by Steve Lehto
11. Ibid.
12. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 130.
13. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 6.
14. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 131.
15. Ibid.
16. Drew Pearson, “More on the Ferguson-Thomas Issue,” St. Petersburg Times, September 28, 1948.
17. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 6.
19. THE END OF THE DREAM
1. Some sources say he was fifty-two. Tucker Topics wrote that he was fifty-one. See Tucker Topics 1, no. 7: 3.
2. “Ralph Hepburn Killed at Indianapolis Speedway,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17, 1948.
3. “Last Rites for Racing Driver Ralph Hepburn,” Dealer News, May 26, 1948.
4. Tucker Topics 1, no. 7: 16.
5. Ibid.
6. Tucker, deposition, 881–882.
7. Ibid., 885.
8. “Tucker Told to Let SEC Scan Books,” Detroit Free Press, June 16, 1948.
9. Egan, Design and Destiny, 113; Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 152.
10. “Tucker Shows New Automatic Transmission; 28 Basic Parts,” Dealer News, June 30, 1948.
11. Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, sec. 24(b).
12. Tucker Topics 1, no. 7: cover.
13. Ibid., 1.
14. Ibid., 3.
15. Arthur Herman, Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America’s Most Hated Senator (New York: Free Press, 2000), 232.
16. Ibid., 233.
17. Knoble, Call to Market, 207.
18. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 6.
19. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 153, says $6 million.
20. Knoble, Call to Market, 207.
21. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 6.
22. Knoble, Call to Market, 207.
23. Drew Pearson, “Tucker Auto in Mire,” St. Petersburg Times, June 10, 1948.
24. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 7.
25. “Let SEC Scan Books,” Detroit Free Press.
26. Untitled story, Dealer News, June 16, 1948.
27. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 514.
28. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 140–141.
29. “Tucker Confident Firm to Receive ‘Clean Bill,’” Milwaukee Journal, July 2, 1948.
30. Lieberman, interview by the author.
31. “Tucker Shows New Automatic Transmission,” Dealer News.
32. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 142.
33. “TUCKER NEWS BUREAU Release Wednesday PM’s,” dated June, from context it is clearly from 1948, courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library.
34. “TUCKER NEWS BUREAU,” dated June 23, courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library.
35. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 7.
36. SEC, Tucker Corporation, table of contents (unnumbered page), under subheading IV, “Investor Witnesses.”
37. “Tucker Confident,” Milwaukee Journal.
38. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 3.
39. Ibid., 4.
40. Preston Tucker, “An Open Letter to the Automobile Industry in the Interests of the American Motorist,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 14, 1948.
41. Egan, Design and Destiny, 112–113.
42. “Tucker Confident,” Milwaukee Journal.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Gordinier, “A Lot of Drive.”
47. Egan, Design and Destiny, 112.
48. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 153, 156.
49. “Tucker Auto Receivership Is Demanded,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 15, 1948.
50. “Tucker Receiver Requested in Suit,” Milwaukee Journal, July 15, 1948.
51. Ibid.
52. “Grand Jury to Probe Tucker Auto Company,” St. Petersburg Times, February 17, 1949.
53. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 516.
54. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 156.
55. Egan, Design and Destiny, 113; “Tucker Auto Plant Resumes,” Dealer News, July 28, 1948.
56. “Tuckers Being Built,” New York Times, August 18, 1948.
57. Tom McCahill, “We Drive and Test the New TUCKER Car,” Mechanix Illustrated, August 1948, 81.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid., 82, italics in original.
60. Ibid.
61. Egan, Design and Destiny, 159.
62. Ibid., 159–160.
63. “Tucker Is Sued,” Spokane Daily Chronicle.
64. Knoble, Call to Market, 211.
65. “Hughes to Buy into Tucker Auto Firm?” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 12, 1948.
66. “Hughes Purchase of Tucker Interest Denied,” Dealer News, August 18, 1948.
67. Byrne, Whiz Kids, 163.
68. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 65.
69. Tucker “Inter-Office Memorandum.” The higher-octane fuel could have resulted in a stalling condition simply because the compression and the ignition timing on the vehicle were set up for a lower-octane fuel. It does seem less likely that aviation fuel would result in vapor lock when the fuel is usually optimized for use at high altitude.
70. Ibid.
71. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 65.
72. Dan Leabu, “Tucker Corporation Departmental Correspondence,” November 11, 1948, courtesy of Mark Lieberman.
73. “Tucker Takes Long Holiday,” Milwaukee Journal, November 24, 1948.
74. Ibid.
75. “Tucker Plea for Loan Rejected, Capital Hint,” Milwaukee Journal, November 30, 1948.
20. BANKRUPTCY
1. Veenkant v. Yorke, 256 F.2d 808 (1958).
2. “Suit Charges Tucker Auto Was ’42 Olds,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 15, 1948.
3. “Suit Asks Tucker Receiver,” Chicago Daily News, October 14, 1948.
4. “Tucker Faces More Charges,” Eugene Register-Guard, October 21, 1948.
5. “Suit Charges Tucker,” Chicago Daily Tribune. As noted elsewhere, the donor car for the Tin Goose was most likely a 1941 Oldsmobile.
6. “Tucker Faces More Charges,” Eugene Register-Guard.
7. “Court Orders Tucker Action,” Milwaukee Journal, December 16, 1948.
8. “Judge Rejects Inquiries Now in Tucker Suit,” Milwaukee Journal, December 17, 1948.
9. “Backer Appears for Tucker Corp.,” New York Times, January 3, 1949.
10. Ibid.
11. “Tucker Angel Identified,” New York Times, January 26, 1949.
12. “Court Grants Tucker’s Plea to Reorganize,” Milwaukee Journal, March 3, 1949.
13. Tucker, “I Never Gave Up,” 12.
14. Turnbull, deposition, 10.
15. Cliff Knoble, “As It Looks to Me” (newsletter) 1, courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library.
21. THE SEC REPORT
1. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 1.
2. Ibid., table of contents (unnumbered page).
3. Ibid., 42.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 63.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., 64.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 72.
10. Ibid., 67.
11. Ibid., 73.
12. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, sec. 24(b).
13. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 71; Thomas B. Hart to Preston Tucker, January 17, 1949, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
14. Tucker: The Man and the Car (film).
15. Ibid.
22. THE GRAND JURY
1. “U.S. to Investigate Tucker, Company,” New York Times, February 14, 1949.
2. Ibid.
3. Details of Hayden’s interactions with the federal government and his receipt of the SEC report are all from his deposition in the matter of Tucker v. Evening News, October 3, 1950, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
4. Some sources said he brought twelve Tucker ’48s. See “Tucker Was Here,” Newsweek.
5. “Tucker Puts on Show for Jury,” Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA), February 22, 1949
.
6. “Federal Jury Begins Inquiry on Tucker Auto,” New York Herald Tribune, February 22, 1949.
7. “Torpedo’s Wake,” Time, June 20, 1949, 77.
8. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 178.
9. Ibid.
10. McDonald, “1949 and the Securities Business,” www.sec.gov/news/speech/1949/030349mcdonald.pdf, p. 8.
11. Details of Hayden’s interactions with McDonald and the report are all from his deposition.
12. Ibid. Pearson and Tucker also talk about the headlines with slight variations in wording: Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 176; Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 72.
13. Hayden, deposition, 21, among many.
14. One such article was Clarence R. Dore, “Federal Probe Torpedoes Dreams of Investors, Public,” Pittsburgh Press, June 12, 1949. Dore wrote for the Chicago Daily News Service, which distributed his stories to other news outlets. His article contained much of the information found only in the SEC report, but he may have simply pulled the information from the articles written by others.
15. “Preston Tucker Pleads Innocent,” St. Petersburg Times, June 24, 1949.
16. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,” 4.
17. Knoble, Call to Market, 212.
18. “Jury Indicts Preston Tucker, Seven Auto Firm Associates,” Milwaukee Journal, June 10, 1949.
19. Dore, “Federal Probe Torpedoes Dreams.”
20. “Tucker Was Here,” Newsweek.
21. Dore, “Federal Probe Torpedoes Dreams.”
22. “Torpedo’s Wake,” Time, 77.
23. Ibid.
24. Other sources reported varying potential penalties, but most contemporaneous news accounts use the same figures as Time. See “Tucker, Auto Promoter, Seven Associates, Are Indicted on 31 Counts,” Argus-Press (Owosso, MI), June 10, 1949.
25. “Torpedo’s Wake,” Time, 77–78.
26. Ibid., 78.
23. COLLIER’S AND READER’S DIGEST
1. “Defendant’s Answer to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories #1,” Regina Hay file, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
2. Lester Velie, “The Fantastic Story of the Tucker Car,” Collier’s, June 25, 1949, 13.
3. “Defendant’s Answer to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories #24,” Regina Hay file, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
4. “Defendant’s Answer to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories #30,” Regina Hay file, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
5. Lester Velie, “The Fantastic Story of the Tucker Car,” Reader’s Digest, September 1949, 1–2.
6. “Defendant’s Answer to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories #33,” Regina Hay file, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
7. Velie, “Fantastic Story,” Collier’s, 71.
8. Ibid., 69.
9. Ibid., 15.
10. Ibid., 72.
11. Ibid., 6.
12. “Defendant’s Answer to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories #38,” Regina Hay file, National Archives, Chicago, IL.
13. Alfred Prowitt, “Good-bye to Tucker’s Dream Car,” Coronet, November 1949.
24. THE TRIAL
1. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,” 1.
2. “Tucker Pleads Innocent,” St. Petersburg Times.
3. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”4.
4. Knoble, Call to Market, 216.
5. John C. Tucker, Trial and Error: The Education of a Courtroom Lawyer (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 4.
6. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”4.
7. “Indict Reader’s Digest, Colliers, Tucker Firm Attorney Asks Court,” Southeast Missourian, October 3, 1949.
8. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 57.
9. Ibid.
10. SEC, Tucker Corporation, table of contents (unnumbered page), under subheading V, “Supporting Witnesses.”
11. “Group Hopes to Salvage Tucker Auto Corporation,” Reading Eagle, September 18, 1949.
12. “Tucker Surrenders Chicago Car Plant,” Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 4, 1949.
13. “Preston Tucker Wouldn’t Know His Own Auto,” St. Petersburg Times, August 5, 1949.
14. “Eight Tucker Jurors Chosen,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 5, 1949; “Tucker Trial Starts; “Lease Is Canceled on Auto Plant,” St. Petersburg Times, October 5, 1949.
15. “Lease Is Canceled,” St. Petersburg Times.
16. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 182.
17. “Lease Is Canceled,” St. Petersburg Times.
18. “SEC Act Killed Tucker Credit, Defense Claims,” Schenectady Gazette, October 5, 1949.
19. Ibid.
20. Kamrowski, interview by the author.
21. Fizdale, interview by the author.
22. “Tucker Trial Likely to Last into Next Year,” Pittsburgh Press, October 7, 1949.
23. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 185.
24. “Mistrial Ends Tucker Trial,” Milwaukee Sentinel, October 11, 1949.
25. “New Tucker Trial Looms,” Reading (PA) Eagle.
26. “New Trial Ordered in Tucker Case,” Ottawa Citizen, October 11, 1949.
27. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”446; “Mail Fraud Case Mistrial Demanded,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 11, 1949.
28. “Mail Fraud Case,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; “Tucker Trial Off, New One Is Set,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 1949.
29. “Mistrial Declared in Tucker Case; to Start Again,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, October 12, 1949.
30. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”446.
31. “Designer Testifies in Tucker Case,” Reading Eagle, October 20, 1949.
32. “Government Opens New Tucker Trial,” Deseret News, October 24, 1949.
33. “Conditions of Kaiser-Frazer Loan Outlined,” Argus-Press (Owosso, MI), October 25, 1949.
34. “Kaiser-Frazer Asks New Loan,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 20, 1949.
35. “Kaiser-Frazer Obtains New Loan,” Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel, October 25, 1949.
36. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 57.
37. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”447.
38. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 57.
39. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”447.
40. Ibid.
41. “Tucker Ads Protested, Official Says,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 3, 1949.
42. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 488.
43. Ibid., 490–491.
44. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”447.
45. Ibid.
46. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 495.
47. Ibid., 497.
48. “Tucker Stock Plan Stopped,” Milwaukee Journal, November 5, 1949.
49. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 498.
50. Ibid., 499.
51. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 187.
52. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”447.
53. “Tucker Stock Plan Stopped,” Milwaukee Journal.
54. Kamrowski, interview by the author.
55. Ibid.
56. “Kaiser-Frazer Loan Is Upheld,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), November 18, 1949.
57. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”447.
58. Ibid.
59. “‘Threatened,’ Tucker Trial Witness Says,” Pittsburgh Press, November 21, 1949.
60. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”448.
61. SEC, Tucker Corporation, title page. Goode is listed as a contributing attorney, Corbin as a contributing accountant.
62. “‘Threatened,’” Pittsburgh Press.
63. Scott, “Ordeal by Trial,”448.