Scandals in Presidential History: The Newport Sailors Sex Scandal
The Newport sex scandal was an incident which occurred in 1919 when the United States Navy decided to investigate illicit sexual behavior on the part of Navy personnel in Newport, Rhode Island. It was looking to catch people in the illicit homosexual activity between Navy personnel and the civilian population. It was the brainchild of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a future president named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But when its methods came to light and a trial attracted national news coverage, it led to a congressional investigation, which ended with Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and his Assistant Secretary drawing sharp criticism from a Congressional committee.
In early 1919 it came to light that the Army and Navy YMCA and the Newport Art Club had acquired a reputation as a place where members of the local civilian gay population came to made contact with one another and with naval personnel.In February 1919, two sailors, Thomas Brunelle and Chief Machinist's Mate Ervin Arnold were both patients at the Naval Training Station hospital, in Newport. Brunelle told Arnold about the goings on at the Army and Navy YMCA and the Newport Art Club. Newport was a base for some 25,000 servicemen. At the time, sex acts between men were criminal offences, and those who committed such acts were considered to be criminal perverts. The term “homosexual” was not in general use.
These reports concerned Arnold, and he undertook a personal investigation to verify what Brunelle was reporting. Arnold presented his findings to his Navy superiors. His report included details of cross-dressing and of parties involving sexual activity, liquor and cocaine. The report went up the chain of command, where it was brought to the attention of Admiral Spencer S. Wood, commander of the 2nd Naval District. Wood ordered a thorough investigation and created a court of inquiry to review Arnold’s report. On March 19, 1919, the court of inquiry concluded that a thorough investigation was warranted. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved the court's recommendation and asked Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to conduct an investigation of the matter. Secretary Daniels was in Europe at the time so Roosevelt wrote the Justice Department to request an investigation into what he called “conditions of vice and depravity” in Newport.
Palmer refused to devote resources to such an investigation. Arnold, who had once been a Connecticut state police detective, was placed in charge of the investigation into the matter by Roosevelt. He decided to adopt an investigative strategy of infiltration. He chose a group of investigators based of their youth and looks. Over a period of several weeks, 13 such agents submitted daily reports to Arnold that included candid descriptions of homosexual acts and their participation in them. They investigated the matter quite enthusiastically, without any hesitation about directly participating in the matters they were supposed to be stopping. The undercover agents took their instructions to “catch them in the act” quite literally. The operators would seduce sailors in Newport. They participated in numerous sex acts with these sailors and civilians. Often this was done by accepting oral sex to completion. They recorded their encounters in daily reports. The operators who accepted oral sex received notations in their service records which read “in recognition of their interest and zeal” in pursuing evidence about the case. With Roosevelt’s backing, the Newport investigation expanded to the civilian population.
In April, arrests began. Between April 4, and by April 22, fifteen sailors had been arrested. Each was brought before a military tribunal. There, the men whom they believed to be their former sexual partners provide graphic testimony of their encounters. The tribunals were composed of older naval officers. Once the operatives had presented their evidence before the court, the accused were encouraged to incriminate others. Many did so, in the hopes of leniency. Thomas Brunelle was one of those who incriminated some of his fellow sailors. The three-week military trial ended with the court-martial of 17 sailors, who had been charged with sodomy and with "scandalous conduct." Most were sent to the naval prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine. Two others were dishonorably discharged and two others were found innocent with no further action.
Evidence from the operators was used to charge an Episcopal minister, the Rev. Samuel Neal Kent. Reverend Kent was acquitted in two trials. News accounts of these trials publicized the Navy’s investigative techniques. At the time the editor of the Providence Journal was a man named John Rathom. Rathom had published numerous scoops during World War I about German spies. In 1918, under pressure from the Justice Department, Rathom had signed a secret “confession” in which he admitted inventing or exaggerating his spy stories. That document was kept hidden from the public, but would later be used to attach Rathom’s reputation in the aftermath of the Newport scandal.
In January 1920, The Journal reported Rev. Kent’s acquittal on federal charges of immoral conduct. An editorial accused Navy Secretary Daniels of using “every bestial and degrading scheme” to gather evidence. Rathom demanded the U.S. Senate Committee on Naval Affairs investigate. He also accused assistant secretary Roosevelt of having knowledge of the gay sex sting. He sent telegrams with the story to papers around the country. The Journal covered Kent's trial proceedings daily, often with a critical comments about the prosecution's case. On January 8, 1920, Kent was found not guilty on all charges. In his charge to the jury in that case, the judge reasoned that since no military or governmental authority could legitimately order sailors to participate in such acts against their will. He said that either the sailors were willing participants, whose complaints were groundless, or they were acting under the compulsion of unlawful commands, on the part of their superiors.
The judge's comments was followed by opposition in Newport's religious community. Within days, a committee of Newport clergymen drafted a lengthy letter to President Woodrow Wilson denouncing the Navy's activities in Newport. They specifically condemned the "deleterious and vicious methods" used, which besides the investigative techniques, including keeping those accused confined for months without trial. Their letter to Wilson was signed by a number of prominent clergymen.
The Providence Journal published the letter, which led to a public relations nightmare for the Navy. It named Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Roosevelt as accomplices in the sceheme. Roosevelt angrily complained that press coverage like Rathom's would damage the Navy's reputation to the point that parents would not allow their sons to enlist. He sought to draw attention away from the methods employed in the investigation. Rathom and Roosevelt engaged in a war of words by a "tart exchange of telegrams".
As the investigation dragged on, Roosevelt resigned from his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in July 1920 when he accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for vice president. He and presidential candidate James M. Cox ran unsuccessfully. Warren G. Harding won a landslide victory and was elected as President that year.
On the eve of the election, Roosevelt filed a $500,000 libel suit against Rathom. He also persuaded the Justice Department to make public Rathom’s 1918 confession about writing false news stories about German spies. In response, Rathom blasted Roosevelt in an editorial as “the possessor of an immature mind, a shallow thinker on subjects too deep for him, an amateur statesman.” FDR’s libel suit never went to trial.
On July 19, 1921, a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs denounced both Daniels and Roosevelt for the methods used in the Newport investigations. The New York Times reported that most of the details of the affair were "of an unprintable nature". The paper accused Daniels and Roosevelt of knowledge that "enlisted men of the navy were used as participants in immoral practices for the purpose of obtaining evidence."
The Senate committee report declared that using enlisted men in this way "violated the code of the American citizen and ignored the rights of every American boy who enlisted in the navy to fight for his country." The committee report called Roosevelt's behavior "unfortunate and ill-advised, and reprehensible."
At the time it was difficult to discuss the details of the investigation with the frankness that might be used today. The committee language characterizes the "questionable activities" without ever specifying the actions themselves. They refer to a "lack of moral perspective" and invoked the youth of the navy personnel: "Conduct of a character at which seasoned veterans of the service would have shuddered was practically forced upon boys." The report did state that the navy personnel allowed "to be performed upon them immoral acts." The committee wrote that for Daniels and Roosevelt to allow personnel to be placed in a position in which the acts were even liable to occur, was "a deplorable, disgraceful, and most unnatural proceeding."
The criticism was like water off a duck's back for Roosevelt, who rejected the report. He said that the subcommittee's two Republican members had condemned him while the one Democrat issued a minority report. Roosevelt contested many details and interpretations in the committee's report, and then went on the attack. He said, "This business of using the navy as a football of politics has got to stop."
Any damage to Roosevelt's political reputation was soon forgotten. He had a more daunting problem that appeared for a time to kill any political prospects that he might have had. Roosevelt was stricken with a paralytic illness while vacationing in August 1921 at Campobello Island in Canada. Most people wrote off any chances that Roosevelt had for a further political career. He would prove them wrong.
In early 1919 it came to light that the Army and Navy YMCA and the Newport Art Club had acquired a reputation as a place where members of the local civilian gay population came to made contact with one another and with naval personnel.In February 1919, two sailors, Thomas Brunelle and Chief Machinist's Mate Ervin Arnold were both patients at the Naval Training Station hospital, in Newport. Brunelle told Arnold about the goings on at the Army and Navy YMCA and the Newport Art Club. Newport was a base for some 25,000 servicemen. At the time, sex acts between men were criminal offences, and those who committed such acts were considered to be criminal perverts. The term “homosexual” was not in general use.
These reports concerned Arnold, and he undertook a personal investigation to verify what Brunelle was reporting. Arnold presented his findings to his Navy superiors. His report included details of cross-dressing and of parties involving sexual activity, liquor and cocaine. The report went up the chain of command, where it was brought to the attention of Admiral Spencer S. Wood, commander of the 2nd Naval District. Wood ordered a thorough investigation and created a court of inquiry to review Arnold’s report. On March 19, 1919, the court of inquiry concluded that a thorough investigation was warranted. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved the court's recommendation and asked Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to conduct an investigation of the matter. Secretary Daniels was in Europe at the time so Roosevelt wrote the Justice Department to request an investigation into what he called “conditions of vice and depravity” in Newport.
Palmer refused to devote resources to such an investigation. Arnold, who had once been a Connecticut state police detective, was placed in charge of the investigation into the matter by Roosevelt. He decided to adopt an investigative strategy of infiltration. He chose a group of investigators based of their youth and looks. Over a period of several weeks, 13 such agents submitted daily reports to Arnold that included candid descriptions of homosexual acts and their participation in them. They investigated the matter quite enthusiastically, without any hesitation about directly participating in the matters they were supposed to be stopping. The undercover agents took their instructions to “catch them in the act” quite literally. The operators would seduce sailors in Newport. They participated in numerous sex acts with these sailors and civilians. Often this was done by accepting oral sex to completion. They recorded their encounters in daily reports. The operators who accepted oral sex received notations in their service records which read “in recognition of their interest and zeal” in pursuing evidence about the case. With Roosevelt’s backing, the Newport investigation expanded to the civilian population.
In April, arrests began. Between April 4, and by April 22, fifteen sailors had been arrested. Each was brought before a military tribunal. There, the men whom they believed to be their former sexual partners provide graphic testimony of their encounters. The tribunals were composed of older naval officers. Once the operatives had presented their evidence before the court, the accused were encouraged to incriminate others. Many did so, in the hopes of leniency. Thomas Brunelle was one of those who incriminated some of his fellow sailors. The three-week military trial ended with the court-martial of 17 sailors, who had been charged with sodomy and with "scandalous conduct." Most were sent to the naval prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine. Two others were dishonorably discharged and two others were found innocent with no further action.
Evidence from the operators was used to charge an Episcopal minister, the Rev. Samuel Neal Kent. Reverend Kent was acquitted in two trials. News accounts of these trials publicized the Navy’s investigative techniques. At the time the editor of the Providence Journal was a man named John Rathom. Rathom had published numerous scoops during World War I about German spies. In 1918, under pressure from the Justice Department, Rathom had signed a secret “confession” in which he admitted inventing or exaggerating his spy stories. That document was kept hidden from the public, but would later be used to attach Rathom’s reputation in the aftermath of the Newport scandal.
In January 1920, The Journal reported Rev. Kent’s acquittal on federal charges of immoral conduct. An editorial accused Navy Secretary Daniels of using “every bestial and degrading scheme” to gather evidence. Rathom demanded the U.S. Senate Committee on Naval Affairs investigate. He also accused assistant secretary Roosevelt of having knowledge of the gay sex sting. He sent telegrams with the story to papers around the country. The Journal covered Kent's trial proceedings daily, often with a critical comments about the prosecution's case. On January 8, 1920, Kent was found not guilty on all charges. In his charge to the jury in that case, the judge reasoned that since no military or governmental authority could legitimately order sailors to participate in such acts against their will. He said that either the sailors were willing participants, whose complaints were groundless, or they were acting under the compulsion of unlawful commands, on the part of their superiors.
The judge's comments was followed by opposition in Newport's religious community. Within days, a committee of Newport clergymen drafted a lengthy letter to President Woodrow Wilson denouncing the Navy's activities in Newport. They specifically condemned the "deleterious and vicious methods" used, which besides the investigative techniques, including keeping those accused confined for months without trial. Their letter to Wilson was signed by a number of prominent clergymen.
The Providence Journal published the letter, which led to a public relations nightmare for the Navy. It named Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Roosevelt as accomplices in the sceheme. Roosevelt angrily complained that press coverage like Rathom's would damage the Navy's reputation to the point that parents would not allow their sons to enlist. He sought to draw attention away from the methods employed in the investigation. Rathom and Roosevelt engaged in a war of words by a "tart exchange of telegrams".
As the investigation dragged on, Roosevelt resigned from his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in July 1920 when he accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for vice president. He and presidential candidate James M. Cox ran unsuccessfully. Warren G. Harding won a landslide victory and was elected as President that year.
On the eve of the election, Roosevelt filed a $500,000 libel suit against Rathom. He also persuaded the Justice Department to make public Rathom’s 1918 confession about writing false news stories about German spies. In response, Rathom blasted Roosevelt in an editorial as “the possessor of an immature mind, a shallow thinker on subjects too deep for him, an amateur statesman.” FDR’s libel suit never went to trial.
On July 19, 1921, a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs denounced both Daniels and Roosevelt for the methods used in the Newport investigations. The New York Times reported that most of the details of the affair were "of an unprintable nature". The paper accused Daniels and Roosevelt of knowledge that "enlisted men of the navy were used as participants in immoral practices for the purpose of obtaining evidence."
The Senate committee report declared that using enlisted men in this way "violated the code of the American citizen and ignored the rights of every American boy who enlisted in the navy to fight for his country." The committee report called Roosevelt's behavior "unfortunate and ill-advised, and reprehensible."
At the time it was difficult to discuss the details of the investigation with the frankness that might be used today. The committee language characterizes the "questionable activities" without ever specifying the actions themselves. They refer to a "lack of moral perspective" and invoked the youth of the navy personnel: "Conduct of a character at which seasoned veterans of the service would have shuddered was practically forced upon boys." The report did state that the navy personnel allowed "to be performed upon them immoral acts." The committee wrote that for Daniels and Roosevelt to allow personnel to be placed in a position in which the acts were even liable to occur, was "a deplorable, disgraceful, and most unnatural proceeding."
The criticism was like water off a duck's back for Roosevelt, who rejected the report. He said that the subcommittee's two Republican members had condemned him while the one Democrat issued a minority report. Roosevelt contested many details and interpretations in the committee's report, and then went on the attack. He said, "This business of using the navy as a football of politics has got to stop."
Any damage to Roosevelt's political reputation was soon forgotten. He had a more daunting problem that appeared for a time to kill any political prospects that he might have had. Roosevelt was stricken with a paralytic illness while vacationing in August 1921 at Campobello Island in Canada. Most people wrote off any chances that Roosevelt had for a further political career. He would prove them wrong.