He truly was a crook, wasn't he?!? I found this article on the Brookly Daily Eagle website reminiscing about this scandal. Evidently, the newspaper outed him on this scheme and printed a cartoon of Russell and his Miracle Wheat, and so Russell sued them and lost! So ... does anybody happen to have a copy or a link to this cartoon? I would love to see it!
Here is the article from http://www.brooklyneagle.com/archive/category.php?category_id=23&id=9312