16. The Extraordinary Lengths Grover Cleveland Went to in Order to Cover Up a Scandal
As Maria Halpin stated in a sworn affidavit, the future president assaulted her “by use of force and violence and without my consent”. When she said that she would report the assault, she added, the former sheriff threatened her into silence. As her affidavit continued, Cleveland: “told me he was determined to ruin me if it cost him $10,000, if he was hanged by the neck for it. I then and there told him that I never wanted to see him again, and commanded him to leave my room, which he did”.
A few weeks later, Halpin discovered she was pregnant, and in September of 1874, she gave birth to a baby boy. When she declared that Cleveland was the father, the former Sheriff used his connections to shut her up. He had the child removed from his mother’s care and placed in an orphanage and had Halpin herself committed to a mental asylum. She was quickly released after an evaluation concluded that she was not insane, and had only been sent there in an egregious abuse of power by corrupt political elites.
