The Strange Death of President Harding

Gaston B. Means

• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Year: 2018
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789120547
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

While incarcerated in the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1924 for larceny, conspiracy and some 100 violations of the Prohibition Act, Gaston B. Means, a former Harding Administration official and private investigator, met May Dixon Thacker, the sister of novelist Thomas Dixon, whose The Clansman (1905) had been transformed by D. W. Griffith into The Birth of a Nation for the big screen in 1915. Mrs. Thacker, the author of True Confessions, promised to help Means tell his story. After his release, Means spent day after day dictating to her. The resulting publication, The Strange Death of President Harding, raises some interesting points surrounding the circumstances of the President's death during a nationwide speaking tour, and went on to become one of the bestselling books of 1930.

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• PREFACE
• FOREWORD
• CHAPTER I-MRS. HARDING EMPLOYS MEANS AS PRIVATE DETECTIVE
• CHAPTER II-JESS SMITH SUMMONS MEANS TO THE “HOUSE ON H STREET”
• CHAPTER III-THE UNDERCOVER HEADQUARTERS OF “THE CLIQUE”
• CHAPTER IV-WHY DAUGHERTY MADE HARDING PRESIDENT
• CHAPTER V-JESS SMITH TELLS HIS STORY TO MEANS
• CHAPTER VI-MRS. HARDING TELLS MEANS ABOUT NAN BRITTON
• CHAPTER VII-MEANS “TAKES” NAN’S DIARIES AND LETTERS
• CHAPTER VIII-A STORM IN THE WHITE HOUSE
• CHAPTER IX-HARDING FORCED TO SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE
• CHAPTER X-MEANS’ INVESTIGATIONS CONCERNING PRESIDENT HARDING
• CHAPTER XI-NAN REACHES WASHINGTON-AND HARDING
• CHAPTER XVII-JESS SMITH THREATENS TO “TELL EVERYTHING”
• CHAPTER XVIII-MEANS COLLECTS PROHIBITION GRAFT
• CHAPTER XIX-DAUGHERTY AND FALL-”MASTER SALESMEN”
• CHAPTER XX-JESS SMITH “PASSES ON”
• CHAPTER XXI-COVERING UP THE TRAIL
• CHAPTER XXII-MRS. HARDING CATCHES NAN BRITTON IN THE WHITE HOUSE
• CHAPTER XXIII-MRS. HARDING-”THE CHILD OF DESTINY”
• CHAPTER XXIV-THE JOURNEY TO ALASKA-AND THE END
• EPILOGUE-EXPLANATIONS AND INFERENCES
• APPENDIX A-PUBLISHER’S NOTES
• APPENDIX B-BIBLIOGRAPHY
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER