Such a concentration of villains had never before been assembled, in one spot, before the judge in whose hands their fates would rest. His record of implacable disdain for defendants’ rights spoke for itself. They had every reason to fear him — it explains why they hoped that a bright assignment from him would liberate them, if anything, from their prison cells as 1940 wore on — a big year, that would etch some indelible moments in history, for those who survived it.
At an undisclosed location in the great city of New York, these malefactors had been summoned to…
