The Strange Death of President Harding

by Gaston B. Means

Overview

While incarcerated in the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1924 for larceny, conspiracy and some 100 violations of the Prohibition Act, Gaston B. Means, a former Harding Administration official and private investigator, met May Dixon Thacker, the sister of novelist Thomas Dixon, whose The Clansman (1905) had been transformed by D. W. Griffith into The Birth of a Nation for the big screen in 1915. Mrs. Thacker, the author of True Confessions, promised to help Means tell his story. After his release, Means spent day after day dictating to her. The resulting publication, The Strange Death of President Harding, raises some interesting points surrounding the circumstances of the President’s death during a nationwide speaking tour, and went on to become one of the bestselling books of 1930.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789120547
Publisher:	Papamoa Press
Publication date:	03/12/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	187
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

GASTON BULLOCK MEANS (July 11, 1879 - December 12, 1938) was an American private detective that ended up working on both sides of the law. A confidence trickster, bootlegger and professional con man, J. Edgar Hoover described him as “the most amazing figure in contemporary criminal history,” thanks to his ability to weave a believable, albeit fraudulent, story. Born in Concord, North Carolina, the son of William Means, a reputable lawyer, Means graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1903, became a schoolteacher, then a travelling salesman. In 1911, he talked himself into a job with a New York detective firm. On the eve of World War I, he was asked to further Germany’s interests in the neutral United States and uncovered plots and counterplots rife with secret documents and skulking spies. After America declared war with Germany, Means was hired by the FBI and moved to Washington, D.C. in October 1921. The FBI was then led by William J. Burns, famous ex-Secret Service man, private detective and friend of Harry M. Daugherty, Attorney General in the Harding administration. Means was not involved in the Teapot Dome bribery scandal of 1921-1922, but he was associated with members of the so-called Ohio Gang that gathered around the administration of President Warren G. Harding. He also tried to pull a con associated with the Lindbergh kidnapping, and following his criminal conviction died in Leavenworth Prison in 1938, aged 59.

Table of Contents

I.	Mrs. Harding Employs Means as Private Detective	29
II.	Jess Smith Summons Means to the "House on H Street"	55
III.	The Undercover Headquarters of "The Clique"	63
IV.	Why Daugherty Made Harding President	75
V.	Jess Smith Tells His Story to Means	83
VI.	Mrs. Harding Tells Means About Nan Britton	93
VII.	Means "Takes" Nan's Diaries and Letters	105
VIII.	A Storm in the White House	113
IX.	Harding Forced to Sign on the Dotted Line	127
X.	Means' Investigations Concerning President Harding	139
XI.	Nan Reaches Washington--and Harding	147
XII.	Where an Embarrassing Encounter Is Averted	153
XIII.	Means Investigates Nan Britton's Life	157
XIV.	Mrs. Harding Confronts the President with Proofs	161
XV.	President Harding Fires Means	173
XVI.	Jess Smith Warns Means	183
XVII.	Jess Smith Threatens to "Tell Everything"	195
XVIII.	Means Collects Prohibition Graft	205
XIX.	Daugherty and Fall--"Master Salesmen"	211
XX.	Jess Smith "Passes On"	217
XXI.	Covering Up the Trail	229
XXII.	Mrs. Harding Catches Nan Britton in the White House	235
XXIII.	Mrs. Harding--"The Child of Destiny"	247
XXIV.	The Journey to Alaska--and the End	255
	Epilogue--Explanations and Inferences	269
	Appendix	283