Page 54 

Prologue

After being led out of their church, the Indians, all twenty-eight men, twenty-nine women, and thirty-nine children were tied up. Then an American irregular stepped forward with a mallet. The man’s uncles had been killed only weeks earlier. He would now have his revenge. One by one he began to beat the helpless Indians, and before they died he began to scalp them. Other Pennsylvanians joined in and soon the bloody bodies of every captured Indian man, woman, and child lay before them. Before marching home, the militia men ransacked the village and burned the remains of their victims. This brutal act of war became known as the Gnadenhutten massacre.

 Page 58

Friday, January 17, 1845

McNulty then addressed the House, stating that this was the first time he had heard the charges made by the Committee on Accounts, and: 

"I have not myself use one dollar of the public funds."

"I have not lent to any individual of the world one dollar of them."

"I have made no disposition of them that the law does not authorize me and justify me in making."

He then told the congressmen that the vouchers requested by their committee were in the hands of the pay clerk, Mr. Kershaw, who was absent on a family visit and late in returning to his duties in Washington.

Caleb then asked the congressional committee to wait for the clerk’s return so Mr. Kershaw could answer their inquiries. McNulty explained that all the accounts and vouchers were in the possession of this pay clerk and not McNulty himself and that he McNulty personally knew nothing about the details of the contingency fund expenditures.

McNulty then declared that in any case he would settle with the Committee on Accounts "before 10am tomorrow" for every dollar of the public money that "came in to his hands" as clerk to the House.

                   EDWIN

grieving widower, loving father,

 bold and brilliant lawyer

Page 72 

When McNulty’s trial began, hehad added a new lawyer, a youngish man of 30 named Edwin, to lead his defense team.

Although Edwin was a fellow Ohioan and a Jacksonian Democrat, not all of McNulty’s few remaining supporters approved of Edwin, a stranger to both Washington, D.C., and the federal court where the trial was being held.

Indeed Edwin had arrived in Washington only the night before the trial and had to stay up all night reading the case files.

But McNulty knew that back in Ohio, Edwin was known both for his brilliant legal mind and for being a man who would devote his entire being to win his client’s case.

He had become famous back home for almost dying while defending a man accused of murdering his wife.

As the story went, the prosecution had the case sewed up after they entered into evidence the alleged poison the husband used to kill his wife. In response, Edwin had dramatically drunk the concoction to prove to the jury that the drink was not really a poison.

As it turned out, it was poison and it almost killed him, but Edwin had such remarkable powers of persuasion in a courtroom that even after disproving his own assertion, he won a verdict of not guilty for his client. 

Available in paperback,

you will find that

BEFORE MADOFF

The Forgotten Frauds of American History

 Volume I 

is an enjoyable mix

of true fraud stories and fascinating anecdotes

from American history.