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Show ' , ; - 1 1 . rtttcmey Varian Protests Against IM-t IM-t ing Name of Chief Sheets With Those of Alleged Bunko Gang; Testimony of Victim Is Continued. . A,seVere grilling of Alexander McWhirter this morning morn-ing brought out several startling facts in the trial of Chief of Police George A. Sheets this moring. . Under the severe cross-examination by Attorney C. S. Varian, '.McWhirter, who was oh the witness stand nearly the entire morning, 'admitted that he had stayed in Salt Lake, City during the time his -counsel was working on the case, under an as- . turned name, and that he is now a guest of Sheriff Emery athe'county jail. "When traveling about the country look- : in; (for the robbers, he asserted that he also traveled under ai assumed name. Further he admitted that he had visited vis-ited the office of the Chief of Police with Mr. Pendergast, a stenographer, for the purpose of entrapping the Chief cf Police. He further endeavored to explain why he had not asked the arrest of Bell when they were at the police station, and why he had not informed the police when he saw Bell and Davis at the Sanitarium after he had lost the $10,000 and when ihe had reported the matter to the police. Chief of Police Sheets scarcely moved .this . morning during the- hearing in Which he is e barged with being an ae-eessory ae-eessory after the fact-in not reporting the- srEegeJ robbery' of the McWhirter brothers to-aIgiaiTt aaa'hffcwring-and aaa'hffcwring-and protecting the alleged criminals. 1 AttorneV-. Varian, "for the detense,' male- a strong dbjertion to allowing the Jinking of 'the' name of Chief . Sheets .- with three of the alleged robbers. He averred that it was unfair, as the evi- J dence showed that the alleged bunko gang were grafters and disreputables too low for decent 'consideration. . Living at Comity JalL McWhirter declared that most of the . time since his return to Salt Lake City he had been at the county, jail, where 1 be has lived and still lives. He declared that his reasonXor having his residence there was that he" was afraid the. robbers rob-bers had friends in the city that might attempt to do him bodly harm. He de-( de-( elared that he went there fet the solicitation solici-tation of his brother, who was staying there during the time he was looking for the men in Nevada. . ' battle of ' Wit. ' ' , The examination of McWhirter by Attornev Varian this morning was a battle of wit that many times put the ' court in an uproar. McWhirter 's and the attorney 's questions were many timer misunderstood by each other and wiined great mirth. ' ,,' . AThe witness was also called upon to ratify Capt. -J. B. Burbidge and ChiW of Detectives George B. Ealeigh. Donaldson's Sister. Mrs. Mary King,' a sister of "Jim" Donaldson, was placed on the witness tand to show that. Donaldson visited her home on the night of the alleged robberv. His two nieces, Miss Mar-eella Mar-eella King and Miss Grace King, a so testified to the same facts. Thev also identified the photographs of 'Jim Donaldson, John O'Brien and his brother.' broth-er.' , Large Crowd Court. When court convened this morning there was a lareer erowd present than has been seen at a trial in manv months. Many of the business men of the city were present, as well as a lare number of politicians. Several times the court was obliged to admonish the . listeners to be quiet and not indulge in , outbursts of laughter. During the hear-ing hear-ing he was compelled -to place Bailiff Fred Butler at the door to e'ect any . person who made a noise. Several times McWhirter was eom-, eom-, pclled to correct his testimony on account ac-count of his misunderstanding the ouestions and the attorney misunderstanding misunder-standing him. McWhirter appeared as neat and dapper dap-per as ever. He was recalled .for cross-examination by Attorney Vanan. Sees Attorney Whittemore, Among the first questions asked him were to the effect that be did not want the matter in the newspapers at. the time that he was robbed. McWhirter denied that he had said anythin against it. Later in the examination he said that after returning from-jjos Angeles he went directly to Attorney C. O. Whittemore, to whom he had been. sent by an-attorney at -Los Angeles. An-geles. He declared that after having an Interview with the attorney he went to-the Elk hotel. Thompson." , TV f re he declared that .he registered ttndv the name of John Thompson; He aid that he had left his brother in Los Angeles. Farther he asserted that he stayed there for four or five days until he went to the county jail. 'rDid vou register there t " asked At-lorvVy At-lorvVy arian. i '3fo," he replied. Thfi witness then told of his going to Py c4 the "railroad excursion," 0a . ' '. . - v - ... that trip he said he was accompanied by Deputy Sheriff G-.-A. Sperry.- Question as to Kama. . ' "Did you know what your name was theref " he was asked. .. v . . .-"2v . X,-was-in tha- eompany af-th deputy sheriff." -. ' . i , vwai vonr name - changed T" .' . "I think it was." ' Don't 'you know what name-you were to answer to!" , "Not"; . - . ' , ' "You were introduced te several people peo-ple were you not t" "Yes.' - 1 "Well, what. name was used then!" "I don't know." - "It wasn't your own name, then!" "No." .'... "So you were practically there without with-out a namef " - . . "No, I had a name." On Trip to Beno. The witness declared that he might have been mistaken as to the day on which he went to Ely. ' As soon as he returned from Ely, he declared that h went to Beno,"Ney in company with Deputy Sheriff Joseph C. Sharp. He was .then asked: ' "How long were you there f" "We were there two nights going through all the disreputable places to find the robbers." Prior to going, he said, he had made a complaint against Donaldson, Davis or Hemingway, and Morris. Visit to Chief's Office. , The examination then shifted to the visit of Pendergast and McWhirter to the office of Chief of Police Sheets. He declared that he .went there to see whether there were any further developments devel-opments in the case and further confirm what statements Sheets had made to him. . "You are not interested in this case are vout" asked the attorney. ' "By Jove, no," replied the witness. He declared that the only interest he had was in securing the return of his money and seeing the robbers punished. "Which do you want the worst!" "I don't know. I want both." "When did you. go to the county, jail ! " "After I came back from Nevada." "The second timet" "Yes." Talked With Braffet. I On examination McWhirter declared that he and Attorney M. P. Braffet had conducted their explorations of the case, together for several days before consulting con-sulting with the county authorities. In asking this question McWhirter refused to answer it by declaring that the attorney at-torney was not putting it in the propetv way. "Was it the day before you left for Ely that you saw those flimflammers. Bell and Davis, at the 8anitarium, and pointed them out to Attorney Braffet!" asked Attorney Varian. "Yes."- Registered at Sanitarium. It was then testified that McWhirter had notified ,Mr. Braffet while they were passing the place that he saw Bell and Davis, the two bogus policemen, police-men, going into the Sanitarium. He declared that he also found their names on the register. "Did you not want them arrested and suggest the same to your counsel!" ' 1 Yes, but he suggested that we had better wait and get them together, because be-cause if we had them arrested then the others might get away. There were other reasons." "That is enough," said the attorney. "Then you don't want to hear them!" asked the witness. Traveled in Disguise. ' The witness then . went on to tell about his securing the affidavit of the interview in-terview with Chief Sheets. He also retold re-told of his returning to Salt Lake City and' traveling in disguise. This, he said consisted of shaving his mustache, wearing a large slouch hat and different differ-ent colored clothing.' "Did yon say that the Chief or any of. the officers at any. time urged you to leave the city?" "No." . . McWhirter declared that in asking the Chief if there were any developments develop-ments in the case and finding there were not, it would qonvince him that Sheets was in touch with the robbers. - He declared that Bell.'s quick return with $250 convinced him that the Chief was in touch with the robbers, although the Chief declared that Bell might have had the money on him at the time he entered the room. It was at thie point that Capt. Burbidge Bur-bidge and Detective Baleigh were introduced in-troduced for identification. . After a short cross-examination by Senator Brown on redirect to clear up several minor details, McWhirter was excused. Chief Expresses Surprise. The witness declared that when he called on Chief Sheets the second time that -the officer had said that he was surprised that a man of Attorney Braffet Braf-fet s intelligence should not have reported re-ported the matter to the police at once. "Did you suspect the Chief at that time of being an accomplice!" came the question from the attorney. "1 got that from other people. Every attorney I spoke to about it said so. I spoke to people hundreds of miles from here and they said so. They all said that it looked like a very , bad case against the Chief." ' ' ' You were thinking that before then, were you not!" "No. I was simple then. X am learning learn-ing now." " When you went to Chief Sheets the second time you went there to trap him, did you not!" ' "Well, I went there to confirm what he had said. I needed a witness to confirm con-firm my affirmations." After returning with the statement to Attorney Braffet 's office, the witness said that the attorney then dropped out of the case, saying that his eyes would not allow him to continue. He declared that City Judge J. J. Whitaker was called up by telephone and asked to come to the County Attorney's Attor-ney's office where the complaints were made out against Jim Donaldson and two others. It was after that he says that he went to Goldfield. "Why did you no to the county jail!" fie was asked. 1 "Because of two reasons. After my return from Goldfield I was met at the station by my brother.- He said that he4 was staying at the jail, so in the interests inter-ests of economy we -went there. ' "I also, went there to protect ourselves our-selves from the robbers or from friends that they might have in the city." "Then you feared the fellows yon had been chasing all over Nevada!" "Yes." . "When did you leave the county jail!" "I am still staying there." . ' "In-the. interest of economy!" "There is quite a' possibility of our being attacked yet. " Mrs. Mary King, a sister of James Donaldson, and who lives in New. Eug- him. She was asked what was done during dur-ing the time they were there. She declared de-clared that Jim attempted to use the telephone. Varian Makes Objection. This was strenuously objected to by Attorney Varian on the grounds that unless the prosecution intended to show that it was connected with Chief of Police Po-lice Sheets. It was also at this point that he objected to the name of Sheets being connected with that of the' robbers. rob-bers. The court allowed the question to be answered and the witness said: "I think it was No. 2. I don't know what the number was, but he didn't get it anyway." After declaring that she believed that John O'Brien was one of the names used during their stay, she also identified identi-fied his photograph. . Attorney Varian started to. cross-examine the witness-when the court adjourned ad-journed for" the noon recess. land addition, was the next witness to be called to the stand. She declared that Jim Donaldson and five other men had been at her home on the night of the robbery. She declared that Jim and three men came out first and that later they were joined by two other men. She declared that they had supper there, and that they all left shortly before 8 o'clock. She also identified the photographs photo-graphs of Donaldson and the two O'Brien brothers. She also declared that , a man came out on horseback shortly before the men. left, but this was stricken out because be-cause she did not see the man or the horse. She declared that Jim Donaldson had been around Salt Lake City for the past fifteen or sixteen years. - Jim and three of the men, she declared,' de-clared,' came out on the street car. She declared she was away from home at the time'of the arrival, but found them there when she returned a few minutes later. - Before the evening meal was finished she declared that one of the men arose and returned to the eity with the buggy.- She said-that' at the time she met her brother, or- at the time the two other men arrived in a buggy, making the six, she was not introduced to any. of them. - Couldn't Identify Them. Miss Narcella King, a. niece of Jim Donaldson 's, testified to seeing the men at the place, but could not identify the photographs. Miss Grace King, another niece of Jim's, also told of Jim telephoning to her before he came out. She said he told her that he was coming out for supper and would bring three men: with '. |