Did he or didn’t he?

Revered short story writer and erstwhile Austin resident William Sydney Porter was convicted of embezzlement, but was he actually guilty? A collection of newly acquired letters suggests his innocence. Porter, who wrote as O. Henry, worked as a bank teller at the First National Bank of Austin for a time. Later, after he had left that post and moved to Houston, he was indicted for embezzlement at the bank and eventually tried, found guilty, and given a five-year sentence. He was released after three years for good behavior. The letters, discovered in El Prado, New Mexico, at a resort that was formerly a stop on the Pony Express, are on display in a new exhibit at the O. Henry Museum, Porter’s historical home. They show correspondence between him and J.L. Watson, the business manager of The Houston Post, where Porter worked as a columnist at the time he was indicted. “I want to state to you that the charges against me are not only unfounded, but are, I think, the work of spite as well,” Porter wrote to Watson in one of the letters on display. Some claim that Porter was a fall guy for the bank. After his death, several official requests for a presidential pardon were made on his behalf, but they were not successful. He was also featured on a U.S. postage stamp, an honor he shares with only one other person convicted of a federal crime, Susan B. Anthony. The display, “In Defense of Prisoner #30664,” officially opens on Austin Museum Day, September 23, 2018, from noon to 4:00 pm.