI had wiretapped his phone and in response he sued the bureau for invasion of privacy, seeking $4.5 million. Williams worked out an arrangment whereby Levinson would drop his suit in exchange for being able to plead nolo contendere and fined a minimum of $5,000.

In April 1968, he appeared in a CBS news special, The Trial Lawyer, alongside his fellow lawyers Melvin Belli, F. Lee Bailey, and Percy Foreman, where they discussed the merits and demerits of trial by jury. In 1975, Williams successfully defended the former governor of Texas, John B. Connally, when he was put on trial for bribery relating to a milk company's contributions to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Connally was acquitted. He defended CIA director Dick Helms when he was brought to trial for misleading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Williams arranged a deal whereby Helms would enter a no contest plea in return for avoiding jail time. Helms received a two-year suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine.

Williams was a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Georgetown University Law Center. Before establishing Williams & Connolly in 1967 with Paul Connolly, he worked at the prominent D.C.-based law firm of Hogan & Hartson from 1945 to 1949. Williams also served as treasurer of the Democratic National Committee from October 18, 1974, to January 21, 1977.

Williams served on the board of the 1976 iteration of the Committee on the Present Danger. He was a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Professional sports

Washington Redskins

Williams and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle meeting with members of U.S. Congress and president Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967

Williams acquired a five percent share in the Washington Redskins in 1962. In 1965, he was appointed by team owner George Preston Marshall to run daily operations and was named team president the following year. Williams acquired Marshall's shares in the franchise following his death in 1969. As owner, Williams spent heavily on appointing high-profile coaches and general managers, beginning with Otto Graham in 1966 and continuing with Vince Lombardi in 1969, George Allen in 1971, and Bobby Beathard in 1978. In 1974, Williams sold majority interest in the team to Redskins minority partner Jack Kent Cooke. Due to NFL rules at the time disallowing controlling ownership in other leagues, Cooke allowed Williams to continue operating the team until selling his other properties, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, to Jerry Buss in May 1979. Williams remained with the Redskins as its president until selling his remaining shares to Cooke in 1985.

Baltimore Orioles

Williams with MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn and President Ronald Reagan, 1984

Williams purchased controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB) from Jerold Hoffberger for $12 million on August 2, 1979, with the transaction being approved unanimously by American League team owners 11+1⁄2 weeks later on October 22. His interest in purchasing the franchise began when he represented in negotiations William E. Simon, who had attempted to do the same thing earlier that year until he withdrew his offer on February 5. As part of the deal, Williams bought a block of publicly traded shares that had been issued in 1936 when the team was still the St. Louis Browns, making the Orioles privately held once again.

Many feared Williams would move the team to Washington. Baltimore had previously lost the Baltimore Bullets basketball team to Washington. The fear of Williams's moving the team increased with the 1984 departure of the Baltimore Colts. However, Williams did not the team. More importantly, Williams signed a new, long-term lease with Baltimore that would pay for a new stadium, which would become Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He would not live to see the new ballpark (it opened in 1992, four years after his death). The Orioles were sold by Williams's widow Agnes to Eli Jacobs, Larry Lucchino, and Sargent and Bobby Shriver for $70 million (equivalent to $190.6 million in 2025) on December 5, 1988.

Real estate investments

Among Williams's many real estate holdings was The Jefferson, a 98-room luxury hotel located near the White House and favored by many sport and political figures in the 1980 and 90s. In April 1989, Paine Webber Realty (a subsidiary of Paine Webber) purchased the hotel from Agnes Williams for $28 million, equivalent to $72.7 million in 2025.

Death

Williams died at Georgetown University Hospital on August 13, 1988, after a 12-year battle with colon cancer. He was buried in St. Gabriel Cemetery in Potomac, Maryland. His funeral was attended by most of Washington's power elite, including then-U.S. vice president George H. W. Bush, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Eunice Kennedy and Sargent Shriver, and Michael Milken (of the famous 1980s junk-bond scandal). The Edward Bennett Williams Law Library at Georgetown University Law Center is named in his honor. The senior apartments residence hall at the College of the Holy Cross is also named after him.

Further reading

• Bennett Williams, Edward. One Man's Freedom. Atheneum. ISBN 978-0689705441.
• Williams' testimony before the McClellan Committee in July 1959.