For 57 years, McClure was the undisputed boss of the Republican Party in the county. He was a state senator from 1928 to 1936 and a convicted felon for violating the Prohibition-era Volstead Act.
In February 1933, McClure and 95 others were indicted by a federal grand jury for bootlegging. Witnesses testified that sacks of liquor were unloaded at the Chester riverfront for distribution all along the East Coast under the political protection of McClure. Author Paul B. Beers, writing in his book Pennsylvania Politics, estimates that in an 11-year period McClure collected $3 million in payoffs.
McClure and 70 other defendants were found guilty. He received an 18-month sentence and was fined $10,000. But he never served a day or paid a cent. The Volstead Act was subsequently repealed and his conviction was set aside. But as a result of the scandal, McClure was defeated for reelection to his Senate seat in 1936.
John J. McClure was born in Chester in 1886. His father, William J., was a noted businessman and for 70 years a prominent leader of the GOP in Delaware County.
Upon his father's death in 1908, John at age 21 left Swarthmore College to look after his father's business and political interests. In the next few years he organized a construction company, became the president of an insurance firm, and the majority stockholder in a beverage company.
"McClure never went into politics to make money. It was power that interested him," said John M. McLarnon III, assistant professor of history at Millersville University and author of Ruling Suburbia: John J. McClure and the Republican Machine in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
The McClure political machine was built on favors given and favors repaid.
