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Show I MeGee Appears in Court I to Testify in Martin Case Postoffice Inspector Says He Has Changed His Opinion and No Longer Believes Myron A. Smith Wrote the Black-Hand Black-Hand Letters Judgement Influenced by Seeing the ; Martin Letters and Conferring With Kytka, the j Handwriting Expert Talk of Recalling j Kytka Trial May Be Very Long. I I Assistant United States District I Attorney W. M. McCrea appeared in 9 court at the opening hour and pro-9 pro-9 duced the lost documents, the little Mr yellow slip and the Smith letter to 9 his son, apologizing to the court and M' the attorneys for not having discov-9- ' ered them in his papers before. Mr. !' McCrea stated that he did not know 9 he had them In his possession until 9 this morning when, at the request of 9' the officers, he searched his office 9 ' and found them. 9 The mooted question as to what 9): lias become of the "yellow slip" of I j paper and a letter addressed by My ron A. Smith to bis son, whichflhad j , troubled the court and the attorneys If for a number of days, was settled In If i the district court in tbe case ot' the II, state against J. II. Martin this morn-Ik morn-Ik ing when a telephone ' message was I! received from former Assistant Uni It ted States District Attorney W. M. I McCrea that he bad found tho paper3 If 1 Inside of the grand jury minute book & ,n nis I,ortfolio at ,s office in Salt IS Uilcc. .Mr. McCrea staled that be Ijtf would personally bring the documents Ijjf into court, Awaiting bis arrival, tbe III. court took a recess until 1 p. m. If It appears that Mr. McCrea bad In-Iff In-Iff advertantly taken the jury minutes lit ancl ine two Papers in question at the III conclusion of the grand jury investl-t investl-t pations regarding tbe Smith case and Iff placed them in bis portfolio when U they should have been placed in tbe R hands of tbe postoffice inspectors or l the clerk of tbe federal court. Evert mjt. though the assistant United States alls al-ls torney had learned that the paperr Re were missing, it did not occur to him Wm that he had them until court orders B for tbe documents began to be issued mm in no uncertain terms and Shcrirt Ik DcVinc was making strenuous efforts m? to locate Postoffice Inspector L. A. K McGee. Tb& discovery of the miss S. In$ papers was announced while At- fiP torney Christensen was questioning Inspector .McGce ns to what bad been done with tbe documents. H McGcc Explains. K When placed on the witness stand B this morning. Mr. McGee stated that K be was the principal Instigator of the B' Smith prosecution as a postoffice in- B spector, but that Inspector Ralph mm Smith had been associated in the lit casejprior to Smith's arrest. Tbe BI papers used in evidence bad been in 91 his hands, tbe witness said, during 91 the time of tbe preliminary bearing. 91 and that ho had turned them over K. to the United States district attorney H at the timo of be investigation by B tho federal grand jury. At the con- B elusion of the investigation, Mr. Mc- B Gee said the attorney returned to him B a package of papers that bad beer B used in the case and be had no idea B but that all tbe handwritings of Smitli were in the package. He kept the M package In his desk at the Ogden fed- eral building and it was turned over B to District Attorney Davis at a sub- Br sequent time. He saw all tho papers W while the grand jury was in session ySv but could not say whether the letter mS and the yellow slip were in the pack- age when II waB given to him by Uni- 9 ted States Attorney W. W. Ray. B The storm of the morning had a B tendency to lessen the attendance at B the trial, so far as the ladies were B concerned, but the men bad tbe court B room filled at the opening hour and 9 there were many standing in tbe 9 aisle. It was expected that A. P. Blge- 9 16w, who was on tbe witness stand all day yesterday and a part of tho day before, would be on the witness stand again this morning, but, in the Kf face of the fact that Postoffice Inspcc- tor McGee was on bandr Attorney Mi Christensen called him to the witness II stand to ascertain what had become of the lost documents, stating to tbe 1 court that be would continue the re- j direct examination of Mr. Bigclow at a subsequent time. The attorney i stated that, he preferred to have the j missing documents before him be- " fore proceeding further and that, in- ' asmuch as they had been found, and would likely be In court for an af- tcrnoon session, he proposed a recess, Attorney Leatherwood stated that be J was ready to proceed without tho long-sough t-f or documents, but that bo would '.not oppose a recess. C The situation is such at thl3 lime, H, that it is uncertain as to when the ? i case will be submitted to the Jury. I All efforts are now directed toward i the 'Myron A. Smith handwritings in ' comparison with tbe blackhand letters and the examination may reach a I. yolnt wbereMt will be necessary for ' the state to call tbe expert on hand- I writing, Thoo'dorc Kytka, of San Fran- Cisco, to rebut the testimony of other experts. It was rumored last evening eve-ning that Kytka bad been wired to return re-turn to Ogden immediately and pro- j pare to make a thorough examination ii of tbe Smith writings. Should the ; rebuttal lead int such Uetail, all or '! noxt week, nnd perhaps more, time, '.J will be taken up In the further hear- j ing ot the ensc. ' j , Afternoon Session, j When the trialwas resumed this af- . tcrnoon, the court room was crowded l' ii to its capacity and many people were V standing In lte outside corridor. .1?! ,." , more ladies beiW present than at 4 '. t.lie morning sesbjon. The intorest of 'i tle afternoon centered in the 'tcstl- ;i ' I mouy ofJostoffifi Inspector L. A. M McGce who tcstlffml last November 4A before UnitedStaU a . Commissioner S. T. Corn that Myron A. Smith, in his opinion, wrote some of the black-hand black-hand letters. Today, however, the In-spector In-spector would only say that there arc striking similarities in tbe two writings writ-ings and he would not say that tbe questioned letters are in the band of Smith. Tbe reason for his changed opinion, opin-ion, the witness explained, was that be bad made further investigations respecting handwriting and had also seen other letters which were more similar to the blackhand than Smith's. He also related that he had conferred with the handwriting expert, ex-pert, Theodore Kytka and also that be had met Douglas A. Swan, an expert, ex-pert, who testified for the state In tbe Martin case. These experts bad caused him to conclude that, he was mistaken last November. Mr. McGee admitted that be bad given the Smith writings careful consideration con-sideration at the time of the preliminary prelim-inary hearing and that, upon that examination, ex-amination, he was convinced that Smith was the writer of the black-band black-band letters. He was reluctant to testify at this time, as he bad not bad time to carefully examine the exhibits ex-hibits before him and he was not altogether al-together familiar with other writings, referring to the Martin letters, which he might be called upon to pass. He did not claim to be an expert, although al-though be bad had seven years experience ex-perience examining and comparing handwritings. The witness had no hesitancy in testifying to the things ho knew and said that he would tell the truth to the best of bis knowledge and belief. Changes His Opinion. The letters chiefly called to the attention at-tention of the witness were those addressed ad-dressed to D. C. Eccles and Ralph E. Bristol in 1913. A magnifying glass was handed the witness with which to examine tho writings, after he said be would not venture a positive answer an-swer until be had an opportunity to make a more careful examination. Some time was taken up in looking over the exhibits before be answered the question whether be would now say Myron A. Smith wrote tbe two exhibits. The witness said be would sajr so now, even though be bad testified tes-tified to the contrary at tbe Smith bearing. McGee answered Attorney Christensen Chris-tensen that he appeared before tho grand jury against Smith and that Smith was indicted for conspiracy to defraud after Martin had been arrested ar-rested and after be had seen tbe Martin writings, tbe indictment against Smitli being based largely on his handwriting compared with the questioned letters. Attorney Rebukes McGee. "And yet, you were Avilling to swear away Smith's liberty after you had seen things to change your opinion opin-ion as to the Smith handwriting?" asked the attorney. The witness answered that the bearing before tho commissioner was for using mails to defraud while tbe grand jury was investigating tbe question of conspiracy to defraud. "Had Martin never been arrested, then, you would now be ready to swear that Smith wrote the black-hand black-hand letters?" Christensen nsked. "Yes, 1 think I would testified that Smith wrote them, as there would be nothing before mo to change my opinion, answered tbe inspector. in-spector. Further examining Mr. McGee, Attorney At-torney Christensen bad him go Into detail regarding words and letters in tbe Smith and the questioned letters that had caused him to form his opinion opini-on last fall. The witness indicated a number of "striking similarities" in tbe two writings and he also began to point out dissimilarities when the attorney Insisted that he give only the similarities. The witness appealed to the court to be permitted to answer an-swer the questions In bis own way, whereupon the court remarked: Court Orders Direct Answers. "Go ahead and answer tbe questions as they arc put to you. The attorney asked you to point out tbe similarities similari-ties upon which you based your Judgment Judg-ment at tbe preliminary bearing. Now, go ahead nnd do tbat." Respecting the addresses on the letters, the witness said there were greater similarities than in the body of the writings and he went so far as to say tbat it is possible that Smith addressed the letter to Mrs. Ralph Bristol. There were striking similarities simi-larities in the words "Ogden, Utah," the witness declared, but tbat at this timo, in the face of the additional knowledge at hand, he would not say Smith wrote the questioned letters. The inspector said he visited San Francisco where he met Mr. Bristol and Mr. Kytka, and that at tbat time he had the Smith letters with him. He knew of no arrangement for pay as an expert witness, so far as bis testimony was concerned, and that be knew of none with Kytka. He said he had seen both Kytka and Swan after af-ter Martin's arrest and that what they said about tho writings went a long way to convince him that bo wa3 wrong. The witness also stated that the Martin writings caused him to change bis opinion. 'Then you had to go on tbe outside to get something to change your opinion, opin-ion, did you?'' said Christensen. . "I did not," replied the witness, "it was brought to'me." . .' ' "Well," continued Christensen, "tbe exhibits before you now are the same as they were when you fixed your opinion last fall. There is no change in them, Is there?" "I think they arc the same," said Mr. McGee. "Then you did have to get something some-thing from the outside to change your opinion, did you not?" said the lawyer. law-yer. "Yes, it was the additional information infor-mation that changed my opinion," the witness declared. MIE APPEARS IN COURT TO TESTIFY I Ifffl CASE (Continued from Page 1) Late Yesterday Proceedings. Late yesterday afternoon, after Attorney At-torney Leatherwood had called the attention of Mr. Blgelow to a number of letters used In the blackhand and Martin writings which bore rather a marked resemblance, the cross examination exami-nation was concluded by the witness saying that the similarity of the writings writ-ings "had caused him to somewhat modify his opinion which was expressed ex-pressed at the time of the Myron A Smith hearing to the effect that the Smith writings and the blackhand letters let-ters were by the same person. The witness further stated that, upon a close examination of the three writings, writ-ings, Smiths, Martin's and the black-hand, black-hand, he would say that the Martin and the blackhand writings are more nearly similar than the Smith and the blackhand letters, except as to the Bristol address. He would not change his mind on the handwriting in that address and he stoutly maintained main-tained that the address in the Smith writings and the blackhand writings were identical, so much so, that he would "cash a check on it" The witness said that, after examining the Martin handwriting and comparing compar-ing it with that in the blackhand letters, let-ters, having in mind the Smith writings writ-ings at the 6ame time, he had occasion occa-sion to modify his opinion of a few months ago. However, Mr. Blgelow did not say that the Martin and the blackhand writings were executed by the same person. On re-dlrect examination, Mr. Blgelow Blge-low still maintained that there was a marked resemblance between the Smith and the blackhand writings, and that in some of them there was a "striking resemblance." The witness also said that he testified tes-tified at the Smith hearing that "all the letters and all the addresses were written by the same person," referring referr-ing to the Smith and the blackhand letters. Mr. Blgelow stated, however, howev-er, that there was one writing that was not Included in that answer. He said that at tills time he would modify that opinion only in respect to writings writ-ings outside of the Bristol address on one of the envelopes. Surprised at Similarity. Mr. Blgelow also said that he was surprised at the marked similarity of the three writingst referring to Smith's. Martin's and that found In the blackhand letters. He found many points of strong resemblance 1 and, also, many dissimilarities. He tfl said that there had been no change Vwm In the handwriting in the questioned Wm letters nor in the Smith exhibits since ml he testified last fall, but that his modi- &H fied opinion was based on the fact rVH that he had examined the Martin let- fhH ters and that, during his examination hl before the jury, bis attention had Hl been called to points in the formation tl of letters which he had uot hereto- il fore observed. vBk The witness said he was in court fH as a witness reluctantly and that he Wk also was reluctant to appear in the Smith hearing as a witness, the reason being that he did not fancy the task IH of an examination by lawyers over a prolonged period. IH In explanation as to why he sought out the district attorney and asked to sec the Martin writings, he said that he knew he was to be called as a witness and that as he would be ex- amined respecting the Martin hand- IH writing he desired to make himself somewhat familiar with It He said -H he had no especial interest in the case and denied that his opinion had feth- changed since last fall through ulterl- Jfe1! or motives. Ho said he was not preju- diced against Martin and was asso- HaL' elated only in a limited degree with the parties who were the victims of blackhand letters. He had not been (fcj "seen" since yesterday, JEf! That Yellow Slip. jg When asked whether the letters In iper? question had been written by more out than one person, Mr. Bigelow said )rtl$ that he thought one of the letters was H"6fj written in a different hand than the toltJ others, not stating which one it was. He said that the missing "yellow slip" tins writings nided him in forming an vS; opinion as to the handwriting In the suS Bristol address on an envelope and if that words and letters found in the qraj. missing letters, written by Smith to !r his son, had much to do with his con- WW elusions respecting the formation of wnlj the final letters "K," "t" and "d." pfl Speaking of the dots found over WM the final letter "s" in the Martin and blackhand writings, Mr. Bigelow HH said he thought they were made by tM the writer for either the possessive Hj or plural form. Kj |