100 Grand
In 1909, at age 21, he was attending Yale. To pay for law school, he sold women's hosiery door-to-door. When he knocked on the Widow Treat's door in Hartford, Connecticut, the seventy-year-old did not buy any of his products. Instead, she presented him with a surprising proposition he could not easily refuse.
Charles obtained a marriage license on August 24, and he and the Widow Treat wed on September 1, with the bride wearing a thick veil.
Edwin A. Treat, the widow's son, was old enough to be Charles' father. Having read about the marriage in his local newspaper, he went to court on September 9 in an attempt to have a conservator appointed to his mother's vast estate, claiming that Charles was after his mother's money.
Charles and his new bride received a summons to appear in court regarding the conservatorship. Meanwhile, a prosecutor who wanted Charles to answer perjury charges had a warrant issued for his arrest; at the time of his application, Charles swore to the clerk at the marriage license bureau that his new bride was 36.
Police took Charles into custody at his wife's home on September 17. At the police station, Mrs. Lucinda Treat-Goddard tried posting her husband's $1,000 bond, but no matter how much she pleaded, the police refused to accept it, citing general principles.
When Charles appeared in police court on October 7, the judge found probable cause, and he was bound over to the next session of the Superior Court.
On October 18, the couple appeared in probate court in Hartford. During that trial, several men testified that Lucinda wanted to marry them. Others told the court that she had a thing for young men, and after the death of her husband, she started dressing inappropriately for her age, incorporating lace and ribbon with low necks and short sleeves to appear much more youthful. They also said Lucinda began wearing lots of makeup, so much that they could not help but take notice, and people in the streets gossiped and ridiculed the aged woman for it behind her back. A revolving door of others vouched for Lucinda, saying she was a shrewd businesswoman; Reverend Dr. William Love, the clergyman who married them, complimented her, saying he did not know if she was thirty-six or twice that. When pressed further, however, he said he could not see her face and would not have married the couple had he known the age discrepancy.
After being postponed for one week on the 25th, the conservatorship trial resumed on November 1, with the judge offering his initial opinion on the 3rd, stating that the elderly woman had shown no incapacity for handling her business affairs. His honor's final decision came a day later and was quite the opposite, appointing Connecticut Trust & Safe Deposit Company as conservator; Lucinda appealed.
On December 8, the Connecticut state attorney nolled the perjury complaint against Charles.
Following the appeal, a Superior Court judge rendered his verdict, removing the conservatorship, as outlined in a lengthy decision he published on June 15, 1910, in which he discredited two witnesses as unbelievable, praised Charles as capable, industrious, and prudent, and noted that the couple was living happily together. (Edwin Treat was unsuccessful in his attempts to appeal, including to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors.)
Having passed the examination, Charles was admitted to the bar on June 21, 1911.
Lucinda Treat-Goddard died on November 5, 1913, leaving two-thirds of her estate to her son and $7,500 to Charles.
Charles moved to Washington, D.C., in 1920 and went to work for the Department of Interior before becoming an IRS employee. He remarried in 1922, and the couple had three children together. (Their son, Charles Jr., died in 1931.)
Charles's second wife, Pearl, died in 1945.
On November 30, 1951, the Treasury Department decided that IRS employees should file periodic financial statements. In doing so, Charles listed more than $100,000 in cash, prompting an investigation into his 1948-50 income tax returns.
Charles filed for divorce on the grounds that Clara was a gold-digger. In court in 1953, he presented evidence, the most damaging being a letter he found from Clara to her son from her first marriage. In the letter, dated May 21, 1952, she shares her dastardly plan to relieve Charles of his money.
More letters were introduced into evidence by attorneys, including one Clara wrote Charles on June 8, 1952. She addresses the letter to "The Man Who Puts Love First" and suggests that Charles splits his estate and income with her, writing in part: "All of the men I have ever known have handed over their income intact to their wives." (The judge in the case was a classmate of Charles at Yale in 1911.)
In an undated pre-marriage letter, Charles references Queen Elizabeth's upcoming coronation, asking Clara when she would be his queen. He signed the letter Briars and Brambles. (Queen Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953.)
On the stand, Charles likened Clara to an incurable cancer, portraying himself as a surgeon trying to kill something that won't die. He explains that he is Briars and Brambles and signs his letters as such in response to Clara's harsh treatment and coldness towards him.
Betrayal and heartbreak took their toll on Charles's mental health, which was already suffering greatly from the stress of the long, drawn-out IRS investigation; he had resigned from the agency and withdrew socially.
The United States Tax Court issued its opinion on April 15, 1962. In it, the court called Charles an "eccentric miser" and ruled that he would owe no tax on a secret payment Lucinda Treat paid him decades ago to marry her: $100,000 upfront (and another $100,000 payable later).
The court cleared Charles of fraud, saying he hid the money and refused to spend it because he was deeply ashamed of the transaction.
 |
| Student Lounge, Yale University |
Lucinda Treat's husband was a farmer; he made his money in cattle. Shortly after her first wedding, her father was killed when his wagon ran over him.
Conflicting information: He resigned or retired from the IRS.
During his courtroom testimony, Charles said that when he knocked on the then Widow Treat's door while selling hosiery in 1909, she propositioned him $100,000 payable upfront if he married her and another $100,000 later.
At the time of the court case, Charles still had every dollar of the $100,000 payment his much older wife gave him. He even went into debt purchasing real estate. It's unclear if she ever paid him the additional $100,000 or if he refused to accept it.
It is unclear if his second wife knew about the transaction from his first marriage.
Clara's husband died in 1944. Edwin Treat, Lucinda's son, died in 1946.
Clara reached out to Charles in 1951. Within two hours of reuniting, they had sex, an admission they both made, stunning the courtroom.
One witness, streetcar conductor Charles Thrall, told the court during the conservatorship trial that when Mrs. Treat-Goddard rode his car, "She had so much powder on her face that when she scratched her cheek, her fingers left furrows in the powder."
The judge in the divorce case offered to excuse himself; the attorneys felt he could preside over it without prejudice. Charles's wife filed a cross-complaint citing intolerable cruelty.
Working Titles: 100 Grand, Trick or Treat, Narcissistic Tenancies, One Way Love Affair, Let's Make a Deal, Circle, Art Imitating Life, The $100,000 Question.
Lucinda Matilda (Cushman) (Treat) Goddard: October 31, 1839 - November 5, 1913.
Charles Raymond Goddard: March 25, 1888 - October 15, 1980.
Lily Pearl (Haynes) Goddard: August 10, 1890 - August 30, 1945.
Charles Raymond Goddard Jr.: September 17, 1923 - February 2, 1931.
If you enjoyed this story, please click the appropriate button below, as this helps me gauge the type of content readers like when developing future story ideas.
As an Amazon Associate, the Southwick Time Machine may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.