Mark B. Thompson papers
Collection
Identifier: Ms-0425
Scope and Contents
Three legal-size, four-ring binders compiled by Mark B. Thompson that contain newspaper clippings and indices to the legal proceedings of the Teapot Dome Scandal trials of 1926-1927. The binders treat the proceedings of the two cases: United States v. Edward L. Doheny and Albert Bacon Fall and the United States v. Albert Bacon Fall and Henry F. Sinclair.
Dates
- 1926 - 1932
Biographical / Historical
Mark B. Thompson was born in Norton, Kansas, May 8, 1881. He was educated at Wesleyan University and in Washington. He moved to New Mexico in 1905 and practiced law in Santa Fe and Las Cruces. He served as district attorney for the Third District of New Mexico from 1907 to 1909 and afterwards was special counsel for the state tax commission and other industries. While District Attorney he prosecuted Jesse Wayne Brazel for the murder of Pat Garrett. Brazel's defense attorneys, who won the case for their client, were Albert Fall and Herbert Bartlett Holt.
Las Cruces, New Mexico attorney Mark B. Thompson served as defense counsel for Albert Bacon Fall during two important trials in 1926 and 1927, in what has come to be known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. During his tenure as Secretary of the Interior, Fall was alleged to have secretly leased United States Navy oil reserves to private companies in exchange for gifts or loans amounting to nearly $400,000. Fall had leased the Teapot Dome reserve, near Casper, Wyoming, to Harry F. Sinclair's Mammoth Oil Company and the rich Elk Hills reserve in California to Edward L. Doheny's Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company. Fall was convicted on bribery charges in 1929 for his role in the scandal, fined $100,000 and sentenced to one year in prison. The oil reserves were returned to the control of the United States government. Doheny and Sinclair escaped conviction on conspiracy charges.
Extent
0.50 Linear Feet (2 Boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Las Cruces, New Mexico attorney. Served as defense counsel to former Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall during the Elk Hill and Teapot Dome oil lease bribery trials, Washington, D.C., 1926-1927.
Processing Information
Dennis Daily, July 2002
- Title
- Guide to the Mark B. Thompson papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Dennis Daily
- Date
- July 2002
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the New Mexico State University Library Archives and Special Collections Repository