The 19th century United States of America was interesting. Large-scale exploration of raw materials such as oil, gas and metal; In addition to the expeditions in search of precious stones, they were a very important part of the prelude to what ended up being the most powerful nation in the world.
This obsession with finding pieces and gold mines did not discriminate once morest social class. Everyone wanted to be rich in one way or another, and the river mountains of the American West is where everyone looked to find their treasure.
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The ‘Tucson Weekly Arizonan’ is one of the oldest newspapers in the country of stars and stripes, and it was this that was commissioned, in 1870, to give massive notice regarding the immense fortunes that only the most ambitious might find .
the ‘it’
The ‘eso’ was a special nickname that bankers and artisans interested in taking the loot mentioned by the newspaper gave to a mine located where the state of New Mexico is today.
Its real name was the Silver Mountains, which were the destination on many people’s maps. Bankers, miners, farmers, and other sectors of American society pulled all possible strings to get there.
All this was happening while similar events were also happening in other latitudes. From South Africa came news of the largest gemstone find ever discovered from a similar site in Golconda, India. The message was clear for the gringos: they might not be left behind.
However, an American geologist recommended that all those interested should be careful when accessing the ‘it’, since the financial risk would be very high for individuals and, eventually, for the entire country.
“Although it may not be profitable to look for diamonds, they are always worth picking up when you see them,” was the scientist’s warning, eventually ignored, but soon to be remembered as ‘I told you so’.
the big scam
Everything was the prelude to one of the biggest scams in the modern history of the United States. John Slack and Philip Arnold, two very high-profile fraudsters from the state of Kentucky, planned a deception strategy, which affected William C. Ralston, founder of the Bank of California, as well as other well-known businessmen from that state.
An ex-member of the Union army, a representative of the House of Representatives, also participated; as well as Charles Lewis Tiffany, the co-founder of Lewis & Co., the country’s first luxury jewelry store.
Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, Harpending; Ralston and Tiffany. The only ones not there were Slack and Arnold, who had
decided to go out and see NY When Tiffany announced that the stones were indeed worth a fortune, the financiers barely pic.twitter.com/RANh1j4j6O— ????????????????????️???????????????? ꙳ ᵁⁿⁱᵛᵉʳˢᵒ ʳᵉᶠˡᵉˣⁱᵛᵒ⚖ (@VeRoNiKa_21121_) April 29, 2021
Philip Arnold was then working as treasurer of the Diamond Drill Company, a drill manufacturing company, which used diamond head bits. It was from there that the man paid attention to these stones.
By November 1870, Arnold got hold of a bag of diamonds, presumably taken by his boss, and mixed it with sapphires, garnets, and rubies that he had bought from Indian miners. It was there that he kept company with Slack, a cousin of his and a veteran of the Mexican War; besides being a miner.
Slack and Arnold started with George D. Roberts, one of the biggest businessmen in the western country at the time. The guy was described by the newspapers as a very prominent person, because in professional matters he was a direct guy, who spoke fast and didn’t ask many questions.
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Both entered his office in the city of San Francisco and, appearing to be heavily lashed by the weather and firmly clutching the leather bag, which contained ‘something valuable’, arguing that they might not store it in the Bank of California due to the time .
The man, with his well-known character, proceeded to ask them regarding what was in that bag. It was that moment when they both realized that the man ‘took the bait’.
Slack and Arnold, pretending to be very reluctant, told him that they were ‘diamonds in the rough’. that they found in India; answer that was not without truth, but not the one that Roberts interpreted.
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“Roberts was very elated with our discovery,” Arnold told the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1872. “And he promised Slack and me that we would keep it a secret until we might explore the country further and determine more fully the extent of our discoveries.” discoveries.”
But deep down they knew that Roberts was going to spread the word sooner or later, just as they planned. As soon as they left his office, the businessman contacted William C. Ralston, founder of the Californian Bank, telling him regarding all the negotiations he had with the pair of strangers who had been right under his nose.
He also spoke to Asbury Harpending, who was in then-Victorian London trying to launch a Silver Mountains share offering. There were already three men who fell into the trap.
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At the next meeting, Slack and Arnold led Roberts to believe that they had found 60 pounds of diamonds and rubies said to be worth $600,000. It was following that meeting that the businessman spoke with William Lent and General George S. Dodge, who were businessmen from the San Francisco mines.
However, the group of entrepreneurs wanted to get Slack and Arnold out of business as soon as possible by buying their shares. They mostly refused an immediate payment, but later on, Slack asked for $100,000 ($50,000 in cash at first, and the other $50,000 when they returned from an alleged third visit to the diamond field.
As soon as he received his first installment, he and Arnold went to the UK to buy raw gems. In July 1871, Slack and Arnold (under the assumed names of Burcham and Aundel) purchased $20,000 worth of rough diamonds and rubies from a London dealer named Leopold Keller.
“I asked them where they were going to cut the diamonds,” Keller later recounted in a British court. That is to say that both American men had no intention of cutting the stones.
Some of these ‘jewels’ ended up in San Francisco, which were awaited by businessmen as proof of their valuable find, while others were hidden in England.
Back in the States, Slack and Arnold offered to take one more trip to another diamond exploration field. under the promise of returning with “a couple of million dollars in stones,” in order to guarantee profits for the businessmen.
In each expedition, the men were in charge of hiding the rough diamonds to later return with the news of having discovered the precious stones in that same location; so they returned to San Francisco, they gave the jewels to the businessmen to later collect and with the money, they bought new jewels and did the same procedure.
Colorado, England, India and other locations were part of the great scam that the duo of miners considered to become millionaires; to such an extent that the money was enough to buy a personal train.
However, the coincidental appearance of the diamonds, as well as the state in which they were found, together with the analysis made by expert jewelers and the pressure of the media upon learning of the deception, ended up putting the duo at risk. who managed to get away with it for a full year. However, the embarrassment felt by businessmen at such a trick ended up saving their skins.
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Finally, Arnold and Slack, with fortunes assured, parted ways so as not to be caught together, in addition to the little tolerance they both had for each other.
John Slack’s whereregardings were simply unknown; it was never known where he ended up or at what age he died. It was rumored that following he disappeared, he took a job as a coffin builder in New Mexico, only to pass away at the age of 76.
Meanwhile, Philip Arnold returned to Kentucky and became a banker. However, due to a fight he had with a colleague, he was killed during a shootout in 1878.
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