on mail fraud charges after it was alleged he had mailed the fake promissory notes to several banks. During the trial, he admitted his entire scheme but declared he intended to repay all of the debts and had no criminal intentions. He was soon convicted and sentenced to serve ten years in prison, and he resigned on April 30 and was promptly arrested. The same day, Lieutenant Governor Emmett Forrest Branch was sworn in as governor. A close friend of McCray, he cried while taking the oath of office and later said that everything was so "sudden and surprising." Later life After serving three years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, he was paroled and returned home in 1927. While in prison, the Indiana Klan fell apart as their schemes were revealed by the Grand Dragon after he was convicted of the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer. McCray resumed his business, which had recovered and repaid his loans though he remained reclusive in his home. When Republican party leaders informed U.S. President Herbert Hoover in 1930 of the Klan's role in McCray's conviction, he received a presidential pardon. McCray remained on his farm where he died on December 19, 1938. He was buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Kentland, Indiana. Electoral history See also List of governors of Indiana List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States References Notes Bibliography External links Indiana Historical Bureau: Biography and portrait County History - McCray Bio Times Magazine National Governors Association Warren McCray at FindAGrave Warren T. McCray Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library 1865 births 1938 deaths American Presbyterians Republican Party governors of Indiana People from Newton County, Indiana Recipients of American presidential pardons People from Kentland, Indiana Indiana politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century American politicians