While researching Jefferson Davis I uncovered what I honestly believe to be a 140+ year old conspiracy theory that has much to do with why he was never brought to trial and, of course, I think would be one helluva movie. 
But meanwhile I’ll mention just one person involved in it (in the outer levels, not as a key player): Victoria Woodhull. I’ve been familiar with her for a long time and her life screams for a movie- the first woman ever to run for president (Frederick Douglass was her running mate) but that’s the least of it. She and her sister Tennessee were two (of the many) children of Buck Claflin, a snake oil salesman (literally- a snake oil salesman- if you’ve heard the term, Buck Claflin may well be why- think “preached a little gospel, sold a coupla bottles of Dr. Good”) who may have sexually abused them; they both died wealthy titled aristocrats in England many years later. Their fortunes were based on a con-artist spiritualism- they had a double sided con going with Cornelius Vanderbilt (the old Commodorebeing a perfect role for Gene Hackman- pictures of the sisters.
I’d call the movie THE TRIALS OF VICTORIA WOODHULL and concentrate on two key events- the Vanderbilt trial and the Beecher trial. There’s also room for sex scenes (Victoria and Tennie had many lovers- may in fact have been courtesans) as well as politics and women’s issues, and political corruption and religious hypocrisy are timeless themes.
The sisters connected the Commodore (and many other wealthy New Yorkers) with dead loved ones in exchange for stock tips. They manipulated him and he returned the favor- when they opened a brokerage that largely thrived on the fact they were intimate with the richest man in the nation- probably intimate in all senses of the word (there’s little doubt Tennie was the old horndog’s woman, even though she was married). Vanderbilt knew this of course and would sometimes pass along stock tips that benefited him more than the investors. They were sensations at the trial involving his estate.
Short version [trust me, there’s a really long one]: the Commodore left a fortune of well over $100 million in 1877; today that’s conservatively worth about $2 billion but, figuring it as a percentage of the GDP as a recent biographer did it’s more like $45 billion- Bill Gates/Warren Buffett/just inconceivable to most people money.
The Commodore was not exactly warm hearted- he had a huge family (13 kids of whom 10 survived him) but didn’t particularly give a damn about any of them save for one of the dead ones (George Washington Vanderbilt I- one of the ones Vick and Tenn relayed messages to and from) and, only in his last years, his son William Henry “The public be damned” Vanderbilt. In his will he left his eight daughters amounts ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 each and his younger surviving son, Jeremiah [who went by Cornelius Jr.] the income from a trust fund valued at $200,000. (Today these amounts may seem paltry- the interest on $200,000 wouldn’t be a comfortable living anywhere- but again this was in 1877 when even the 200K would be conservatively several million and even at 3% the interest would fund very comfortable lifestyle.) He left his second wife- also his second cousin (his first wife had been his first cousin) $500,000, to charities and other relatives bequests totaling about $1.5 million altogether; all told these bequests were less than $5 million.
Next he left a total of about $15 million to his grandsons by William Henry (William Henry and his sons (Cornelius II, William K., Frederick and George Washington II).
All of the rest- close to 100 million- went to William Henry, a son for whom he'd had little use until the spirits of his mother, his first wife, his son G.W., and others- through the Claflin sisters (actually they went by their married names) all relayed the same message: William Henry worships the ground you walk on and loves you dearly and will double whatever you leave him and see all your works prosper eternally; the daughters couldn't care less if you live or die so leave their share of the estate to William Henry, and Cornelius Jeremiah- screw him, he's a total screw-up who'll spend anything you leave him on booze, whores, pyramid schemes and parties so leave him an income [that part was totally true]).
The daughters and Jeremiah sued, arguing not that they got too little (remember, in our they were all left multi-multi-millionaires) but that William Henry got too much (yeah, right… it’s the principal of the thing, not the fact you wanna be Oprah rich yourselves). The trial was front page news and the allegations that W.H. had conspired with the Sisters Claflin to deceive and defraud the old man were rife and ultimately it was settled out of court before the sisters could take the stand in the trial they were already the stars of without ever testifying; William Henry threw a few million at his sisters and brother [who really did spend it on women, drugs, booze, and eventually killed himself, whereupon his still substantial for the time estate went back to his brother], and William Henry went on to more than double it within a decade, leaving a $200 million estate (making him the richest man in the world excluding royalty] when he died in 1885.
Meanwhile the sisters had moved from a brokerage into tabloid journalism. Victoria advocated women’s suffrage, racial equality, workers rights, birth control, and other things considered radical, and a few things even we would consider radical. She was most infamous for being an advocate of Free Love (her own marriage and that of her sister and that of their parents had all been miserable which was one reason she wasn’t too sentimental on the topic of til death us do part forsaking all others) and, not surprisingly for the time, she was a big advocate of the still very legal and cheap cocaine. (This wasn’t that radical- even the Pope appeared in advertisements for Vin Mariani, the cocaine wine that he took for migraines.)
A surprising thing about Victoria was that she was actually prudish on some things. She believed in birth control (not a lot of reliable options in the 1870s of course) but she was very anti abortion on a personal level (though she did believe in its legality), and she was pro Free Love and anti-marriage but she was also anti legalized prostitution and what then passed for pornography [“French postcards” and dirty novels basically- the really hardcore stuff wouldn’t come until the 1880s/1890s).
She was denounced by all the moralizers but none moreso than Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and) the most popular and respected- and wealthiest- minister in America. He made a side career of trashing her in his sermons and in the press, she found him guilty of inciting some of the violence against her, and she responded by exposing him as a hypocrite, giving all the sordid details of his extramarital affairs (especially one with a Mrs. Tilton) in her tabloid; she didn’t exactly destroy him, but she very definitely gave him reason to stock up on Vin Mariani and destroyed much of his popularity. Beecher would be a good role for David Morse I think, or for J.K. Simmons (who would be playing a Beecher instead of raping one like he did in OZ).
Anyway, she had a colorful life. She ultimately married an English banker, becoming Lady Victoria Woodhull Martin when he was dubbed. Her sister was the wife of a Viscount by this time. They had a falling out in England and had little or no contact for the rest of their very long lives, but both died “in comfortable circumstances” in England in the 20th century, running magazines and giving lectures and sometimes doing horrifying domestic stuff until the end of their days.
Oops- sorry about the double post- I’d delete this one but I’d rather delete the other one.
