Ohio Gang

The Ohio Gang was a gang of politicians and industry leaders closely surrounding Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States. Many of these individuals came into Harding's personal orbit during his tenure as a state-level politician in Ohio, hence the name.
During the Harding administration, several members of the Ohio Gang became involved in financial scandals. These included the Teapot Dome scandal and apparent malfeasance at the U.S. Department of Justice, some of which ended in prison terms and a suicide. Following Harding's sudden death of a heart attack in 1923, many members of the Ohio Gang were effectively removed from the corridors of power by Harding's vice president and successor, Calvin Coolidge.
Warren G. Harding was elected president by promising to return the nation to "normalcy", and opposing the idealism of his predecessor Woodrow Wilson. He captured 60% of Americans’ votes and won by a landslide. After Harding had won the election, he appointed many of his allies and campaign contributors to powerful political positions in control of vast amounts of government money and resources.
Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall were considered to have been responsible for acts of corruption and cronyism.
Albert Fall was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal. Teapot Dome was considered America's biggest political scandal up until Watergate. The group met regularly at the infamous Little Green House on K Street. Also associated with the secret hide out was Jesse W. Smith who was said to have committed suicide because he faced scrutiny from Harding's supporters about his activities.
There is no information that proves that Harding knew of the scandals that were going on during his time in office. He may not have learned much of it until the eve of his death. Fall was mainly responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal and was eventually jailed for taking bribes. Later President Coolidge forced the resignation of Daugherty for the same crimes.
Not every member of the Harding administration was a member of the so-called "Ohio Gang." Among the critics of the clique was Harding's straitlaced Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who while generally appreciative of Harding viewed the motivations and behavior of the Ohio Gang with thinly concealed disgust.
In his memoirs, published in 1952, Hoover depicted Harding's Ohio cronies as a reflection of a character flaw:
Although the religious Hoover was invited to the White House poker party only once and never invited back, he was nevertheless held in esteem by Harding, and he was abruptly added to the entourage for the President's July 1923 trip to Alaska, which came in the wake of Jess Smith's suicide.
Even as Harding prepared to leave Washington, DC, Hoover found him "nervous and distraught," and his mood changed little on board ship to Alaska. Hoover later recalled:
During his Alaskan trip Harding suffered the first heart attack in what would prove to be his last days. Following Harding's death, Hoover and his co-thinker, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, approached new President Calvin Coolidge and asked him to remove prominent Ohio Gang member Daugherty as Attorney General. Harding's death had done nothing to stem the tide of emerging scandals revolving around his Ohio clique, with the news dominated by the story of Teapot Dome bribery and allegations of wrongdoing in the Office of the Alien Property Custodian, the Veterans' Bureau, and the Office of the Attorney General.
Hoover recalled:
Finally, on March 28, 1924, Coolidge requested and received a letter of resignation from Daugherty, effectively terminating the Ohio Gang's last leading member.
The term "Ohio Gang", while used as an epithet by some during the decade of the 1920s and subsequently, was embraced by others. In his 1932 memoir Harry Daugherty unabashedly declared:
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