The Death of Ned Doheny
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What happened on the night of February 16th, 1929?
Due to the nature of today's story, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and suicide. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and suicide, visit Spotify.com resources. The night of February 16th, 1929 was cool and cloudy. The mountains around Los Angeles were nearly uninhabited. The Hollywood sign cut through the trees, but at the time it read Hollywood Land, advertising a local real estate development. The city was growing fast in the suburban lowlands, but if anyone looked up at the hillsides, they'd see huge washes of chaparral and sagebrush, A little to the west lay a cluster of mansions. Beverly Hills. And one of these grand houses especially stuck out.
It loomed over Sunset Boulevard, looking more like a medieval fortress than a breezy California estate. It was angular, old-fashioned, and elegant, with walls covered in smoky limestone. That's how it earned its name. Greystone. Greystone. On some nights, the mansion's glowing windows could be seen for miles. It was only natural for Angelenos to wonder what was going on inside. Of course, they all knew who resided there. Ned Doheny, the son of the city's most prominent oil baron. But hardly anyone could imagine how someone like that lived. And no one who glanced up at Greystone that night would have guessed that Ned Doheny was dead. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday.
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Ned Doheny lived his entire life in the shadow of his father, Edward. And to be fair, Edward Doheny's shadow is massive. He was one of the most influential industrialists of the 20th century. At one point, he had more money than John D. Rockefeller and was often referred to as one of the richest men in America. He'd made his money in oil. In the spring of 1892, Edward and a business partner bought some swampland close to downtown Los Angeles after hearing of black gold in the area. Edward spent months trying to find the deposit. When it became impossible to dig by hand, he built a ramshackle oil rig and pushed further down. On April 20, 1893, the drill got stuck on something. When Edward pulled it back up, it was covered in black, glistening oil. After this discovery, oil fever spread throughout Southern California, and Edward reaped the rewards. In the first decade of the 20th century, the Model T automobile was invented, and for thousands of Americans, it was their very first car.
Those cars needed gas, and tycoons like Edward Doheny were more than ready to sell it to them. The same year he struck oil, Edward and his wife had a son, Edward Doheny Jr., who usually went by Ned. Edward held the baby in his arms, promising he wouldn't let the boy down. He would give Ned the best of everything. As Ned grew, so did his family's fortune. By the time the boy was five, his father had drilled 81 oil wells in California, and by 1901, Edward had reached a staggering level of wealth. He purchased a 10,000-square-foot mansion at 8 Chester Place near downtown Los Angeles. In The Dark Side of Fortune, Margaret Leslie David's biography of Edward, she cited one estimate of his wealth.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What happened on the night of February 16th, 1929?
0:01–10:22
2
Who were Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett?
10:22–27:37
3
What was the Teapot Dome scandal?
27:37
4
How did Ned and Hugh's relationship evolve over time?
19:16–29:47
5
What role did bribery play in Ned Doheny's life?
29:47–41:02
6
What were the consequences of the Teapot Dome scandal for the Dohenys?
41:02–48:08
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Conspiracy Theories
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