TRUTH OR FICTION?

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 21

TRUTH OR FICTION?

MURDER IN HIGH PLACES

In "Tho Strange Death of President Harding" (Hamilton), Mr. Gaston Means, the author, certainly suggests, although he does not actually say so in so many words, that Warreu Gamaliel Harding, who was President of the United States from 1921 to 1923, was murdered by means of poison by Mrs. Harding. Mr. Means tells an appalling story of corruption, blackmail, and murder, a story which leaves the average detective yarn standing. But is it true? Gaston Means was in gaol for three years for his misdeeds; all the personages concerned in his disclosures are now dead; and there is only his word for what he alleges. Anyway, whether read as fact or fiction, few books can excel in sensationalism "The Strange Death of President Harding." Tho gang to which tho author was attached as investigator or inquiry agent, according to the book, put Harding into office, and then extorted concessions and privileges, and even directed as it wished the course of judicial proceedings. Means apparently handled millions of graft money. He acquiescod in tho prosecution which led to his sentence on the understanding that the gang would see him through. But they left him in the lurch, and when he came out of gaol he reflected that he "was the only living human being who held accurate knowledge of dangerous truths concerning many social, political, financial, and international secrets." That being the case there is little or no corroborative evidence to support the tale he tells. If the story is true, then it is an appalling exposure of polities in the United States; if, on the other hand, it is fabricated, then the author deserves recognition as tho writer of the most sensational yarn of the year.