Evalyn Walsh McLean, Big Diamonds, Green Hats
The Walsh Mansion
On Historic America’s Millionaires, Mansions and Moonshine tour one of our favorite stops-along-the-way is all about big money, big corruption and bootlegged liquor.
Evalyn Walsh grew up in the stately Walsh mansion (today the Indonesian Embassy) located just off DuPont Circle. As daughter to a mining tycoon, she was fabulously wealthy. She eventually married Ned McLean, whose family owned the Washington Post. The pair ran the Post until 1933. The marriage ended poorly. Eventually losing the paper, an erratic Ned would flee the country with one of his many mistresses and tried (unsuccessfully) to get a divorce from Evalyn in a Mexican court. The two finally split. Ned deteriorated further, dying from a heart attack in a mental hospital. A true fairy tale romance.
During their boom time as publishers of the Post, Ned (in exchange for access & payoffs) gave the corrupt Harding administration favorable press coverage and personally arranged girls for Harding. They included Rosa Hoyle, said to have conceived Harding’s only illegitimate son. In 1921, Ned became a secret agent for the FBI, and he used his position to muscle those who threatened Harding.
Evalyn looking fabulous in her diamond.
The Walsh’s lived lavishly. Ned purchased the 52 carat Hope Diamond for Evalyn in 1911 at a cost of $180,000 from Cartier (present value $350 million). When Evalyn owned the diamond, she would affix the jewel to her dog's collar and let him wander around the house with it. Today it’s in the Natural History Museum. There’s a curse famously associated with the stone. Evalyn’s family fell prey to it - their son died at the age of nine (hit by a car with the diamond reportedly in his pocket), husband Ned left Evalyn for another woman and later died in a mental hospital, and their daughter died of a drug overdose at 25. Evalyn eventually had to sell the paper and died owing huge debts. They weren’t alone in their history of misfortune. Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette owned the stone once upon a time - look what happened to them.
After Harding died (and towards the end of their run at the Post), the heavy drinking McLeans published a series of articles that blew the lid off the City’s Prohibition era hypocrisy. They were written by George Cassiday - the Congressional bootlegger who provided liquor to the Senators & Representatives on Capitol Hill. He was known as ‘the man in the green hat’ as he was once arrested for smuggling booze into the Capitol while wearing a green felt hat.
George Cassiday - Capitol Hill’s favorite bootlegger.
Although Cassiday omitted names from his Post articles (he kept an unpublished little black book detailing all his clients) his articles hit the city like a bombshell in 1930. Their widespread lead to a major incumbent overhaul in the midterm elections. Later, FDR and the anti-prohibition faction would win in a landslide in 1932 - Prohibition was overturned.
With only a 3rd grade education, Cassiday began bootlegging to feed his family. He made connections with a pair of southern congressmen who were thirsty for moonshine. His network quickly expanded to all of Capitol Hill. He was even given a key to a storeroom in the Cannon House Office building which became his onsite office/supply room!
His booze came from New York and he shuttled between the cities to maintain his stock - his suitcase bulging with liquor. His was not a criminal enterprise - he carried no gun, and bribed no officials. He played poker and drank with Congressman in the basement. Senators (more cagey than Reps) had their secretaries buy their booze. One senator stored his supply behind the Congressional Record in the LOC. When he ran low, he asked Cassidy for ‘new reading matter’ jokingly referring to him as his ‘librarian’. On a normal day he’d fill twenty five orders.
Wanna know more? You should take our tour!