When the SEC Comes a Knockin': How the Feds Shut Tucker Down
This also meant that they'd need a transmission for the car. Front wheel drive Cord's offered a transmission which needed only minor modifications to work and these would serve to power the first of the pilot models, while the company developed their own. In a breakneck pace of engineering, Tucker had three different transmissions ready by the time the last cars rolled off the assembly line. The first was simply a Cord transmission with the necessary gearing conversions to enable it to work in a Tucker. The second transmission was an improved version of the Cord's, with the known glitches in the Cord's corrected. The third transmission was almost completely original and an early automatic, called the “Tuckermatic.” One of the “glitches” that developed during this hurried process that none of the engineers bothered to correct was that a Tucker could do some 50 MPH in reverse!
As the company raced to get the cars completed, it was quickly realized that the steering wheels wouldn't be ready in time. Alex Tremulis made a phone call to some friends who worked at Ford to see if they had any suggestions. Their response was to give Tucker 50 wheels that had cosmetic flaws, on the condition that they be destroyed when Tucker was done with them.
With the first of the cars rolling off the pilot production line, it looked like the company was going to meet Tucker's deadline after all. Then the SEC subpoenaed all the company's records. Tucker's lawyers requested time in order to work out a system so that the SEC could have the documents they wanted, with minimal disruptions to the daily operations of the plant. The SEC basically told Tucker, “We want all of them, and we want them now.” Tucker complied and shutdown operations, citing the difficulty of keeping the plant open with federal agents crawling all over the place.
I'm not sure what Tucker's reasoning behind closing the plant was. If it truly was impossible to keep the plant going, then why did he allow a skeleton crew of unpaid volunteers to continue assembling cars? Also, why did he, a few weeks later, call back some one third of the workforce, even though the SEC was still lurking about?
It's possible that Tucker had an “I'll show them!” mentality when he ordered the plant closed, figuring that the prospect of some one thousand people being unemployed would convince the SEC to relax some of it's demands. Its also possible that it was too difficult to keep the plant going and he only reopened it in a desperate bid to at least get some cars in the hands of dealers before the was out. Whatever his reasons were, it didn't matter, since the SEC raid spelled the beginning of the end for the company. (I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been a more effective strategy to keep all but two or three of the cars and sell the rest to dealers. That way, a larger percentage of the population could see and touch the cars.)
Tucker did try to make the best of the situation by inviting the automotive press out to test drive the cars and completing a promotional film which was sent to dealers to try and drum up support for the car. It didn't do any good, however, as the SEC report was leaked to the press, which promptly trumpeted it's findings as fact, without ever bothering to verify any of the information in it. Drew Pearson, who broke the story on his top rated radio show, had a personal connection to Tucker: His son-in-law had unsuccessfully tried to go into business with Tucker.
The SEC filed charges against Tucker and the Feds immediately took possession of the company and placed it under receivership, even though the ledgers clearly showed the company was in the black. The Aircooled Motors division remained in business until it was absorbed by Pratt and Whitney a year or so ago. As stated earlier (if you can remember that far back), the SEC based it's case solely on the Tin Goose, ignoring the fifty cars the company had produced. It took the jury just 16 hours to find Tucker not guilty on all counts. Tucker would spent the remaining few years of his life trying build another car company, without success. The federal government would continue to own and operate the remaining portions of the Tucker Corporation until the 1960s.
