JOHN CALDWELL COLT: A NOTORIOUS ACCOUNTANT

John C. Colt was the author of a successful bookkeeping text which had many school adoptions and at least 46 editions. During an argument with Samuel Adams, his publisher, over the cost of his 5th edition, Colt killed Adams with a hatchet. Convicted of murder and condemned to execution by hanging, Colt committed suicide in prison in 1842. His text, The Science of Double Entry Bookkeeping, first published in 1838, continued in print until 1856.