Henry Woodhouse (forger)
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presenting newly discovered family papers of George Washington to officials
Henry Woodhouse (1884–1970) was an Italian-born US aviation enthusiast, magazine publisher, speculator and forger of historical documents.
Earlier life
Henry Woodhouse was born Mario Terenzio Enrico Casalegno on June 24, 1884, in Turin, Italy. According to his own later account, Woodhouse's father died before he finished school. The young Woodhouse had to settle his father's debts using unspecified means. He later pursued academics in France, Britain, Switzerland and Belgium and studied languages, economics, sociology and aeronautics. The schools he attended were never mentioned by name.
In 1904, Casalengo moved to USA and got a job in a restaurant kitchen in Troy, NY. He got into a fight with the head chef and killed him with a kitchen knife. Casalengo maintained that the other man had accidentally impaled himself on the knife. He was arrested and sentenced to 4 years in prison and sent to Clinton Prison in Dannemora, New York. He was released in 1909.
Success begins
Soon after 1909 he supposedly received US citizenship (although his naturalization papers are dated May 28, 1917) and began to use the name Henry Woodhouse. In 1910 he wrote magazine articles about aviation and started to gain fame as an expert on the subject. With support of Robert J. Collier, he founded a successful magazine Flying and became its managing editor. He later expanded to other publish other magazines such as Naval Aeronautics, Air Power and Scientific Age. In 1915 he helped to found the American Society of Aeronautic Engineering. At the outbreak of the World War I, he supported the national defense movement and served on committees dedicated to preparedness.
As his wealth and connections increased, Woodhouse began to speculate in real estate and with Middle Eastern oil. He claimed that had advised various explorers and aviation pioneers, though his exact contributions are unclear. In the 1920s Woodhouse became a collector of antiques, celebrity signatures and historical documents. He also used his organizational talents to support art galleries.
Woodhouse copyrighted titles like Wings and when book and movies of the same name were published, he claimed copyright infringement. In the case of Wings he settled for $25,000.
Aero Club
In 1911 Woodhouse joined the Aero Club of America. When the members of the club began to split over disagreements about the funds of the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association in 1917-1918, one member, J. C. Mars, accused Woodhouse of being a murderer and a draft dodger. In 1920. Woodhouse sued the club to stop its merger with the American Flying Club. When other members of the Aero Club tried the same merger in 1922, he sued again, claiming that he held the proxy votes of 404 members—but he could not present their signatures in court when ordered to do so. During this court battle, the New York Times wrote an article about the man he had killed. With his reputation damaged, Woodhouse lost his case and the Aero Club then became the National Aeronautic Association. Woodhouse threw his support to a minor rival organization, the Aerial League of America.
Oil speculation
In 1920-1922, Woodhouse had a hand in forming of an oil syndicate the Ottoman American Development Company, that - through his connection to admiral Colby M. Chester - gained rights to construct and operate a railroad from Anatolia and the Black Sea and to the exploitation of the oil fields of Mosul. Woodhouse owned 1/6 of the capital stock. He was also a director of Turco-American Corporation that had options to build the city of Ankara. Woodhouse supported the French foreign policy, which wanted to return the defeated sultan to his throne to keep the Ottoman Empire together. His plans fell apart when Kemal Atatürk ousted the sultan. The Ottoman Empire was thereby fragmented and the Mosul oil fields became part of Iraq.
George Washington Air Junction
In 1928-1930, Woodhouse bought more than 1500 acres (6 km²) of land south of Washington D.C., much of it being the ancestral lands of George Washington and George Mason. He planned to build a large Zeppelin airport on the grounds, the George Washington Air Junction. By 1935 he had to sell the land to pay for unpaid taxes and foreclosures of mortgages. Much of this land is now Huntley Meadows Park.
False documents and signatures
Woodhouse collected artifacts and antiques that were connected to the history of the United States. In 1930 he acquired a famous oil portrait of Ulysses Grant. In 1936 he donated many documents on George Washington to the Library of Congress.
However, some of the signatures and documents he sold were Woodhouse's own forgeries. He forged documents that were supposedly from historical Americans and even forged signatures of famous people he had personally met. The historical people included many of the presidents and the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Woodhouse joined forces with W. Lanier Washington and began to sell items with the Washington family crest. His other associate was a painter named Hart, who painted fake portraits.
Even if the quality of the forgeries was not perfect, many collectors bought them. Afterwards experts noticed that they were modern forgeries. Signatures of Abraham Lincoln, for example, were hesitant, revealing the writer was copying or tracing the original, not writing it naturally.
Last years
In 1953-1958 Woodhouse was involved in a lawsuit with former employee Tamara Bourkoun, who claimed that she had worked in Woodhouse's galleries for 46 weeks and had not been paid. Woodhouse claimed that her compensation was a tuition to the gallery's education courses and that she intended to become a fortune teller, which, at the time, was illegal in New York. The suit was decided on favor of Bourkoun and Woodhouse had to sell the last of the Washington Junction land to pay for her compensation.
Henry Woodhouse died on January 6, 1970 in his home in New York City.