William Henry McMasters (June 9, 1874 – February 28, 1968) was an American journalist and publicist who exposed Charles Ponzi as a fraudster.
[1] In 1898 he volunteered for the United States Army Signal Corps and served in Cuba during the Spanish–American War.
[2] On July 23, 1920, Charles Ponzi hired McMasters as a publicist on the advice of his attorney Frank J. Leveroni.
[3] In late July, McMasters found several highly incriminating documents that indicated Ponzi was merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In a directed verdict, Judge Michael Keating ruled that McMasters was not entitled to the money because he was serving two masters and ordered the jury to find in favor of Ponzi.
It ran at the Cort Theatre and starred Harry Beresford, Lee Patrick, and Frank Shannon.
The Undercurrent was described by New York Times theater critic Stark Young as "one of those little islands in dramatic seas that keep no contact with the mainland or with the currents of voyages and are untouched by the life and progress of the rest of the world around them...in the course of affairs we are given some of Grumpy and the Old Soak, some new social thought on capital labor, some of a good many theatrical pickings here and there".
[10] Four of his campaign workers were convicted of conspiracy to violate the state election laws for forging names on McMasters' nomination papers.