Ben Butler, George McClellan, and Diamonds

[Joshism]

An amusing story involve a postwar discovery of diamonds in rural Colorado in which Ben Butler and George McClellan invested. And as a bonus the nearest transcontinental railroad stop to the site was Rawlins, named after U.S. Grant's chief of staff.

 

[5fish]

It was an amazing story .... everyone in the end do not live long lives...

LINK: https://www.gjsentinel.com/lifestyl...cle_72d7b60e-85bc-11e9-bbe1-20677ce85d90.html

Harpending lost his initial investment but recovered financially and moved to Kentucky. He was accused of participating in the fraud, but it wasn't proved. He wrote his version of the diamond-hoax story in 1913.

Ralston paid off all the investors, much of it with his own money.
His Bank of California failed in 1875 and Ralston drowned in San Francisco Bay soon thereafter. Many people believe he committed suicide.

Philip Arnold was sued by several investors for $350,000. He denied he had swindled anyone, but agreed to pay $150,000.
He opened a bank in Kentucky and died a few years later after being shot by a business rival.

John Slack disappeared after the hoax, having received little of the diamond money. He died in 1896 in New Mexico.

Clarence King, the hero of the diamond hoax, became a national celebrity and the first head of the U.S. Geologic Survey. But later mining investments destroyed his finances. He died poor in Phoenix in 1901.

Here the Smithsonian has a good detaila stories and how the main characters came to their end...

LINk: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-diamond-hoax-of-1872-2630188/

SNIP... Janin verified the field and the only one to make money...

Within two days, even the mining engineer Janin, who in addition to his $2,500 fee had been given the right to purchase 1,000 shares of stock in the new venture at $10 a share, was, as Harpending later recalled, “wildly enthusiastic.” On the chance that the surrounding land might also yield gems, Janin got busy staking out 3,000 acres, although the area salted with diamonds amounted to barely more than one acre. In his concluding report Janin wrote that the proposed 100,000 shares of stock were easily worth $40 each, and he would soon thereafter sell his shares at that price, netting $30,000 above his fee and becoming the only nonswindler to profit from the scam. When the rest of the party finished up at the mesa, they left Slack and Rubery behind to guard the site. But the two men did not like each other, and within a couple of days they took off.