When William McCracken showed up at Chesley Journey's apartment on the night of February 11th, 1934,

he only wanted one thing. He wanted to be arrested, and Journey was a law enforcement official.

But Journey didn't want to arrest McCracken.

You see, McCracken was in some legal trouble.

The Senate was investigating what the newspapers called the airmail scandal.

This involved the awarding of lucrative government contracts to airlines under some shady circumstances.

William McCracken was a fancy Washington lobbyist for the airlines and a former member of the Hoover administration.

The Senate first ordered McCracken to hand over documents relating to the scandal. He refused. Then the Senate discovered

that he had allowed some other documents requested by the Senate to disappear.

For all of this non-cooperation, the Senate Committee in charge of the investigation ordered McCracken to be arrested.

Chesley Journey, it turns out, was the Senate's Sergeant-at-arms. That's the Senate's Sergeant at Arms.

That's the Senate's chief law enforcement official, the guy who might arrest you when the

Senate orders it.

And here's where things get weird. The Senate did not want McCracken to be arrested when it wasn't in session.

If that happened, McCracken might run to a judge and argue that the arrest was illegal and that would delay what the

Senate wanted to do. If McCracken was arrested when the Senate was in session, he could

be brought to the Senate chambers immediately.

And that's how the cat and mouse game of Journey and McCracken happened.

McCracken's lawyer told his client to hide when the Senate was in session and try to get arrested

when it wasn't in session. And Journey had orders not to arrest McCracken

unless the Senate was in session. Otherwise, don't look for him.

And that's how McCracken ended up knocking on the door of Journey's apartment

...