The Power of Testimony

THE TIME MOM MET HITLER . . .
1921, the Shawmut wrote a letter directly to George Hormel in
which it demanded a thorough examination of the company’s
books. Hormel gathered the directors and called Thomson into
his office.
In Thomson’s memoir he makes the exculpatory point that
he did not really have the heart and soul of a thief—​ after all, it
was the fault of the Hormels that he had had such ready access
to their cash. And he proves his innocence of true thievishness
to his readers by describing his thoughts during his perp walk
down the hall to the office of the boss.
A real thief, Thomson avers, would have had the guts to
concoct some alibi during that minute-​and-​a- half walk. But
Thomson—​obviously to himself not a real thief—​merely
opened the boss’s door and before anything else could be said,
blurted, “Gentlemen, it’s all over; the jig is up.”
One hour later, he wrote the last entry he would ever write
in the company’s general journal, an entry charging R. J.
Thomson with $1,187,000— the exact total of the money he
had embezzled during the ten years since he took $800 from
an investor in North Dakota.
And in those days a million bucks counted for something.
Thomson cooperated with the lawyers and the accountants
who were brought in; he showed them where every stolen dollar
was. He signed over to Hormel every property he had ever
bought with stolen funds, most of which Hormel liquidated
quickly, and then Hormel turned to A.L.
One of A.L.’s principal assets was his stock position in
Hormel. A condition of his contract provided that if danger to
the company were dire, he could be forced to sell it back to the
company for a fraction of its value. The embezzlement created
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