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Show I Smith Letters Hold the Entire Attention of Court Archie Bigelow Kept on the Witness Stand While a Comparison Compari-son of the Martin and Blackhand Letters Is Gone Into Telegraph Messages Sent in Search of a Government Officer Who Is Wanted to Testify as to the Smith Letters. I "When the J. H. Martin case was resumed this morning in Judge Howell's How-ell's division of the district court, at 10 o'clock, it was plain to be seen that the word-storm of yesterday afternoon aft-ernoon had subsided, and yet the attorneys at-torneys parleyed to considerable length in a speculation as to what had become of the little yellow slip on which Myron Smith had exhibited his handwriting to R. B. Porter and S Gilbert Belnap, and also the letter which he had written to his son. In the absence of Postoffice Inspector L, A. McGee, there was no solution to tho problem. It was stated that McGee had been located at Newhouse, in the southern I part or the stato, and that he would reach this part of tho state today or tomorrow. Attorney Christensen 'said that he had been advised by United States District Attorney W. W. Kay that all of the Smith handwritings had been turned over to the postof-lice postof-lice inspectors, McGee, Smith and Fitch, at the termination of the hearing hear-ing of the case before the federal grand jury and that the yellow slip and the letter to Smith's son were among the documents. Inspector Smith was recalled, and asked whether the documents has been turned over to him and his fel-low fel-low inspectors, as indicated by the M United States attorney. He said that 9 he did not remember that they were 9 On further, examination, Smith said. M in answer to Attorney Chrislensen's a interrogation, that he had been ap- i proached by the attorney last Satur-H Satur-H 1 day for the Smith exhibits and that B ' he' had told him he would try to get H them, but that he did not tell Mr. 3 i Christensen that they were then in m ; the hands of District Attorney John m C. Davis. H Christensen asked Smith what rea- 91 son he had for not telling him that i i and Smith replied that he did not i think it was necessary. Who Has the Yellow Slip? 1 , The pleasantries, compared with tho talks of yesterday afternoon, be- -" tweentUc attorneys respecting the 3t missing documents were continued ffj when Attorney Christensen said that ; he ondcavorcd for about two months to get the Smith exhibits but that y some one all the time seemed to not ' want him to see them. He said that "i he spoke to McGee a number of ' weeks ago and told him that he want-: want-: "j ed him as a witness and that he ; would require the Smith exhibits. ! ' McGee was subpoenaed last Saturday, the attorney continued, ''but he slip ; ped away on that day to the desert country and has not been seen in ! these parts since." He said he went to the clerk of the federal court for 1 the papers and had been advised that they had jievcr been In his custody. In explanation of the situation, Attorney At-torney Leatherwood for the state said j he had tried to get the documents for Mr. Christensen and had gone to I).' personal expense to locate Inspector u McGee, stating further that the state ' has no desire to conceal any evidence rthat will throw light on the case at issue and he further said that, rather than delay the hearing of the case, he would forego the use of the missel miss-el ing documents in conducting his ( cross examination and permit Mr. ? Bigelow to be examined, also extend- :' ; ing to the attorney for the defend- ant the right to Introduce tho missing a i papers as soon as they can be found. He would limit his cross examination I to the two Smith writings that were in court j I Bigelow Examination. '. i With this understanding, and it be- ,1 Ing stated by the court that both in-Ji in-Ji spectors, L. A. McGee aud T. F, Fitch. ;' be brought into court as witnesses to explain where the missing papers could be found, Attorney Christensen ' proceeded with the examination of ,j' Mr. Bigelow, who was called to testis' testi-s' fy yesterday. The further direct examination of j V Mr. Bigelow was very brief, the only ' question being put to him was '! whether he had not testified at the (; Smith preliminary hearing before 1 ' Commissioner S. TV Corn that, in his I " opinion, the Smith writings and the h blackhand writings submitted to him i for consideration wore written by the ? same person, J The witness replied that he had so testified and that what he said at $ time was true, bo far as his knowl 'ST"" edge went It was stipulated by the attorneys '1 I that Myron A. Smith was arrested ' November 2 and that he has been a federal prisoner in the county jail j - since that date. Handwriting Briefly Examined. On cross examination, Mr. Bigelow stated that he had given only a casual consideration to -the Smith blackhand t letters at the time of the Smith hear-f hear-f 1 I Ing, not more than 30 or 46 minutes 1 and in that time he had examined Jet-, Jet-, ters and words in the writiugs. At k that time, he said, he had not had V, tho opportunity of examining any of : j Martin's handwritings In comparison i I with the blackhand letters. He related that In his examination of the Smith letters and the black ' hand letters he had found similarities L and characteristics , upon which he i f based his opinion that they were , f, written by the samf person. Not the Same Writings. Mr. Bigelow was then' required to compare the Martin and the Smith writings. He said :hat there was a r similarity in- them ljut that they did V not so closely resemble each other mQ ! as to cause him to conclude that they ; i j were written by the same person. His attention was then called to certain letters In the Martin writings and the blackhand exhibits and he was asked to say whether he con- j sidered them to be similar in character char-acter and form. He considered the figure "8" and the capital letters "I" and "M,'5 as similar. His attention was directed to the date line "Ogden, Utah," in one of the blackhand letters let-ters and that written by Martin, and asked testate whether he considered the handwriting to be similar. Mr. Bigelow said the handwriting in the two instances were similar but not enough alike for him to conclude that they had been, written by tho same person. Long Drawn-out Examination. Cross examination of A. P. Bigelow was resumed this afternoon with no indications that it will be concluded earlier than this evening. Judging from the line of questioning entered Into by Attorney Leatherwood, it is evident that the case will be drawn out longer than anticipated and there is a possibility that a number of days will be taken up next week. The cross questioning has been extended ex-tended to the consideration of the characteristics of letters and words in the Martin and blackhand writings and, if even only a small part of the letters and words considered by the expert Kytka shall be given attention by Mr. Bigelow, it will require a great deal of time. The witness to follow Mr. Bigelow will be Robert Moves who also testified as to the identity of the Smith and blackhand writings and it Is more than likely that as much time will be taken with him on cross examination as with Mr. Bigelow. Bige-low. It is also expected that Post-office Post-office Inspector L. A. McGee, who was really the government's leading witness wit-ness on handwriting In tho Smith hearing, will be called and that his cross examination will be extended Howover, Attorney Leatherwood states that he cannot say just how much -time wllL-be taken, aud that he may draw the examination to a close at most any moment His line of examination so far has not reached the point where he has asked tho opinion of Mr. Bigelow as to whether he considers that the blackhand letters let-ters and Martin's writing were executed exe-cuted by the same person, except in the dale line "Ogden, Utah," which was considered in the forenoon. He is simply requiring the witness to familiarize fa-miliarize himself with similar points pointed out by the attorney in the two sets of writings. The letters "1," "m," "y" and "s"' have been gone over and the witness led to note the similarities In the formation of the letters, especially calling attention to dots over the letter "s." The witness slated that he noticed a similarity in a number of instances. instan-ces. (Continued on Page Eight) UJ SMITH LETTERS HOLD ENTIRE ATTENTION OF COURT (Continued from Page 1) Late Yesterday Afternoon. Briefly continuing his examination of Mr. Bigelow yesterday afternoon, Attorney Christensen read from the transcript of the testimony of the witness which was given at the Myron My-ron A. Smith hearing before United States Commissioner S T. Corn, In which Mr. Bigelow expressed the opinion that the Smith writings and the writings of the blackhand letters let-ters were by the same person, Attorney At-torney Leatherwood objecting to tho examination. The state's attorney contended that i Mr. Christensen was, in fact, trying to impeach his own witness and, furthermore, fur-thermore, that ho was Infringing upon up-on the cross examination field when he referred to the testimony In the Smith, case and endeavored to get the witness to say that he had testified tes-tified as the record showed he had. His opinion was that the witness could be examined only on exhibits of handwriting in court and that ,his former opiulon regarding the handwriting hand-writing in the standard and questioned ques-tioned letters had no bearing on the case at Issue. Objections Overruled. The court continued to overrule the objections, holding that it was proper for the attorney for the defendant to call the attention of the witness to what he had said under oath on a former occasion, Inasmuch as the witness wit-ness had said that his opinion had changed somewhat. However, Mr. Leatherwood finally interposed an objection ob-jection that the court sustained and an adjournment was taken until the balance of the exhlbitt used in the Smith hearing could be produced In court, the expectation being that the document would be forthcoming. ' The Leatherwood objection was ihal tne witness based his opinion on the Smith handwritings at the hearing hear-ing on all that were purported to be his and that, inasmuch as some ot them were not before the witness for comparison and consideration, he could not he questioned as to what he said at the hearing. Attorney Christensen did not oppose the objection ob-jection and stated that every possible possi-ble effort to get the other writings would he made. He said that in all likelihood the documents were In the possession of Postoffice Inspector L. A. McGe'e and that by telegraph it had been learned that the inspector would be in Salt Lake early Thursday morning. Smith and Martin. An Interesting feature of the situation situa-tion was that it appeared as though the state and the government were In conflict in the prosecution of Smith and Martin. Smith has been indicted for using tho mails for the transmission of the letters to defraud, the writing of which tho state relies largely to convict Martin. Expert testimony tes-timony has been given before the United States commissioner and also before the federal grand jury that Myron A. Smith wrote the blackhand letters, and expert testimony has also been given in the district court that Martin wrote them. District Attorney Attor-ney Leatherwood does want to be bound by the evidence given before the federal officers, contending that the two cases are separate and distinct. dis-tinct. He advised the court yesterday that the case in the federal jurisdic tion could have no bearing on his case in the district court and he saved an exception to the ruling ol the court to the contrary, the pro sumption being that he will seek a new trial, take an appeal, or resort to some other procedure, in case Martin Mar-tin Is acquitted. Position of the Defense. Attorney Christensen for the defendant de-fendant contends on the other hand, that the government and the state, or whatnot, must operate from a base line that Is not conflicting, it being self evident that both Smith and Martin did not write the same letters, let-ters, and, consequently, either one or tho other Is wrongfully in jail. He also contends that the disagreement between the two jurisdictions Is a material fact in the Martin case, at least to the point that witnesses now testifying for Martin must be bound, In an extended degree, to the opinions opin-ions expressed regarding the Smith writings as compared with the black-hand black-hand letters. He calls attention to the fact that tho state has gone into the Investigation of handwriings of all the blackhand letters, covering a period of a number o.f years, when, in fact, the consideration of the disputed dis-puted writings should have been confined con-fined to the two letters bearing directly di-rectly upon the charge of the shoot-lug shoot-lug of Edwards, and that, as the same letters were considered in the Smith hearing, he has the right to show the jury just what witnesses called to testify for Martin said against Smith. Attorney 1c Angered. District Attorney Davis became angered an-gered at Christensen yesterday afternoon after-noon because of what he termed "Insinuations" "In-sinuations" that he had withheld the Smith documents. He stated that he had been accommodating to Mr. Christensen and had endeavored to aid him in any way he could to get the documents sought, but that he had nothing to do with the Smith hearing and had no control over the papers in the case. Mr. Davis branded brand-ed Christensen'8 insinuations as untrue un-true and unwarranted. He showed considerable anger when ho demanded demand-ed that the insinuations cease. Christensen Chris-tensen smiled complacently at Mr. t . Davis' remarks, but made no reply. That Yellow Paper Before the adjournment, Mr. Bigelow Bige-low stated that it was a fact that his opinion given at the Smith hearing' hear-ing' was based not only on the Smith writings before him but also on the writings on what was termed the "yellow paper" and a letter which was purported to have been written by Smith, and that he preferred to not venture a judgment now unless the missing papers were before hhu for further examination. This, he said, was in respect to the body of the letters and not to the signatures on the blackhand letters as compared with the same signatures written by Smith. To make sure that the missing documents would be forthcoming, Attorney At-torney Christensen asked that sub-poenaes sub-poenaes be issued for the clerk of the federal court, his assistant and the United States district attorney and his assistant, and also, that they be required to bring into court any and all exhibits of the Smith hearing hear-ing that they might have. nn |