The Bigamist Who Beat the System: John Miller’s Shocking Acquittal
A notorious fraudster accused of stealing $10,000 from Leland Stanford’s Credit Mobilier pool walks free for lack of evidence, prompting a sarcastic editorial jab at Oregon Republicans.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John Miller, alias A. R. Woodruff, the bigamist, was placed on trial today for stealing $10,000 from Mr. Stanford’s little Credit Mobilier pool, and acquitted for want of evidence. We are sorry for John; he went to the wrong shop. Had he come to Oregon and joined the Republicans in the first place, he might now have been in the United States Senate.
This 1876 account of a high-profile financial fraud case highlights how quickly wealthy figures could evade accountability when evidence was thin—a dynamic that echoes modern debates over white-collar crime and political immunity. The paper’s snarky tone suggests a public cynicism toward the legal system that remains familiar today.
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