Robert Wesley Criswell (1850 – August 3, 1905) was an American humorist, journalist, and newspaper editor.

While awaiting trial for libel, and also under suspicion of defrauding subscribers, he was struck by a New York City subway train in an apparent suicide.

The younger Robert attended the Chickering Institute in Cincinnati[b] and Moores Hill College, Indiana, and his brother David became a noted oil producer.

[7][8] On June 21, 1905, Criswell published an article titled "An Insult to Alice Roosevelt" which alleged President Roosevelt's daughter Alice was being utilized by Ohio congressman Nicholas Longworth to advance his career, and that Longworth introduced Roosevelt to unsavory persons, including racetrack bookmakers and Kentucky representative Joseph L. Rhinock, who had reportedly been indicted for stealing $50 from a man.

Criswell claimed that the article was written by a trusted Cincinnati correspondent who had viewed Rhinock's indictment.

After his death, it was revealed Criswell and New Yorker publisher Robert A. Irving were suspected of engaging in fraud: Assistant District Attorney Paul Krotel stated Criswell and Irving had collected $6,500 from subscribers for a book to be called America's Foremost Families, but upon review of accounting, no money had been spent on production, and no evidence was presented that any part of the book had been written.