Video summary
Drew Pearson opens his report by highlighting embezzlement as one of the most severe business scandals plaguing the United States, noting that it is not limited to Washington but occurs in cities and towns across the nation with increasing frequency. He cites alarming statistics indicating that approximately $1,000 is stolen every minute from banks and businesses, totaling half a billion dollars annually despite the country's reputation for honesty. Pearson emphasizes that insurance payouts for theft have nearly quadrupled since 1954, suggesting that while government corruption receives attention, dishonesty within private business firms has grown by over 400% in a decade, largely because only a quarter of business officials are even insured against such risks.
The transcript details numerous tragic and shocking cases illustrating the diverse faces behind these crimes, ranging from respected community pillars to long-serving employees who suddenly turned thief. Pearson recounts stories like that of Allison Singer, an old family man and Boy Scout leader who killed his wife and children after stealing $60,000, or Judge James Pelechia, a magistrate against gambling who gambled himself into embezzling half a million dollars from his own bank to pay off debts. Other examples include Alexander Moran, whose twenty-year tenure at the Manhattan State Hospital ended in theft due to horse racing addiction, and Royal Reynolds of Alabama, whose disappearance left an entire town bankrupt until he returned with stolen records only after selling personal belongings to cover the loss. These narratives reveal that perpetrators often come from stable backgrounds but succumb to pressures like gambling debts or living beyond their means.
Pearson identifies gambling as the single biggest driver behind business theft, explaining how players accumulate massive debts and subsequently steal from company tills to pay bookmakers, a pattern seen in cases involving bank tellers who vanished with thousands of dollars only to be caught later under assumed names. Beyond individual vices like racing on horses or buying luxury items at Tiffany's that fueled greed, he argues that the root causes are deeply embedded in societal shifts away from traditional values. He describes an era defined by cutthroat competition where businessmen betray one another for profit and a culture influenced by aggressive advertising techniques that encourage everyone to "get their share." Furthermore, Pearson laments the erosion of family guidance and church influence, warning that when a nation drifts from both institutions, it risks undermining the very foundations necessary to sustain democracy.
In conclusion, Pearson frames embezzlement not merely as isolated criminal acts but as symptoms of a broader moral decay affecting families and communities alike. He points out that many thieves were once considered honest and dependable until circumstances or internal temptations led them down a destructive path, citing Minnie Magnum's twenty-two years of theft from her employer despite being an active church member as a particularly sad example. The video ends with a somber reflection on how the loss of family structure and religious guidance has left society vulnerable to such widespread dishonesty, urging viewers to recognize that these crimes are preventable if they return to older philosophies rooted in integrity and community support rather than allowing themselves to be swept up by an age of unchecked ambition.
Read the full video transcript
Hello everybody. This is Drew Pearson.
Today I want to report on one of the
worst business scandals in the nation.
One that can happen in your city or
mine.
And it's growing all over the United
States.
Did you know that $1,000
is embezzled every minute of the year?
Stolen from banks or business firms.
That's a rate of $2 million for
every working day or half a billion
dollars a year.
Stolen in a country that we consider
clean and honest and moral.
And the rate is increasing.
We're getting more dishonest.
Insurance companies that insure bank
clerks and business officials paid out
nearly four times as much money to make
good on stolen money in '54 '55 as they
did 10 years before.
I've sometimes criticized corruption in
government.
And there was a Senate investigation of
corruption in union welfare funds. But
these seem almost peanuts
compared with a growing dishonesty
inside our banks and business firms.
According to James M. Henderson of the
Fidelity and Deposit Company of
Maryland, biggest firm that insures
against theft,
the increase has been 400% in 10 years.
And this he says does not tell the whole
story because only 25% of our business
officials are insured.
Now one distressing point is that
most of this thieving was by older
employees, men and women who've been
with the firm some time.
In 40% of the cases, the embezzlers had
been on the job for more than 5 years.
So let's Let's a look at the examples of
this growing trend toward dishonesty.
I'll be back in just a minute.
First, let's run over some of the
concrete cases of business theft in the
last year or so and see if we can find
out the causes.
In some cases, it'll be rather
difficult, but let's do a laboratory
analysis.
First, here is Allison Singer,
vice president of the Brooks Banknote
Company of Springfield, Mass., who
killed himself, shot his wife, and
stabbed his two children.
His boy, only 9 years old, after Singer
had been caught stealing $60,000.
His salary was over 25,000. He came from
an old New England family, was a Boy
Scout leader, a church member, had
worked for his company 26 years, yet
suddenly
he stole and went berserk.
Nobody knew the reasons why.
Now, here's another case, Alexander P.
Moran, 57 years old, stole $217,000
from the Manhattan State Hospital,
where he was treasurer and where he took
fees paid by patients.
Moran had worked for the state of New
York 20 years, had been taking money for
5 years.
The reason was gambling.
His salary after 20 years was $4,100. He
loved to play the races and he stole
$217,000.
And here is the strange case of a judge
in Newark, New Jersey,
who gave severe lectures on the evils of
gambling, yet who gambled and stole
himself.
Judge James Pelechia was paroled not
long ago after embezzling $600,000
from the Columbus Trust Company, a bank
owned by his family.
He was vice president of the bank, but
he played the races,
rolled up big gambling debts, and stole
to pay those debts.
All this time, he was a police
magistrate lecturing offenders on the
evils of gambling.
Then there was a case of a bank
president down in Clio, Alabama, Royal
Reynolds, who stole from his bank, took
away the bank records,
leaving this little Alabama town
bankrupt and penniless. Farmers couldn't
get money for seed. Merchants had no
money for credit. The town was so
paralyzed that they begged Reynolds to
come back with the records and all would
be forgiven. Well, he did come back,
sold his personal belongings to make up
the $75,000 short and he was forgiven.
But no one ever knew why he suddenly
went haywire.
Then there was the case
of John Calvin Seemer, teller of the
Staten Island Bank, who stole $65,000
and secretly moved to Amherst, Ohio,
where he lived a very quiet life with
his wife and three children under the
assumed name. And for 9 months, he was
there without being discovered.
Finally, they caught him.
He was sentenced to 8 years in jail.
He'd been gambling on the races.
Another bank teller
of the Jamaica National Bank of Long
Island, William Gravius, stole $46,000.
26 years old, salary $63 a week. He too
had been playing the horses heavily.
When he lost $26,000 at the races, he
stole from the bank
to pay off the bookmakers.
Then there were two respectable
small-town businessmen in West Virginia,
John Mansion, who operated a large
furniture and grocery store at
Farmington, West Virginia, was arrested
for a shortage of $520,000
from the First National Bank of
Fairmont, West Virginia,
along with L.S. Ford, president of the
Hammond Brick Company at nearby Grafton.
Both men were married, had four children
each, were pillars of their community,
but for some strange reason,
they arranged with a bank cashier to
draw checks which were not recorded in
the bank records
to the tune of around a half a million
dollars.
Up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the
vice president of the of the Boardwalk
National Bank, Robert F. Johnston,
was arrested for embezzling $27,000.
He'd worked for the bank for 23 years,
but for the last 4 years had
systematically stolen from the till.
The reasons?
Social obligations, living beyond his
means.
Incidentally, Johnston was in charge of
the bank's public relations.
Yet, he couldn't seem to take care of
his own.
Then there was the strange case of a
bank cashier in Union City, New Jersey,
who staged a fake hold-up in order to
cover up the money he had stole.
Alan Trampler had taken $15,000 from the
Commonwealth Trust Company where he
worked, and when the auditors began a
routine check, Trampler hired Joseph E.
Coyle, an unemployed laborer, to stage a
fake hold-up.
Well, it didn't work. It seldom does.
Both were caught.
Then there was the young teller for the
Grace National Bank in New York City,
Charles Nost,
who rolled up a $37,000
shortage. 3 days later, he was arrested
in Honolulu.
Reason for his theft?
The Yonkers Raceway,
plus a diamond ring, a ruby ring, and a
watch purchased at Tiffany's.
And up in Hartford, Connecticut,
the Hartford state employees had
organized to save their money through a
credit union. The manager of the credit
union was Joseph Romano, age 27, who
played the horses. His salary was $5,000
a year, and he found that
when you play the horses, you roll up
debts. So,
he put his hand in the till and took
$31,000
from money belonging to state employees.
Another case where gambling led to a
man's downfall.
Another man
who stole other employees' money through
a credit union was Joseph Reed,
treasurer of the Russell and Erwin
Employees Credit Union in New Britain,
Connecticut.
He confessed to stealing $150,000.
When he came out of the courtroom,
covering his face here on the right, he
said,
"I want to go to jail or wherever they
want me to go."
Reed was 56 years old. He'd always been
considered honest, upright, dependable,
but he lost $56,000
in the races.
But perhaps the most amazing case of
business theft in many years is that of
Miss Minnie Magnum, assistant treasurer
of the Commonwealth Building and Loan
Association of Norfolk, Virginia.
She'd been with the bank 31 years, yet
she stole a total of nearly $3,000,000.
Furthermore, she'd been stealing from
the bank for 22 years.
Her canceled checks and falsified
records filled three cardboard boxes as
she went on trial. Miss Magnum was
active in her church, was a generous
benefactor to worthy causes. She had a
fine home and entertained lavishly.
But those who accepted her entertainment
did not know she was doing it on other
people's money.
Now, why was it that Minnie Magnum
stole?
Well, there was no good excuse. There
never is. But examination of her
background showed she was one of nine
children and her father was a drunkard.
Her family never had anything. Her
schooling was scanty. She left school
after the seventh grade, went to work at
13.
She was ambitious and envied the
luxuries of other people.
So, after 10 years of honest work in the
bank, she started to get money the easy
way.
She found it fairly simple to juggle
accounts. First, a little juggling, then
more and more until, as always happens,
she made a mistake.
Minnie Magnum sat without a sign of
emotion during her trial.
As the judge sentenced her to 20 years
in jail,
a single tear coursed down her cheek.
Well, that's a tragic sample of our
dishonesty among people selected for
their honesty.
It's not a roll call that I like to
call.
In a minute I'll be back to discuss the
reasons for this disease.
Now, the biggest reason for business
theft is gambling.
You'll recall that this was true in many
cases that I just cited.
Biggest reason for business larceny is
playing the races, getting into debt,
then stealing from the till and the
boss.
Also, there's the fact that when you're
handling a lot of money, the temptation
is great. You see how easy it is to get
away with some of it at least for a
while.
Now, my idea about this increased
business dishonesty is partly that it's
the cutthroat age in which we live.
An age when some businessmen slap each
other on the back one day, then turn
around and cut each other's business
throat the next.
It's an age of
big claims, big demands, an age of
Madison Avenue techniques.
It's an age where the little fellow in
the bank sees the big fellow getting
away with a lot of things such as
conflicts of interest in Washington,
increasing monopoly, political
favoritism in awarding contracts. So,
the little fellow wants to get his, too.
But, most important of all, I think, is
the fact that
we've strayed away from the old
philosophies of our forefathers, away
from family guidance, the days when the
family was the backbone of the nation.
And we've strayed somewhat away from the
church.
And a nation that has strayed from both
the family and the church
is a nation which must begin worrying
about the problem of making democracy
live.
>> Go Bears.
Go Bears.