Rudolph William Louis Giuliani III, best known as Rudy Giuliani, is an American lawyer and businessman who served two terms as the Mayor of New York City. Born on 28 May 1944, Rudy Giuliani grew up in a large family that some have stated included everything from Mafia members and common criminals to police officers and firefighters.
After graduating cum laude from the New York University School of Law, Rudy Giuliani became a clerk for Judge MacMahon of the Southern District of New York before joining the Office of the US Attorney. He had a brilliant career as a prosecutor, Chief of the Narcotics Unit, and Associate Attorney General. He gained fame by prosecuting high profile cases involving organized crime, insider trading, and white-collar criminals. Rudy Giuliani was the main force behind the indictment of Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, the head of the organized crime family in New York.
Rudy Giuliani ran for Mayor of New York City for the first time in 1989, but he lost to Democrat David Dinkins by less than 50,000 votes. In 1993, Rudy Giuliani ran for Mayor again, focusing his campaign on cutting crime. Ironically, he won the election by 53,000 votes. Giuliani's promises during his electoral campaign were quickly put in practice.
Aided by the new chief of the police department, Commissioner Bill Bratton, he first focused on petty crimes as a way of sending the message that there would be no crime tolerance in the city. Teens painting graffiti and drunks jumping subway turnstiles were all penalized. Rudy Giuliani also took on organized crime and populated the city with police officers who were in charge of maintaining the peace and patrolling the streets. As a result, New York City's crime rate dropped significantly during Giuliani's first term as Mayor. In 1997, he was re-elected with 59 percent of the final vote count.
Rudy Giuliani played a pivotal role in the events following the 9/11 attacks. He quickly organized the different emergency city departments and helped the city recovered from the shock and anger. He is often referred to as "America's Mayor" and was named Time's 2001 Person of the Year. In February 2007, Rudy Giuliani announced his intention of running for President of the United States in 2008.