Today -100: July 29, 1926: There’s a sucker list born every minute

The Poincaré government postpones submitting the war debt agreements with the US and Britain to parliament until at least the fall.

Abyssinia (Ethiopia) protests to the League of Nations, of which it is a member, against the agreement between Britain and Italy dividing Abyssinia into spheres of influence, giving Britain the right to build a dam on Lake Tsana to divert water to the Sudan and Italy the right to build a railroad to connect its colonies in Somaliland and Eritrea. Abyssinia, which is a real country and everything, was not invited to participate in the negotiations.

Charles Greenhaus, the former “Boy Wizard of Wall Street,” is on trial for fraud, as his custom (and will be for decades to come, really he got caught so many times), with his partner Henry Griffin for a Florida land scheme. He solicited people on a “sucker list” he’d purchased containing 38,000 names, at 2¢ a name, of people who’d fallen for various fraudulent or at least failed stocks in the past. He offered to take their worthless stocks in exchange for Florida land, which would need just a little  extra cash to pay off its mortgage so it could be sold to eager buyers who were definitely real and willing to pay large amounts... Greenhaus & Griffen will be found guilty and sentenced to 2 years and 1 year respectively.

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