[6] With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney went onto the floor of the Exchange and ostentatiously placed a bid to purchase 25,000 shares of U.S. Steel at $205 each, a price well above the current market.

While Richard Whitney was assumed to be a brilliant financier, he in fact had personally been involved with speculative investments in a variety of businesses and had sustained considerable losses.

To stay afloat, he began borrowing heavily from his brother George as well as other wealthy friends, and after obtaining loans from as many people as he could, turned to embezzlement to cover his mounting business losses and maintain his extravagant lifestyle.

In early March 1938, the comptroller of the exchange reported to his superiors that he had established absolute proof that Richard Whitney was an embezzler and his company was insolvent.

An astonished public learned of his misdeeds on March 10 when he was officially charged with embezzlement by New York County District Attorney Thomas E.

[11] On April 12, 1938, six thousand people turned up at Grand Central Terminal to watch as a scion of the Wall Street Establishment was escorted in handcuffs by armed guards onto a train that delivered him to prison.

In addition to her son from her first marriage, Samuel Stevens Sands IV (1911–1976), Richard and Gertrude were the parents of two daughters together: Their New York City town home, New Jersey farm, and property were auctioned off.