Edward L. Doheny | |
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 Doheny, 1920s | |
| Born | Edward Laurence Doheny September 14, 1852 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | September 9, 1935 (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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| Children | 5 |
Edward Laurence Doheny (/doʊˈhiːni/; September 14, 1852 – September 9, 1935) was an American oil tycoon who, in 1892, drilled the first successful oil well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field. His success set off a petroleum boom in Southern California, and made him a fortune when, in 1902, he sold his properties.
He then began highly profitable oil operations in Tampico, Mexico's "golden belt", drilling the first well in the nation in 1901. He expanded operations during the Mexican Revolution, and opened large new oil fields in Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela). His holdings developed as the Pan American Petroleum & Transport Company, one of the largest oil companies in the world in the 1920s.
In the 1920s, Doheny was implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal and accused of offering a $100,000 bribe to United States Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall.[1] Doheny was twice acquitted of offering the bribe, but Fall was convicted of accepting it. Doheny and his second wife and widow, Margaret McFadden, were noted philanthropists in Los Angeles, especially regarding Catholic schools, churches and charities. The character J. Arnold Ross in Upton Sinclair's 1926-27 novel Oil! (the inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood) is loosely based on Doheny.
- ^ "Edward Doheny, Croesus of Oil Empire, Is Dead". The Iola Register. September 9, 1935. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
