Politics
Doheny's reputation was somewhat tainted by a bribe paid to the Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall. The "gift" of $100,000 was made in connection with obtaining a lease of 32,000 acres (130 km²) of government owned land used for the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve near Taft, California. The resulting scandal broke soon after that over similar bribes Fall accepted for leasing Teapot Dome in Wyoming. Doheny was charged with bribing Fall, but was acquitted. The scandal is also the inspiration for Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil!, based in part on Doheny's life. The film There Will Be Blood (2007) was in turn loosely based on Sinclair's book.
Read more about this topic: Edward L. Doheny
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“I believe you to be a brave and a skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)