Jess Smith

Jesse Worley Smith (October 10, 1872 – May 30, 1923) was an American political aide who was a member of the Ohio Gang, the circle of political and business associates around President Warren G. Harding. Smith was a close assistant of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, and was suspected of illegally selling government liquor before dying by suicide.

Career Jesse Worley Smith was born and raised in Washington Court House, Ohio, where he befriended future U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty. When Smith's father died, Daugherty became an elder brother figure to him, assisting him in opening a department store. Daugherty first enlisted Smith as his aide while acting as Warren G. Harding's campaign manager for the 1920 presidential election, and when Daugherty assumed the office of Attorney General in 1921, Smith accompanied him to Washington. Although never on the government payroll, Smith kept an office near his boss at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Smith was also Daugherty's roommate at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington. Daugherty "lived, worked, and traveled in the near-constant company" of Smith. The two routinely spent days together in a cabin in the Ohio woods, and in the capital took up social roles usually reserved for spouses. Daugherty's wife had remained in Ohio due to illness, while Smith was on friendly terms with his ex-wife Roxy Stinson, whom he had married in 1908 and divorced 18 months later. Although rumors circulated that Daugherty and Smith were in a homosexual relationship, there is no evidence to corroborate this. Smith, depressed and in failing health, On the show, Smith's death is dramatized as a suicide moments after thwarting an assassination attempt by Ohio Gang operative Gaston Means, who sought to prevent Smith from implicating Daugherty in his crimes.