Representative Vincent Luke Palmisano

Vincent Luke Palmisano served as a Representative from Maryland in the United States Congress from 1927 to 1939. A member of the Democratic Party, Vincent Luke Palmisano contributed to the legislative process during 6 terms in office.

Vincent Luke Palmisano’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the House of Representatives, Vincent Luke Palmisano participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

Vincent Luke Palmisano (August 5, 1882 – after January 12, 1953) was an American politician from Maryland. Born as Vincenzo Palmisano in Termini Imerese, Palermo in the Kingdom of Italy, to Cosimo Palmisano and Anna Maria Sansone Chiariano. Palmisano emigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled in Baltimore in 1887. He attended parochial schools and studied law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He was admitted to the bar in 1909 and commenced practice in Baltimore. Palmisano served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1914 and 1915, as a member of the Baltimore City Council from 1915 to 1923, as a member of the Democratic State central committee of Baltimore from 1923 to 1927, and as police examiner of Baltimore from 1925-1927. In 1926, he was elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth and to the five succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1927 to January 3, 1939. His re-election in 1928 was very close, winning by only 330 votes and was contested. While the committee report recommended that Palmisano was not elected due to irregularities in one precinct (“No attempt whatever was made by the election board to follow the law as to counting, recording, or certifying the vote in this precinct”) and questions about his residency, the report was never acted on by the House. In Congress, Palmisano served as chairman of the Committee on Education (Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth Congresses), and as a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia (Seventy-fifth Congress). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1938. After his tenure in Congress, Palmisano resumed the practice of law and served on the Baltimore Zoning Board until his resignation in 1952. Palmisano had been in ill health after an emergency appendectomy in the summer of 1952. He disappeared from his home on January 12, 1953, and his gloves were soon discovered at a pier along the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Suspecting suicide, the police and Coast Guard dragged the frigid waters of the harbor in search of his remains. On March 5, 1953, a body was recovered from the harbor and confirmed to be Palmisano by his landlady. He is interred in the New Cathedral Cemetery of Baltimore.