The great Los Angeles swindle : oil, stocks, and scandal during the Roaring Twenties

In Los Angeles in the 1920s, C.C. Julian and the Julian Petroleum Corporation were household words, and the Julian Pete swindle ranked with Teapot Dome as one of the great scandals of the era. It symbolized not merely what FDR would call "a decade of debauchery of group selfishness," but the failed hopes and dreams of the great boom of the 1920s. Indeed, no single story captures the essence of that decade in America—its boosterism and rampant speculation, its entrepreneurial mania for mergers, its overlap of business and politics, and its infatuation with wealth, whiskey, and Hollywood glamor—quite so well as the Julian Petroleum swindle. The Great Los Angeles Swindle begins with a murder (the sudden courtroom shooting of banker Motley Flint, the debonaire movie financier and city booster), ends with a spectacular suicide in Shanghai (where C.C. Julian downs a vial of poison after a lavish champagne dinner), and, in between, takes as many unexpected twists and turns as any mystery novel. Jules Tygiel offers a gripping account of this wonderfully complex scandal, which features such legendary figures as Louis B. Mayer, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin (who decks Julian in a fistfight in Hollywood's posh Cafe Petroushka), Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, H.M. Haldeman (grandfather of Watergate's H.R. Haldeman), and pioneer radio evangelist "Fighting Bob" Shuler. Conmen, bankers, underworld kingpins, political bosses, a corrupt district attorney, bribed jurors, and other colorful characters round out the cast. At the book's center stands the flamboyant C.C. Julian, a likable if unscrupulous promoter, whose life was flavored with controversy. Tygiel follows Julian to Los Angeles, where during the spectacular oil boom of the 1920s, his innovative newspaper advertising and early successes (Julian No. 1 still pumped oil decades after the promoter himself had died) won him a devoted following. Force to cut back production by major oil companies, he created Julian Petroleum, which he promised would soon rival Standard Oil. Dispensing "Defiance Gasoline" from its pumps, Julian Petroleum fought off the efforts of state regulatory agencies and federal investigators to shut it down, before Julian had to surrender ownership to oilman S.C. Lewis. Lewis and his crafty associate, Jacob Berman, over-issued millions of shares of counterfeit stock while pyramiding stock pools and loan schemes into a $150,000,000 fraud. The infamous Million Dollar Pool (which included Flint, Mayer, Haldeman, and other prominent Los Angeles businessmen) delivered lucrative profits to its elite members, while tens of thousands of small investors lost their nest eggs when Julian Petroleum collapsed in 1927. The aftermath of the scandal included the longest trial in the history of the county (which produced 99 volumes of trial transcripts, cost in excess of $250,000, and convicted no one), unseated a district attorney and a governor, enthroned a former Ku Klux Klansman as mayor of Los Angeles, and filled the courts with related cases and scandalous revelations well into the Depression decade. The Great Los Angeles Swindle is a saga of the roaring twenties, with its glorification of business, its get-rich-quick mentality, and its paucity of government regulation, which bred speculation, corruption, and corporate chaos throughout the nation in a manner not dissimilar to the financial chicanery of our own era. Above all, it is a compelling story and swiftly moving narrative that readers will not soon forget. (source: Bol.com) In Los Angeles in the 1920s, C.C. Julian and the Julian Petroleum Corporation were household words, and the Julian Pete swindle ranked with Teapot Dome as one of the great scandals of the era. It symbolized not merely what FDR would call "a decade of debauchery of group selfishness," but the failed hopes and dreams of the great boom of the 1920s. Indeed, no single story captures the essence of that decade in America - its boosterism and rampant speculation, its entrepreneurial mania for mergers, its overlap of business and politics, and its infatuation with wealth, whiskey, and Hollywood glamor - quite so well as the Julian Petroleum swindle. The Great Los Angeles Swindle begins with a murder (the sudden courtroom shooting of banker Motley Flint, the debonair movie financier and city booster), ends with a spectacular suicide in Shanghai, and, in between, takes as many unexpected twists and turns as any mystery novel. Jules Tygiel offers a gripping account of this wonderfully complex scandal, which features such legendary figures as Louis B. Mayer, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin (who decks Julian in a fistfight in Hollywood's posh Cafe Petroushka), Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, H.M. Haldeman (grandfather of Watergate's H.R. Haldeman), and pioneer radio evangelist "Fighting Bob" Shuler. Bankers, conmen, underworld kingpins, political bosses, corrupt public officials, bribed jurors, and other colorful characters round out the cast. . At the book's center stands the flamboyant C.C. Julian, a likable if suspect promoter, whose life was flavored with controversy. Tygiel follows Julian to Los Angeles, where during the spectacular oil boom of the 1920s, his innovative newspaper advertising and early successes won him a devoted following. Forced by major oil companies to cut back production, he created Julian Petroleum, which he promised would soon rival Standard Oil. Dispensing "Defiance Gasoline" from its pumps, Julian Petroleum fought off the efforts of state regulatory agencies and federal investigators to shut it down before Julian surrendered ownership to oilman S.C. Lewis. Lewis and his crafty associate Jacob Berman issued millions of shares of counterfeit stock while pyramiding stock pools and loan schemes into a $150,000,000 fraud. The infamous Million Dollar Pool (which included Flint, Mayer, Haldeman, and other prominent Los Angeles businessmen) delivered lucrative profits to its elite members, while tens of thousands of small investors lost their nest eggs when Julian Petroleum collapsed in 1927. The aftermath of the scandal included the longest trial in the history of the county, unseated a district attorney and a governor, enthroned a former Ku Klux Klansman as mayor of Los Angeles, and filled the courts with related cases and scandalous revelations well into the Depression decade. The Great Los Angeles Swindle is a saga of the roaring twenties, with its glorification of business, its get-rich-quick mentality, and its paucity of government regulation, which bred speculation, corruption, and corporate chaos throughout the nation in a manner not dissimilar to the financial chicanery of our own era. Above all, it is a compelling story and swiftly moving narrative that readers will not soon forget. Front Cover Front Flap Half Title Page Full Title Page ISBN 0-19-505489-X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES CAST OF CHARACTERS PART I OIL 1 THE SEMINAL LUNACY I II LOCATIONS OF MAJOR OIL FIELDS LOS ANGELES BASIN 1920-1922 2 C . C . JULIAN BREAKS INTO SANTA FE SPRINGS I II SANTA FE SPRINGS 3 WIDOWS AND ORPHANS, THIS IS NO INVESTMENT FOR YOU I II III 4 THE DIVIDEND PAYER OF THE AGE I II III 5 THE TRUTH I II III 6 WHEN A FELLER NEEDS SOME FRIENDS I II III PART II STOCKS 7 WOULDST THOU MAKE MONEY? I II TABLE 1. Julian Petroleum Chronology and Stock Prices ( December 1924 to May 1927) TABLE 2. Julian Petrolewn Stock Overissue III Downtown Los Angeles, 1920s 8 DEATH VALLEY'S HIDDEN TREASURE I II TABLE 3. Western Lead Stock Prices, 1926 III IV V 9 A THOROUGHGOING BUSINESSMAN I II III 10 THE MILLION DOLLAR POOL I II III 11 IT APPEARS THAT THERE IS AN OVERISSUE I II III PART III SCANDAL 12 THE GREATEST SWINDLE EVER PERPETRATED IN AMERICA I II III PHOTOS 13 THE INSTITUTIONS THEMSELVES MUST NOT BE TRIED I II III 14 YOU CANNOT CONVICT A MILLION DOLLARS I II III 15 WELL, WHAT OF IT? I II III 16 WHEN JUSTICE FAILS I II III 17 NEW VISTAS OF ROTTENNESS I II III 18 WHAT PRICE FUGITIVE? I II III NOTES Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Primary Sources Archives and Collections Newspapers and Periodicals Government Documents City Directories, Who's Who, and Biographical Sketches Contemporary Accounts Memoirs and Reminiscences II. Secondary Sources INDEX Back Flap Back Cover

Here is a saga of the roaring twenties, with its glorification of business, its get-rich-quick mentality, and its paucity of government regulation-which bred speculation, corruption, and corporate chaos throughout the country. The Great Los Angeles Swindle exposes the schemes of C. C. Julian and his Julian Petroleum Corporation, known familiarly to thousands of Los Angeles residents as Julian Pete, thanks to Julian's folksy weekly newspaper ads. The Julian Pete swindle ranked with Teapot Dome as one of the great scandals of the era and symbolized the failure of 20s boosterism and speculation.