Published October 31, 2021
By Ruth Hultz
Imagine prominent Quincyan Paul Wolf’s
distress when at 10 p.m. August 20, 1918, he opened the oak double front doors
at posh 1214 Park Place to find a United States Marshall proffering a federal
warrant for his arrest for “conspiracy to defraud the United States government.”
Having been out of town that day,
Wolf was unaware that Deputy United States Marshall J. Ross Moore had earlier arrested
his father Fred Wolf Sr., and his brother Fred at Wolf Manufacturing Industries.
Fred Wolf Sr.’s son in law, John L. Flynn, of the J. J. Flynn Bottling Company,
had earlier paid each man’s $10,000 bail and obtained their release.
The August 21, 1918
Quincy Daily
Journal
reported, “The arrest of the Wolfs created a sensation when it
became known through ‘
The Journal
extra’…that they had been taken to the office
of Commissioner Martindale. “The prominence of the family in commercial, social
and church matters make it appear almost incredulous,” the newspaper wrote. Both
Wolf sons had married into the “Catholic society circles,” as the
Quincy Daily
Journal
reported regarding the sons’ weddings.
Wolf Manufacturing Industries, run by
Fred Sr. and family, had been filling government contracts since 1917. Before
the war office contract, the company employed forty men. By 1918, the company held
a $1,800,000.00 leather goods contract with the army and employed about two
hundred people. The payroll was $4000 a week.
A week before the August 20, 1918
arrests, the
Quincy Daily Journal
reported that a supervisor at Wolf
Manufacturing told a government official “work was being sent out there which
had been rejected and he did not care to assume responsibility any longer, as
he himself would be liable to indictment to defraud if it were discovered that
these goods had been shipped out under his supervision.”
Details of these alleged machinations
came out at trail, as did the Wolfs’ counter to the accusations. At his arrest,
the elder Wolf said, “This is nothing more than malice…and if rejected goods
were sent to fill orders, we know nothing of it and can say that if any were
shipped, they were placed in the cases without our knowledge. They must have
been put in by persons wanting to do us harm.”
On February 22, 1919, a grand jury
of the United States district court in Springfield heard the testimony of over fifty
witnesses. Fred Wolf Sr. and Paul Wolf were indicted for conspiracy to defraud
the government. Fred Wolf Jr. was not indicted. After paying $5000 bail, the Wolfs returned home. Wolfs’ lead
attorney Henry Converse entered a motion to quash the indictments, but Judge
Louis Fitzhenry denied the motion. A Springfield, Illinois Federal Court trial
was set for June 2, 1919.
The trial began September 4, 1919 in United States
Federal Court in Springfield with Judge Fitzhenry presiding. There was damning
evidence, including that the Wolfs directed employees to mix rejected products with
approved items and to cover rejected markings. Witnesses said Paul Wolf stole
and used the inspector’s approval stamp. One inspector testified that locking
up rejected goods did not keep them safe from the Wolfs. The same inspector learned
to keep all stamps in his pocket. Inspector Nichols testified that he created his
own private rejection mark so he could thwart the Wolfs’ scheme.
The Wolfs were found guilty. They
were sentenced to Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. Fred, 70, was sentenced to one
year and Paul Wolf to two years and and fined $10,000 and $5000, respectively. There
was a stay on carrying out the sentences while the lawyers prepared an appeal
to the U.S. Court of Appeals. But that court upheld the lower court’s decision and
the Wolfs were left with one more option before they went to prison— application
to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The United States Supreme
Court refused the writ. Next was an appeal to President Harding. As was the
policy, President Harding refused to hear it until men started their prison
terms.
Upon delivery of the denial, April 18, 1922,
The Quincy Daily Herald
,
printed a verbatim, multi-column letter from Paul, telling the Wolf side of the
allegations, stating they had suffered financially, personally, and socially. They
contended that the government supplied inferior materials which led to inferior
product output, and thus rejected products. The Wolfs insisted the government
was not “out any money” in the situation and that anti-German sentiment against
German-born Fred Wolf Sr. and the fact that no Wolf men were enlisted in the
war lead to the accusations and the guilty verdict. They insisted that disgruntled
and fired employees and certain censured inspectors gave false evidence against
them. Fred Wolf Sr. insisted he was an “innocent victim of misplaced justice.”
The Wolfs were installed in
Leavenworth on February 17, 1923, hoping for a pardon from President Harding. The
pardon was not granted. In Leavenworth, the Wolfs were assigned “light work”
mail room jobs. Ironically, one of Paul’s tasks was inspection.
The Wolf lawyers filed an appeal
for a pardon or parole. Their petition was signed by eleven jurors; eight
stated they would not have signed the verdict had they known prison might loom
for the men. Judge Fitzhenry, himself, recommended parole because of Fred Sr.’s
age and poor health. Quincy citizens also created a petition soliciting leniency.
The pardon was granted. Fred Sr.’s,
sentence was cut by eight months and Paul’s by 16 months. The weakened elder Wolf
was released June 17, 1923.
Upon Paul’s release on October 17,
1923,
The Quincy Daily Journal
reported– as if he had been on a sabbatical instead of in a four-year
nightmare– “Paul Wolf will resume his position as a member of the Wolf
Manufacturing Company at once and again take his place in the social and
commercial affairs of the community.”
The Wolf family operated the company
throughout the legal process but by the end, the Wolfs had sold their leather
operation and were producing radios and radio cabinets instead. In 1927, they
moved their enterprise to Kokomo, Indiana.
Sources
“Erased Rejected Stamps.”
The Quincy Daily Herald,
November 5, 1919.
“Fred And Paul Wolf Give Their Side Of Case Against
Them.”
The Quincy Daily Herald,
April
18, 1922.
“Fred Wolf And Son, Paul, Are Held For Trial.”
The Quincy Daily Whig,
February 22, 1919.
“Fred Wolf Arrested, Charged With Defrauding Government,”
The
Quincy Daily Journal
, August 20, 1918.
“Industrial Romances Of Quincy,”
The Quincy Daily
Journal,
September 27, 1925.
“Stylish
Marriage.”
The Quincy Daily Journal,
November 19, 1903.
“Wolfs Charged With Fraud.”
The Quincy Daily Journal,
August 21, 1918.
“Wolf Conviction Is Upheld By the U.S. Court of
Appeals.”
The Quincy Daily Herald,
April 12, 1922.
“Wolfs Disregarded The Rejections Made By Gov’t Inspectors,
One Testifies.”
The Quincy Daily
Whig,
September 4, 1919.
“Wolfs To Face Trial.”
The Quincy Daily Herald,
April 4, 1919.
