Selling the Pure Blue Sky

The Twentieth Century ushered in public outrage against financial manipulations, ranging from the Morgans and the Rockefellers, to small-fry fraudsters. Government at all levels responded by putting swindlers in prison.

Frank Hitchcock LC foto 3b11889r

Laws against mail fraud were on the books, but for years were seldom enforced.  Lax enforcement ended when President Taft appointed Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock. Hitchcock made prosecuting mail fraud his top priority, and arrested swindlers such as George Graham Rice and the Burr Brothers.

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10/10/2009