Conde McGinley

Conde McGinley (October 13, 1890 – July 2, 1963) was an American publisher. From 1948 until his death in 1963, he was the editor and publisher of the semi-monthly newspaper Common Sense which reached a paid circulation of more than 100,000 by the mid-1950s. Initially anti-Communist in orientation, the newspaper later developed also into a pro-Nazi and antisemitic broadsheet.

McGinley gained attention due to his campaign against the nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg as assistant secretary of Defense in the administration of President Harry S. Truman. This campaign led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Early life Conde McGinley was born in Norman, Oklahoma, the eldest of three surviving children of Irish Catholic immigrant Connell B. McGinley (1852 – 1941) and his wife, Catherine. McGinley preferred to be known by his middle name Conde. He married Celia Brown around 1918. Around this time he claimed that he was "Secretary of the Grady County Highway Association" in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He moved with his parents to the Dallas, Texas, area, where his daughter Nona was born in 1927, and where his father died in 1941.

He was Catholic.

In response, "Conde McGinley of Common Sense urged the committee to hold a public hearing and 'if we cannot prove our statements we'll be very willing to cease publication'."

Christian Education Association In 1954, McGinley formed the Christian Education Association with himself as president, his son as secretary/treasurer and Alex Jefimow as vice-president. The operation was at 530 Chestnut Street in Union, a building owned by Katherine Lettig, who was also a volunteer for the paper. The group also operated the Union Patriotic Press, whose officers were Charles Kane, John J. Reynolds and Edward J. Byrne.

In 1955, he was sued for $250,000 in punitive damages, for libel, by Rabbi Joachim Prinz (1902-1988) in Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey. McGinley had published in Common Sense that Prinz was "expelled in 1937 from Germany for revolutionary communistic activities". Prinz denied this. McGinley was defended by three attorneys, including Albert Dilling, former husband of Elizabeth Dilling Stokes, and their son, Kirkpatrick Dilling. The jury awarded Prinz $30,000, agreeing that "the bi-weekly publication was lying when it characterized him as a 'Red Rabbi'". A motion for a retrial was declined. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters. Common Sense became defunct in May 1972. The last issue contained a statement by the editors that they considered the situation and the government beyond saving.