The nickname turned ironic, however, when Tate absconded with nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the state's treasury in 1888.

At the end of his service in the house, Tate successfully ran for state treasurer, a post to which he would be re-elected every two years for the next two decades.

The biographer gushed that in 1867, Tate had "materially contributed, by his personal popularity, to the great success of the Democratic party" adding: Biennially, since that time, without opposition in his own party, he has been successively re-elected by popular majorities, perhaps exceeding those obtained by any other candidate for office in the State.

[8] Tate claimed to need time to get his books in order; this effectively delayed the establishment of the commission, but it was ultimately formed.

[8] In the first quarter of 1888, Tate began a pattern of behavior that would have aroused considerable suspicion in a man of lesser repute.

On March 14, 1888, Henry Murray, one of Tate's clerks, noticed him filling two tobacco sacks with gold and silver coins later determined to be worth about $100,000 (equivalent to $2.8 million in 2019).

After a week passed with no word from the treasurer, it became clear what had happened: after a few days in Louisville, Tate boarded a train for Cincinnati, and then vanished, leaving his wife and daughter behind.

Governor Simon B. Buckner announced that between his atrocious bookkeeping, his embezzlement and his outright theft, Tate had misappropriated $247,128.50 ($7 million in 2019) from the state treasury.

An 1895 case marked "Not to be officially reported" freed those implicated in the scandal from any obligation to repay the state.

Though his family at first claimed they had heard nothing from him and presumed he may have committed suicide, his daughter eventually admitted that she had received at least four letters from her father between April and December 1888.