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Typed transcript page numbered 15 of a Treasury conference: Kuhn says the Reader's Digest is interested in the Nucky Johnson material and has advanced a thousand dollars to a writer.
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Morgenthau Diaries, Volume 457: Treasury conference of November 1941 on publicity for the "Nucky Johnson material"

In a November 1941 Treasury conference, an aide reports that Reader's Digest has advanced $1,000 to a writer on "that Nucky Johnson material," and Foley notes that the Johnson case "could be appealed too."

Date
1941-11-01/1941-11-05
Kind
case-file
Source
National Archives Catalog, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Papers, Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (National Archives)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
28276832
Rights
A record of the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, a federal work in the public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105, held by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (National Archives). The stored image is one page rendered from the NARA PDF. Third-party material bound into other diary volumes is not covered by this basis.

The stored image is page 15 of a conference transcript in volume 457 (page 272 of the NARA PDF). Kuhn says: “The Reader’s Digest is so much interested in that Nucky Johnson material that they have advanced a thousand dollars to a writer to get busy on it at once and see if he can do something with it.” Morgenthau asks whether “Elmer Irey did that,” and Kuhn says he spoke to him about it.

Two pages later the discussion turns to whether case material can be released. Foley says: “The Nucky Johnson case could be appealed too. That hasn’t even gone to the circuit court.” Morgenthau replies, “Well, it is the facts. It is only stuff which has appeared in court,” and Schwarz says, “It is a conviction.” Morgenthau asks that the general counsel make “a hundred percent sure” the material can be released.

The pages show that by November 1941 Treasury officials regarded the case as ending in a conviction not yet appealed; the Third Circuit decided the appeal in June 1942 (129 F.2d 954). The magazine piece that followed is not filed here: a copy bound into a later diary volume is third-party published matter whose rights have not been checked.

itemMorgenthau Diaries, Volume 469: Treasury memorandum of December 4, 1941 on a book about "the Nucky Johnson case"A Treasury inter-office memorandum lists writers volunteering for the Defense Savings campaign, including a note that Reader's Digest advanced $1,000 to Jack Alexander for a piece that "may later be printed as a book on the Nucky Johnson case."itemMorgenthau Diaries, Volume 420: telephone calls of July 11, 1941 ("We're going to try Nucky Johnson on Monday")Francis Biddle tells Secretary Morgenthau by telephone that "We're going to try Nucky Johnson on Monday," reports "new evidence of tampering," and asks for Internal Revenue intelligence agents to examine the jury panel.itemUnited States v. Johnson, 129 F.2d 954 (3d Cir. 1942)The Third Circuit affirms the income-tax conviction of an Atlantic County political leader named only as Johnson, reciting evidence that Atlantic City numbers banks paid him $825 a week in early 1935 and a pooled syndicate $1,200 a week from July 1935.