A woman married "the world's richest Indian", the Interior Secretary gave away $1.1 million of his oil money, and the courts took it back

Jackson Barnett was a Muscogee Creek man who received a 160-acre allotment in Creek County in 1903. Oil was found on it in 1912. On 17 February 1916 the Gypsy Oil Company brought in his No. 11 well, which peaked at about 18,000 barrels a day, then an Oklahoma record. That year an Oklahoma probate court declared him mentally incompetent and appointed a guardian. By 1920 his royalties had built a fund of about $1,000,000, which the Secretary of the Interior held in Liberty Bonds. In 1920 he married Anna Laura Lowe, whom he had met once before, in Kansas after Oklahoma refused a licence. The couple moved to a mansion on Wilshire Boulevard, where Barnett directed traffic at a nearby intersection. On 15 December 1922 Barnett, about 73, put his thumbprint on a document asking the Secretary to give $550,000 in bonds to his wife and $550,000 to the American Baptist Home Mission Society. The Secretary approved it on 1 February 1923. In 1925 his Oklahoma guardian sued in New York to cancel the gift, and the United States joined in 1926. The court found Barnett incompetent and ordered the bonds returned. On 1 June 1931 the Supreme Court affirmed and cut the lawyers' fee from $100,000 to $50,000. In March 1934 a federal ruling annulled the marriage. Barnett died that May. His estate was valued at $3.5 million. Anna was evicted from the mansion in 1938 after throwing a hatchet and being tear-gassed.