The Two Alberts: Fountain and Fall by Owen, Gordon R

Las Cruces, NM; (1996): Yucca Tree Press. First Edition. Octavo. First printing. xiii, 561 pages, illustrations, with a foreword by Leon Metz. . Albert Jennings Fountain and Albert Bacon Fall were powerful, influential, and hostile adversaries to fought over political control of the southern section of New Mexico Territory in the last part of the 19th Century. Fountain arrived with the California Column and became an active prosecutor of cattle thieves and bandits. Albert Fall arrived in 1888 and lacking funds he decided the way for power was the run for office but he lost to the twenty-year veteran Fountain. Fell was on the New Mexico Supreme Court and worked with Olive M. Lee to challenge Fountain. Thought Fountain and his eight year old son disappeared with Lee being charged with murder, Fell defended them and they were never convicted. He rose to become the first New Mexican to become a member of the President's Cabinet as head of the Department of the Interior where he became deeply involved with the Teapot Dome scandal. He was found guilty of conspiracy and bribery with a check paid him by Edward L. Doheny of $385,000. He served a year in jail but Doheny was not convicted. This work shows the importance of two men who would let nothing stand in their way until one of them alone would be left standing.