Word: blackmere
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Exit in Haste. In 1924, after the U.S. Senate broke the Teapot Dome scandals, Blackmer abruptly abandoned the good life in Colorado, packed up a law library and plenty of money, and fled to France. There was plenty of reason for his flight; Government investigators had discovered that Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall had $230,500 worth of Continental's Liberty bonds, which prosecutors charged had come from Harry Sinclair as a bribe...
...tried by every possible means to force Blackmer out of his hideout and bring him home to testify in the Teapot Dome trials. All failed. Meanwhile French newspapers, which described him as a multi-millionaire oil king, generated waves of rumor about him-that he had sneaked back to the U.S. as a member of a steamship's crew, that U.S. authorities had tried to kidnap him at the order of President Coolidge...
...Teapot Dome furore finally died; Harry Sinclair served out a total of nine months in jail (for contempt of court and of the Senate investigating committee), and Fall went to prison, later died in disgrace. Exile Blackmer stayed at his chateau in France. Even World War II caused him little inconvenience. He was technically a fugitive from justice and had no passport, but when France fell to the Nazis the Swiss welcomed him, his money and his third wife "Kaja," a buxom Norwegian opera singer...
Return from Exile. Over the years, Blackmer made some overtures of peace to the U.S. In all, he paid $3,671,065 in income taxes, $60,000 in penalties. This summer, after 25 years in exile, Henry Blackmer decided the time for his return had come. Last week he and his wife boarded an Air France plane at Paris and were flown to Boston. As they set out for Denver by train, it was easy to see that time had taken its toll with the Darling of the Gods. He was stooped and almost blind. But he still knew...
...perjury, two for evasion of income tax-which had piled up during his long absence. His attorneys obviously expected an easy out. But Judge Orie L. Phillips insisted that he enter a plea of guilty to the income tax charges, took the perjury counts under advisement, and deferred judgment. Blackmer walked out slowly, lips pursed, black shoes squeaking and was driven away to his son's fashionable Cherry Hills mansion to nurse his hope of forgiveness a little longer...