Ransom J. "Cy" Thomson is best known as the man who, between the years of 1911 and 1921, embezzled over $1,000,000 from Hormel

Hormel

Hormel Foods Corporation is a food company based in southeastern Minnesota , perhaps best known as the producer of Spam luncheon meat. The company was founded as George A. Hormel & Company in Austin, Minnesota, U.S., by George A. Hormel in 1891. The company changed its name to Hormel Foods...

 Foods in Austin, Minnesota

Austin, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 23,314 people, 9,897 households, and 6,076 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,168.2 people per square mile . There were 10,261 housing units at an average density of 954.3 per square mile...

.

In his autobiography he wrote of his status in the community prior to the uncovering of the embezzlement.

"Once my story was written up in magazines as a story of success. It told of a farm boy who came to the city, and by industry and honesty had carved his way to a position of trust and integrity. It told of the leader in the community, the teacher in the Sunday school, of the man who was consulted in every business enterprise. It told of the man who was welcome guest of industrial executives

Senior management

Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...

 of the state. Governors and high officials were glad to sit at my table."

Thomson was first employed at the Hormel Packing Plant as a scaler in the fresh meat department at $12 per week. In the spring of 1907 he asked Mr. George Hormel for a more responsible job. Hormel suggested that he get training in bookkeeping and accounting. He took a course at Mankato and was reemployed with Hormel. Two years later he was promoted to the position of cashier.

First theft

Early in 1911 Cy committed his first theft from the company. A Mrs. Mary Hollinghead from South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

 mailed in $800 in currency for the purchase of shares of stock

Stock

The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...

. The stock was issued immediately, but the money was placed in transit. It was still in transit 10 years later when the crash came.

Investing

Thomson began to invest in various ventures such as his poultry farm in Le Roy, "Affairs were moving rapidly for me during this period and I purchased the entire D.W. Young poultry stock and equipment from New York state, including a $10,000 rooster

Rooster

A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...

, winner of a long string of prizes at the Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

." Cy then branched into the dairy business with a 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) farm between Lansing and Blooming Prairie.

Demise

On Saturday, July 9, 1921, Cy Thomson's embezzlement was uncovered. He recalls the event in his autobiography.

"I knew before I started from my desk. The call came from Hormel's office following a mail controversy with a Boston bank. I knew instinctively before I saw Mr. Hormel's grave face and the accusing eyes of his directors. The exposure which I had been fighting for ten years was at hand."

"My first remark when I entered the room was, 'Gentlemen it's all over, the jig is up.' An hour later I went to the company' general journal with one of the Hormel officials and made the last entry I was ever to make on the Hormel books. It was an entry charging R.J. Thomson with $1,187,000 and crediting the various banks where the shortages existed."

Thomson was jailed on Monday, July 18.

Legacy

Cy Thomson was one of the most public spirited citizens in Austin during the years immediately preceding 1921. He provided cigars to the young men leaving for wartime service. If a local civic event needed something extra to make it a success it was Cy Thomson who would find and provide it. His money for benevolences seemed inexhaustible.

After the scandal, the Austin Daily Herald wrote

"Cy Thomson has been the mystery man of Austin. Everyone has asked where Cy got his money. There is great regret and sorrow at his downfall, for he had endeared himself to the whole community by his public spirit and generosity."

A few days later the mood had changed. The Herald said,

"Cy Thomson knew that a crash of the Hormel Company would be disastrous to Austin. No greater crime in the commercial world was ever committed than that of the man whom we have honored and applauded."

Later life

Cy Thomson's wife died during his 9½ years of imprisonment. The governor refused to give him a leave to attend the funeral. When he was released he worked on a farm in the Minneapolis area. Details of his later years are dismal. For all intents and purposes Cy Thomson's productive life ended at the age of 34, when he made his last journal entry with the Hormel Company.