{{Short description|American politician (1908-1958)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = |name = George Fingold |honorific_suffix = |image = George Fingold.png |image_size = |caption = |order = |office = 33rd Massachusetts Attorney General |governor = Christian A. Herter<br>Foster Furcolo |predecessor = Francis E. Kelly |successor = Edward J. McCormack |term_start = 1953 |term_end = August 31, 1958 |birth_date = October 18, 1908 <ref name="archive.org">{{cite book |author1=Irving N. Hayden |author2=Lawrence R. Grove |title=1957-1958 Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts | url=https://archive.org/stream/publicofficersof19571958bost#page/26/mode/2up }}</ref> |birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.<ref name="archive.org"/> |death_date = {{death date and age|1958|8|31|1908|10|18}} |death_place = Concord, Massachusetts, U.S. |alma_mater = Suffolk University Law School<ref name="archive.org"/> |party = Republican Party |profession = Lawyer |spouse = }}
'''George Fingold''' (October 18, 1908 – August 31, 1958) was an American politician from Massachusetts who served as Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1958.
Fingold's political career began at the age of 21 when he was elected to the Malden City Council. He later served as Assistant District attorney of Middlesex County and as the Commonwealth's Assistant Attorney General in charge of prosecution of racketeers. In 1952, Fingold defeated incumbent Attorney General Francis E. Kelly.<ref name=Obituary>{{cite news |title=George Fingold is Dead at 49. Massachusetts Attorney General; G.O.P. Candidate for Governor Had Campaigned Saturday --Serving Third Term |work=New York Times |date=September 1, 1958 }}</ref>
On December 18, 1953, Fingold called for the Massachusetts Governor's Council to ban the comic book ''Panic'' within the state, on the grounds it "desecrated Christmas" depicting the holiday in a "pagan" manner. Under his orders the head of the state police, Captain Joseph Crescio, cut off the distribution of ''Panic'' throughout Massachusetts. By December 21, the book had been pulled from nearly all the newsstands in the Greater Boston area. Fingold warned distributors who resisted compliance that they would be susceptible to criminal prosecution, although it is unclear what they would've been charged with. Publisher William M. Gaines retaliated by announcing that he was permanently withdrawing ''Panic'' from distribution in the state of Massachusetts and yanking his ''Picture Stories From The Bible'' from that state (which hadn't been published in over five years). "The idea was, 'If you don't want us, we don't want you,'" explained editor and writer Al Feldstein, who said he had felt a "certain literary pride" in having his book banned.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hajdu|first=David|title=The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America|year=2009|publisher=Macmillan|isbn= 9780312428235|pages=221|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7B6EPG7vG8C&pg=PA220}}</ref>
Fingold died on August 31, 1958, at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. At the time of his death he was a candidate in the Republican primary for Governor of Massachusetts.<ref name=Obituary />
In 1960, the State Library of Massachusetts was named the George Fingold Library under Chapter 380, Acts of 1960.<ref>[http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=afmodulechunk&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Research+%26+Technology&L2=Oversight+Agencies&L3=The+State+Library+of+Massachusetts&sid=Eoaf&b=terminalcontent&f=lib_ourorganization_aboutus_aboutus&csid=Eoaf About the State Library]. Retrieved 2010-08-05</ref>
== See also == * List of Jewish American jurists
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Frederick Ayer Jr.}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Attorney General of Massachusetts|years=1952, 1954, 1956}} {{s-aft|after=Christian A. Herter Jr.}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | title = Massachusetts Attorney General | before = Francis E. Kelly | after = Edward J. McCormack, Jr. | years = 1953–1958}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fingold, George}} Category:1908 births Category:1958 deaths Category:Jewish American people in Massachusetts politics Category:Massachusetts city council members Category:Massachusetts attorneys general Category:Politicians from Malden, Massachusetts Category:Politicians from Concord, Massachusetts Category:Suffolk University Law School alumni Category:Massachusetts Republicans Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century Massachusetts politicians Category:Jewish state legislators in Massachusetts
{{Massachusetts-politician-stub}}