Joseph J. Hersch

[3] In 1939, Hersch was involved in a strange incident in the Philadelphia Sheriff's office when Republican Sheriff William J. Hamilton Jr. was confirmed as state Secretary of Revenue, deputy coroner Vincent Moranz claimed the office for himself and appointed Hersch as his deputy.

[4] According to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer the next day, "none of the participants in the man-made mixup took the affair very seriously, except Hamilton" who called it "calculated trickery.

[7] By that time, Philadelphia had approved a new city charter and Hersch worked with a bipartisan coalition in Harrisburg to reverse some of the reform-minded changes it made.

[8] The effort was unsuccessful, but ward leaders rewarded Hersch by nominating him to an open seat for magistrate in Philadelphia in 1953.

[11] In 1961, Hersch asked City Council for an increase in funding of the magistrate courts, which he said were overworked because so many more traffic tickets were being written.

[12] In an interview later that year, Hersch explained that his lack of formal education beyond eighth grade was no hindrance to his performance of the job of magistrate.

In 1962, the Committee of Seventy, a non-partisan watchdog group, called for Hersch's removal from the job, citing an excessive discharge rate that let too many defendants avoid fines for traffic infractions.

[2][20] They were listed as husband and wife in the 1940 census, but after that Mary is never mentioned in connection with Hersch again, even in his obituary, and they appear to have had no children.