10 Shocking Coverups EXPOSED by Normal People

10 Shocking Coverups EXPOSED by Normal People

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing the times regular people brought someone else’s nefarious deeds to light.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Leslie Miller

Prior to Watergate, many people considered this to be the biggest scandal in the history of the American government. In 1922, the federal government controlled several oil fields out west, including Teapot Dome Oil Field in Wyoming. Those fields were supposed to be reserved for the Navy to use in a crisis. But Interior Secretary Albert Fall secretly accepted bribes to lease two of the fields to two major oil companies under extremely favorable terms. When a Wyoming oil man named Leslie Miller noticed private trucks hauling equipment in, he got suspicious. He asked his senator to investigate, and soon, the whole deal was exposed. Fall went to jail, and ten years later, Miller became governor of Wyoming.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company Pollution

Erin Brockovich

She was working as a legal clerk when she exposed a huge coverup near the town of Hinkley, California. Pacific Gas and Electric Company had dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater in Hinkley ponds, sickening numerous people. In 1993, Brockovich discovered that the company had known for decades that toxic chemicals were seeping into the groundwater and had done nothing. She and lawyer Edward Masry helped residents file a class action lawsuit, and PG&E was forced to settle for over $300 million. Brockovich continued her environmental activism and has since become a TV host and a legal consultant for major firms.

Kerr-McGee Nuclear Plant Safety Issues

Karen Silkwood

In the early 1970s, Kerr-McGee’s Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Crescent, Oklahoma was riddled with safety issues, and the company was doing everything it could to keep them quiet. However, technician Karen Silkwood was onto them. She documented hazardous working conditions, faulty safety equipment, and missing plutonium, and found that records had been falsified to cover it all up. She reported everything to the Atomic Energy Commission and scheduled a meeting with a national reporter. But on her way there, she died under highly suspicious circumstances, and all her documents disappeared. Fortunately, her report was enough to spark an investigation into Kerr-McGee, and its nuclear plants were closed the next year.

NYPD Corruption

Adrian Schoolcraft

In the late 2000s, this New York City police officer started secretly recording conversations with his colleagues, and he captured some shocking stuff. His precinct had set illegal arrest quotas that led to cops hauling people in for the most minor offenses, and sometimes for no offense at all. At the same time, the higher-ups were intentionally underreporting crime statistics to make it look like their officers were having a positive impact. Schoolcraft faced major retaliation and harassment after he reported his findings, but he received a nice settlement payout after he sued. Schoolcraft followed in the footsteps of Frank Serpico, who became famous after he, too, exposed deep-rooted corruption in the NYPD in 1970.

U.S. Military Actions in Iraq & Afghanistan

Chelsea Manning

She spent seven years in prison for leaking documents that revealed terrible things the U.S. military had done in the Middle East. While serving as an intelligence analyst, Manning obtained copies of hundreds of thousands of reports and videos. She passed them on to Wikileaks – founded by Julian Assange – which has also exposed surveillance by the CIA and NSA, corruption in the Democratic National Committee, and much more. The documents Manning collected showed that the U.S. military had killed reporters and tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, and committed other atrocities. The leak caused a massive scandal, with many people debating whether Manning had done the right thing.

My Lai Massacre

Ron Ridenhour

It’s common knowledge that American soldiers were responsible for horrific violence against civilians during the Vietnam War, but the My Lai massacre was one of the worst. In March 1968, U.S. Army soldiers wantonly murdered between 350 and 500 women, children, and elderly men in the My Lai village for no apparent reason. The military initially reported it as an ordinary battle against enemy combatants. It was helicopter gunner Ronald Ridenhour who finally exposed the truth. He wasn’t present at the massacre but he saw the aftermath and did his own sleuthing. Ridenhour sent letters to Congress and President Nixon calling for an investigation, which revealed what had really happened in My Lai.

Purdue Pharma’s Role in the Opioid Epidemic

Barry Meier

The Sackler family are some of the most despised people in America thanks to this New York Times reporter. He discovered that the Sacklers’ company, Purdue Pharma, was aggressively marketing OxyContin to doctors while lying about its risks. Purdue knew that there was a high likelihood of people becoming dependent on the powerful narcotic, but it massively downplayed the problem while exaggerating the drug’s effectiveness. The company even knew that people were selling OxyContin on the streets and doctors were prescribing it to people who didn’t really need it. Meier made contact with a Purdue insider who gave him all the dirt he needed to expose the truth. The company has since gone bankrupt after paying out billions in fines and settlements.

2016 Russian Election Interference

Reality Winner

After Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it came to light that Russian agents had engaged in a massive social media campaign to spread disinformation and promote his candidacy. Rumors were already circulating that this interference had taken place, but it wasn’t confirmed to the public until Reality Winner leaked a classified document from the NSA. She was working as a translator for a company that contracted with the agency when she discovered the document, which provided proof of Russia’s actions. She mailed it anonymously to The Intercept, but the organization accidentally revealed her identity and she was arrested. Winner was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released in 2021 for good behavior.

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Peter Buxtun

For forty years, the U.S. Public Health Service intentionally withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men, without their consent, just to see what would happen. More than 100 of them died. It was one of the most disgustingly racist and cruel things the American medical community has done in the modern era, and it only ended in 1972 thanks to Peter Buxtun. He worked for the Public Health Service and was shocked when he learned about the study. He filed multiple complaints to his superiors, which went nowhere. Finally, Buxtun leaked information to a reporter. The story became front-page news and the study was quickly terminated, but no one was ever penalized for their role in it.

Watergate

Frank Wills

The most famous scandal in U.S. history was uncovered by a humble security guard. Wills was just 24 years old when he was working at the Watergate hotel and office building in 1972. He was doing his usual rounds early in the morning on June 17 when he discovered duct tape placed over a door latch so it wouldn’t lock. Wills called the cops, who locked down the building and helped him search the offices one by one. They arrested five men, who turned out to be operatives working for Richard Nixon to plant bugs in the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Despite his heroism, Wills had trouble finding work and spent most of the rest of his life in poverty.

Would you have the courage to expose a scandal? Which of these people deserve more recognition for their actions? Let us know in the comments below.