Jack P.F. Gremillion: the den of iniquity

Entertainer Jimmy Durante, at left, with Jack P.F. Gremillion. Image from sos.louisiana.gov.

First coming to trouble for criticizing a court proceedings as unjust, Lousiana's Attorney General, Jack Paul Faustin Gremillion, was to face justice twice during his 16 years in office.

Gremillion was born in 1914 in Donaldsville, Louisiana. He graduated from the law school at Louisiana State University in 1937 and worked in the local district attorney's office. Gremillion served in the Army during World War II, then returned to work as a prosecutor.

He was elected as a Democrat to serve as the state's Attorney General in 1956, and soon established himself as a staunch advocate of segregation. He led an effort to shut down the activities of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, forcing the organization to suspend its operations in the state for a time. Gremillion also helped draft a state statute allowing the state legislature to determine the racial demographics of the New Orleans schools rather than the Orleans Parish School Board. The move was a way of undermining a court order to desegregate the schools. It was upheld by a state court, as was a suit he filed to have the schools disregard the order. However, this victory came only a month before the first incident to throw the Attorney General into the national spotlight.

In the fall of 1960, Governor Jimmie Davis seized control of the New Orleans elementary schools to block a federal integration order. The move was contested by the NAACP and others, and the matter went before a hearing in federal court. During the testimony, Gremillion contested a decision to place some facts into the record by affidavit rather than by witness testimony. Saying he hadn't received the affidavits, Gremilion asked for a five day postponement in the hearing and was denied. Not long after that, he stormed out of the room, denouncing the proceedings as a "den of iniquity" and "kangaroo court."

The panel of three federal judges declared state laws state laws related to segregation unconstitutional, ordered state officials to cease interfering with integration, and returned control of the New Orleans schools to the school board, of which four of the five members supported integration. In addition, Gremillion was cited for contempt of court and later brought up on a criminal charge of the same. He was given a 60-day jail sentence, which was fully suspended, as well as 18 months of probation.

Gremillion was described as a colorful character. Among other things, he defended his right to not only bar convicted felons from voting but also the mothers of illegitimate children, whom he referred to as "bastardizing females." When two black men were freed from prison and escaped the death penalty after 13 years when they were found to have received an unfair trial on rape charges, Gremillion said he would appeal the decision and take it to the Supreme Court if necessary. "It looks like the court wants to give them a medal for staying in prison," he said. Protesting a Supreme Court ruling upholding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after he and representatives from five other Southern states said that it was unconstitutional, Gremillion bemoaned it as "another step in the total destruction of the rights of states to regulate their internal affairs" that would "also will undoubtedly lead to universal suffrage." Governor Earl Long, who served from 1956 to 1960, declared, "If you want to hide something from Jack Gremillion, put it in a law book."

In 1969, Gremillion was indicted on charges of fraud and conspiracy along with four other men involved with the Louisiana Loan and Thrift Corporation. They were charged with issuing bond investment certificates and lying to potential investors to increase the sale of the certificates. The company went bankrupt in 1968, owing its depositors about $2.5 million.

Gremillion was also indicted in 1970 on perjury charges stating that he lied to a grand jury by denying having a financial involvement in the company, owned stock in the company, and granted a proxy for his shares at a 1967 shareholders' meeting. He was acquitted at trial in 1971 on the fraud and conspiracy charges. Later in the year, however, he was convicted of five counts of perjury.

Gremillion was still able to show a bit of bravado in the face of these troubles. After his conviction, Governor John McKeithen declared, "I'm awfully embarrassed by our Attorney General. I don't know of anything else to do but shoot him." Gremillion responded by heading over to the steps of the Capitol and offering himself up as a target.

In 1972, Gremillion was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence. Federal circuit court judge Fred J. Cassibry declared, "In the United States no man is so small as to be disregarded by the law. Neither is any man so great as to be above it." The conviction doomed Gremillion's chances of winning the Democratic nomination for Attorney General, which went to William Guste Jr. (who went on to serve the next 20 years in Gremillion's place).

Gremillion served 15 months of the sentence before being released. In 1976, he was pardoned by Governor Edwin W. Edwards. Returning to law work, he died in 2001.

Sources: The Political Graveyard, the Federal Judicial Center, Louisiana Knights of Columbus, "Judges Order Integration in New Orleans" in the St. Petersburg Times on Aug. 28 1960, "Desegregation Prospects" in Time on Sept. 5 1960, "Challenge from the South" in Time on Jan. 28 1966, "Some Needed Nudges" in Time on Mar. 18 1966, "In the Shadow of the Chair" in Time on Aug. 26 1966, "Louisiana's Attorney General is Indicted on Fraud Count" in the St. Petersburg Times on Feb. 15 1969, "Grand Jury Indicts La. Attorney General" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jul. 7 1970, "Louisiana Attorney General Convicted" in the New York Times on Sept. 26 1971, "'Shoot Away, Big John'" in the St. Petersburg Times on Nov. 25 1971, "Attorney General Gets Three Years - Lied to Jury" in the Desert News on Jan. 6 1972, "Jack P.F. Gremillion; Louisiana Attorney General, 86" in the New York Times on March 6 2001, Fifty-eight Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation by Jack Walter Peltason

H. Guy Hunt: the accidental governor

Image from encyclopediaofalabama.org

The first Republican to occupy the Governor's office in Alabama after a long post-Reconstruction Democratic domination, Harold Guy Hunt was also the first Governor in the state to be removed from office.

Born in 1933 at Holly Pond in Alabama, Hunt served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Working as an Amway salesman and farmer, he was ordained as a Primitive Baptist preacher in 1958 and worked part-time in that capacity. Though he did not go to college, Hunt received honorary doctor of law degrees from Troy State University, the University of North Alabama, and Alabama A&M in 1987.

After losing a bid for state senate in 1962, Hunt was elected probate judge of Cullman County in 1964 and held the post for the next 12 years. He supported Ronald Reagan during his presidential aspirations, serving as the state chairman of Reagan's campaign in 1976 and his successful 1980 race. In return, Reagan appointed him state executive director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (a part of the Department of Agriculture) in 1981. Hunt ran for Governor as the Republican candidate in 1978, losing to Democratic candidate and former Republican Fob James, Jr.

Hunt left the agricultural post in 1985 to pursue another gubernatorial campaign in 1986. State politics up to this point had been dominated by the Democratic Party, with the last Republican Governor serving in 1874. Noted segregationist George Wallace, who had served four terms comprising 16 of the prior 24 years, announced he would not run that year. Attorney General Charles Graddick, a conservative and former Republican, faced off against Lieutenant Governor Bill Baxley and won the Democratic nomination by 8,756 votes out of about 900,000 cast.

The narrow victory was contested in federal court after a black couple filed suit, saying Graddick had used his position in the government to minimize the black vote. Shortly before the runoff, Graddick issued an opinion as Attorney General that Republican voters should not be barred from participating in the Democratic runoff, a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court found that the move had attracted enough conservative support to sway the result to Graddick over Baxley, whose base relied more on black, liberal, and union voters. Graddick's name was removed from the ballot and the nomination was awarded to Baxley.

Hunt had won the Republican nomination from a pool of less than 33,000 voters. For a time, it seemed that even those supporters might be split by Graddick, who threatened to run as a third party candidate. Instead, Graddick decided to drop out of the race, and Hunt found himself appealing to Graddick's conservative white supporters. He won the election with 56 percent of the vote.

Hunt came into office with the goals of bringing more business into the state and improving education. He established a tax reform commission, as well as several committees to look into improvements in education. However, educational leaders in 14 of the state's poorer counties sued the government, arguing that government funds were not equitably distributed. The court agreed, ordering the state to start remedying the problem.

Hunt also pledged that his administration would be "color blind," but was criticized by some Democrats for appointing only one black person in the 23 cabinet positions. He was further criticizing for his support of flying the Confederate flag from the state Capitol building, a practice Wallace had started in defiance of the civil rights movement. The flag was later removed after a court decision. In 1990, Hunt won re-election over Alabama Education Association leader Paul Hubbert. In that race, Republicans were accused of playing off race fears by circulating photos of Hubbert with black political leaders.

Much of Hunt's second term was consumed by controversy over whether he had violated state ethics laws. The investigation began after Hunt was found to have used a state plane to travel to preaching engagements across the South, where he was paid with cash donations. Hunt wrote a check for the expenses and dismissed the controversy as party politics. He also tried to have the investigation stopped on the argument that the ethics probe compromised the separation of powers in the state government, but the court of appeals ruled the investigation legal in 1992. In December of that year, he was indicted on 12 theft and conspiracy charges and one ethics charge. Only the ethics charge could go forward, as the statute of limitations had run out on the other counts.

Hunt went to trial in April of 1993. The remaining felony charge accused him of diverting $200,000 of a tax-exempt $800,000 inaugural fund to banks near his home for personal use. The items ranged from mortgage payments and cattle feed to a riding lawnmower and marble shower stall. The defense argued that Hunt had used the inaugural fund to legally pay back money advanced for a gubernatorial campaign.

The jury found Hunt guilty; the felony conviction automatically expelled him from office and promoted Lieutenant Governor James E. Folsom, Jr., a Democrat (and, at the time of this article, Lieutenant Governor of the state once again). The judge had instructed the jury that excess campaign funds could not legally be used for personal payments, a statute Republicans argued was not regularly enforced. "For a year and a half now practically the whole emphasis of that office has been to try to find something on me," Hunt said. In May of 1993, he was sentenced to five years of probation, 1,000 hours of community service, and a $211,000 fine.

Hunt unsuccessfully appealed the case. In 1997, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted him a pardon on the basis of innocence. However, no judge or district attorney was willing to sign the order. The next year, Hunt sought to end his probation four months early. Instead, a judge extended it by five years because he had only paid about $4,200 off the fine.

One month after the judge's decision, Hunt's attorney produced a check paying off the remaining balance; the money had been collected from donors sympathetic to the ex-Governor. Things moved swiftly after that. One day after his probation was lifted, Hunt was granted a pardon, again on the basis of innocence. The day after that, he qualified to run for the Republican nomination for Governor. Strangely enough, he was challenging Fob James, Jr. The same man who had defeated Hunt in the 1978 gubernatorial election had changed his allegiance back to the Republican Party and been elected in 1994.

Hunt was unable to secure the nomination, and returned to preaching and working on his farm. In 2002, he made another unsuccessful bid for the state senate. He died on January 30 of this year of complications from lung cancer.

Sources: Alabama Department of Archives and History, National Governors Association, Encyclopedia of Alabama, "Wallace's Successor Ushers In Conservative Era" in the New York Times on Jan. 20 1987, "Alabama Governor Found Guilty of Ethics Charge and Is Ousted" in the New York Times on April 23 1993, "Ex-Governor of Alabama Loses Ruling" in the New York Times on April 22 1994, "Alabama Ex-Governor Gets More Probation" in the New York Times on Feb. 15 1998, "Elections 2002 - Around the Nation" in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer on Nov. 7 2002, The New Politics of the Old South by Charles S. Bullock and Mark J. Rozell, Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1988-1994 by Marie Marmo Mullaney

Daniel J. Flood: the dapper briber

Image from bioguide.congress.gov

An expert at bringing federal money into his district, Daniel John Flood's longstanding career was shattered when he ended up getting ahold of those funds the wrong way.

Flood was born in 1903 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and graduated from Syracuse University in New York in 1924. He initially made his career as a Shakespearean actor; in his later troubles, news reports found it irresistible to comment on this aspect of his life, along with his distinctive waxed mustache. Flood went on to attend Harvard University and the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1929. He was admitted to the bar the next year.

In the following years, Flood held numerous Pennsylvania state positions. He was the deputy attorney general and counsel to the Liquor Control Board from 1935 to 1939, and director of the Bureau of Public Assistance Disbursements and executive assistant to the state treasurer from 1941 to 1944.

In 1944, Flood was elected to Congress as a Democrat. He lost the next election, won two after that, lost again in 1952, and was re-elected in 1954 in the first of 13 returns to office. From 1967 to 1979, he chaired the subcommittee on Labor, Health, Education, and Welfare, part of the House Appropriations Committee.

Hailing from a depressed anthracite-producing region, Flood's popularity in his district was likely due to his ability to secure federal funds for a variety of projects. After Hurricane Agnes flooded parts of northeastern Pennsylvania in 1972, Flood was able to facilitate about $100 million in direct aid. He was also able to pressure the U.S. Army to accept coal from his district to heat their European bases. He encouraged federal loans and guarantees for industries to come to the area, military contracts during the Vietnam War, and the rerouting of a highway to run through the district. Other federal funding went toward an elementary school, rural health center, industrial park, and elderly center, all of which were named for Flood.

In 1978, a former aide of "Dapper Dan" brought into question the way the funds were obtained. Steve Elko, who had started working for Flood in 1970, left that role in 1976 after he was convicted of accepting kickbacks from favors from constituents and others who were seeking federal money. Elko was sentenced to serve two years in prison. In 1978, he began to cooperate with federal investigators, saying some of the money had gone to Flood. He quoted Flood as saying, "This is a business. Get all you can while you can get it." The state's Crime Commission suggested that Flood may have helped out a local contractor with ties to Russell Bufalino, head of a Mafia family. The scandal also roped in Joshua Eilberg, Democratic congressman from Philadelphia, to whom Flood had directed administrators of Hahnemann Medical College when they were looking to secure federal construction money. Eilberg was later convicted of his own set of crimes.

Flood was indicted in September 1978 on charges of bribery and perjury during the period Elko worked for him. He was accused of taking at least $50,000 in illegal payments and lying about the payments while under oath. While the indictment dented his momentum in the election year, Flood still won that year's election against Republican candidate Robert P. Hudock with 58 percent of the vote. The approach of criminal proceedings did lead Flood to give up his chairmanship of the HEW subcommittee in 1979.

During a 13-day trial in early 1979, several witnesses took the stand on behalf of the prosecution. Of the 21 witnesses called by the prosecution, three businessmen, a lobbyist, and a rabbi said they had paid bribes to Flood; another witness said he had given Flood 100 shares of bank stock. The defense called 37 witnesses, but Flood never took the stand.

The case took a surprising twist when the jury deadlocked with a single juror refusing to find Flood guilty of the five counts of bribery and three counts of perjury. The sole dissenter, retired Navy cook William Cash, said that he had heard from independent sources that Elko and three prosecution witnesses took $176,000 from Flood and were guiltier than the congressman. Indeed, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported during the trial that the rabbi was imprisoned, the lobbyist was living under a new identity after winning immunity from prosecution, one businessman had done two years for tax fraud and bribery, and another had been the subject of a fraud investigation and testified under the condition of immunity. Of the witnesses the Gazette listed that said they had given bribes to Flood, only banker and retired state legislator T. Newell Wood did not have a qualifier noting a criminal history.

Cash should not have been hearing anything from "independent sources," however, and he was subject to a jury tampering investigation immediately after a mistrial was declared. He failed two polygraph tests during the investigation, but it was determined that Cash had not deliberately tried to throw the verdict. Meanwhile, a second trial was delayed as Flood was hospitalized several times. In November of 1979, he announced that he would resign from Congress at the end of January 1980, citing the strain the criminal proceedings were having on his health.

Flood's lawyers said that he had become addicted to barbiturates, but he was found competent to stand a second trial in December 1979. In February of 1980, Flood pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws by taking payoffs from the five accusers. He said he was entering the plea because he felt a jury could find him guilty. In April, a special election to fill the vacancy in the Congress chose Democratic state legislator Raphael Musto to fill the remainder of Flood's term.

Following the conviction, Flood disappeared into relative obscurity. He died in 1994 of pneumonia.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Theatrical Flood: Curtain Closing?" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Feb. 27 1978, "Flood's Election May Be His Last Hurrah" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Oct. 28 1978, "Flood to Testify in Bribery Trial" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jan. 29 1979, "Defense Rests Case Without Calling on Flood" in the Daily Collegian on Feb. 1 1979,"Flood Jury Retires, No Verdict Issued" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Feb. 2 1979, "The Twelfth Man Hangs a Jury" in Time on Feb. 19 1979, "Flood Juror Fails 2 Polygraph Tests" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 4 1979, "Rep. Flood Resigns from House" in the Daily Collegian on Nov. 8 1979, "Doctors Judge Flood Competent for Retrial" in the Daily Collegian on Dec. 4 1979, "Flood Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy, Judge Gives Him Year's Probation" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Feb. 27 1980, "Democrat Wins Election to Rest of Flood's Term" in the New York Times on April 10 1980, "Daniel Flood, 90, Who Quit Congress in Disgrace, Is Dead" in the New York Times on May 29 1994, Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth by Randall M. Miller and William Pencak, Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Volume 3 edited by David Levinson

Caleb Lyon: the great train robbery

Image from lincolnbicentennial.idaho.gov

Proving a capable politician on both sides of the country, Caleb Lyon was condemned to besmirched obscurity after an unsuccessful junket on the frontier.

Born in Lyonsdale, New York in 1822, Lyon graduated from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont in 1841. Six years later, he was appointed as the U.S. consul to Shanghai, before traveling to South America and thence to California. There, he became a member of the California constitutional convention and designed a state seal.

Lyon went against the gold rush tide, returning in 1849 to New York. He was elected to the state assembly in 1850, but resigned after encountering opposition to enlarging the Erie Canal, a project he supported. In 1851, he served in the state senate, and was elected to the U.S. Congress as an independent for one term in 1852. His Lyonsdale home was destroyed by fire in 1860, and he moved to Staten Island.

By 1864, Lyon had become a Republican supporter and was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to be the second Governor of the Idaho Territory. The first Governor, William H. Wallace, had to leave after he was elected to Congress. Lyon held the office from March 1864 to June 1866, but by no means was he a consistent presence.

The Governor was also Indian superintendent of the territory, delegated to tour the land, make treaties where necessary, locate possible reservation sites, and send all pertinent information to the federal Indian commissioner. In October 1864, Lyon negotiated a treaty with a Shoshone Indian group where 23 Indian leaders consented to cede land for 30 miles along the Boise River along with all lands drained by tributaries of the river; the agreement also called for the Indians to turn over criminals they captured to U.S. authorities. In return, a reservation was to be set up along the river and the Indians were to have the same fishing rights as settlers. Criticized by the federal commissioner as not properly put together, the treaty was never ratified by the Senate.

Lyon was not a popular governor. Noted as a lecturer, poet, author, and foreign traveler, he was rather conspicuous in a roughshod Wild West territory populated mostly by miners. He referred to himself as "Lyon of Lyonsdale," a habit that led some critics to nickname him "Cale of the Dale." Another stance that did nothing to endear Lyon to at least some of the population was his support of moving the territory's capital from Lewiston in the north to Boise in the south. The matter proved important enough that some settlers persuaded a local judge to get an injunction against the move and keep Lyon under observation. Under the guise of a duck hunt, Lyon escaped the territory in a canoe on the Snake River. The territory's seal and archives were later moved under armed guard.

After his disappearance, Lyon returned to the East Coast. Back in Idaho, treasurer Clinton Dewitt Smith, also a native New Yorker, served for seven months before dying. The treasurer under Smith stole $4,000 in territory funds; Smith's replacement, Horace Gilson, looted some $33,000 (later sources say $41,000) from the treasury and fled the country.

It was in this atmosphere of embezzlement that Lyon was re-appointed as Governor in the fall of 1865, having been absent from the territory for 11 months. Admirably, he encouraged a peaceful relationship between the Indians and settlers and denounced those were were calling for attacks on Indian settlements. However, this stance did nothing to improve his popularity; the Idaho Statesman said only a "military escort could prevent him from violence or death." Further exacerbating matters was Lyon's support of a diamond mining venture which, a historian wrote in 1890, "ruined many a better man."

In April of 1866, Lyon negotiated a treaty with another band of Shoshone Indians. This agreement ceded lands south of the Snake River while leaving a 14-mile swath of the Bruneau Valley as a reservation. The treaty was also never ratified, as the reservation was deemed to be infeasible in an area of heavy settlement.

When he left the post again, this time for good, Lyon returned to Staten Island. Somewhere along the way, $41,148.40 that he was to give to the federal commissioner of Indian affairs went missing. Of that amount, $18,631 was to go to the Nez Perce Indians as compensation for their relinquishment of land. Lyon said that a thief had stolen the money while he was sleeping on the train during the trip from Idaho to Washington, D.C. The government sought to recover the money through Lyon's bondsman, but it wasn't until 1874 that a jury demanded that he repay the $50,000 bond he had given Lyon.

An official investigation against Lyon was evidently in the works around that time, but Lyon died in 1875 before any sort of prosecution. His tale of the theft was accepted enough that the New York Times reported it in his obituary with no hint of suspicion; however, secondary sources now generally dismiss the story as a fabrication.

Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Idaho Historical Society, "Heavy Judgment Against a Bondsman" in the New York Times on Nov. 21 1874, "Obituary; Caleb Lyon" in the New York Times on Sept. 9 1875, The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History by Carlos A. Schwantes, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana by Hubert Howe Bancroft and Francis Fuller Victor, Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States edited by J. Hubley Ashton, The Rockies by David Sievert Alexander and Duane A. Smith, History of Idaho: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests by Hiram T. French, The Northern Shoshoni by Brigham D. Madsden, Index to the Executive Documents of the Senate of the United States Second Session Fortieth Congress 1867-68, Lyons Memorial - Massachusetts Families edited by Albert Brown Lyons and George William Amos Lyon and Eugene Fairfield McPike

Toby Ziegler: space cowboy

Image from independent.co.uk

While most political scandals result in the justice system weighing whether a person in power has committed a clear-cut act of wrongdoing, sometimes it is not so simple. The debate still rages over whether the actions of Tobias Zachary Ziegler were heroic or treasonous.

Born in Brooklyn in 1954, Ziegler attended City College of New York and went on to receive a doctorate in communications. He began working as a professional political operative for several Democratic races in the New York area: one city council race, one gubernatorial race, one Senate race, two House of Representatives contests, and one national campaign. Not one of the campaigns had resulted in a victory before Ziegler joined New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet's presidential campaign as communications director. Notably, Ziegler was the one survivor of a shakeup of the New Hampshire Governor's campaign staff in 1997. Leo McGarry, Bartlet's campaign manager and later Chief of Staff, later said he thought Ziegler's idealism could help bring the fledgling campaign into the White House.

Following Bartlet's election in 1998, Ziegler joined the West Wing staff as communications director and senior domestic policy adviser. He wrote both of Bartlet's inaugural addresses and later served as de facto press secretary when C.J. Cregg was promoted to Chief of Staff. Known for noticing subtle signs in a person's behavior, Ziegler was the first senior staffer told of the President's multiple sclerosis after deducing patterns in his behavior. This quality could sometimes backfire, however. Ziegler was publicly embarrassed in 2004 when Republican Senator Steve Gaines of Illinois confirmed that the communications director had tried to persuade him to support cutting Social Security, perhaps as a political ploy. Ziegler turned in a letter of resignation after that incident, but Bartlet refused to accept it.

Presaging later events, Ziegler was "fired" for one week to manage a 2002 California congressional campaign. In a bizarre contest, Democrat Horton Wilde posthumously unseated Republican congressman Chuck Webb. Sam Seaborn, deputy communications director and and a native of the congressional district, was chosen as the Democratic replacement who unsuccessfully contested Webb in the special election. During this time away from Washington, Ziegler and Charlie Pace, personal aide to the President, were arrested after a bar scuffle. The fight allegedly started after a drunk patron began harassing Democratic Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt of Maryland, Ziegler's ex-wife, who was pregnant with his twins. No charges were pressed in the incident.

In 2005, a leak aboard the International Space Station led to a steady loss of oxygen. The lives of two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut were in peril, and no ships from either country were available for a rescue mission. After a few days of desperate measures to try to slow or fix the leak, the New York Times reported that a senior White House official had confirmed the existence of a military space shuttle based at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Forced to admit the shuttle's existence, the unnamed vessel blasted off soon after and brought the stranded men out of orbit. Furious at the breach of national security laws, Bartlet called for an immediate investigation into the source of the leak. Greg Brock, the Times writer who broke the story, went to jail after refusing to give up a name.

Ziegler privately confessed to Bartlet that he had tipped the press on the shuttle, and again offered to resign. Bartlet refused, instead firing Ziegler. He recounts that he said to Ziegler, "When you walk out of here, there will be people out there, perhaps a great many, who'll think of you as a hero. Just don't think that I'm going to be one of them."

Ziegler was replaced by William Bailey as both communications director and press secretary. Ziegler steadfastly refused to disclose where he had found out about the shuttle. It was later revealed that Ziegler's brother was a likely source, as he had been a NASA specialist before committing suicide upon a diagnosis of terminal cancer, but Ziegler has not confirmed this. Facing six years in prison, he was saved by a presidential pardon, Bartlet's last official act. Although her association with Ziegler significantly damaged Congresswoman Wyatt's chances in the 2006 election, she was re-elected by a narrow margin.

Ziegler has since become a professor of communications at Columbia University.

Sources: "Tobias Ziegler Named Communications Director" in the Washington Post on Nov. 20 1997, "White House Communications Director to Join Seaborn Ticket for One Week" in the New York Times on Jan. 3 2003, "White House Officials Arrested in Bar Fight" in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 6 2003, "Gaines Confirms White House Official Urged Social Security Cut" in the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 8 2004, "Military Shuttle Could Save Astronauts" in the New York Times on April 14 2006, "Communications Director Ziegler Leaked Shuttle Info" in the Washington Post on April 29 2006, "Ziegler Silent on Source" in the New York Times on June 10 2006, "Ziegler Sibling was NASA Specialist" in the New York Times on October 24 2006, "Bartlet Pardons Ziegler as Last Official Act" in the New York Times on Jan. 21 2007, Bartlet for America by Josiah Bartlet, columbia.edu

Walter Jenkins: you can hang out with all the boys

Walter Jenkins (right) with successor Bill Moyers and a button that came out after the scandal. Images from txtell.lib.utexas.edu and npr.org

Long before Larry Craig's fateful encounter in a restroom stall at a the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson was caught up in a similar scandal.

Walter Wilson Jenkins was born in the tiny town of Jolly, Texas, in 1918. Graduating high school at the age of 15, he went on to the University of Texas in Austin. When he was 21, he met Lyndon Johnson, then a Democratic congressman, who offered him a job due to his superior shorthand skills. From then on, Jenkins was in the employ of Johnson, except for service in the Army during World War II and his own run for Congress in 1951. After he was discharged from the military, Jenkins married and eventually had six children.

After Johnson became President following John F. Kennedy's assassination, Jenkins joined him in the White House as his top adviser. Often putting in 16-hour days, Jenkins worked from a tiny office and ceded a more ostentatious space to his secretaries. Johnson once referred to him as his "vice president in charge of everything."

On October 7, 1964, Jenkins attended a party celebrating the opening of the new Washington, D.C. offices of Newsweek. After a few drinks, Jenkins walked to a YMCA located not far from the White House. In the men's room at the club, he met Hungarian immigrant and timekeeper named Andy Choka, whose age in primary sources ran the span between 60 and 62. The two entered a pay toilet stall, where Jenkins began performing oral sex on the older man. The basement restroom, known as a location for illicit homosexual encounters, was under observation by two police officers in an adjacent shower room. Both Jenkins and Choka were arrested.

After paying a $50 collateral that allowed him to forgo any sort of formal charge, Jenkins was released. The incident was leaked to the press by an anonymous source, and the Washington Evening Star called Jenkins' office seeking comment a week after his arrest. The call prompted Jenkins to visit Abe Fortas, a lawyer and friend and future Johnson appointee for the Supreme Court, to let him in on the incident. Though Fortas and Johnson adviser Clark Clifford were successful in getting local newspapers to suppress the story out of deference to Jenkins' family, it still went out the same night over the United Press International wire.

Getting a jump on a popular euphemism for celebrity hospitalization by some 40 years, Jenkins was said to be admitted for treatment for exhaustion and hypertension. The details of the arrest likely got out, although squeamish newspapers related little more than that Jenkins had gotten a "morals charge" related to "indecent gestures." It was also revealed that he had been arrested five years earlier on a similar charge, described as "disorderly conduct, pervert," in the same location. Johnson asked for and received Jenkins' resignation.

In phone calls between Johnson and Fortas and other officials, the President worried about the effect the scandal might have on the upcoming election against Barry Goldwater. "It seems to me that the Presidency is at stake," Johnson said.

Events worked in the President's favor, however. Within days, the scandal was pushed out of the spotlight by bigger international events, including the ouster of Nikita Khrushchev as Premier of the Soviet Union and the successful test of a Chinese nuclear weapon.

Still, the Republican national chairman accused Johnson of attempting to cover up the incidents involving Jenkins. Fortunately for the President, Goldwater refused to use the scandal against Johnson in his campaign; as fortune would have it, Goldwater had been the commander of Jenkins' Air Force reserve unit and personally knew the man. When the election came, Johnson soundly defeated Goldwater.

Despite the lurid charge, Jenkins was met with a fair amount of sympathy. Even J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sent flowers and a get well card to Jenkins' hospital room. Lady Bird Johnson said, "My heart is aching for someone who has reached the end point of exhaustion in dedicated service to his country."

LBJ and others continued to rely on the exhaustion belief, or the theory that Jenkins had been framed, and Jenkins himself was said to have blamed alcohol consumed at the party and fatigue for the liaison. Fortas told the President that he thought it was "just a case of a fellow going off his rocker long enough to get involved in that kind of thing."

Both Democrats and Republicans worried that Jenkins' bathroom escapade may have jeopardized national security. He had a security clearance for top-secret Air Force and Defense Department information, as well as the top-secret "Q" clearance for the Atomic Energy Commission. In a lengthy article on the scandal, Time wrote that "it is axiomatic that sexual deviates are susceptible to blackmail," and posited that Jenkins may have compromised nuclear secrets.

Right-wing conspiracy theorists thought the incident bolstered the idea of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison that homosexuals had been behind JFK's assassination as a way to get into higher positions of governmental power. It has been proposed that the Johnson Administration's move to characterize the arrest as an isolated incident instead of homosexuality on Jenkins' part may have been an attempt to counter these fears.

In what today seems a downright farcical use of intelligence resources, Johnson ordered 50 to 100 FBI agents to see if national security had been affected by the YMCA tryst. The Central Intelligence Agency also investigated whether foreign blackmail occurred. In a matter of weeks, the FBI had interviewed 500 people on every aspect of Jenkins' life and determined that no national secrets had been compromised and that Jenkins had not been framed. It was also confirmed that Jenkins had lobbied to reinstate an Air Force major who had been forced to resign his commission after making lurid phone calls to the wife of an enlisted man. Some months after the whole affair, Hoover denounced a "vulgar" letter bearing his signature and addressed to Jenkins as a forgery from a Soviet smear campaign.

Jenkins returned to Texas after the scandal. He never came out of the closet. Though he and his wife never divorced due to their Catholic religion, they separated in 1972. Jenkins worked as a certified public accountant and management consultant. He and Johnson remained friends, and Jenkins was a welcome guest at the ex-President's ranch. In 1985, Jenkins died after suffering a stroke.

Sources: "Johnson Aide Quits After Morals Arrest" in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 15 1964, "Jenkins Case Stirs Probe" in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 16 1964, "The Senior Staff Man" in Time on Oct. 23 1964, "The Jenkins Report" in Time on Oct. 30 1964, "Hoover Says Reds Behind Smear Letter" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jan. 15 1966, "LBJ's Gay Sex Scandal" in Out in December 1999, Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes by Michael R. Beschloss, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson, Sexual Blackmail: A Modern History by Angus McLaren

John L. Duvall: black boxed in

Image from genealogyimagesofhistory.com

In losing his official position, mayor John L. Duvall of Indianapolis was one of many officials exposed by a convicted murderer and Ku Klux Klan leader.

Born in 1874 in Tazewell County, Illinois, Duvall studied law at Valparaiso University and the Chicago Law School. He worked as a deputy prosecutor for Hamilton County and moved to Indianapolis in 1902, practicing law there for seven years. After establishing Haughville Bank, the first suburban bank in the city, he organized several other banks; most were later purchased by the American Fletcher National Bank. Duvall also started the real estate firm Leslie Duvall Inc.
In either 1922 or 1923, Duvall joined the KKK. A Republican, he served as Marion Couty treasurer from 1924 to 1925. With backing from the Klan, he won the nomination for mayor of Indianapolis and then the general election in November of 1925. He came to office in January of 1926.

After the election, Duvall traveled to an undisclosed location in Illinois to meet with Klan leaders. In announcing appointments to city positions, several Klansmen were given jobs. George Elliot, the leader of the Indianapolis KKK, received a position in the park administration.

While Duvall's association with the Klan did not negatively affect his election, it came at the same time that the state and country were transfixed with a crime involving David Curtis Stephenson, the organization's Grand Dragon of Indiana. In March of 1925, Stephenson forced a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer, whom he had met at a gubernatorial rally, to accompany him on a train journey to Chicago. En route, she was raped and bitten all over her body. After taking several tablets of mercuric chloride, Oberholtzer was taken back to Indianapolis. Before dying of kidney failure, she revealed that D.C. Stephenson was her assailant.

Stephenson was charged with second-degree murder. The prosecution in the case argued that pneumonia infection from the bites to her body, as well as Stephenson's refusal to seek medical care, had contributed to Oberholtzer's death. Stephenson's attorney said that Oberholtzer had committed suicide. The jury found Stephenson guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison. The verdict was not delivered until after Duvall was safely in office; the sordid details of Stephenson's case helped contribute to a widespread decline in membership in the KKK.

Stephenson believed that he was a sure candidate for a pardon from Governor Ed Jackson, himself in office thanks to Klan support. Jackson wasn't forthcoming, likely because of the high profile of the case. After about a year in prison, Stephenson decided to help bring down the corrupt governments he had helped forge and told authorities he had incriminating evidence on several officeholders stashed away in "black boxes." One of the boxes contained a pledge signed by Duvall. In it, he agreed that "in the event that I am elected Mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana, I promise not to appoint any person as a member of the board of public works without they first have the endorsement of D.C. Stephenson."

Duvall agreed to resign on Oct. 27, 1927, but did so in a way that put the city in a state of confusion for the next two weeks. Appointing his wife as city comptroller, the next in line to succeed the mayor, Duvall submitted his resignation. His wife succeeded him and ruled for all of 15 minutes before appointing attorney Ira M. Holmes as comptroller and resigning herself. The city council followed up this shell game with the appointment of Claude E. Negley. Duvall ordered a police guard to enforce Holmes' claim as mayor, and the two briefly faced off in the mayor's office before Negley produced a court injunction backing him up. Also claiming the mayoral title for a time were Joseph Hogue, comptroller under Duvall's predecessor Lew Shank, and Walter Myers, Duvall's opponent in the 1925 election, on the basis that Duvall's claim as mayor was voided back to that contest.

Negley prevailed among this gathering when the court denied a motion by Holmes to dissolve a restraining order against him. The city council deadlocked over putting either Republican John A. George or Democrat Fred Hoke in office before deciding on Democrat L. Ert Slack, to replace Negley for the remainder of Duvall's term.

After one grand jury was dissolved when a juror said he had been offered a bribe to not indict Duvall, another grand jury indicted him on charges of violating the state's Corrupt Practices Act. Besides his complicity with the KKK appointments, he was also accused of accepting a $14,000 bribe from politician and saloon owner William H. Armitage in return for naming three city officials. Duvall was said to have revoked this promise to Armitage, a Catholic, when it contradicted those he had made to the Klan. Found guilty, Duvall was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and spend 30 days in jail.

Duvall was one of hundreds of corrupt government officials brought down by Stephenson's black boxes. Not long after the debacle of filling the mayor's seat, four members of the city council, including Negley, were indicted for taking bribes in return for not voting to impeach Duvall. Six members of the council admitted to accepting bribes, paid a small fine, and resigned. Governor Jackson was indicted for failing to report contributions from the KKK, but was able to escape prosecution because the statute of limitations had run out.

Duvall returned to real estate work after his removal from office. He died in 1962.

Sources: "Indianapolis Picks Duvall" in the New York Times on Nov. 4 1925, "In Indiana" in Time on Aug. 8 1927, "Indiana Corruption" in Time on Oct. 3 1927, "Negley Now Rules Alone in Indianapolis" in the Atlanta Constitution on Nov. 1 1927, "Again, Indianapolis" in Time on Nov. 7 1927, "Slack at Helm in Indianapolis" in the Prescott Evening Courier on Nov. 9 1927, "Four Indianapolis Officials Indicted" in the Evening Independent on Nov. 19 1927, The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis by David J. Bodenhamer and Robert Graham Barrows and David Gordon Vanderstel, Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928 by Leonard J. Moore, The Fiery Cross: the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana by Wyn Craig Wade, Indiana History: A Book of Readings by Ralph D. Gray

Robert Potter: kind of nutty

Image from cemetery.state.tx.us

Violent political scandals are fairly rare among the litany of financial or sex scandals that crop up throughout the country's history. Robert Potter, a politician in both North Carolina and Texas, might be one of the most bloodthirsty politicians the country has seen, and certainly the most emasculating.

Potter was born in either 1799 or 1800 in Granville County, North Carolina. He served as a midshipman in the United States Navy from 1815 to 1821, and followed up with a career in law. A member of the state house of commons in 1826 and 1828, he was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to Congress in 1828 and 1830.

Potter is best known for the incident that forced him out of the Capitol. In a rambling broadside appealing to the residents of four counties in North Carolina, Potter said of the two men he maimed that they "had indeed stabbed me most vitally - they had indeed hurt me beyond all cure." He was probably speaking metaphorically, since he makes no reference to any sort of self-defense against physical attack. He was certainly being melodramatic, for the injury he inflicted on the men was certainly worse than whatever hurt his pride suffered. Believing that they had carried on an adulterous relationship with his wife, Potter castrated Reverend William Lewis Taylor and a teenager named Willie K. Lewis in August of 1831.

In the broadside, Potter said his wife had admitted to having an affair and that his trial was rigged against him, but did not shy away from the castration accusation. "I am consoled by the conviction that in what I have done I have only acted upon those feelings which nature has implanted in the hearts of all men, indeed, I may say, of all animals; and that each of you would have done the same thing under the same circumstances," he wrote. Found guilty in the Granville County court in September of 1831, he was ordered to serve six months in prison and pay a $2,000 fine.

Potter resigned from Congress in November of that year, and he and his wife were divorced. Not long after, the North Carolina house of commons passed an act making castration punishable by death if it was done with malice aforethought. If it wasn't done in such a matter, the punishment was exactly like the one meted out to Potter: six months in prison, with a fine to be determined by the court. Despite this snub by the legislature he once belonged to, Potter was returned to the house of commons in 1834.He was kicked out in January 1835.

The circumstances of this expulsion differ from account to account. He may have cheated at cards; he may have reneged on a gambling debt; he may have pulled a gun during a card game to steal the money up for grabs after losing his own share. The common thread is that he was kicked out due to some sort of misconduct involving a deck of cards.

Potter moved to Harrison County in Texas after this latest embarrassment, and soon regained some political and military clout as the territory sought independence from Mexico. He joined the Nacogdoches Independent Volunteers to help equip men for the siege of Bexar, but resigned soon after to offer services to the Texas navy. A signer of the Texas declaration of independence, he also saw action at the Battle of San Jacinto, where he was part of a group advocating the execution of the captured Mexican president. He remarried, and served as Secretary of the Navy and commander of the port of Galveston during the provincial presidency of David Burnet as well as a representative to the Texas congress.

During an obscure East Texas feud known as the Regulator-Moderator War, Potter became a Moderator leader for Harrison County. In 1842, his home was surrounded by members of the Regulators and he was gunned down while trying to escape into a nearby lake.

Some sources say that Potter went to Texas to escape the ignominious acts marking his public service in North Carolina; if that was the case, it seems to have worked. Buried on a bluff near his home, Potter was exhumed and re-interred in the Texas State Cemetery in 1931. A double-sided headstone lists his political service in both North Carolina and Texas, and Potter County in the latter state is named for him.

Sources: The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, the Texas State Cemetery (cemetery.state.tx.us), American Annual Register edited by Joseph Blunt, American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War by David Grimsted, Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South by Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Homesteads Ungovernable: Families, Sex, Race, and the Law in Frontier Texas by Mark McNeese Carroll, "Mr. Potter's appeal to the Citizens of Nash, Franklin, Warren, and Granville" available at American Social History Online

Paul Powell: living on a shoestring

Image from southernmostillinoishistory.info

Paul Powell was once quoted as saying, "There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one." The saying became especially pertinent after a surprising discovery following Powell's death.

Born in 1902 in Vienna, Illinois, Powell spent 30 years in the state legislature, including one term as speaker of the house of representatives in 1949 and two additional terms between 1959 and 1963. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions between 1944 and 1964 and chaired the Johnson County Democratic Party in 1950. In 1965, he was elected Secretary of State.

In 1951, Powell was investigated for corruption regarding stock purchase in a harness-racing corporation. Having bought shares in the corporation for ten cents apiece, Powell was able to help the group get favorable racing dates and the shares increased to $17.50 each. He was cleared of any wrongdoing, and joked that the grand jurors had come away more interested in how to invest in racetrack stock. He was subject to another grand jury investigation in 1966 accusing his office of accepting bribes from truckers affiliated with organized crime in order to cut their operating fees. Powell was again cleared, although his former chief investigator, Frank "Porky" Porcaro, was later indicted for theft of state funds.

In 1970, while at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Powell suffered a heart attack and died. His death was not made public until a day later, evidently so personal aides could remove certain personal papers from his office. John W. Lewis, another former state house speaker, was appointed as his replacement. John S. Rendleman, chancellor of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and executor of Powell's estate, went to the St. Nicholas Hotel in Springfield where Powell had been renting a suite to recover his personal effects.

The state had never paid Powell more than $30,000 a year. But when Rendleman searched the suite, he found some $800,000 in cash packed into shoeboxes, briefcases, and strongboxes in the room. The cache was not disclosed to the public until three months later, after a search of banks and other holdings to determine how much money had been hidden. That process would go on for years, and finally determine in 1978 that his estate was worth $4.6 million, including $1 million in racetrack stock. For some reason, Powell had also stashed away 49 cases of whiskey, 14 transistor radios, and two cases of creamed corn in storage space he'd been renting.

Exactly how Powell amassed such a fortune is something of a mystery, though much of the money probably came from residents who wrote driver's license renewal checks directly to Powell instead of to the Secretary of State's Office. Four years after Powell's death, a grand jury indicted a contractor, Chicago lawyer, and Arkansas businessman for directing $80,000 in kickbacks to Powell while he was in office. The state filed a lawsuit against Powell's estate and settled out of court for $1.6 million to go toward the state's historical library, state museum, and the restoration of the Governor's mansion.

Twice widowed and with no children, Powell left $1.5 million to the Johnson County Historical Society Museum, which had previously worked on an annual endowment of $200 to display two rooms of antique farming equipment. Powell's home now houses a museum, as well as the Johnson County Genealogical and Historical Society.

The shoebox fortune spurred plenty of mockery. Senator Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois said after Powell's death, "His shoeboxes will be hard to fill." A novelty firm marketed a Paul Powell savings bank: shoebox-shaped, painted "money green," and offering "banking any hour of the day or night, and is easily hidden in a closet." The Third Unitarian Church of Chicago held something of a mixed bag remembrance of Powell two years after his death. While Reverend Donald Wheat recognized Powell for twice being voted the state's outstanding legislator and honored by veterans' groups, he also read the nursery rhyme "The Crooked Man" and the parable of the rich fool. When the church took its collection at the memorial, it was done with shoeboxes.

Powell's case is routinely noted during major accusations of political corruption in Illinois, particularly the cases of back-to-back Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, said during the Ryan matter in 2005 that residents were generally nonplussed by the 1970 scandal due to the perception that Powell had contributed positively to the state. "People were surprised about the amount of money," said Lawrence. "But there was sort of a sense if he gave us our share, what's wrong with him getting his share?"

Sources: The Political Graveyard, "Ex-Illinois House Speaker is Appointed to State Post" in the New York Times on Oct. 18 1970, "Paul Powell's Nest Egg" in Time on Jan. 18 1971, "Is Nothing Sacred?" in the Bryan Times on Jan. 23 1971, "U.S." in Time on Feb. 15 1971, "Remembering Paul" in Time on Oct. 23 1972, "Illinois to Share in Estate of Millionaire Official" in the New York Times on Aug. 19 1973, "OIS Payoffs Charged to 3 Men" in the New York Times on Feb. 1 1974, "Ryan case just latest in a long line of Illinois corruption scandals" on thesouthern.com on Aug. 22 2005, "Deja vu: Growing up with Chicago pols in the 'Land of 10,000 Snakes" in MinnPost on Dec. 10 2008, "A Brief History of Illinois Corruption" in Time on Dec. 11 2008, Directory of Historical Organizations in the United States by the American Association for State and Local History, P.S.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon by Paul Simon, Illinois Politics & Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier by Samuel K. Grove and James D. Nowlan

Corliss P. Stone: playing hooky

Image from historylink.org

There is remarkably little information on Corliss P. Stone, the third mayor of Seattle, Washington, considering the crimes he was accused of. These charges may have been mere rumor, dispelled over the past century, but it is clear that Stone left the city after serving a little more than half of his year-long term.

Stone was born in 1838 in Franklin County, Vermont, grandson of the family known for manufacturing Corliss steam engines. After working as a clerk in a dry goods store in New England for some time, he sought to make his name in the West and sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco. He found his way to Washington Territory and, after working in another store for five years, joined S.B. Hinds and Charles H. Burnett to form the real estate company Hinds, Stone & Co. in 1867. The company's accomplishments included the establishment of a wharf on Elliott Bay and the city's first delivery service.

After Hinds left the company in 1870, its interests expanded to include the sale of carriages and wagons. Stone tried unsuccessfully to start up a toll road from Seattle to White Bluff on the Columbia River and encouraged the use of gas lighting for the city. He also served as a director for the Library Association and trustee of the Plymouth Congregational Society.

After sitting on the Common Council (precursor to the City Council) for three terms, Stone was elected as a Republican to be mayor in July of 1872. Seven months later, the city was scrambling to fill a void in city hall after Stone disappeared from office.

Stone was reported to have gone to San Francisco for to pay off creditors and purchase supplies, but accomplished neither and instead taken a train east, evidently with the $15,000 he'd taken from his company still on him. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said Stone sent Burnett a dispatch saying he had sold drafts for currency to "appropriate for my private use" and turned over all real and personal property to Burnett, provided he balance his account. Stone also sent a dispatch to an unidentified man saying he would be absent for several months and had arranged for remittances to be made to his family.

The newspaper said that the departure set off "busy dame rumor" with accusations that he'd also gone to the Golden State with a married woman and stolen company and trust funds. The paper refuted these claims, saying that the woman had produced a letter putting her in Vancouver at the time of Stone's disappearance and company records showed no sign of embezzlement. Nonetheless, the paper said they could not justify Stone's other actions, "regarding as we must that this unlooked for course pursued by him must necessarily be of serious injury and loss to his partner."

Stone's predecessor, John T. Jordan, was appointed acting mayor to fill the vacancy. In a special election held two months later, Republican Moses R. Maddocks was chosen to serve the remaining two months of Stone's term. In the regular election in 1873, Democrat John Collins was elected mayor.

Looking back on the episode in 1988, the Post-Intelligencer prefaced a reprinting of the story on the scandal by saying that "early editors often printed gossip and took positions on whether the gossip might be true or false." The introduction also states that neither the newspaper nor early historians pursued the affair, so little is known of what happened to Stone. It appears that he was never criminally charged, and returned to the city sometime after his departure. He continued his business pursuits in the 1880s, and was one of 23 business leaders who formed the Seattle Chamber of Commerce in 1882. In 1903, he was said to be president of the Cascade Laundry Company.

Stone's marital life did show an interesting change right around his short time as mayor. In 1864, he married a woman named Clara Boyd, with whom he had two children. In 1872, he divorced her and two years later married Elmira L. Crossman, of Montreal, Canada.

Stone died in 1906, and Corliss Avenue and Stone Way in Seattle are named for him today. He left his son a mere $200 a month allowance, while Elmira was given the majority of an estate worth nearly a million dollars. Elmira died in 1912, and the valuable estate continued to cause a bit of acrimony; the New York Times briefly reported that a Mrs. John Irwin of Chicago was contesting Elmira's will, which left the estate to her niece, Florence Kilbourne McPherran. Irwin accused McPherran of using undue influence to get Elmira to leave the estate to her. The outcome of this contest was not reported.

Updated March 15 with additional information provided by the Seattle Public Library. Thanks to librarian Jeannette Voiland!

Sources: The Political Graveyard, "Voters elect Corliss P. Stone as mayor of Seattle on July 8, 1872" on HistoryLink, A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle and County of King, Washington by the Lewis Publishing Company in 1903, Seattle Municipal Archives, The Seattle Guidebook by Kathy Strong, Volume 100 of the Pacific Reporter, "Leaves Son Little Money" in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 25 1906, "$1,000,000 Will Suit; Niece of Mrs. Stone of Seattle Wrongly Got Estate, Says Mrs. Irwin" in the New York Times on Feb. 19 1912, "It's in the P-I...1873, Tongues Wag When Mayor Takes Money" in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Nov. 14, 1988.