His father's experiences in the Civil War, including time in Andersonville Prison, led to alcoholism and his death by drowning.
Hugh M. Alcorn was educated at the Connecticut Literary Institute in Suffield and then studied law.
[2] Alcorn was appointed State's Attorney for Hartford County in 1908 and remained in that position until resigning in 1942; no one before or since has served longer.
He prosecuted Amy Archer-Gilligan, the poisoner who may have been part of the inspiration for the play Arsenic and Old Lace, gangster Gerald Chapman, and the Waterbury corruption case which sent Lt.
President Woodrow Wilson appointed him a Special Attorney General to prosecute newspaper publisher Edward Rumely during World War I.