In 1888, Nellie Bly, an early American investigative journalist, traveled to Albany to explore rumors of corruption in the State legislature. Posing as the wife of a patent medicine manufacturer whose business would suffer if a certain bill was passed, she met with Mr. Ed Phelps (known as the “King of the Lobby”) at the Kenmore Hotel. Phelps shamelessly showed her a list of legislators who could be “bought” to kill the bill, all for the sum of $1,250. After the bill was killed, instead of paying Phelps, Bly’s article for Pulitzer's New York World, exposed him.

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Find the complete text of Nellie Bly’s article at The King of the Lobby.