CORRUPTION: First Felon

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With well-worn evidence Messrs. Owen Josephus Roberts and Atlee Pomerene, special U. S. counsel, conducted the prosecution before Justice William Hitz. Only novelty: they managed to introduce the illuminating fact that Fall, in a parallel case, had received some $269,000 in Liberty bonds from Oilman Harry Ford Sinclair who in return received the Teapot Dome lease.

Lawyer Hogan, onetime Brooklyn urchin, now Washington's smartest, cockiest criminal attorney, had secured Oilman Doheny's acquittal on the conspiracy charge; had received, it was said, a million-dollar fee for his services. Now he was Fall's chief defender. His claims which the jury rejected: The $100,000 cash was a friendly loan for which Doheny held a torn note. Doheny had reluctantly taken the Elk Hills lease as the result of a Japanese war scare in 1921 and as an act of patriotism for national security. (The Navy, through Secretary Charles Francis Adams, refused to submit to the court confidential documents which might or might not support this war scare.) The whole Government from President Harding down collaborated in approving the Elk Hills lease.

The defense reeked with sentimentality and patriotism. Lawyer Hogan made the women of the jury weep. Doheny on the witness stand cried easily and often. Frequent were the references to Fall's bad health. Lawyer Thompson tried to describe "a red haired young man" (Doheny) and "a black haired young fellow" (Fall) meeting on the "deserts of the Southwest" when Justice Hitz cut in: "The color of Mr. Doheny's hair is not in evidence. Please follow the evidence." Lawyer Hogan made an impassioned plea for the jury to send Fall "back to the sunshine of New Mexico." Remarked Judge Hitz to the jury: "You have nothing whatever to do with the sunshine of New Mexico and must decide this case on its merits, without influence of sympathy or compassion."

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84) became an issue in the trial. Prosecutor Pomerene cited the fact that the great lexicographer had called patriotism the last refuge of a scoundrel. Quick to see his chance Defender Hogan roared to the jury that this Englishman had vilified American revolutionary leaders, had advised a yardarm hanging for George Washington.

Justice Hitz made a strong charge to the jury, instructing them to seek and weigh Fall's intent, warning them against the sentimental appeals of the defense. Lawyer Hogan and Oilman Doheny were infuriated by this charge, vehemently contending that it had robbed Defendant Fall of a fair trial by jury. The exceptions to the Hitz charge and the introduction of the Sinclair evidence formed the basis for a demand for a new trial or, if denied, for appeal.