John McCandish King (February 15, 1927 – January 13, 2016) was an American petroleum entrepreneur and Republican politician. He is notable for being one of the youngest members elected to the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

in its history and for his role in a fraudulent scam involving

Investors Overseas Service Investors Overseas Services, Ltd. (IOS) was founded in 1955 by financier Bernard Cornfeld. The company was incorporated outside the United States with funds in Canada and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. In the 1960s, the company employed 25 ...

Early life

King was born February 15, 1927, in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. King attended three colleges, but never graduated;

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

Wheaton College Wheaton College may refer to: * Wheaton College (Illinois), a private Christian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois * Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachus ...

and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. While a student, he was the national president of the

College Republicans College Republicans are college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States. Many members belong to the organization College Republican National Committee (CRNC), College Republicans United (CRU), or various ind ...

Illinois House of Representatives

He was elected to the

in 1950 to succeed

Lottie Holman O'Neill Lottie (Holman) O'Neill (November 7, 1878 – February 17, 1967) was an American politician from Illinois who was the first woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly. First elected in 1922, O'Neill served 40 years in the Assembly, the longest ...

who vacated the seat to successfully seek election to the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the ...

. He was the youngest person elected to the Illinois House of Representatives since Stephen A. Douglas. This record was later broken when

Avery Bourne Avery Bourne is a politician who was a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives representing the 95th district. She was sworn in to office on February 20, 2015. She was the youngest legislator to be sworn in to the Illinois Gene ...

was appointed to the legislature in 2015. While a member of the House, he married his first wife, Carylyn Becker, whom he eventually divorced. He remarried to Mary Louise Gabriel. In the mid-1950s, a mid-decade legislative district reapportionment split the 41st district, which included DuPage and

Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and wi ...

counties into multiple districts. King ran in the new 36th district, but lost in a crowded primary field of sixteen candidates.

Business career

King first became involved in the oil exploration industry through a $1,500 investment in the efforts of an Oklahoma friend. After leaving the Illinois House, he entered the industry full-time, first at King-Stevenson Oil Company in Chicago and later forming King Resources in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. In 1966, King began to sell two hedge funds, Imperial American and Royal Resources, through his Colorado Corporation. King Resources was a customer of the funds. The sale of these drilling funds to others increased King's profits tenfold. By 1969, the company had 7 million barrels of crude oil and 258 billion cubic feet of natural gas in American and Canadian developed reserves. At this point, the firm was involved in mining operations as well as drilling operations. Activities included oil exploration in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ...

exploration near

Revelstoke, British Columbia Revelstoke () is a city in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, with a census population of 8,275 in 2021. Revelstoke is located east of Vancouver, and west of Calgary, Alberta. The city is situated on the banks of the Columbia River just sout ...

and

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

exploration in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

. In 1970, the bubble burst and King Resources lost $53 million in a month, cut staff in half and King resigned from his roles in the company. That year, he went to Europe in an attempt to salvage the failing

. He failed and King went bankrupt. King was named in a tongue-in-cheek Cervi's Journal article, nominating him as a 1971 Denver Man Of The Year for "his originality and ground-breaking efforts in showing how the wealthy can cut their cost of living." In 1976, King and Boucher were charged after an attempt to defraud 150,000 shareholders of IOS with fraudulent valuations of Arctic oil and gas permits. King was sentenced to one year in prison for fraud.

Other political activities

For a time, he was the vice-chairman of the Republican National Committee's Finance Committee. During the 1968 U.S. presidential election, King donated $750,000 to the presidential campaign of

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. This relationship continued into Nixon's administration. King suggested the idea of the Nixon administration diverting money directly to congressional candidates, rather than going through the usual political channels. This suggestion led to the illegal fundraising operation of Harry S. Dent Sr. and Dent's subsequent conviction. Nixon appointed King his personal representative, with the rank of

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or s ...

, to the 1970 Japan World Expo. In the

1974 United States Senate elections The 1974 United States Senate elections were held in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon's resignation from the presidency, and Gerald Ford's subsequent pardon of Nixon. Economic issues, specifically inflation and stagnation, we ...

, he ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

as an independent candidate. He received approximately 2% of the vote.

Death

King died January 13, 2016, in Denver, Colorado. He was survived by his wife, his four children and his ex-wife.

Early life

Illinois House of Representatives

Business career

Other political activities

Death

References

Further reading