{{Short description|American politician (1898–1994)}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Thomas Lane |image = Thomas J. Lane (Massachusetts Congressman).jpg |office = Member of the [[Massachusetts Governor's Council]]<br>from the 5th district |term_start = 1965 |term_end = 1977 |predecessor = [[John J. Buckley (mayor)|John Buckley]] |successor = John Markey |state1 = [[Massachusetts]] |district1 = {{ushr|MA|7|7th}} |term_start1 = December 30, 1941 |term_end1 = January 3, 1963 |predecessor1 = [[Lawrence J. Connery]] |successor1 = [[F. Bradford Morse]] (redistricting) |state_senate2 = Massachusetts |district2 = 5th Essex |term_start2 = 1939 |term_end2 = 1941 |predecessor2 = James Meehan |successor2 = Michael Flanagan |office3 = Member of the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] |term_start3 = 1927 |term_end3 = 1938 |predecessor3 = |successor3 = |birth_name = Thomas Joseph Lane |birth_date = {{birth date|1898|7|6}} |birth_place = [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]], U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1994|6|14|1898|7|6}} |death_place = [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]], U.S. |party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] |education = [[Suffolk University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]]) }} '''Thomas Joseph Lane''' (July 6, 1898 – June 14, 1994) was a [[U.S. representative]] from [[Massachusetts]] from 1941 to 1963, notable for having been re-elected after serving time in [[Federal prison#United States|federal prison]].
Lane was born in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]] on July 6, 1898 and graduated from Lawrence High School. Lane received an LL.B. in 1925 from [[Suffolk University Law School]] in Boston, Mass and then served in the [[United States Army]].
==Massachusetts General Court== Lane was lawyer in private practice and a member of the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] from 1927 to 1938 and a member of the [[Massachusetts Senate]] from 1939 to 1941.
==Congress== Lane was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-seventh Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of [[United States Representative]] [[Lawrence J. Connery]], and reelected to the Seventy-eighth and the nine succeeding Congresses. Lane, also, sponsored the legislation in the House of Representatives that called for the [[National Conference on Citizenship]] (NCoC) to become a Congressional – chartered organization. He later served on the Board of the Directors of the NCoC. He served from December 30, 1941 to January 3, 1963.
In 1956, Lane was re-elected after serving four months in prison for evading $38,542 in income taxes.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2sNp1l1pNroC&dq=Thomas+Joseph+Lane+tax+evasion&pg=PT372 | title=The Almanac of Political Corruption, Scandals, and Dirty Politics | isbn=978-0-307-48134-4 | last1=Long | first1=Kim | date=18 December 2008 | publisher=Random House Publishing }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.nndb.com/people/417/000173895/ |title = Thomas J. Lane}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-05-op-1411-story.html |title = Indictments--A Grand Congressional Tradition Since 1798| website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date = 1994-06-05}}</ref>
==Later life== Lane was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Eighty-eighth Congress in 1962. He served as a member of the Governor’s Council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1965 to 1977.
He died on June 14, 1994, in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]] and his interment was at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, [[North Andover, Massachusetts]].
==See also== * Massachusetts legislature: [[1927–1928 Massachusetts legislature|1927–1928]], [[1929–1930 Massachusetts legislature|1929–1930]], [[1931–1932 Massachusetts legislature|1931–1932]], [[1933–1934 Massachusetts legislature|1933–1934]], [[1935–1936 Massachusetts legislature|1935–1936]], [[1937–1938 Massachusetts legislature|1937–1938]], [[1939 Massachusetts legislature|1939]], [[1941–1942 Massachusetts legislature|1941–1942]] *[[List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes]] *[[List of federal political scandals in the United States]] *[[Suffolk University Law School]]
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{CongBio|L000065}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{s-bef|before=[[Lawrence J. Connery]]}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[List of United States representatives from Massachusetts|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br>from [[Massachusetts's 7th congressional district]]|years=1941–1963}} {{s-aft|after=[[Torbert Macdonald]]}} {{s-end}}
{{USRepMA}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Thomas J.}} [[Category:1898 births]] [[Category:1994 deaths]] [[Category:American people convicted of tax crimes]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Lawrence High School (Massachusetts) alumni]] [[Category:Massachusetts politicians convicted of crimes]] [[Category:Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators]] [[Category:Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives]] [[Category:Politicians from Lawrence, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Suffolk University Law School alumni]] [[Category:20th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]] [[Category:20th-century United States representatives]]