These included the Teapot Dome scandal and apparent malfeasance at the U.S. Department of Justice, some of which ended in prison terms and a suicide.

Warren G. Harding was elected president by promising to return the nation to "normalcy", and opposing the idealism of his predecessor Woodrow Wilson.

After Harding had won the election, he appointed many of his allies and campaign contributors to powerful political positions in control of vast amounts of government money and resources.

Also associated with the secret hide out was Jesse W. Smith who was said to have committed suicide because he faced scrutiny from Harding's supporters about his activities.

I had lived too long on the frontiers of the world to have strong emotions against people playing poker for money if they liked it, but it irked me to see it in the White House.

[2] Even as Harding prepared to leave Washington, DC, Hoover found him "nervous and distraught," and his mood changed little on board ship to Alaska.

He plumped at me the question: "If you knew of a great scandal in our administration, would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?"

[4] Following Harding's death, Hoover and his co-thinker, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, approached new President Calvin Coolidge and asked him to remove prominent Ohio Gang member Daugherty as Attorney General.

[5] Harding's death had done nothing to stem the tide of emerging scandals revolving around his Ohio clique, with the news dominated by the story of Teapot Dome bribery and allegations of wrongdoing in the Office of the Alien Property Custodian, the Veterans' Bureau, and the Office of the Attorney General.

From this man's long-time character, he should never have been in any government.... Coolidge had a high sense of justice and asserted that he had no definite knowledge of wrongdoings by Daugherty and could not remove him on rumors.

[5]Finally, on March 28, 1924, Coolidge requested and received a letter of resignation from Daugherty, effectively terminating the Ohio Gang's last leading member.