Today -100: June 6, 1924: Utter disregard of the law is the worst kind of disregard of the law

The Indiana Democratic Convention nominates Carleton McCulloch for governor, bucking the strident Klan opposition to him (the Klan in Indiana, unlike most states, is mostly Republican). McCulloch lost to Warren McCray last time. McCray is now in prison, a testament to what happens when you don’t do exactly what the Klan tells you to do (also, he was pretty corrupt). Edward Jackson, the Klan choice, will be the Republican nominee.

The Senate Teapot Dome Committee releases its report. It says former interior sec. Albert Fall made the contracts with the Sinclair and Doheny oil companies with “utter disregard of the law.” The committee seems to think there was something wrong with Doheny loaning $100,000 to Fall while the negotiations were going on.

The Senate votes 70-2 to ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether the Brookhart Committee has the authority to subpoena former attorney general Harry Daugherty, who has refused to testify.

There is a “movement” to name Nebraska Gov. William Bryan, brother of 3-time presidential loser William Jennings Bryan, as the running mate of Al Smith if he gets the Democratic nomination.

The Chicago grand jury indicts Leopold n’ Loeb and the former’s confession is released; you can read it at the link. The families have supposedly raised a million-dollar defense fund, run by Clarence Darrow.

The under secretary of the British Air Ministry tells Parliament that the Ministry tested a death ray, presumably Grindell Matthews’s “diabolical ray,” on one of its experts (death ray expert, I guess) at ten yards, and he wasn’t even slightly vaporized.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.