F. Howe, William: - "Howe and Hummel was a New York City legal practice that was well-known in the latter part of the nineteenth century for its active involvement in the world of crime and corruption. William F. Howe (1828 - September 2, 1902), the firm's senior partner, was a corpulent UK-born and later naturalized American trial lawyer who had served 18 months in jail in Britain for false representation and was suspected of having a more extensive criminal record. Prosecuted in 1874 through a pair of white slavers, William and Adelaide Beaumont, "whoever maintained that they had in some way been cheated by their partners," Howe's history was thoroughly investigated through the Beaumonts' attorney, Thomas Dunphy. Dunphy urged Howe to explain to the jury why he had left England."