38 Facts About Gaston Means

Gaston Bullock Means was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist.

Gaston Bullock Means was born in Concord, North Carolina, the son of William Means, a reputable lawyer.

Gaston Means was a great-nephew of Confederate General Rufus Barringer.

Gaston Means was in the first graduating class of Concord High School in 1896, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1903, became a schoolteacher, then a travelling salesman.

Gaston Means "uncovered" plots and counterplots rife with secret documents and skulking spies, all of which required investigation at his usual rate of $100 per day.

Gaston Means sued for more and settled for $600,000 plus the interest on $400,000.

Gaston Means ingratiated himself into King's life and assisted her with her business affairs.

Under the guise of investing her money, Gaston Means deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars to his own credit in New York and Chicago, invested in cotton and the stock market and lost heavily.

Gaston Means returned with her body, claiming she had killed herself, perhaps accidentally while handling his gun.

Gaston Means' account was disputed by the coroner; no powder marks were found near the wound in her head, discounting a self-inflicted wound.

Gaston Means was indicted for murder and after deliberating for only 15 minutes, a jury in his home town acquitted him, after defense counsel cleverly whipped up local jury resentment against New York lawyers who were assisting the prosecution.

An Army Intelligence officer was assigned to accompany Gaston Means to locate the trunk, which he did, handing it over on the condition that it be sent to Washington intact.

In later years, Gaston Means boasted to friends that he had been accused of every felony in the criminal law books, up to and including murder.

Gaston Means "confessed" to handling bribes for senior officials in the former Harding Administration.

Gaston Means declared the country was being despoiled and that he had the documents to prove it.

Gaston Means further admitted in his affidavit that he had coached the other witness in the case, Roxie Stinson.

Gaston Means was indicted for perjury and tried before a jury.

In intentionally sensational testimony, Gaston Means implicated both Harding and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon as being part of the cover-up.

Unable to support his own counter-charges and unable to convince the jury of his innocence, Gaston Means was found guilty of perjury and sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Gaston Means put this reputation to work in his book, The Strange Death of President Harding.

Mrs Thacker further stated that Gaston Means had never provided the documents he swore he had that backed his accusations.

Gaston Means had moved on to a new set of victims, a group of New York men who were interested in subversive Soviet activities.

Gaston Means took on the case at his usual price of $100 per day.

Gaston Means's investigation dragged out for three years as Means promised to bring the secret agents to justice and to capture 24 trunks and 11 suitcases full of secret orders, plans and diaries.

Gaston Means claimed several times that he almost got those trunks and suitcases and once did so, he said, but upon his return to New York, the secret agents stole them back again.

Gaston Means told his story so convincingly that an arrest warrant was sworn out against the killer, for a murder that existed only in Means's imagination.

Gaston Means was contacted by the Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who asked him to use his connections in the East Coast underworld to assist in the recovery of the Lindbergh child.

Gaston Means declared that he knew the whereabouts of the victim.

Gaston Means offered his services as a go-between and asked for $100,000 to pass on to the kidnappers.

Gaston Means later came to McLean at her home again and said he would need an additional $4,000 to pay the expenses of the kidnappers; she had a $6,000 check cashed at one of the banks in Washington and turned $4,000 over to him.

Finally, Gaston Means met McLean in a southern resort, promising to deliver the baby.

The missing baby did not show up and the next thing that McLean heard from Gaston Means was a demand for another $35,000.

Gaston Means's messenger met me at the bridge outside Alexandria as I was returning to Washington.

Gaston Means was assigned, transported, and imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he died in custody in 1938.

Gaston Means appears in the third and fourth seasons of the TV series Boardwalk Empire, played by Stephen Root.

Gaston Means is portrayed as a kind of confidence man who sells information to people like Nucky Thompson, or does the dirty work of politicos like Attorney General Daugherty.

Gaston Means agrees to murder Daugherty's friend and associate Jess Smith only to have Smith commit suicide before he can do the deed.

Gaston Means is mentioned in the book Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee.