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The Man to See
Legendary attorney Edward Bennet Williams was arguably the best trial lawyer ever to practice. Now, for the first time, best-selling author Evan Thomas takes us into the courtrooms of William's greatest performances as he defends "Godfather" Frank Costello, Jimmy Hoffa, Frank Sinatra, The Washington Post, and others, as well as behind the scenes where the witnesses are coached, the traps set, and the deals cut.
In addition to being a lawyer of unprecedented influence, Williams was also an important Washington insider, privy to the secrets of America's most powerful men. Thomas tells the truth behind the stories that made Williams one of the most talked about public figures of his time, including Williams' role in the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the possibility that Williams may have been Watergate's Deep Throat. Based on Thomas's exclusive access to Williams's papers, "The Man to See" is an unprecedented look at the strategies and influence of this exceptional man.
In addition to being a lawyer of unprecedented influence, Williams was also an important Washington insider, privy to the secrets of America's most powerful men. Thomas tells the truth behind the stories that made Williams one of the most talked about public figures of his time, including Williams' role in the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the possibility that Williams may have been Watergate's Deep Throat. Based on Thomas's exclusive access to Williams's papers, "The Man to See" is an unprecedented look at the strategies and influence of this exceptional man.
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
42 people are currently reading
680 people want to read
About the author
Evan Thomas
70 books380 followersEvan Thomas is the author of nine books: The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson), The Man to See, The Very Best Men, Robert Kennedy, John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, The War Lovers, Ike’s Bluff, and Being Nixon. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for thirty-three years at Time and Newsweek, including ten years (1986–96) as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek, where, at the time of his retirement in 2010, he was editor at large. He wrote more than one hundred cover stories and in 1999 won a National Magazine Award. He wrote Newsweek’s fifty-thousand-word election specials in 1996, 2000, 2004 (winner of a National Magazine Award), and 2008. He has appeared on many TV and radio talk shows, including Meet the Press and The Colbert Report, and has been a guest on PBS’s Charlie Rose more than forty times. The author of dozens of book reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Thomas has taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton, where, from 2007 to 2014, he was Ferris Professor of Journalism.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 11, 2011
This is one of the best, if not the best, biographies I have ever read. Evan Thomas takes an interesting subject, famous trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams, and makes him come alive in this book. The book moves with the speed of a good novel and Thomas paints a portrait of an interesting, charming, complex, and flawed man. This book is as much about D.C. culture from the 1940s through the 1980s as it is about Williams, for Williams was a pivotal figure in D.C.'s growth from a sleepy southern town to a city of energy and power. Williams truly was the man to see. He could make potential indictments disappear, he counseled presidents and politicians, was friends with writers and editors. He was a daily Mass-goer who had a ribald sense of humor. A committed father and husband who in his early years strayed a bit. I highly recommend this great book. A modern masterpiece.
June 30, 2014
Incoming law students are invariably advised to read "One L," but they should be told to read this fascinating biography of a man who rose from obscurity to the absolute pinnacle of power in post-war Washington, D.C. It describes the highs (the courtroom victories, the alcohol-fueled camaraderie) and the lows (the constant stress, the agony of defeat) in satisfying detail. It is a case study of the Washington, D.C. super-lawyer model, which so many law firms and lobbyists have attempted to replicate through the years. It also describes the emergence of white-collar criminal defense as a lucrative big firm practice area. Most fascinatingly, it describes how Williams was able to forcefully advocate diametrically opposed viewpoints and attitudes at different times, for different clients and audiences. That too is a feature of modern legal practice, one which Williams carried out more deftly than nearly anyone else.
November 3, 2019
I liked the beginning of this bio a lot better than the later chapters. The beginning tells the story of an earnest, hardworking, extremely intelligent young man who genuinely cares about the accused individual's right to legal counsel, no matter who that individual might be. The names of some of the individuals whom he represents are well known, so there's a fine sense of history-from-the-ground-up. At the same time, his pro bono work for the less-well-known is admirable.
Bu by the middle of the book, there's nothing but a long list of wealthy, powerful, massively self-interested people whose cases Williams wins not so much by attentiveness to and skill with the fine points of the law as by personal connections with politicos and judges. Interspersed are his regular angry outbursts and racist/sexist/just-plain-rude remarks.
The man attended Mass daily. He was loved by his close friends and highly regarded by most of his clients. But his biography doesn't have much of a change, self-recognition or learning curve to it. It's impressive in a way, but mostly pitiable. And very repetitive.
Bu by the middle of the book, there's nothing but a long list of wealthy, powerful, massively self-interested people whose cases Williams wins not so much by attentiveness to and skill with the fine points of the law as by personal connections with politicos and judges. Interspersed are his regular angry outbursts and racist/sexist/just-plain-rude remarks.
The man attended Mass daily. He was loved by his close friends and highly regarded by most of his clients. But his biography doesn't have much of a change, self-recognition or learning curve to it. It's impressive in a way, but mostly pitiable. And very repetitive.
January 21, 2026
The Man to See: Edward Bennett Williams and the Art of Legal Combat
The Man to See by Evan Thomas presents a vivid portrait of Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary criminal defense attorney who became Washington's most formidable legal gladiator during the second half of the 20th century. Williams embodied a peculiarly American contradiction: a devout Catholic who defended mobsters, a civil libertarian who cared most about his own clients' liberty, and a brilliant advocate who understood that "bad clients make bad law."
Thomas captures Williams's rise from poverty in Hartford through his education at Holy Cross, where he studied Burke, Penn, Clay, and Webster—models of eloquence and persuasion who shaped his conception of advocacy. After flunking out of flight training in World War II, Williams found his true calling in the courtroom, where his photographic memory and relentless preparation made him nearly unbeatable. Like Churchill, he practiced his speeches and jokes obsessively, transforming advocacy into performance art.
The book's central insight is that Williams legitimized criminal defense work at a time when representing unpopular clients carried real professional risks. His famous maxim. "the plea of not guilty doesn't mean I didn't do it, it just means you've got to prove it," captured both his philosophical commitment to the adversarial system and his willingness to defend the indefensible. He represented Senator Joseph McCarthy (calling the anti-communist crusade "the most unheard of thing I've ever heard of"), Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, mobster Frank Costello, and professional murderer Felix Anthony "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio. As Thomas notes, Williams took high-profile cases to attract more cases, building a practice that made him wealthy through representing "rich guilty people who could pay."
Yet Williams was no mere hired gun. Thomas shows how he carefully selected which principles to champion, pursuing individual rights against illegal wiretapping while simultaneously pushing for expanded CIA surveillance powers. His approach to conflicts of interest represented what Thomas calls "another ethical fog bank," Williams wanted complete control of his cases and navigated potential conflicts with the same creative lawyering he brought to defending clients. His rule for initial client meetings was to never take notes "because he knew the client was lying."
The author effectively illustrates Williams's courtroom mastery through memorable cases. When defending Adam Clayton Powell, columnist Murray Kempton quipped that Powell was shocked to discover he was innocent. Preparing LBJ confidant Bobby Baker, who had stolen $100,000, Williams's advice was succinct: "Shut up Bobby, don't remember so much." His client list ranged from folk singer Peter Yarrow (caught with a 14-year-old girl, defended as a personal favor) to George Steinbrenner and several Nixon administration defendants. He regularly won cases considered "unwinnable," running his firm with an iron hand and an unerring instinct for the jugular.
Thomas also reveals Williams's life beyond the courtroom. He became a 5-15% owner of the Washington Redskins with complete operational control, invested successfully in Washington real estate as the city grew, and represented the Washington Post during critical periods. The Post hired him despite his complicated relationship with press freedom—Williams didn't believe newspapers should "be able to say whatever they wanted." Ben Bradlee later joked they hired former Eisenhower Attorney General Bill Rogers "to correct our Daily Worker image."
The book captures Williams's personality through telling details. Pamela Harriman observed that "when you talked to Williams, he never looked over your shoulder. He gave you total attention." Yet he was also described as someone who "was bored by our stories. He knew his stories far better and liked hearing them more." He was an incredible drinker, a hard worker who bought a money-losing radio station just to have something to do because he "hated relaxing," and someone who believed that "life's not a plateau—you either move up or you fall back."
Williams's relationship with power was complex. He idolized Clark Clifford, the ultimate Washington insider. He served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and loved the work, nearly accepting the CIA directorship before illness prevented it. Yet he never ran for office himself. As journalist R.W. Apple explained, "Running for office is nothing but the institutionalization of cocktail parties, and Ed hated that."
Thomas doesn't shy from Williams's contradictions. When Mother Teresa came seeking a donation, Williams refused twice, suggesting they pray instead, then paid anyway. He spoke at Harvard Law School about how poverty built character and toughness. A voice from the back asked, "Professor, how does one overcome the lack of the privilege of being poor?" It was David Rockefeller. Williams also helped local priests avoid publicity when they ran afoul of the law, using his prosecutor connections to keep cases quiet.
The book addresses Williams's understanding of white-collar criminal defense: going to trial was defeat. Better to negotiate, manipulate, and settle. He worked briefly with Marc Rich, though Rich ultimately paid Giuliani $170 million to resolve his case. Williams defended mobster Frank Costello, who bragged about fixing horse races so J. Edgar Hoover could win his $10 bets—a detail that illuminates the corrupted ecosystem Williams navigated.
Perhaps most revealing is Williams's advice to Georgetown's president: "We've got to train our kids to live in a two-color America." This from a man who defended civil rights when it suited his clients but showed no particular commitment to broader social justice. As Thomas observes, Williams was a civil libertarian primarily concerned with liberty for those who retained his services.
Thomas has written an honest, compelling biography that uses Williams's life to explore deeper questions about legal ethics, the adversarial system, and the role of defense lawyers in a democratic society. Williams emerges as a complicated figure—brilliant, ruthless, principled in his own way, and utterly convinced that everyone deserved the best possible defense, regardless of guilt. The book raises uncomfortable questions: Can advocacy be separated from the client's character? What happens when the best legal minds dedicate themselves to helping the powerful escape accountability?
Williams would likely answer that these are the wrong questions. His job wasn't to judge but to defend, not to serve abstract justice but to hold the government to its burden of proof. Thomas, himself trained as a lawyer, leaves readers to decide whether this represents democracy's strength or its corruption, making The Man to See both a gripping biography and a meditation on the moral ambiguities inherent in American legal practice.
The Man to See by Evan Thomas presents a vivid portrait of Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary criminal defense attorney who became Washington's most formidable legal gladiator during the second half of the 20th century. Williams embodied a peculiarly American contradiction: a devout Catholic who defended mobsters, a civil libertarian who cared most about his own clients' liberty, and a brilliant advocate who understood that "bad clients make bad law."
Thomas captures Williams's rise from poverty in Hartford through his education at Holy Cross, where he studied Burke, Penn, Clay, and Webster—models of eloquence and persuasion who shaped his conception of advocacy. After flunking out of flight training in World War II, Williams found his true calling in the courtroom, where his photographic memory and relentless preparation made him nearly unbeatable. Like Churchill, he practiced his speeches and jokes obsessively, transforming advocacy into performance art.
The book's central insight is that Williams legitimized criminal defense work at a time when representing unpopular clients carried real professional risks. His famous maxim. "the plea of not guilty doesn't mean I didn't do it, it just means you've got to prove it," captured both his philosophical commitment to the adversarial system and his willingness to defend the indefensible. He represented Senator Joseph McCarthy (calling the anti-communist crusade "the most unheard of thing I've ever heard of"), Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, mobster Frank Costello, and professional murderer Felix Anthony "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio. As Thomas notes, Williams took high-profile cases to attract more cases, building a practice that made him wealthy through representing "rich guilty people who could pay."
Yet Williams was no mere hired gun. Thomas shows how he carefully selected which principles to champion, pursuing individual rights against illegal wiretapping while simultaneously pushing for expanded CIA surveillance powers. His approach to conflicts of interest represented what Thomas calls "another ethical fog bank," Williams wanted complete control of his cases and navigated potential conflicts with the same creative lawyering he brought to defending clients. His rule for initial client meetings was to never take notes "because he knew the client was lying."
The author effectively illustrates Williams's courtroom mastery through memorable cases. When defending Adam Clayton Powell, columnist Murray Kempton quipped that Powell was shocked to discover he was innocent. Preparing LBJ confidant Bobby Baker, who had stolen $100,000, Williams's advice was succinct: "Shut up Bobby, don't remember so much." His client list ranged from folk singer Peter Yarrow (caught with a 14-year-old girl, defended as a personal favor) to George Steinbrenner and several Nixon administration defendants. He regularly won cases considered "unwinnable," running his firm with an iron hand and an unerring instinct for the jugular.
Thomas also reveals Williams's life beyond the courtroom. He became a 5-15% owner of the Washington Redskins with complete operational control, invested successfully in Washington real estate as the city grew, and represented the Washington Post during critical periods. The Post hired him despite his complicated relationship with press freedom—Williams didn't believe newspapers should "be able to say whatever they wanted." Ben Bradlee later joked they hired former Eisenhower Attorney General Bill Rogers "to correct our Daily Worker image."
The book captures Williams's personality through telling details. Pamela Harriman observed that "when you talked to Williams, he never looked over your shoulder. He gave you total attention." Yet he was also described as someone who "was bored by our stories. He knew his stories far better and liked hearing them more." He was an incredible drinker, a hard worker who bought a money-losing radio station just to have something to do because he "hated relaxing," and someone who believed that "life's not a plateau—you either move up or you fall back."
Williams's relationship with power was complex. He idolized Clark Clifford, the ultimate Washington insider. He served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and loved the work, nearly accepting the CIA directorship before illness prevented it. Yet he never ran for office himself. As journalist R.W. Apple explained, "Running for office is nothing but the institutionalization of cocktail parties, and Ed hated that."
Thomas doesn't shy from Williams's contradictions. When Mother Teresa came seeking a donation, Williams refused twice, suggesting they pray instead, then paid anyway. He spoke at Harvard Law School about how poverty built character and toughness. A voice from the back asked, "Professor, how does one overcome the lack of the privilege of being poor?" It was David Rockefeller. Williams also helped local priests avoid publicity when they ran afoul of the law, using his prosecutor connections to keep cases quiet.
The book addresses Williams's understanding of white-collar criminal defense: going to trial was defeat. Better to negotiate, manipulate, and settle. He worked briefly with Marc Rich, though Rich ultimately paid Giuliani $170 million to resolve his case. Williams defended mobster Frank Costello, who bragged about fixing horse races so J. Edgar Hoover could win his $10 bets—a detail that illuminates the corrupted ecosystem Williams navigated.
Perhaps most revealing is Williams's advice to Georgetown's president: "We've got to train our kids to live in a two-color America." This from a man who defended civil rights when it suited his clients but showed no particular commitment to broader social justice. As Thomas observes, Williams was a civil libertarian primarily concerned with liberty for those who retained his services.
Thomas has written an honest, compelling biography that uses Williams's life to explore deeper questions about legal ethics, the adversarial system, and the role of defense lawyers in a democratic society. Williams emerges as a complicated figure—brilliant, ruthless, principled in his own way, and utterly convinced that everyone deserved the best possible defense, regardless of guilt. The book raises uncomfortable questions: Can advocacy be separated from the client's character? What happens when the best legal minds dedicate themselves to helping the powerful escape accountability?
Williams would likely answer that these are the wrong questions. His job wasn't to judge but to defend, not to serve abstract justice but to hold the government to its burden of proof. Thomas, himself trained as a lawyer, leaves readers to decide whether this represents democracy's strength or its corruption, making The Man to See both a gripping biography and a meditation on the moral ambiguities inherent in American legal practice.
December 3, 2009
This book was mentioned by Robert Caro in the book,"Master of the Senate". I have always been interested in where the real power is played. How do some people achieve so much power? The more I read about LBJ the more shocked I become.
As a Irish Catholic Baby Boomer growing up in Minnesota this book touched on most of the characters I grew up learning about in the news. I felt as if I were reading a well told novel. I have read books by David Brinkley, Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Woodward, Bernstein, James Reston and Ted Kennedy. Cal Griffin lived in my home town. Joe McCarthy lived in the state next door. Eugene and Hubert were home town boys. What a era. Watergate changed so many things. Some for the better. To grow up in the 1950's and 60's was to live through may major changes. And yet, somethings never change.
This book made me want to learn more about so many of the main characters. It also leads me to ask many questions. How did either Nixon or Johnson ever get to the White House? Why didn't someone have the balls to fire J. Edgar Hoover? How did George Will become close friends with Nancy Reagan? Does anyone trust Jesse Jackson and how does he maintain so much power? Was Ed B. Williams the only person he Washington to realize Reagan was not very bright? Did anyone besides Mrs. Carter ever really like Jimmy?
To Mr. Evan Thomas I say....Job well done.
As a Irish Catholic Baby Boomer growing up in Minnesota this book touched on most of the characters I grew up learning about in the news. I felt as if I were reading a well told novel. I have read books by David Brinkley, Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Woodward, Bernstein, James Reston and Ted Kennedy. Cal Griffin lived in my home town. Joe McCarthy lived in the state next door. Eugene and Hubert were home town boys. What a era. Watergate changed so many things. Some for the better. To grow up in the 1950's and 60's was to live through may major changes. And yet, somethings never change.
This book made me want to learn more about so many of the main characters. It also leads me to ask many questions. How did either Nixon or Johnson ever get to the White House? Why didn't someone have the balls to fire J. Edgar Hoover? How did George Will become close friends with Nancy Reagan? Does anyone trust Jesse Jackson and how does he maintain so much power? Was Ed B. Williams the only person he Washington to realize Reagan was not very bright? Did anyone besides Mrs. Carter ever really like Jimmy?
To Mr. Evan Thomas I say....Job well done.
January 23, 2016
A detailed and thoroughly researched book on the ultimate Washington Insider, Edward Bennett Williams. A Who's Who of DC icons from the 1940s-80s. A great criminal lawyer and owner of the Washington Redskins who brought Vince Lombardi to Washington, Williams had a fascinating life and this was an admirable biography.
September 9, 2021
Highly enjoyable biography. Detailing the trials and tribulations of a criminal lawyer between 1950's - 1980's.
May 14, 2009
Probably not very interesting if you are not interested in the law. If this strikes your fancy, excellent account of the man considered by many to be the best trial attorney to ever practice and the man who made the practice of criminal law respectable.
October 5, 2009
Really good read for any litigators, historians, heavy drinkers, or catholics.
January 25, 2011
Fascinating and honestly written; showing you not only his amazing talents but also his human flaws.
March 19, 2011
Great example of an unauthorized biography.
Read
August 8, 2011Great bio of a terrific lawyer.
January 19, 2013
fascinating lawyer and HC alum.
Read
November 7, 2013Hardback
October 22, 2014
Excellent! I read it years ago but still recall some of the fascinating stories and connections that were so evident with EBW.
April 3, 2017
Important figure and a well written biography.
February 12, 2008
This was a fun read. Nice for young litigators that like reading great war stories.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews