The headline on the front page of the Feb. 14, 1924, El Paso Times read:
MILLION DOLLAR OIL SCANDAL SLUSH FUND
WASHINGTON SHOCKED BY SENSATIONAL TEAPOT DOME REVELATIONS
The report from Washington began:
Information of a million-dollar slush fund sent to the national capital by Sinclair oil interest for the purpose of influencing persons high in the councils of both major political parties was in the hands of the senate committee investigating the oil scandal today.
This great fund, according to reports received by the committee from sources considered reliable, was for distribution among high officials and others who had lost huge sums in unfortunate stock market speculations in shares of an independent oil company.
A former New Mexico Senator and El Paso resident, Albert Fall, has been attributed to the phrase “fall guy” for his role in the Teapot Dome Scandal while he was secretary of the interior in 1922. Teapot Dome, Wyo., was one of two naval oil reserve sites improperly leased to private interests by Fall.