At least until the first week of August, it appeared to have been a pretty good year for Joseph Force Crater. He was 41 years old, a good Tammany Hall Democrat, widely regarded as a comer. Gov. Franklin Roosevelt had recently named him to the state Supreme Court bench. Some felt he was on the fast track to big things, perhaps even the Supreme Court of the United States. Then he stepped into a New York City taxicab and vanished from the face of the Earth. Maybe he ended up in the tropics with a sackful of cash and a...