Find of the Month

Each month we highlight interesting, important, and odd items from our collection, along with the stories they tell.

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June 2025 - Bribery investigation

A hearing was convened in late December of 1932 to investigate claims that a bribe had been offered to Mayor John Dore in connection with a contract for a new pipeline. The first witness was the mayor himself, who relayed the story of a man who approached him on the street while he was walking back from lunch. The man, who gave his name as Art Sherman, said he represented the wood pipe interests and that he had $2500 to split with someone who could help him get the contract. The mayor said he couldn’t help him and left.

The mayor insisted that Sherman's action was not actually attempted bribery, because "the official that you try to influence must have the power to do the thing," and in this case the contract would be awarded by the Board of Public Works, not the mayor. Dore said, "I had made the reply that the decision in this matter was entirely with the Board, and that I had nothing to do with it."

After Dore was excused, various men representing steel and concrete interests were called to the stand, and the testimony sometimes got deep into the weeds about where and how various components were manufactured. One committee member kept trying to steer them back to the bribery question, at one point saying they were not authorized to "go into the methods of creosoting and who creosotes it."

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, committee members were still trying to discover the identity of the mysterious Art Sherman. The committee clerk was checking the city directory for anyone of that name so he could be brought to testify. Well into the hearing, the chairman announced that Sherman had been found and would be appearing at 2:30.

A Mr. Sherman had indeed been found and was sworn in, although his first name was Abe, not Art. He said he had no involvement in any bids on the contract, had not spoken to the mayor about it, and did not know anyone named Art Sherman. The committee clerk went to fetch the mayor so he could identify whether this was the man who spoke to him on the street, but Dore was not in his office. The committee quickly ran out of questions to ask Sherman, being mainly interested in having the mayor look at him, so adjourned the hearing. This seems to have been the end of the bribery investigation.

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