16
Providing for his wife and four daughters: 1920 Boston Census, viewed online at www.ancestry.com.
Chapter Two: “I’m guilty.”
19
born March 3, 1882, in Lugo: Numerous accounts give Ponzi’s birthplace as Parma, but in fact he was born in the smaller city of Lugo, where copies of his birth records and a certificate of family status and residence were obtained from the clerk’s office. See Comune di Lugo, Situazione di Famiglia Originaria, under Oreste Ponzi.
19
a decidedly working-class neighborhood: Author’s visit to Lugo in August 2003 and accounts from city registrar Rosanna Rava.
20
honor his maternal and paternal grandfathers: Pedigree chart based on Italian baptismal records, prepared by genealogist Carolyn Ugolini.
20
employed in Lugo as a postman: Registro di Popolazione for Lugo, Italy, 1882.
20
significantly more prominent stock: Pedigree chart based on Italian baptismal records, prepared by genealogist Carolyn Ugolini.
20
“castles in the air”: Ponzi is an important source of information on his early life, and his accounts are consistent enough with verifiable facts to be considered reliable. Among the most complete reports can be found in: Ponzi’s autobiography; “Ponzi Tells How He Rose,” Boston American, August 9, 1920; “Ponzi Relates Story of His Life,” Boston Post, August 9, 1920, p. 16; and Charles Ponzi, “Ponzi’s Own Story of His Life Reads Like a Romance,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, August 8, 1920, p. 3.
20
settled in Parma: Certifico di Stato di Famiglia Piu’ Certificato di Residenza. Lugo, Italy, for Ponzi family.
21
a group of wealthy students: “Ponzi Tells How He Rose,” Boston American, August 9, 1920.
22
“Poor, uneducated Italian boys”: Ibid.
22
“paved with gold”: Ponzi, p. 2.
22
the S.S. Vancouver: Information on the ship that brought Ponzi to the United States was obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration office in Waltham, Massachusetts. Postcards picturing the ship are held by the Peabody Museum of Salem and can be viewed online at www.greatships.net.
23
conditions for steerage passengers: A description of steerage is contained in a 1911 report to President William H. Taft by the United States Immigration Commission, an excerpt of which was found online at www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/sl/history/journey.htm.
23
Most of the Vancouver’s passengers: The complete manifest of the November 3, 1903, voyage, including details on passengers, has been preserved on microfiche and was viewed and copied at NARA’s Waltham office.
23
A cardsharp: Ponzi, pp. 2–3.
24
Splendor Macaroni Company: Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Boston, vol. 5, pp. 551–53.
24
“like a million”: Ponzi, p. 2.
24
sticky, black mud: Ibid., p. 3.
24
“some fifth cousin”: Ibid., p. 3.
24
Ponzi was feeling tricked: “Ponzi Tells How He Rose,” Boston American, August 9, 1920.
25
into the arms of an Irish policeman: Ponzi, p. 4.
25
Ponzi’s series of jobs: Ibid. Also Ponzi, p. 6; “Ponzi’s Own Story of His Life Reads Like a Romance,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, August 8, 1920, p. 3.
25
spree at Coney Island: “Mr. Ponzi and His ‘Ponzied Finance,’ ” Literary Digest, August 21, 1920, p. 49.
26
Banco Zarossi: Ponzi, p. 7.
26
Antonio Cordasco: Robert F. Harney, “Montreal’s King of Italian Labour: A Case Study of Padronism,” Labor/Le Travail vol. 4, (1979), pp. 57–84. Also Donna R. Gabaccia, Italy’s Many Diasporas, UCL Press, 2000, pp. 58–80.
27
the full 3 percent, plus: “Montreal Detective Believes Ponzi’s Story; Always Thought Him Guiltless; Cordasco Says Scheme Was That of Zarossi,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1920. Also Herbert L. Baldwin, “Canadian ‘Ponsi’ Served Jail Term,” Boston Post, August 11, 1920, p. 1.
27
Zarossi’s pretty seventeen-year-old daughter: Ponzi, pp. 10–20.
28
Antonio Salviati: “Old Partner of Ponzi Arrested,” Boston Globe, datelined August 19, 1920.
28
the Canadian Warehousing Company: “Ponzi’s Canada Career: Stole a Bank Check and Committed Poor Forgery,” Boston Post, August 12, 1920. In his autobiography, Ponzi gives an elaborate account of his Montreal caper, explaining that he took the blame for the forgery to spare Zarossi from prison because Zarossi had a wife and family. Ponzi’s general account was believed by a Montreal detective, George Sloan, who brought Zarossi back from Mexico City and was quoted in the Boston Globe on August 12, 1920. But Sloan was not directly involved in Ponzi’s arrest, and Ponzi’s claims of chivalry are contradicted by the timing of his actions relative to Zarossi’s disappearance and extradition, and also by a court transcript of the case unearthed by the Post. Somewhat less believably, Zarossi also disavowed Ponzi’s account with his own self-serving explanation of his bank’s demise: “Zarossi Disputes Ponzi: Blames ‘Wizard’ for Loss of $10,000 in Montreal Crash,” Boston Traveler, August 12, 1920, p. 1.
29
vermin-infested jail: Ponzi, p. 12.
30
Saint Vincent de Paul Penitentiary: Ibid., pp. 17–22.
30
a swindler named Louis Cassullo: “Denounces Ponzi . . . as Embodiment of a Lie,” Boston Globe, November 30, 1922.
30
Ponzi sized up Cassullo: Ponzi, p. 90.
30
a model prisoner: Herbert L. Baldwin, “Canadian ‘Ponsi’ Served Jail Term,” Boston Post, August 11, 1920, p. 1.
30
five dollars in his pocket: Ponzi, p. 22.
Chapter Three: “Newspaper genius”
33
living in his parents’ house: Cambridge City Directory, 1917–20.
33
nearly flunking out of college: Numerous letters between E. A. Grozier and Harvard’s Dean Hurlbut between 1905 and 1909 regarding Richard Grozier’s grades, deficiencies, and so on, contained in student files located in the Harvard University Archives.
33
destined to inherit: “Editor of Post Dies,” Boston Post, May 10, 1924, p. 1.
33
largest-circulation newspaper: Editor & Publisher, January 22, 1921, p. 41.
33
largest in the nation: Editor & Publisher, March 19, 1921, p. 1.
34
fifteen printed: Herbert A. Kenny, Newspaper Row: Journalism in the Pre-Television Era, Globe Pequot Press, 1987, p. 18.
34
“On roof and wall”: Oliver Wendell Holmes, “After the Fire,” 1872.
34
oceans of water: Kenny, p. 19.
34
The eager buyer was the Reverend Ezra D. Winslow: “The Short Story of a Big Swindle,” Boston Times, January 30, 1876, p. 1.
35
forged the signatures: “E. D. Winslow: A Partial List of His Forged Endorsements and More of His Guilty Doings,” Boston Post, from the newspaper files of the Boston Public Library, date missing.
35
fewer than three thousand subscribers: Kenny, p. 20.
35
antiquated printing plant: “Editor of Post Dies,” Boston Post, May 10, 1924, p. 1.
35
Grozier was born: Ibid.
36
“It was soon raised”: Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 37.
36
most profitable and most copied newspaper: “Sensationalism: Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World,” Cambridge History of English and American Literature in Eighteen Volumes, 1907
–21, vol. 17, online at www.bartleby.com.
36
“I never saw”: Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 117.
37
one thousand dollars in gold coins: Kenny, p. 23.
37
wish was to buy a newspaper: Ibid., p. 119.
37
his meager price range: “Editor of Post Dies,” Boston Post, May 10, 1924, p. 1.
37
“If you have even the slightest objection”: Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 37.
37
crowded with newspapers: Timelines of Massachusetts newspapers prepared by Henry Scannell of the Boston Public Library.
38
“a small, brownish man”: Kenneth Roberts, I Wanted to Write. Doubleday, 1953.
38
“Of first importance”: G. S. MacFarland, “The Owner of the Boston Post,” Hearst’s Magazine, May 2, 1914.
39
“By performance rather than promise”: “Editor of Post Dies,” Boston Post, May 10, 1924, p. 1, excerpt taken from October 14, 1891, editorial.
39
dropped the paper’s price: Kenny, p. 24.
39
“Most of the time”: Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 122.
40
Accounts of Post promotional gimmicks, including the Boston Post Cane: Kenny, pp. 32–33; Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 121; Laurel Guadazno, “The Boston Post Cane,” Provincetown Banner, January 13, 2000.
43
friend to the little guy: Kenny, p. 53.
43
careful reader of the census: Ibid., pp. 54–55.
43
“identical justice”: Ibid., p. 57.
Chapter Four: “A long circle of bad breaks”
45
“Bianchi the Snake”: Herbert L. Baldwin, “Canadian ‘Ponsi’ Served Jail Term,” Boston Post, August 11, 1920, p. 1.
45
inspector named W. H. Stevenson: Letter of immigration, inspector James Yale to John Clark, commissioner of immigration, Montreal, Canada, viewed online at www.mark-knutson.com.
46
an old schoolmate: Ponzi, pp. 23–24.
46
the old friend was Antonio Salviati: “Receivers Grill Ponzi,” Boston Traveler, August 21, 1920, p. 1.
46
Ponzi bought the deal and pleaded: Ponzi, pp. 26–28.
46
lounged in the plush seats: Ponzi, p. 29.
47
“might as well be a gilded cage.”: Ibid.
47
A. C. Aderhold: “Planned Coup While Prisoner,” Boston Herald, August 12, 1920, p. 3.
47
F. G. Zerpt: “Arrest in Ponzi Case May Be Made Today,” Boston Post, August 12, 1920, p. 1.
47
Ignazio “the Wolf” Lupo: Lupo also was known as Ignazio “Lupo the Wolf” Saietta. Jay Maeder, “Pay or Die: Lieutenant Petrosino and the Black Hand, 1909,” New York Daily News, March 3, 1998, p. 49. Also www.gangrule.com/biography.php?ID=1.
48
kinship with his countryman Lupo: Ponzi, p. 30.
48
Lupo was tough: Ibid.
49
Charles W. Morse: Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939, pp. 627–36. Also Ponzi, pp. 31–32.
49
“the most brutal”: Ibid., p. 628.
50
false medical claims against coal-mining companies: Ponzi, pp. 33–34.
51
Truman H. Aldrich: Charles E. Adams, “The Great West Blocton Town Fire of 1927,” Alabama Heritage, Summer 1998.
51
“a brotherhood of common interests”: Ponzi, p. 35.
52
“Something always happens!”: Ibid.
52
Pearl Gossett: The story of Ponzi’s donation of skin can be traced to A. C. Aderhold, his boss at the Atlanta prison, who shared the newspaper clipping of the account with reporters in 1920. See “ ‘Ponci’ of Great Help in Federal Prison,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1920, p. 10. Ponzi provides his own account in his autobiography, pp. 36–38.
54
S.S. Tarpon: Ponzi, p. 39.
54
“Librarian Wanted at the Medical College”: “A Leaf out of Ponzi’s Past: ‘Fired’ from $30 a Month Mobile Job in 1915,” Boston Globe, August 5, 1930, p. 1. Gus Carlson Jr. is quoted extensively in the story, along with Mrs. T. C. White. Also Ponzi, pp. 39–43.
56
New Orleans: In his autobiography, Ponzi tells an interesting but largely unverifiable story about his time in New Orleans (see pp. 44–50). In it, he claims the following: Following a string of unsolved murders, he and a minister took it upon themselves to improve the reputation of the city’s Italian community. The two men went to the editor of the New Orleans States newspaper claiming to represent a secret society of prominent Italians that in truth existed only in their minds. Insisting on anonymity, they told the editor that “the better element of the Italian colony have decided to take matters into their own hands and put an end to all these killings.” To do so, the society would gather information about everyone suspected of involvement, and that information would be turned over to the police. They reasoned that the public announcement of such a society would slow the killings because the killers would fear that “they might be secretly denounced by persons whose identity they could not establish.” The States ran a story about the society, Ponzi claimed, after which other newspapers poured reporters into the city’s Italian enclave, hoping to learn more; of course they could not, because no such society existed. The upshot of Ponzi’s story was that the editor of the States arranged a secret meeting between Ponzi, the minister, the mayor of New Orleans, and the chief of police, at which the mayor supposedly offered Ponzi and the minister thirty thousand dollars to help the society in its investigation. Ponzi claimed that he and the minister realized they had gone too far; had they been identified as the originators of a law-and-order society they would have faced danger from the killers. But if their society was shown to be a ruse, they might face charges from the authorities. Their only choice was to leave town, separately, which Ponzi insisted they did. “We were just a couple of madcaps,” he wrote. “Not swindlers.” Although the story cannot be confirmed and may well be fanciful, it is reasonable to think that there are several grains of truth to it. Mostly, it is consistent with Ponzi’s trademark brand of impetuous scheming in which a seemingly clever idea gets him in over his head.
56
Wichita Falls: Historical information found online at www.wichitafalls.org/index.htm. Also Ponzi, pp. 51–52.
56
a sixteen-dollar-a-week clerk: “Arrest in Ponzi Case May Be Made Today,” Boston Post, August 12, 1920, p. 1.
57
Italy was seeking emigrants as reservists: “Ponzi’s Career Is Spectacular,” Boston Globe, August 13, 1920. Also “Ponzi Relates Story of His Life,” Boston Post, August 9, 1920, p. 16; “Arrest in Ponzi Case May Be Made Today,” Boston Post, August 12, 1920, p. 1.
Chapter Five: “As restless as the sea”
59
“There were many times”: Keene Sumner, “A Great Editor Tells What Interests People,” American, January 1924, p. 122.
59
guest at his dinner table: Ibid., p. 120.
59
“The bulk of the work”: “Editor of Post Dies,” Boston Post, May 10, 1924, p. 1.
60
drawing tiny boats and ships: “Reminds of Early Days,” letter from Herbert Kenny to Edwin A. Grozier, published in the Boston Post, June 1, 1921, p. 25.
60
Edwin often remained in Boston: Interview with Mary Grozier, March 7, 2003.
60
Phil
lips Exeter Academy: Richard Grozier’s transcripts and pages from the 1905 Exeter yearbook, The Pean, were obtained through the school with the help of archivist Edouard L. Desrochers and assistant archivist Shelley C. Bronk.
60
Richard was accepted at Harvard: The Harvard University Archive contains an extensive file on the academic history of Richard Grozier, including his complete transcripts and the remarkable letters written by him, his father, E. A. Wells, B. S. Hurlbut, W. G. Howard, and Joseph Ross.
60
Half were from Massachusetts: First Report of the Harvard Class of 1909, printed in 1910.
61
fine wine and champagne: Interview with Mary Grozier, March 7, 2003.
62
“Gold Coast”: Interview with Marvin Hightower, senior writer and archivist, Harvard news office, March 7, 2003.
Ponzi's Scheme Page 31
