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Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D7909-2
Date(s)
- 1939-02-14 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
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The trial, for mail fraud, of the remaining eight officials and salesmen of the People's Gas and Oil organization began February 14, 1939. Some of the defendants are pictured in a federal courtroom watching the jury selection process. They are, left to right, Samuel (Derby) Markowitz, Milton Simons, Maurice (Pat) Robkins, and William Markowitz, general sales manager of the two million dollar oil promotion enterprise. The California promoters were accused of taking about $1,900,000 from about 30,000 small investors throughout the state, many of them in Tacoma. Most accusations included selling fraudulent oil leases on 135,000 acres of land near Ephrata in Eastern Washington. The leases sold at about $10 -35 an acre, despite the fact that drilling had struck no oil. The selected jury was composed of 8 women and 4 men. (T. Times 2/10/1939, pg. 2; 2/13/1939, p. 1)
People's Gas and Oil--Judicial Proceedings; Courtrooms--Tacoma;