AMAZING CHARGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 138, 24 March 1930, Page 5

AMAZING CHARGES

AN AMERICAN SENSATION. ALLEGATIONS BY EX-CONVICT. LATE MR HARDING IMPLICATED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) VANCOUVER, March 22. Amazing charges of mmder.. graft, and corruption, linked in the most sensational scandal story of the Harding Administration, are being examined by the United States attorney, Mr Leo Rover. r /ney appear in a book dictated by Gaston Means, a former Justice Department agent and ex-con-vict. He purports to tell the inside story of the deaths of several of Mr Harding's closest associates and the sudden deaths of Mr Harding, of his phvsician (General Sawyer), while a guest oi" Mrs Harding, and of her death two months later. Mr Rover is expected to decide,, on Saturday whether there is ground .for a. grand jury action against Means, or some of the persons accused in his book.

PRESSURE BY "OHIO GANG." HARDING'S ALLEGED INTRIGUE. (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) VANCOUVER, March 22. According to the Washington correspondent of the "Chicago Tribune," Gaston Means, a former Justice Department agent, in a book he has dictated, declares that he was secretly employed by Mrs Harding between 1921 and 1923 to establish the falsity of rumours of her husband's mesalliance with Nan Britton, also to discover how and where Mr Harding was. losing large sums in stock speculations, and to frustrate the designs of several of his associates, whom Means calls the "Ohio Gang," who were able to force compliance with their wishes by a threat of exposure of the alleged, intrigue with Nan Britton. Those connected with the gang, who seemed" to command unlimited money, included Jess Smith (associate of the former Attorney-General Daugherty), who, ae-. cording "to Means, did not commit suicide as stated, but was killed to seal his lips. Three others died suddenly; —T. B. Felder (another of Daugherty's associates) after declaring that he would reveal the story; John T. King (politoeian), and 0. L. Hately (a Justice Department agent). .'.-.-' Means adds: "The * Ohio Gang ' sold, protection to bootleggers."