Detectives track down the culprits in the…
May 1864 CE
Detectives track down the culprits in the Gold Hoax.
They find the messengers and question them.
On May 21, they arrest Francis Mallison, a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle who informs on his city editor Joseph Howard, Jr., who is also arrested.
Howard comes quietly and confesses.
Howard had bought gold on margin May 17, and started the ruse because he knew that any news of a prolongation of the war would cause a rise in the price of gold when investors wanted to transfer their savings elsewhere.
He had forged the two AP dispatches, and sent them to various city newspapers in an appropriate time.
The next day, during the furor, he had sold his investment and profited immensely.
Howard will spend only three months in prison, and will be released on August 22.
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