The Power of Testimony

DIKKON EBERHART
such a condition. Meanwhile, the banks wanted a clean slate.
No charges were brought against A.L. related to the embezzlement.
However, the bankers, and perhaps Hormel himself,
wanted Eberhart gone. Grandfather had shared an office with
Thomson, and there were those who felt he must have been
aware of what transpired, or at the least, that he had failed to
exercise due diligence. He was, after all, superior to the crook.
He was second in command at Hormel. It had been his duty
to keep a sharp eye.
Too, A.L. was not a Hormel. This was a family company,
after all, and my grandfather was not part of the inner circle,
whatever his value and skills. The company had just been dealt
its most dangerous blow, and it was fighting for its very existence.
It needed to concentrate on what was most precious.
Eberhart, for all his good qualities, was not indispensable. And
in any event, the Hormels could get their stock back, cheap.
How badly, in the end, was Hormel hurt? By September,
Thomson was in Stillwater prison serving a fifteen-​year term.
Oak Dale Farms and the Oak Dale Park were owned by Hormel.
A.L. Eberhart’s stock position was restored to company control.
And Jay Hormel, son of George, is reported to have said to the
mayor of Le Roy that the embezzlement, which was a national
media circus fueled by its Robin Hood appeal and carried in
1,300 papers across the United States, provided a bonanza in
free publicity.
A.L. was in his midfifties at the time. He had worked for
Hormel for twenty-​one years. He was a man at the height of
his powers. He was well respected by his peers elsewhere in the
industry, and that proved to be a good thing. After my grandfather
was let go at Hormel, George Swift, creator and president
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