Dramatic party switches, payoffs from brothel madams, criminals on the police force -- the political career of Albert Alonzo "Doc" Ames was chock-full of proof that he wanted to be mayor of Minneapolis to serve himself. The citizens of the city were a mere afterthought.
Despite Doc's antics, however, he was voted into the mayor's office four times. And four times he set up the city just as he liked it, connecting himself just close enough to the criminal underworld to make as much money as possible off it.
This worked, for a time, until his fourth term when his administration's schemes were finally brought to court and everything unraveled.
Doc was convicted, but that was reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court whose decision in State of Minnesota v. Albert A. Ames, 91 Minn. 365, 98 N.W. 190 (1904) is posted in the Appendix.
Doc was never punished. He did not serve in a public office again, but in a way, that proves the original point: Doc went into politics for himself, and escaped it for the same reason.
Erik Rivenes has written a painstakingly detailed account of Doc's story in "Dirty Doc Ames and the Scandal That Shook Minneapolis" (2018).
It is reviewed here by Elena Neuzil, a journalist based in St. Paul.
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