3. ENRON
You knew Enron would be on this list, right? The Houston-based company grew into the largest energy company in the world. But its top executives played endless games with their financial books. The company used loopholes to hide bad debts. Enron also inflated its earnings.
The company went bankrupt and closed. Executives went to prison. The shutdown harmed thousands of investors. Losses were said to be $74 billion. Thousands of employees lost their jobs.
President Kennedy’s accused assassin. / Credit: BOB JACKSON / Dallas Times-Herald via AP
2. JFK ASSASSINATION
This makes the list for two reasons. Why was President John F. Kennedy riding through Dallas, a city filled with political enemies, in an open car?
Similarly, the Dallas Police Department’s inability to protect accused killer Lee Harvey Oswald from getting murdered by Jack Ruby greased the skids for a thousand conspiracy theories.
1. ELECTRICITY CRISIS
So on my list, where does the ongoing electricity crisis rank?
I’d have to say it’s a contender to be my No. 1 scandal of the past century. Why? Because it put millions of Texans in the dark, without power or heat, and often with no water, for days.
If you look at the list above, probably none would have affected you or your family. Unless you were a fan of the SMU Mustangs or an Enron investor who lost your life savings, there’s nothing on this list that can top the electricity debacle.
We’re watching the aftermath of the power crisis unfold now in real time.
And it’s absolutely awful.
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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog investigative columnist. Dave has written a hard-hitting newspaper column in Dallas/Fort Worth since His work appears twice a week. His goal is to save readers time, money and aggravation. In 2019, Dave won top prize in America’s largest column-writing contest. The contest judge called his winning entries “models of suspenseful storytelling and public service.”
