Today is Sunday, October 25, 2020.

On this day in 1929, President Harding's interior secretary Albert B. Fall was found guilty

of accepting a bribe while in office.

No other cabinet member before him had ever been convicted of a crime.

Welcome to Today in True Crime, a Spotify original from Parkast.

Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes, listener discretion is advised, extreme caution

is advised for listeners under 13.

Today we're covering the teapot dome scandal.

It was revealed that Albert Fall, the secretary of the interior, took approximately $400,000 worth

of bribes from major oil companies.

Now let's go back to Washington DC on October 25, 1929.

Albert B. Fall sat in the prisoner's dock of a DC courtroom coughing.

A year ago he'd been President Harding's secretary of the interior.

Now he was sick with a lung ailment and on trial for one of the greatest scandals

in the nation's history.

A nurse stood on his right side and a physician on his left as he awaited his final verdict.

The trial began back in April of 1922, after Wyoming oilmen spotted the Sinclair logo

on the side of a few trucks.

The next day, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that a deal had been brokered between

the federal government and Harry Sinclair to develop a naval oil reserve at teapot dome

in Wyoming.

Fall had spun it well at first, saying that the deal was an excellent thing for the United

...