Heavily in debt last week was Albert Bacon Fall, bribe-taking Secretary of the Interior under President Harding, first convicted Cabinet felon in U. S. history. He still owed Oilman Edward Laurence Doheny $100,000 (exclusive of interest) on what he still insists was "a friendly loan" made eight years ago. He owed the U. S. another $100,000—the fine imposed last week after a District of Columbia Supreme Court jury had found the Doheny "loan" corrupt, a bribe. Additional debt to the U. S.: one year of his life in prison. Mr. Fall's assets, both in dollars and years of life, were running low.
Though still bronchially ill, the 68-year-old defendant was able to walk into court to hear himself sentenced by Justice William Hitz. The jury had recommended mercy. Justice Hitz said firmly: "Under normal physical conditions {this case} would warrant and require the imposition of the maximum penalty [fine: $300,000 (thrice the bribe); three years imprisonment ]. . . . Because of the recommendation of the jury for mercy I will impose upon Mr. Fall a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for one year."*
Fall bowed his head in his hands while his wife sobbed quietly.
Had Fall accepted the prison sentence, Justice Hitz said he would, because of Fall's broken health, have suspended it indefinitely. But Fall accepted the full sentence to complete his case for appeal which he will carry first to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and then on to the same U. S. Supreme Court which in 1926 branded him "a faithless public officer'' on the same evidence when in a civil suit it voided the Doheny-Fall lease for the Elk Hills naval oil reserve.
Free on $5,000 bond and back in his hotel suite, Fall issued a 3,000-word statement to the public. Said he: "I ask the American people not to believe me guilty of the damnable crime [bribery] of which I am innocent." He admitted only "two grave errors:" 1) "Borrowing" $100,000 from Doheny; 2) Attempting to hide its source from the Senate investigating committee "by an untruth."
Bedclothes Story. Last week Senator Bronson Cutting of New Mexico exploded the widely credited story of Fall's visit, as a Senator in 1919, to the White House bedside of Woodrow Wilson (TIME, Oct. 21). Gilbert Monell Hitchcock of Nebraska was another Senator who accompanied Fall to determine President Wilson's condition. Last week he assured Senator Cutting that Fall did not, as history has said, rudely snatch the bedclothes off the ill President to inspect him. Said Mr. Hitchcock: "Fall, who supposed President Wilson's right arm was paralyzed, was amazed when the President held up his right arm and shook the Senator's hand. . . . Fall had supposed Wilson mentally as well as physically incompetent. ... He came away from the White House completely disarmed. . . ."
*Had the sentence been for a year-and-a-day Fall would have been eligible for parole after four months in jail. Sentences of one year or less are not parolable.