JAKE & CLARA is based on a true story about scandal, politics, Hollywood-and murder-from the dawn of the Jazz Age. When Warren Harding won the White House in 1920, his campaign received millions from Jake Hamon-"The Oil King of Oklahoma." Harding planned to make Jake the most powerful businessman in America. But Mrs. Harding (some called her "The Duchess") had one condition-Hamon, a married man, had to end his affair with his long-time mistress, a girl named Clara.
Jake and Clara had been together for ten years, since she was seventeen and he was thirty-seven. But Jake coveted the powerful Washington job, and he dumped Clara a couple of weeks after Harding was elected.
A few days later, Clara shot Jake.
By the time Jake died, Clara was in the wind. A headline-grabbing national search was conducted for the beautiful fugitive. Clara "sightings" were reported far and wide. A pair of colorful lawmen found Clara in an unlikely hiding place and brought her back to Ardmore, Oklahoma to face the charge of first-degree murder. What followed was one of the most sensational murder trials of the era. A "dream team" of powerful lawyers surrounded Clara in the courtroom. Soon Hollywood came calling, wanting to put Clara's story on the big screen…starring Clara as herself.