Amazon bestselling author of The President is Dead!, Louis L. Picone will be speaking Sunday morning at 10:00 on Zoom. It is free and a link is below.

Louis is a friend and the brother of Joe Picone, a Senior Manager and the first person I met when we merged into Withum 16 years ago. His latest book was published last week telling the story of Grant’s Tomb and is a fascinating book I read and recommend. He will be talking about peculiarities of and little-known facts about the presidents. His first book Where the Presidents Were Born is a staple at most of the presidential libraries, homesteads and museums. I know that because that book was on sale at those I visited the last few years.

Presidents are the closest to American royalty and information about them always creates interest. I am particularly interested in the presidents’ finances after they left office and presidential inaugurations. This book has both of these in it. It turns out that Grant, who was in great financial shape after he left office, lost all his money through a Ponzi scheme (before Ponzi was even born) and Louis’ book sums up his final situation in just a few words opening Chapter 2 that I found heartbreaking and am sharing here:


“Within a matter of five months, Grant’s world had shattered. In May 1884, he was wealthy and healthy;…by October he was bankrupt and mortally ill.”

Further, his book tells us that former generals received a generous pension but former presidents did not receive any pension [this changed when Ike was president]. When he became president and commander in chief Grant had to resign his commission. After he lost his money, he applied to be reinstated as a retired general. President Chester Arthur as his last official act moments before Cleveland was inaugurated, signed the order reinstating Grant as general. This was also in the Grant book by Ron Chernow and both books told this inauguration day story but [very] slightly different and at some point I’ll check out the three references provided by the two authors. Picone also includes a brief Grant bio in the first dozen or so pages.

Here is a link to the Sunday Zoom program and the  Meeting ID: 608 321 6202, Passcode: 389976.

Check out my previous blog about Picone’s earlier books.

If you have any tax, business or financial issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].


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