669scores of derricks throughout Los Angeles. The growth of the
city that became synonymous with the automobile was liter-
ally fueled by the oil that lay beneath it. By 1920 southern
California had become the world’s leading oil-producer, and
Doheny had become rich.
There Will Be Bloodomitted the next stage in Doheny’s
life. In 1900 he went to Mexico and worked out a deal with
the dictator Profirio Diaz for the oil rights to some promising
regions of the undeveloped country. In 1910, Doheny hit sev-
eral enormous gushers; soon his company was the largest oil
producer in the world. His chief competitor in Mexico was
Weetman Pearson, an English engineer and builder who had
also wangled a lucrative deal out of Diaz. (Pearson was
knighted for providing the oil that powered the royal navy
during World War I; his many business enterprises included
the firm that published the book you are now reading.)
Doheny was a tough and even ruthless businessman; he
made many enemies. But it was not until the 1920s that he
attained notoriety. He was among the oilmen who secured
from Albert B. Fall, Harding’s interior secretary, the right to
drill in oil fields that were kept as an emergency reserve for
the navy. On learning that Fall was in financial difficulties,
Doheny sent his son Ned to Fall’s apartment with $100,000 in
cash. Fall accepted the money.
Several years later Doheny and his son were among
those indicted for bribing Fall. In a Senate hearing Doheny
professed his innocence. He had not
bribed a government official; he had
helped a friend. The amount of the gift—
$100,000—was “a bagatelle to me,” the
equivalent of “the ordinary individual” giv-
ing $25 to a down-and-out neighbor. The
statement drew gasps from the audience.
Doheny, though acquitted, became the
era’s exemplar of greed and corruption.
There Will Be Bloodends with
Plainview living alone in an enormous
mansion. When an old antagonist stops
by, seeking a handout, Plainview, drunk
and enraged, murders him. The scene was
filmed in the Beverly Hills mansion that
Doheny had built for his son. In 1929 a
deranged family friend who lived in the
mansion shot and killed Ned before turn-
ing the gun on himself. It was some mea-
sure of Doheny’s shattered reputation
that rumors long circulated that Doheny had himself mur-
dered both men. One recent historian has argued that
Doheny was responsible for the deaths if only because his
greed poisoned everything around him.
There Will Be Bloodcame out just before the great finan-
cial collapse of 2008–2009, when wildcatting financiers
inflicted several trillion dollars’ damage upon the global
economy. It is tempting to see in such behavior a heart of
darkness, such as the film imputed to Doheny. But we must
remember that while Doheny was no paragon of propriety,
he was no murderer. In painting him with the oily hues of a
Daniel Plainview, Hollywood transformed the oil magnate
into caricature. Indeed, Hollywood’s search for box-office
gushers is itself reminiscent of Day-Lewis’s character. And if,
like Plainview, it plays fast and loose with the literal truth, can
it really be blamed?Doheny’s first oil strike at Signal Hill near Los Angeles.
The Greystone mansion, built by Edward Doheny, consisted of eighty-five rooms, a bowling alley, two movie theaters, a library, a billiard room,
and many secret bars.
Questions for Discussion
■Doheny pursued wealth with obsessive determination. In
Wall Street(1987), the character Gordon Gekko declares
that “Greed is good.” How does greed promote economic
growth? How does it become a destructive force?
■Did Doheny benefit society and, if so, how? How did he
harm it?