The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-12-01
Albert B. Fall, PrintipaIin
 aiions 5 Greatest Scandal,
 Passes Away in His Sleep

holding unit in the Doheny estate, told Fall he could remain at the ranch as a guest" by paying $1 a year. Instead, he started a fight to regain possession of the homestead, contending that the mortgage did not cover that portion of the ranch.
 The holding company countered with an election suit and the court fight dragged for more than year. Fall directed his side of the controversy from a hospital bed in Fl Paso whither he had been taken in the autumn of 1885. On De- cember 3, 1886, attorneys for the two sides signed stipulations in the supreme court of New Mexico end- ing the litigation. It was an- nounced that the Fall family would be permitted to continue in resi- dence at Three Rivers and that Mrs. Falls illness had been the de- terinining factor in bringing about the settlement. But Fall himself, too weak to be moved, or even comment on the court proceedings, remained at the Fl Paso hospital.
 The Supreme Courts scathing denunciation of Fall came when it invalidated lease granted to Sinclair on the reserve at Teapot Dome, Wyoming. His friends said it affected him more than any other development in the oil scan dals, save perhaps, his conviction.
 Jury Shadowed
 Shortly after, Fall and Sinclair went on trial on charges of con- spiracy. A mistrial was declared upon the revelation that members ef4the jury had been shadowed. The cases were severed upon medi- cal certification that the former Interior Secretary's health was too precarious for him to return to Washington from Fl Paso, Texas.
 From his sick bed Fall made a gesture in defense of his name late in March, 1928, in deposition taken at the instance of Sinclair counsel This upheld the notorious Teapot Dome lease, but it was not introduced in the trial which re- suited in Sinclair's acquittal on the conspiracy charge
 During the separate trial, M. T.. Eyerhart, son-in-law of Fall, testi- fled that he had received $233,500 in bonds and $35,0OO in cash from the oil man for the former h. terior Secretary. He declared the $268,500 wa sin payment for a third interest in Falls ranch hold ings.
 Are Acquitted
 AS with Teapot Dome, the Su- preme Court also set aside the lease granted by Fall to his old prospector friend, Edward L. De- heny, on the Naval oil reserve at Elk Hills, California. The whole transaction was tainted with cor ruption." it held. Fall and Doheny were acquitted in the criminal con- spiracy growing out of the Elk Hills lease.
 During the Senate investigation which uncovered Falls actions as Secretary of the Interior in leas- ing the reserves, and also that large amounts of money and bonds had reached him about the same time from Sinclair and Doheny, the former cabinet member appeared only shadow of the rugged west erner he was in the days of his prime. The flowing iron-gray curls and dropping moustache had turned almost white. His figure was bent and less robust.
 Falls scant school education was obtained in rural sections around Frankford, Kentucky, where he was born November 26, 1861. From the age of 18 to 20 he taught school and read law, later going west. In 1883 he married Emma Garland Morgan of Clarksville, Texas, who remained by his side throughout his stormy career, and who cared for him and nursed him through his several collapses which followed court proceedings and conviction.