Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-01-23 | Page 9 | Mystery Man Sought by Federal Agents

MYSTERY M SOUGHT BY FEDERAL AGENTS West Coast of Mexico Is Searched for Suspect in India Conspiracy. .' SAN" FRANCISCO, Jan. 22. Details of a futile hunt along the west coast of Mexico by a federal agent for a.mysteii-oua a.mysteii-oua person known as "Juan Bernardo Bowen," in order that he might throw light on an alleged conspiracy to set up a revolutionary government in India, were given here today in the trial uf thirty-one of the supposed conspirators in the United States district -court. The government contends that Bowen was a dummy agent of the Carranza government, gov-ernment, whose name was used by the alleged conspirators to make it appear that a shipment of munitions was intended in-tended for a legitimate purpose in Mexico, Mex-ico, whereas it was actually intended for the proposed revolution. ' The hunt for Bowen was conducted by David Gershon, special agent for the department de-partment of justice tn San Diego, who testified that he could not find a trace 1 of the man. He described visits to the towns of Topolobampo and San Bias, in the province of Sinaioa, stating that the former place "had a native population of 150,000 and but one small store." Preliminary negotiations for the sale of the steamer Maverick by the Standard Oil company to John F. Craig, one of the alleged conspirators, were outlined ' by Arthur Page, a San Francisco shipping broker, who testified that he hajidled the deal. The prosecution alleges that the Maverick was secured to transport a munitions mu-nitions shipment from the Socorro islands, off the Mexican coast, to India. The Maverick, however, failed to make connections con-nections with a vessel that took the shipment ship-ment from San Diego to the islands. The munitions were to be transshipped to the Maverick, the prosecution alleges.