Re: Father Struct it Rich by Evalyn Walsh McLean
samsloan
ISBN 0923891048
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891048
Comparing this Book to Newspapers and Other Sources about Evalyn Walsh
McLean
The name of Evalyn Walsh McLean is often in the news, even today more
than 60 years after her death. When reading this book, one should be
aware that she is often responding to charges made against her
appearing in the newspapers. Since she owned the Washington Post, one
would not imagine that newspaper saying anything about her. However,
The New York Times had a lot to say about her.
One of the often quoted examples of her fame comes from a line in the
famous 1934 Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes”:
“When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian reds to "yes" her,
Then I suppose
Anything goes.”
The song goes on to compare her to Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts and
the Whitneys, who were the richest people in America. The point to the
song is that the people who are that rich can do anything they want,
and thus “Anything Goes”.
When Rockefeller can still hoard enough
Money to let Max Gordon
Produce his shows,
Anything goes!
The world has gone mad today,
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux.
When folks who can still ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby Clo'es,
Anything goes!
Evalyn's book in part explains the line: "When Missus Ned McLean (God
bless her) Can get Russian reds to "yes" her,”
Actually, Ned McLean's aunt, Marie Beale, was married to George
Bakhmeteff, who was the Russian Ambassador to the United States from
1911 to 1917, the last six years of the Czar's reign. Prior to that,
George and Marie had lived for several years in St. Petersburg,
Russia. Thus, it was Evalyn's family relationship, not her money, that
gave her influence over the Czar's representative.
Evalyn spends several pages of her book dealing with the “Bonus Army”,
starting on page 302. One must look up in the history books to find
out what this was all about: During World War I, our “Doughboys”
received little combat pay, so they were offered “bonuses” that were
supposed to be paid 20 years later.
This was not a big problem as long as America was prospering, but by
1932 in the depth of the Great Depression, many former soldiers lacked
even enough to eat. As a result, about 15,000 of these former
infantrymen marched on Washington and demanded to be paid their
bonuses now.
As many of the former infantrymen had brought along their wives and
children, Evalyn Walsh McLean, seeing thousands of these hungry
families camped out in front of her house, went out and bought
thousands of sandwiches to feed them.
Eventually, the police cleared out the Bonus Army and sent them home.
This incident contributed to the election defeat of Herbert Hoover
later in 1932, but even Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he got into
office, was unable to pay off the Bonus Army. This finally led to the
GI Bill of Rights and other benefits for former military servicemen.
Evalyn also discusses the Lindbergh Kidnapping scam. A con man and
former FBI Agent named Gaston B. Means claimed that he was in touch
with the Lindbergh Kidnappers and convinced her to give him $100,000
to be used as ransom money. This incident has been recounted in many
books and newspaper articles. However, there is one point that has not
been adequately explained:
Previously, Gaston B. Means had been involved with another extremely
wealthy woman in North Carolina named Maude King. That woman, Maude
King, had given, loaned or advanced $600,000 to Means.
One evening when Means was alone with this woman, a gun had gone off
“by accident” and the woman had been killed.
Means had claimed that the woman had shot herself by accident. The
prosecutor did not believe his story and Means was arrested and tried.
However, the jury failed to convict Means. Means was acquitted. Many
felt that he had gotten away with murder. Needless to say, Means never
had to repay the $600,000 the woman had loaned him.
Evalyn knew all about this. Even before she gave Gaston B. Means the
$100,000, she had been told about this. She had been warned.
Nevertheless, when Means told her to wait alone in a private residence
to await contact from the kidnappers, rather than in her own mansion,
Friendship, she did so. Later, Means told her to wait in her summer
home in Aiken South Carolina. There, she was contacted by
International Chess Master Norman T. Whitaker. Means informed her
through Whitaker that the kidnappers had decided that it was too
dangerous to exchange the baby for the money in Aiken. So, the
exchange would take place in El Paso, Texas. Therefore, Whitaker drove
Evalyn and her maid, Inga Lagerquist, in his car from Aiken South
Carolina to El Paso Texas, a distance of 1600 miles.
Upon reaching El Paso, Means said that the kidnappers were afraid to
bring the baby there, so Mrs. McLean should bring the money across the
border to Juarez, Mexico, where the exchange of the money for the baby
would take place.
At this point, Evalyn remembered about the rich woman in North
Carolina who had given Means $600,000, only to be killed when alone
with Means. Evalyn realized that if she went over into Mexico with
Means, she could be killed, in which case Means would get the $35,000
she was carrying plus he would get to keep the $104,000 he had already
given her.
As a result, Evalyn did not cross the border into Mexico but instead
returned to Washington DC, although she left her maid, Inga
Lagerquist, in El Paso, in case there any further instructions from
the kidnappers. None were ever received.
However, this story does not end there. This book was published in
1936 and there were further developments after that.
On May 12, 1932, not long after Evelyn Walsh McLean had returned to
Washington DC, the body of the kidnapped baby was found and identified
and quickly cremated. The baby had been killed less than a half hour
after being kidnapped. Eventually, a German immigrant, Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, was found in possession of a large amount of the ransom
money that had been paid. Hauptmann was charged with kidnapping and
murder and was tried and convicted. He was executed in the electric
chair on April 3, 1936.
Evelyn Walsh McLean continued to involve herself in the case. She
believed that Hauptmann was guilty, but that he had accomplices. She
hired a lawyer to investigate the case. The lawyer later sued her for
his attorney's fees and this case, too, made the newspapers.
Gaston B. Means by this time was in prison for scamming Mrs. McLean
out of $104,000. Means then “confessed” to the Lindbergh Kidnapping.
However, this was an obvious ploy by Means to get out of jail on some
kind of deal. Means was known for making up fantastic stories like
this, including “The Strange Death of President Harding” published by
Ishi Press, so nobody with any authority believed him. Means died in
prison in 1938.
The case of the Lindbergh Kidnapping continues to be controversial to
this day. The evidence proving that Hauptmann received the ransom
money is strong, assuming that it was not all fabricated, which was
possible since it rested entirely on the questionable testimony of
John F. Condon.
However, the evidence that Hauptmann actually kidnapped and killed the
baby was always questionable. It has always seemed highly improbable
that anybody would climb a ladder in public view from the street and
find the window open and the 20-month-old baby asleep unguarded in his
crib, and then carry the baby down the rough, handmade ladder and
escape. The fact that two witnesses, the gardener and the waitress,
who themselves were suspects, committed suicide after being questioned
by the police, plus the fact that the father ordered the baby to be
cremated immediately after the body was found, has added to doubts to
the verdict.
In addition, the modern Federal Bureau of Investigation was created
because of this case. The FBIs contribution consisted of catching
International Chess Master Norman T. Whitaker, after Whitaker had
carelessly called Gaston B. Means and then Evalyn Walsh McLean from
the same public pay telephone. The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case was so
important to the career of J. Edgar Hoover that if he had known of any
contrary evidence, he would not have revealed it.
Needless to say, I knew Whitaker. The last time I met Whitaker (before
he died) was in 1962 and he had given me a ride in his VW Beetle from
a chess tournament in Raleigh North Carolina to Virginia where I
lived. I finally got up the nerve to ask Whitaker about Gaston B.
Means and about the Lindbergh Kidnapping. I had never had the courage
to do this before. One does not just say, “By the way, Norman, how did
the old Lindbergh Kidnapping go?”
Whitaker answered my question by talking about all the dirty tricks
Means had done to Whitaker. I am so sorry that I did not write down
his exact words. All of us chess players knew Whitaker and knew about
his side involvement in the Lindbergh Kidnapping, but I know of no
other chess player who ever asked him directly about this. I did not
write it down and do not remember what he said, except he started
talking about all the dirty tricks Means had done. Whitaker was
driving his VW at the time and I really wish I had taken notes on what
he said, but alas I did not. I now believe that Whitaker may not have
been in on the scam and possibly really believed that the Lindbergh
Baby was being held in Juarez, and thus was not guilty. Why would he
drive 1586 miles, a trip of three or four days, with a fabulously
wealthy woman, if he knew that it was all just a scam?
One person who obviously must have asked Whitaker about this was Al
Horowitz, owner of Chess Review magazine. The often told joke is that
whenever Whitaker came to see Horowitz in his office, Horowitz would
say, “Hello Norman. Pull up an electric chair!”
Whitaker is mentioned only once in “Father Struck It Rich”. That is on
page 300, where Evalyn writes, “His confederate, a man named
Whitaker ... .”
After the publication of this book, Evalyn Walsh McLean became the
society columnist for the Washington Times Herald, a rival to the
Washington Post. By then, she was no longer the owner of the
Washington Post. Her column in the Washington Times was popular and
the newspaper carried it for five years.
Those present at her deathbed when she died included the owner of the
Washington Times Herald, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
and a Justice of the United States Court of Appeals. As Evalyn had
laid out on her deathbed when she died a total of 74 valuable jewels
worth between one and two million dollars, including the Hope Diamond,
those justices present when she died gathered up and took all of the
jewels, fearing that otherwise the servants would steal them.
Eventually, diamond dealer Harry Winston bought the entire batch for
the bargain basement price of $614,000.
Since nobody wanted to own the Hope Diamond, still fearful of the
Curse, Winston eventually donated it to the Smithsonian Institution
(no doubt taking a big tax deduction for a charitable contribution)
where it is now on display with an appraised value of $100 million.
Of course, those who come to see it are immune from the Curse.
Picture a little girl of eight; a hand-to-mouth existence in a small
frame house; a rough mining town of the West. Then visualize her eight
years later, a poised young lady living in a "show-place" mansion in
Washington, the center of a gay social whirl.
"Father struck it rich" and the little girl grew up to marry a scion
of one of the country's wealthiest families, and to spend two hundred
thousand dollars on her honeymoon.
Incredible? So is Evalyn Walsh McLean. Her remarkable life has been
one of sensational thrills, pleasant and unpleasant. Hers is a bold,
adventurous spirit, a gift from her father, Thomas Walsh the mining
king, who took great chances and won. She has had power, and has used
it. She has known sorrow. She has been duped. She has championed the
poor and played hostess to the lordly. Her life has been a cascade of
the world's rarest jewels and treasures, its richest families, its
royal houses, its famous statesmen, its presidents, its kings. Admiral
Dewey, Theodore Roosevelt, King Leopold, the Tafts, the Hardings and
their circle, the Coolidges, Henry Cabot Lodge, Katherine Elkins, John
Hays Hammond, "Princess" Alice, Countess Cassini, William G. McAdoo,
Frank Munsey, Cardinal Merry del Val and Colonel Lindbergh are but a
few of the world-famous people who parade through the pages of this
story of a unique, colorful and fascinating life.
"Father Struck It Rich" lifts the veil of mystery which covers one of
the most sensationally interesting personalities in the United States,
the owner and wearer of the Hope Diamond.