Jess Smith
Encyclopedia
Jesse W. Smith also known as Jess Smith, was a member of President  Warren G. Harding's
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

 Ohio Gang
Ohio Gang
The Ohio Gang was a group of politicians and industry leaders who came to be associated with Warren G. Harding, the twenty-ninth President of the United States of America.-Background:...

. He was born and raised in Washington Court House, Ohio
Washington Court House, Ohio
Washington Court House is a city in Fayette County, Ohio, United States. It is the county seat of Fayette County and is located approximately halfway between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. The population was 14,192 in 2010 at the 2010 census...

, where he became a friend of Harry M. Daugherty
Harry M. Daugherty
Harry Micajah Daugherty was an American politician. He is best known as a Republican Party boss, and member of the Ohio Gang, the name given to the group of advisors surrounding president Warren G...

. There, Daugherty helped him to become the successful owner of a department store. Smith became Daugherty's gofer
Gofer
A gofer or go-fer is an employee who is often sent on errands. "Gofer" reflects the likelihood of instructions to go for coffee, dry cleaning, or stamps, or to make other straightforward or familiar procurements. The term gofer originated in North America...

 during the 1920 campaign.

Role

Smith came to Washington as an aide to Daugherty as U.S. Attorney General. He had a desk at the Department of Justice, but no official title. He nevertheless wielded considerable influence.

He was also Daugherty's roommate at Washington, D.C.'s
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 Wardman Park Hotel. Daugherty's wife had remained behind in Columbus because of illness; Smith was divorced.

Smith's activities (it's said he sold bonded liquor to bootleggers, and was associated with a notorious house at 1625 K Street) became an embarrassment to Harding and Daugherty as the Teapot Dome scandal
Teapot Dome scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States in 1922–23, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome and two other locations to private oil companies at low...

 focused increased scrutiny on Harding and his supporters. Before leaving for Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, Harding told Daugherty he wanted Smith out of Washington.

On May 30, 1923, Smith died of a gunshot wound, and was found with a pistol at his side. His death was pronounced a suicide, but Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 Senator James Thomas Heflin alleged otherwise, first at an investigatory hearing and later from the floor of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

.

"Nobody else knew what he [Smith] knew and with him dead there was nobody to tell the story — so Jesse Smith was murdered," said Senator Heflin, initially.

He followed up two days later, in the Senate, quoting an Alabama bootlegger
You know Secretary Mellon loaned the Republican National Committee $5,000,000 in 1920. Only $3,000,000 has been repaid. There is a deficit of $2,000,000. Jess Smith was charged with getting that money. The plan was to have the liquor men and the breweries contribute to this fund....

"That is one of the reasons," shouted Senator Heflin, "why they wanted to get rid of Jess Smith."

Documented links with Harding administration

Smith's links with members of the Harding administration, including First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...

 Florence Kling Harding, have been documented by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, in his: 'Florence Harding: the First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America's Most Scandalous President', New York: W. Morrow & Co., 1998

In fiction

Smith is one of four characters (and the only one based on a real person) from whose point of view Gore Vidal's
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...

 novel of the period, Hollywood
Hollywood (Vidal novel)
Hollywood is the fifth historical novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series. It was published in 1990. It brings back the fictional Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford and James Burden Day and the real Theodore Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst from Empire...

, is told. He is portrayed as a business-savvy but weak-willed and sycophantic follower of Harding and Daugherty, and it's speculated that his death might have been a murder used to cover up the Ohio Gang's crimes.

External links

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