AMAZING SCANDAL.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17977, 24 March 1930, Page 7

AMAZING SCANDAL.

EX-PRISONER’S STATEMENT MURDER, GRAFT, CORRUPTION. OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. —Copyright. NEW YORK, March 22. Amazing charges of murder, graft and corruption, linked in a most sensational scandal story of the Harding Administration, are being examined by tile United States Attorney, Leo Rover. The allegations appear in a book dictated by Gaston Means, formerly an agent of the Justice Department and an ex-prisoner. Means purports to tell the inside story of the deaths of several of Air Harding’s closest associates and of the sudden deaths of Mr Harding and of his physician, General Sawyer, while Mrs Harding was his guest, also of Mrs Harding's death two months later. Mr Rover is expected to decide immediately whether there is ground for Grand Jury action against Means or some of the persons accused in his book. Mr Warren G. Harding was President of the United States at the time of his death on August 2, 1923, aged 58. It was announced that the cause of death was heart trouble following pneumonia. He died and was buried at Marion, Ohio. Mrs Harding (nee Miss Florence Kling) was a daughter of Mr Amos 0. Kling.a hardware merchant, of Marion. Her family were Mennonites. Her first husband was M. E. de Wolfe. She divorced him and he died in Colorado after having been aided by Mr Harding to establish himself in a newspaper business. De Wolfe's children received legacies under Mr and Mrs Harding's wills. Mrs Harding died at Marion on November 21, 1924. LATER. * SUSPICIOUS DEATHS. OPERATIONS OF OHIO GANG. ASPERSION ON HARDING. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. —Copyright. (Received March 24, 9,30 a.m.) VANCOUVER, March 22. Acoording to the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, Gaston Means, a former Justice Department agent, in a book he has dictated declared that he was secretly employed by Airs Harding between 1921 and 1923 to establish the falsity of rumours of her husband’s mesalliance with Nan Britton, also to discover how and where Air Harding was losing large sums in stock speculations, and frustrate the designs of several of his associates, whom Aleans calls “The Ohio Gang,” who were able to force compliance with their wishes by a threat of exposure of an alleged intrigue with Nan Britton. Those connected with the gang, who seemed to command unlimited money, included Jess Smith, an associate of the former Attorney-General Daugherty, who, according to Aleans, did not commit suicide as stated, but was killed to seal his lips. Three others died suddenly—T. B. Felder, another Daugherty associate, after declaring that he would reveal the story; John T. King, a politician; and C. F. llately, a Justice Department agent. Aleans adds: “The Ohio gang sold protection to bootleggers.”