Son of Mabel Tucker and Warren Wesley Finney. 1m to Winifred Wiggam on 21 Apr 1923. Two children.
Mr. Finney was the primary instigator of the Kansas Bond Scandal in 1933. His operation generated nearly $1.35 million in bogus securities. This occurred during the Great Depression when nearly a third of the US population was unemployed or underemployed. The Bond Scandal impacted others such as Gov. Alf Landon and the Emporia Gazette newspaper editor William Allen White. Mr. Finney and several coconspirators were convicted and imprisoned at Lansing State Penitentiary. Altogether, there were four criminal convictions, two state officers were impeached, and six federal indictments were brought against seven defendants (including his father, a bank president, who committed suicide). He was sentenced to serve the state's second-longest prison sentence at the time, 31 to 635 years. However, his sentence was later commuted to 18 to 36 years, and he was released from prison on February 18, 1945, and moved to Southern California where his wife and children had moved. In November 1949, he applied for a full pardon. Gov. Carlson commuted his sentence to 24 years, and then granted him a citizen pardon in December 1949.
While Mr. Finney was imprisoned, he enrolled in an extension course through KU entitled "The Short Story" in 1938. He began to write well enough that his stories published. Over the next three years he took several other courses. His writing transformed into creating articles for trade magazines, and the income he received was sent to his wife to support his family. About one year later, the Finneys were divorced. Winifred then married her high school sweetheart, and Ronald married a woman named Mary Selma Puffer whom he had hired while in prison as a journalistic researcher for his writing. They lived in a cabin on a lake in Oregon during the summers, and in the winter they lived in Florida. Mr. Finney continued to make a legitimate income through writing for trade journals.
Mr. Finney died at a St. Petersburg, FL hospital as a result of acute bronchitis which complicated by pulmonary emphysema. He was 63.
Two books have been written about the bond scandal. The first was published in the spring of 1938, written by W.L. White. "What People Said" was Ronald Finney's story, but it was disguised as a fictional novel with all of the names of the characters changed. In 1982, another more factual book was published, "The Great Kansas Bond Scandal," by Robert Smith Bader.
Mr. Finney was the primary instigator of the Kansas Bond Scandal in 1933. His operation generated nearly $1.35 million in bogus securities. This occurred during the Great Depression when nearly a third of the US population was unemployed or underemployed. The Bond Scandal impacted others such as Gov. Alf Landon and the Emporia Gazette newspaper editor William Allen White. Mr. Finney and several coconspirators were convicted and imprisoned at Lansing State Penitentiary. Altogether, there were four criminal convictions, two state officers were impeached, and six federal indictments were brought against seven defendants (including his father, a bank president, who committed suicide). He was sentenced to serve the state's second-longest prison sentence at the time, 31 to 635 years. However, his sentence was later commuted to 18 to 36 years, and he was released from prison on February 18, 1945, and moved to Southern California where his wife and children had moved. In November 1949, he applied for a full pardon. Gov. Carlson commuted his sentence to 24 years, and then granted him a citizen pardon in December 1949.
While Mr. Finney was imprisoned, he enrolled in an extension course through KU entitled "The Short Story" in 1938. He began to write well enough that his stories published. Over the next three years he took several other courses. His writing transformed into creating articles for trade magazines, and the income he received was sent to his wife to support his family. About one year later, the Finneys were divorced. Winifred then married her high school sweetheart, and Ronald married a woman named Mary Selma Puffer whom he had hired while in prison as a journalistic researcher for his writing. They lived in a cabin on a lake in Oregon during the summers, and in the winter they lived in Florida. Mr. Finney continued to make a legitimate income through writing for trade journals.
Mr. Finney died at a St. Petersburg, FL hospital as a result of acute bronchitis which complicated by pulmonary emphysema. He was 63.
Two books have been written about the bond scandal. The first was published in the spring of 1938, written by W.L. White. "What People Said" was Ronald Finney's story, but it was disguised as a fictional novel with all of the names of the characters changed. In 1982, another more factual book was published, "The Great Kansas Bond Scandal," by Robert Smith Bader.
Son of Mabel Tucker and Warren Wesley Finney. 1m to Winifred Wiggam on 21 Apr 1923. Two children.
Mr. Finney was the primary instigator of the Kansas Bond Scandal in 1933. His operation generated nearly $1.35 million in bogus securities. This occurred during the Great Depression when nearly a third of the US population was unemployed or underemployed. The Bond Scandal impacted others such as Gov. Alf Landon and the Emporia Gazette newspaper editor William Allen White. Mr. Finney and several coconspirators were convicted and imprisoned at Lansing State Penitentiary. Altogether, there were four criminal convictions, two state officers were impeached, and six federal indictments were brought against seven defendants (including his father, a bank president, who committed suicide). He was sentenced to serve the state's second-longest prison sentence at the time, 31 to 635 years. However, his sentence was later commuted to 18 to 36 years, and he was released from prison on February 18, 1945, and moved to Southern California where his wife and children had moved. In November 1949, he applied for a full pardon. Gov. Carlson commuted his sentence to 24 years, and then granted him a citizen pardon in December 1949.
While Mr. Finney was imprisoned, he enrolled in an extension course through KU entitled "The Short Story" in 1938. He began to write well enough that his stories published. Over the next three years he took several other courses. His writing transformed into creating articles for trade magazines, and the income he received was sent to his wife to support his family. About one year later, the Finneys were divorced. Winifred then married her high school sweetheart, and Ronald married a woman named Mary Selma Puffer whom he had hired while in prison as a journalistic researcher for his writing. They lived in a cabin on a lake in Oregon during the summers, and in the winter they lived in Florida. Mr. Finney continued to make a legitimate income through writing for trade journals.
Mr. Finney died at a St. Petersburg, FL hospital as a result of acute bronchitis which complicated by pulmonary emphysema. He was 63.
Two books have been written about the bond scandal. The first was published in the spring of 1938, written by W.L. White. "What People Said" was Ronald Finney's story, but it was disguised as a fictional novel with all of the names of the characters changed. In 1982, another more factual book was published, "The Great Kansas Bond Scandal," by Robert Smith Bader.
Mr. Finney was the primary instigator of the Kansas Bond Scandal in 1933. His operation generated nearly $1.35 million in bogus securities. This occurred during the Great Depression when nearly a third of the US population was unemployed or underemployed. The Bond Scandal impacted others such as Gov. Alf Landon and the Emporia Gazette newspaper editor William Allen White. Mr. Finney and several coconspirators were convicted and imprisoned at Lansing State Penitentiary. Altogether, there were four criminal convictions, two state officers were impeached, and six federal indictments were brought against seven defendants (including his father, a bank president, who committed suicide). He was sentenced to serve the state's second-longest prison sentence at the time, 31 to 635 years. However, his sentence was later commuted to 18 to 36 years, and he was released from prison on February 18, 1945, and moved to Southern California where his wife and children had moved. In November 1949, he applied for a full pardon. Gov. Carlson commuted his sentence to 24 years, and then granted him a citizen pardon in December 1949.
While Mr. Finney was imprisoned, he enrolled in an extension course through KU entitled "The Short Story" in 1938. He began to write well enough that his stories published. Over the next three years he took several other courses. His writing transformed into creating articles for trade magazines, and the income he received was sent to his wife to support his family. About one year later, the Finneys were divorced. Winifred then married her high school sweetheart, and Ronald married a woman named Mary Selma Puffer whom he had hired while in prison as a journalistic researcher for his writing. They lived in a cabin on a lake in Oregon during the summers, and in the winter they lived in Florida. Mr. Finney continued to make a legitimate income through writing for trade journals.
Mr. Finney died at a St. Petersburg, FL hospital as a result of acute bronchitis which complicated by pulmonary emphysema. He was 63.
Two books have been written about the bond scandal. The first was published in the spring of 1938, written by W.L. White. "What People Said" was Ronald Finney's story, but it was disguised as a fictional novel with all of the names of the characters changed. In 1982, another more factual book was published, "The Great Kansas Bond Scandal," by Robert Smith Bader.
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