Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-18 | Page 14 | Prosecution Rests in Gill Graft Case

i inrloN bests II GILLGfiAfT CASE J Minister Testi-ies as to i Promise of Former Salt Laker to Reform, KKATTLK, Mar.-h 17. Tho Rev. Dr. Mark A. Al al tln".va, p.ihlor or' the Virnt 1 I'lrshytcriiiii church, wan th principal witness today in the o-fitllnl whisky 1 proit trial in the l.'i.itcl Slates district court, the (i OKCcii tiun rest infj i ts cane moon nfter tho minister I'inUhci testifying. testify-ing. Tho court (Hrectcil a veniict of ac-fLiilt;il ac-fLiilt;il of Tiobort T. Jfod'e, former hheriff of Kiiitf county, one of seven (lefeniliint.i, iiu'liKiin Mayor Hiram C. Gill. Dr. Malthrws told of his first meeting meet-ing Lug an Billingnley, chief witness for , the government., last July, Billingslcy having culled on the minister in con-r con-r fiction with the funeral of a policeman who had been kilted in a fight at the Biilingslev liquor warehouse. Br. Mat thews bind ho urged iiiliingsley to reform. re-form. In August, according to Pr. Matthews, f'larenee Gerald, a liuuor dealer, and 1 Logan Billin'siev called on the minister, (ierald giving the witness $1000, asking him to use it in ' ' cleaning up the town.' Gerald prom bed to reform. The clergyman said he had heard that I Killingsley had paid .$10 a barrel for I trotting whiskv past the waterfront, aJid BiDingslev admitted it was true. ! ' ' fs it true you paid $7500 to the mayor? ' ' the idergyman said he asked BillingsJey. BUlingsley rPplied, accord-t accord-t ing to Dr. Matthews: "I won't tell i you, but I won 't lie to you. You '11 have j to ask my attorney. T 've paid thou-I thou-I fnnds for protection." Tho witness tes-i tes-i tified he told Tldlingslev he would have j rioth him and Mayor Gill indicted if he j could get the needed evidence, j The minister testified that, in Octo- ' Ver he went to the mayor's office and i told him of his conversations with Bil-lingHoy, Bil-lingHoy, saying: ' T 'm very much perplexed. T want to know the truth. I have asked "Ril- lingslev about the rumor that he paid you $7o00. Tho mayor replied, according to the witness: "I don't have anything to offer that Billingsley would pay $7500 for." Dr. "Matthews testified that he gave Gerald's $1000 and hundreds more to the police to aid in enforcing the dry law. Mayor Gill, Hodge, Charles Becking-ham, Becking-ham, Seattle's chief of police, and four city detectives were indicted in December Decem-ber by a United States grand jiirv on a charge of conspiring to import intoxicating intoxi-cating liquor into the state of Washington Washing-ton in violation of federal laws.