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Show PERJURY If YOUTH 1 led ib conn m ! U Bohemian Fortune-Teller,,.-Con- , JjJH demned to Die, May Yet ' IjjH Be Innocent. ifjH SENSATIONAL CONFESSION ' H MADE BY STAR WITNESS High Official of Chicago Police jfl and Assistant State's Attor- V!H ney Are Implicated. Iffl ; CHICAGO, Feb. 22, Eighteen-year- ilH old Jerry M. V. Vvtral, whose testimony uNfil more than any other person's served to f kKhH convict tho Bohemian fortune-teller, ' BiTvfl Herman Billik. of tho murder of six. IiOfffl members of the Vzral family, has, it ftlVfl is announced today, recanted, and iu utiflfl au aftidavit declares-that the testimony Etrnl was simply perjury. siH Billik is under sentence to be hanged March 20. The Supreme court Thur3- i&tH day affirmed the n"lincnt. destroj-ing 111 'MM the man's last chance unless Governor fiH Denccn shall issue, a pardon. VH Xot onry does the Vzral bov impugn tfll his own evidence, but he declares two wH of his relatives also lied. ffiH In thc affidavit the -boy stjites that ffH all the vital part of tho testnnon' ho ffH ! gave against Billik at thc trial was '3111 periury that was taught him by a high iKi'l police oflicial and 'an assistant -State's fWI attorney.' flfl Names Accused Men. Uil Ho. names thc men whom ho ac- (sl cuses. In tho affidavit Vzral, who is wcl now a student in Valparaiso. Ind., as- iH sorts that he fold thc story because a flH police official threatened him with a Vs-Il charge of murder, unless he did as -the iKll 1 police wished him to do. The credit for . WH polishing off tho fictitious uarrative he gives to an assisiant State's attorney. Ml with whom,' he says, he was closeted fiH forty times, the conferences being from Svl I one "to four h'ours.' duration. EtH I Ho further asserts that the inspector BH of police summoned him at least fiftv H times, and that these conferences usu- I ally lasted two hours. 91 Tho confession was obtained through I thc instrumentality of the Rev. P. J r'-H ' O'Callaghan. head of the Taulist ffOH Fathers 'in'- this cit, and pastor of, St. Krfl Mary's Cathedral church, working in '-BTH Billik's bchnlf. fp;: .several months. Vl9 Father O'Callaghan in explaining his Kiil connection with tho case, says: jVfal Priest's Explanation. fl;(fl "The beginning of my interest dates iSjl from last spring. In ono of my frc- nH qucnt visits to the- county jail X met Iffl bister Rose, who asked me to interest 1D myself iu a prisoner named Billik. Slio ''IffHI . said that he was I here through a charge jf;B . of murder, but she knew he was an "lifl innocent man. I said I had so many AH calls upon my time and sympathy that jfliH I did not, feel I could do" anything for .''IS the man. At any rate, T said, he was rllaiH a fortune-teller. She answered: 'But. ':'jt he should not be banged for bo.ing ' El "I told her I- thought the judge and ' jl jury would do him justice. To my as- nH , touishment he was convicted and I felt Bl I that I had neglected thc cause of au .;H innocent man. Behind all the inci- "If B j dentals were thc prayers of a devoted ( ijS nun. who first assured me of Billik's in- I'Mi'SB nocenco, and the prayers of the sisters ' it who are called the Poor Claires." f,m Sister Rose of Columbus hospital, au ' ; institution of The Italiau order of the Jj m Missionary Sisters of tho Sacred Heart. ,J 1 is thc nun referred to. Jt was she who j jxfl converted thc car-barn bandit, Gustav " Imjl Marx, who was executed with Xieder- j JmsSI nicyer and Van Dine, the only one of Iji thc celebrated trio who died "a Chris- 'USfJ tian. I -:resa |
