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By Root 394 0

was working came that afternoon. With the temperature approaching eighty degrees, Ponzi stepped outside the downtown branch of Hanover Trust onto Washington Street, planning to walk a few blocks to the bank’s North End branch. His appearance on the street caused a stir. As he walked toward the market district, several dozen people fell in step behind him. With each block he covered, more followers walked in his wake. By the time the financial pied piper had reached the North End, his entourage numbered more than a hundred. They called his name and hailed him as a hero. They urged him to resume taking investments. The bolder among them grasped his hand for a congratulatory shake. Some shouted “Ponzi for mayor!” But that seemed too modest to others, who cried, “Ponzi for governor!”

The shouts of encouragement rattled around Ponzi’s brain. Afterward, he gleefully told reporters he was thinking about using his wealth to support a “wet” candidate who would oppose Prohibition. But Ponzi preferred the role of king to kingmaker, and soon he mused about running for office—once he got citizenship, of course—as a friend to the workingman.

“I am not a Red or an extreme Socialist,” he told a reporter for the New York Times. “But I do believe that the average man ought to have his chance to live in the right way. I am advocating that so-much-abused term, ‘American standard.’ I believe every man should have the opportunity to live a decent, wholesome life, and that he should be able by his industry not only to have enough to live comfortably, but to be able to have enough to take care of him during his old age and meanwhile, to give his children enough education so they may avail themselves of the opportunities which present themselves.”

Before writing any acceptance speeches, Ponzi still had to contend with the investigations of his business. The number of inquiries fell from three to two this day, however, when District Attorney Joseph Pelletier withdrew from the probe. Attorney General J. Weston Allen had sent Pelletier a letter stressing Governor Coolidge’s call for a state investigation and pointing out that Pelletier’s jurisdiction extended only within Suffolk County, while Ponzi was operating throughout Massachusetts and beyond. Pelletier acted unruffled about being elbowed aside. He said he stood ready to help the other investigations. He even gave Ponzi a qualified endorsement, when he told a reporter that the business seemed to have been conducted “normally” and remarked that Ponzi seemed generous to charity. For Ponzi, Pelletier’s withdrawal meant less opportunity for Dan Coakley to shape the investigation by playing the influence game, though Coakley’s friendship with Gallagher might still prove useful.

Having booted Pelletier from the field, Attorney General Allen was eager to get his hands on Ponzi’s books. But he was a step too slow. Gallagher had already appointed an accountant to review the finances of the Securities Exchange Company. He was a meek-looking fellow named Edwin L. Pride who, in recent years, had made himself indispensable to state and federal prosecutors as a financial analyst. Pride had helped the government expose and imprison a swindler named Cardenio F. King, who’d sold bogus stock in a Texas mining company.

Ponzi joined Pride for a meeting in Gallagher’s office, and then escorted Pride to the Securities Exchange Company to gather up the unusual bookless bookkeeping system of index cards with investors’ names, as opposed to traditional ledgers—Roberto de Masellis had not had time to redo the system. Speaking to reporters who watched the procession, Ponzi repeated that he would not reveal his business methods. The only purpose of the voluntary audit, he insisted, was to determine whether his assets exceeded his liabilities. “There can be but one result,” Ponzi told a Post reporter. “I am solvent, and the probes will not only reveal that, but will prove that I have carried out every promise made to my investors.” He took pains to distance himself from the antagonistic comment McMasters had attributed