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Show I (Ad Myron A.Smith Write the Blaekhand Letters? That Question Has Been Brought Into the Martin Case by Attorney Christensen and Archie Bigelow Is Called to the Stand to Go Over His Testimony as to Handwriting s i Given at the Preliminary Hearing of Smith in 7 the Federal Court Character Witnesses Testify as to Martin's Reputation. i . The Martin trial met with a sud- -: . den Interruption at 11:20 this morn-f morn-f ) . InST. when Attorney Leatherwood ob- i jected to the introduction of testi- ! : mony respecting the "Myron A. Smith , . handwriting as compared vith tho 3 blackmail letters alleged to have been . written by J. Henry Martin. He ; asked for time to present authorities if and the court took an adjournment l n n't i 1 2 o'clock this afternoon. J Last evening the jurors experienced 1 no small scare when Juror Henry ; Wcsslcr received Information over llic telephone that his wife was dying. ,s Accompanied by the bailiff, Mr. Wess- lor hurried to the home but upon nr 1 riying discovered tfiat he had misuu- & I derstood the telephone message auu that It was his son who was seri- A ously ill, rather than his wife. Mr. 'I Wcsslcr's son has been very ill for 1 some time past and last evening his, .jjf, condition became so critical that the v father was advised. Doctors were frL hurriedly called and the juror wns vllvJv loI( t0 return 10 tne j"ri' r00nl- It j a reported this morning that young w - Wc-ssler is much improved. Iff When the startling word was re- If ceived last evening, all the jurymen u i became downcast, not only over the B sad news, but because they thought f i they saw the possibility of an ex- tended adjournment of court, during M I which time they would be required to ' - remain together. The time for the Ij end of the trial is draving near and the jurors were somewhat disturbed when they had visions of. its prolongation. prolonga-tion. Unless unexpected delay occurs, oc-curs, it is conceded now that tho j testimony will be in by tomorrow eve- i ning, possibly sooner. ! Other character witnesses, called this morning, were Harry Bagley. a I conductor on the -Southern Pacific; i V. D. Watson, a enrpenter. and Rob ert jFleeman, a contractor and build- . or. ' The witnesses all stated .that J - they- had knowi the -defendanta-num- t j her of years and that he bore a good reputation. j William Price testified that he was at the scene of the Edwards' shoot j j 1ng Sunday morning, November 9, and j J showed "everybody who asked" just ,J where Edwards tell, pointing to a j piece of paper and blood in the mid- I die of the road as marking the exact spot. He said he could not remember re-member whether Martin was there, I but he remembered that R. B. Porter m was there. il It will be recalled that Martin tes i tificd that Price showed him the place where Edwards fell and he f also said that Mr. Porter and Chief of Police W. I. Norton were there at the time. I h. J. Packer, who reported the pre- Iliminary hearing of Myron A. Smith, charged with using the mails to defraud, de-fraud, before United States Commissioner Commis-sioner S. T. Corn last fall, was called and he identified exhibits of Smith's handwriting as well as the blackmail letters as writings used in the hear-ing hear-ing for comparison. IH-f Sheriff T. A. De Vine was called to the witness stand to identify the writings of Smith which he had seen i executed at tho police station soon ( arter Smith's arrest. R. B. Porter was called to identify them but he said that he had no recollection of them. The letters, which he was yed to identify, were not the writ-Ingst writ-Ingst Smith furnished him and Mr, BelnWfc Archie P Hteelow, cashier of the Ogden State ba&. was called to testify tes-tify respecting toX Smith handwritings, handwrit-ings, compared wlthho blackmail letters. let-ters. He had ldenlfledr writings and also son1e of ,tne bla,ck l hand letters which h8 bad occasion J - to examine at the timAo "J Smith hearing, but when Attor?p-v Christen- f. i sen asked for hl8 oplffion J18 Jr ' whether they were written y , same person, Attorney Aeatherwood j Interposed an objection. ..... ! Mr. Leatherwood content tna.1. lr, ?. evidence is not permissibly cl?,e1-! ) on the ground that It Is collaftfral aml that the defendant should notVf, perI '; mitted to compare writings outJf, '. 1 those Introduced by the state. ,e 'J asked time to look up the law 'on , v. 1 question, whereupon the court l" 'ffiSLJIl iourncd until 2 o'clock. gMjrx Afternoon Session. 1 yfT j At the opening of court this afteV L i noon, Judge J. A. Howell announced! $UJ tliat ho wou,(1 overrule the objection! iJl and permit Mr, Bigelow to testify aB tU to the Smith handwriting as compared 'ltffi w'lu the D'ackhand letters. In pa88-Ing pa88-Ing on the question, the judge stated Ui that he considered that the defendant m should have the same Privilege of W comparing the hand writings ot Smith ml as the state had been given in com- . :m paring Martin's writing with the dls- mi ' puted letters. ijii "v'hen Attorney Christensen began 1 . the examination of Mr. BlgeloV. the 'M witness said he did not care to state Mi auything positive regarding the hand m, writing as part of tho writings he m I had before him at the Smith bearing ' was not before him now, referring wXf-; " particularly to a yellow piece of pa jit'! 'per on which Smith had written for Sir Mr. Porter and Mr, Belnap. Yellow Paper Missing. 9', At this juncture Attorney Christen- Ij son turned to District Attorney Davis "Mi and sharply demanded the yellow pa- 1M. j per and nil the Smith exhibits. Davis 'Mv replied that he did not have-them "and tial 0068 'n CUrt be6n filVe" ' to him by Ppstoffice Inspector Ralph Smith. The inspector was then caUed to the stand and he said that he got the Smith writings from Davis office this morning and that he did not give them to Davis. Ho explained, however, how-ever, that Davis, some time ago, had asked for the Smith writings and that his fellow inspector, Thomas Kitch, had taken them to Davis' office. There was a little difference of opinion between be-tween Smith and Davis as to who delivered de-livered tlie exhibits to Davis and just how the writings had been handled. Transcript is Obtained. Christensen then asked the district attorney for a transcript ot the testimony testi-mony given by Mr. Bigelow at the Smith hearing before Commissioner Corn. Davis said ho did not have the transcript. Then Christensen called tho stenographer, Harold Packer, and a3ked him whether he had not made a transcript for Davis, to which Packer Pack-er replied that he had. Attorney Davis Da-vis then said that the transcript was at his office. The difficulty on this point was settled by the stenographer furnishing Mr. Christensen with a copy of Mr. Bigelow's testimony. In the meantime. Christensen had demanded all the writings used in the Smith hearing and asked Inspector Smith to return to his office in the federal building and make a further search for the yellow paper. Striking Resemblance. In answering Attorney Christen-son's Christen-son's question as to whether in his opinion the writings of Myron A. Smith and the blaekhand letters were written by the same person, Mr Bigelow said that he could not be positive and that he merely had an Impression regarding it. Me went on to say, however, that he found "many striking resemblances in the two writings." The witness continued by saying that there -was some doubt in his mind as to whether the body of the. blaekhand letters and the writings of Smith were in the same hand but that he had no hesitancy in saying that in his opinion the address on the R. E. Bristol letter and that written by Myron A. Smith were by the same hand. It was on these writings, Mr. Bigelow explained, that he said at the Smith hearing that the writings were so nearly the same that he would cash a check on the signature. The witness continued to say that his opinion had been somewhat weakened as to the Identity of the writings because be-cause of things he had seen. "Has any one seen you?" thundered Christensen. "I don't know what you mean by being 'seen,' " replied the witness. 'I mean has any one 'talked to you about these letters or done anything any-thing to you to cause you to weaken in your opinion?" Mr. Bigelow, in response to the question, said that he has been permitted per-mitted to see the photographs of the Martin letters, the courtesy being extended ex-tended to him by Attorney Davis. He stated further thnt Davis pointed out the Martin writings, but that he made the examination of the writings without with-out assistance. This occurred Monday Mon-day night, tho witness stated. "Did you not know that you had no right to talk with any one about this case after you was subpoenaed? Is It unpopular for you to hold tho opinion opin-ion you expressed at the Smith hearing?" hear-ing?" questioned Christensen. The witness answered "No." On motion of Attorney Christensen, the Myron A. Smith writings were admitted as evidence and they were turned over to tho jury for inspection. Robert Moyes is to go on the witness wit-ness stand following Mr, Bigelow on the Smith handwriting. Late Proceedings Yesterday. In corroboration of the statement by Martin that he left the Shurtliff repair shop at about 10:30 Saturday evening, November 8, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. LeoReeder and Mrs. Ray Shurtliff testified late yesterday afternoon after-noon that they called at the shop at about that time, and saw Martin there, and that he soon departed. Alvin B. Foulger, ot the Boylo Furniture Fur-niture company, testified that he rode to the south end of the car line on Washington avenue that evening on the same car Martin was riding and that he walked with the defendant from that point to the Martin gate, where they parted, Martin going to i ihe rear door of his home to enter. iJIe knew that tho defendant went to khe rear door for he heard him close Foulger continued on his way Ijjhme. He stated that it was about 11M o'clock when he left Martin at the Jtrhe witness said that he talked wlh Martin two weeks later, regard-InfflL regard-InfflL the trip home that night, Martin askwnE h'm "bother he remembered jt jMartln told him that he was call-jnijlhls call-jnijlhls attention to the circumstances, a8 iPinkerton men had been talking to Jjiln about the Edwards shooting imiW that they were trying to impll-catff? impll-catff? him. jrlrank J. Billings, a Southern Pa-cific Pa-cific conductor alncc 1908, said that he Icaine to Ogden from Carlin at ab(l,ut- 6:20 on the morning of Novem-)C Novem-)C 9 and that, at about 10 o'clock, he inwit Martin at the Den cigar store. He tajlked briefly with him and remem-bJsred remem-bJsred thnt Martin called for a for-ellcn for-ellcn paper but that the clerk advised hjpm that he did not have the paper he wanted, He saw Martin leave tho store and go west, returning in a short time on his way easterly. Ho remembered the day, as there was much excitement in the city over the Edwards shooting on Seventeenth street. Billings said he was well acquainted ac-quainted with Martin and was positive posi-tive as to his identification of the man, and. also, as to the date. When asked whether Martin was in a hurry, the witness said that he walked an ordinary gait, and that he noticed no evidences of excitement It was only about six hours after the Edwards shooting that Billings saw Martin, and yet Jione of the attorneys asked him whether Martin appeared to be wounded. Character Witnesses The other witnesses of the afternoon after-noon were what the attorney for Martin Mar-tin termed "character witnesses." All these witnesses testified that Martin had always borne a good reputation as to "honesty, truthfulness and peacef ulness." They had known him for a number of years and had never heard anything against him prior to the time he was accused of shooting Edwards and of being a blackmailer. The parties bad. met, him on different "occasions"," some having an acquaint1 ancc with him as a railroad man and others knowing him as a chicken fancier. fan-cier. Some of them wore his neighbors neigh-bors on West Seventeenth street, others living in other parts of the city. The character witnesses were as follows: John Dinsdale. West Seventeenth street. Mathew Dinsdale, "West Seventeenth Seven-teenth street. Benjamin Dinsdale, West Seventeenth Seven-teenth street. Owen Dinsdale, West Seventeenth street' J. W. McKenna, retail liquor dealer, Washington avenne. W. G. Kind, cigar and curio dealer. W. A, Taylor, cigars and papers, Grant avonuc. E. T. Wilson, Elite Cleaning company; com-pany; nephew of Mrs. Thomas D. Dee. Thomas Allen, retail liquor dealer, former railroad man. Charles Doty, Southern Pacific conductor, con-ductor, head of local grievance com-i com-i mittee and whose duty It was to ln-' ln-' vestlgate records of railroad employes. em-ployes. John Greenwell. business man. Walter Reld, plasterer. L. L, Keller, West Seventeenth street, wholesale meat dealer. Phil Planz, barber. Francis Gierse, clerk in Den cigar store. George W. Wilson, merchant and former member of city council. oo |
