Villain as Wall Street pioneer

But here's the strange thing: Roosevelt denounced Gould primarily for his use of a "fraudulent corporation," the Manhattan Elevated Railroad. Why did he call it fraudulent?

On April 5, 1882, Theodore Roosevelt stood in the New York State Assembly and demanded an investigation. The indignant 23-year-old accused a clique of “swindlers,” “wealthy stock gamblers,” “men whose financial dishonesty is a matter of common notoriety,” of corruptly monopolising New York City’s elevated railroads. The plot’s mastermind, he implied, was Jay Gould.
 

Three cheers for the bad guy. The villain seizes control of the story, scheming, lying and betraying to get what he wants. And Jay Gould, the subject of Greg Steinmetz’s concise new biography, makes an excellent villain. Endlessly resourceful, utterly self-interested, he authored “the blackest pages