Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Scandals Past

Last Monday, Alaska's senior senator Ted Stevens was convicted on seven counts of lying on Senate financial documents. Hearing this story, I started thinking about other political and social scandals during my lifetime—bribery and payoffs by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Enron financial scandal, the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, the affair between White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then-president Bill Clinton, Oregon senator Bob Packwood's resignation after 29 women accused him of sexual harassment, and of course the Iran Contra debacle of the 1980s.

And then I wondered, is history full of fascinating scandals I don't know about? Scandals that happened before I was born, or before I began paying attention to the news? There must be! So, after thinking on this for awhile, and doing a little reading/research (surely you knew this was coming next. . .), I'm excited to recommend some fascinating books about scandals of the past.  And one feature film, to boot!

First up, how could I discuss books about political corruption, scandal, and shocking deeds of the past without mentioning local newspaper columnist Phil Stanford's Portland Confidential? Portland may seem like a wholesome place now, but back in the day everyone thought of the Rose City as a place where bribes were commonplace, corrupt union officials conspired with jaded government bureaucrats, and gangsters ran highly effective protection rackets. Among the tales Stanford relates is the story of the pinball wars of the 1950s. The pinball machines in question weren't the relatively kid-friendly games of today; they were more like slot machines—basically they were gambling devices that local crime organizations rented out to bars and other small businesses. Gangsters would convince a bar owner into hosting the pinball machine (sometimes with threats or other manipulation), and the owner would keep a small bit of the profit, giving most to the racket that provided the machines.

The drama of the pinball wars is laid out on the silver screen in the great B-movie Portland Exposé (the library's copy is packaged as a double bill with another B feature in a series called Forgotten Noir).  Portland Exposé pits local tavern owner George Madison and his hastily gathered cohort of right-thinking brave men (an honest union official, an out-of-favor crime boss, a couple of newspapermen, and an unusually un-corrupt police captain) against evil mobsters and corrupt Teamsters. And, as a side benefit, if you manage to watch the whole film—it is somewhat mediocre, plot-wise—you'll get to see a lot of loving footage of Portland landmarks, circa 1957.

To our south in California, the glamour and political pull of the movie industry has inspired all kinds of human temptation and shady dealing—and where shame and power come together, someone will eventually expose hidden deeds to the light of day. California Babylon by Kristan Lawson is your guide to crime scenes, assassination sites, abandoned utopias, and other California spots linked with scandal, excess, and sin.  This is an honest-to-goodness guidebook, so California-bound vacationers might want to take it along, but it's suitable for armchair travelers as well.

If this sampling of West Coast scandal doesn't satisfy, you might turn to a reference book that can get you started on any one of hundreds of stories of scandal from America's past: The Almanac of Political Corruption, Scandals, and Dirty Politics, by Kim Long.  It's better for casual browsing than it is for reading straight through, but you are sure to find many diverting stories of wrong-doing, dirty-dealing, and bad apples.