Albert Bacon Fall | Biography

Albert Bacon Fall was a powerful New Mexico politician who served in the U.S. Senate before becoming secretary of the interior under President Warren G. Harding in 1921. Fall played a major role in the Teapot Dome Scandal, which involved two oil executives who bribed Fall in exchange for lucrative oil leases. Fall was convicted of bribery for his actions, becoming the first cabinet member to be convicted in U.S. history.

Fall was born on November 26, 1861, in Frankfort, Kentucky. He apprenticed under a lawyer in Frankfurt as a young man and was admitted to the Kentucky bar. However, in 1889, he moved to the New Mexico Territory and established a law practice. Fall soon turned his attentions to politics and was elected to a string of state offices. In 1912, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he became an important figure in Republican Party politics.

After his election to the presidency in 1920, Harding named Fall his secretary of the interior. When Fall took office in 1921, he became the steward of millions of acres of federal land. He soon lobbied the secretary of the navy, Edwin Denby, to give his department control of land that contained oil reserves for the U.S. military. For some reason, Denby complied, giving Fall control over the reserves at Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills in California and at Teapot Dome, near Casper, Wyoming.

While in the Senate, Fall opposed the creation of these reserves, believing that they were not needed. As secretary of the interior, Fall could have done nothing with these reserves or auctioned the rights to the oil to the highest bidders. Instead, he met in 1922 with Harry Sinclair, president of Mammoth Oil Company, and Edward L. Doheny, a friend of Fall's and an executive with Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company. Fall leased the rights to Teapot Dome to Sinclair and the rights to the Elk Hills reserve to Doheny.

Fall resigned his cabinet position but remained in Washington, D.C. The deal with the oil executives attracted some attention for its irregularity, but Fall argued that the government had received a better deal by selling the rights directly to the two companies. Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin contended that the deals were improper. He and others grew suspicious at Fall's sudden display of wealth. A senate committee began an investigation in 1923 and, soon, Teapot Dome was in the newspapers.

The senate investigation and later criminal investigations uncovered evidence of corruption. Fall had received approximately $400,000 in kickbacks from the two oil executives in return for awarding them the oil leases. Sinclair and Doheny structured these kickbacks as loans to Fall. Doheny gave Fall $100,000 in 1921 and Sinclair gave him $300,000 in 1923 after he resigned as interior secretary.

Fall was convicted in 1929 of conspiracy to accept a bribe but was acquitted of accepting the bribes. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $100,000. Fall served nine months in prison. He died on November 30, 1944, in El Paso, Texas.