The Portland daily press., 1873-01-21
The Conspiracy Trial.
STATE VS. W. L. PUTNAM EFT AIS.
Mondays Proceedings Testimony 'of Deputy
Sheriff adams

The first witness called was Mattheag adams
who testified as follows: reside in Portland
am deputy sheriff and was in July last.
served the warrant on which these liquors were
taken. / entered the premises described in the
warrant and found the liquors described in the
return, and removed them to the liquor room
in the basement of this building on the day OF
the seizure. 1 got Mr.. McAllister, one of the
City Gaugers to gauge the liquor There were
80 casks containing about 36 gallons each, and
four casks containing about 40 gallons each.
These liquors remained there until the 9th of
July. James McGlinchy spoke to me in rela-
ton to these liquors twice before they were re-
plevied-once when they were gagged and the
other the day before they were replevied.
had no personal knowledge of the contents of
the casks. except from the SMELL did not taste
of it. On the afternoon of the 9th of July,
about twenty minutes to seven o'clock l was
notified by officer Williams to 60 down to the
liquor room; that McGlinchy was down there
with a large number of men rolling those
liquors out. AS passed down the stairs and
into the corridor leading to Myrtle street, saw
large number of men, and each one had a
barrel, one after another, rolling them out to
Myrtle street. went out the door, and there
I stood two-horse team with two OF three men
on 1T and seven barrels. / ordered the men to
stop, and they did So Two of the men were
rolling barrels up skid on to the jigger. They
referred me to an officer inside. l went into
the liquor room and the first person 1 saw was
McCue STOPPING over barrel, and close by was
| McGlinchy, who had hold of another bar
rel took McGlnchy by the shoulder and
Hall, don't know anything about this, you
can talk with him." didn't notice Hall when
McGlincby referred me to him, first heard his
voice Hall came towards me with writ and
said, ''Mr. Adams, this is all right l have re-
pevin writ to take this stuff; it is all right"
| l asked him to let me see the writ, and took it
| and passed out into the corridor, where it was
| lighter, to examine it. James McGlinchy was
Tho r,Iot nftf ,nrlffn in aud AT,%+l
| Adams the defendant. After examined it, 1
| said to Hall, "Ths is something don't under
stand. 1t may be all right, but never heard
| of a case of this kind before. If you take the
| liquors you will have to take them at your own
peril" They then went to work rolling ont the
| liquors, and remained there until the last bar
rel Of McGlinchy's lot was rolled out. These
| were the same liquors that l seized on the war
rant. l removed the bung out of each of these
| barrels, and smelt Of it, and am willing to
take my oath that they were intoxicating Ii
| quors. don't pretend to be an expert but /
think can tell poor whiskey from brandy and
| poor gin from rum. These casks contained
| whiskey gin, wines and brandy. Counsel for
the respondents admit that the replevin writ
was never entered in court. l am familiar
with Mr. Putnams handwriting; this writ was
| in his handwriting. l don't rrcollect the date
| of the writ. l did not see Mr.. Putnam at this
the liquor room Eben Leach was in the Office
with me. No one else. The county offices were
closed
| The first one of these respondents Ilemember
| of meeting after the liquors were replevied to
| have any conversation was Mr.. Hall. That
| might have been two or three weeks after the
replevying. | called on him at his Office and
| told him had waited as long as cared to for
| copy OF that writ, AMI 1 would like to have
him give me one. l mentioned the repleyin
| writ on which were taken these liquors. He
said he could not give me copy of that writ.
He said he was unable to, and felt badly to
think there had been any trouble about it. He
| said he said he wished to God had made OBJ
| jections to his taking the liquors. The next
morning after seeing Hall 1 called upon Mr..
Putnam for copy of that replevin writ on
| which the liquors were taken. He said, sMr.
| Adams 1 am afraid you cannot get copy of
that writ; that writ is not in the world it is not
| in existence" l asked him why he destroyed
| the writ if he did not think l was entitled to
copy of it. In reply he said he came to the
! conclusion that he could not justify the taking
should have to fight it out on the ground that
the property was theirs and they had right to
| take it wherever they could find it. I had a
conversation with McGlinchy OH Friday, the
26th of July, the day before the liquors were
replevicd, in the corridor leading. to Myrtle
| streets He said he wanted me to be as easy
with him as could Oh the libel the next We'd
nesday morning; he did not want to lose snch
large quantity of liquors if he could help it,and
wanted to know if we could make some ar
rangements and let him have the liquors back.
He said he was coming in to claim the liquors,
and he weul9 give me $500.
! AFTERNOON.
Mr.. AdDas recdlle0.-At the time Mr. Will
liams came up to notify me, Mr.. Perry had
been gone from the sheriffs office three or four
minutes
Cross enansined By m WejJ.-I should Judge
| there were forty or fifty men there. Hall
showed me a replevin writ with the bond at
tached and read it carefully through I af-
LI.~1I
cheney IN the bond. The value of the liquors
alleged to have been taken unlawfully by me
was $3000 and the bond, instead of being dou-
| BILE the value, was only half, $500. asked
| Hall if he had noticed that and he said he had
not He said he took the writ and did not ex-
anime it, and that probably Mr.. Putnam made
! a mistake, and said he would take it down to
Mr.. Putnam and have him change it. l think
did not suggest that it might be amended, but
am not certain of that. L called upon Mr..
Putnam, after calling upon Hall, for schedule
of the property replevied and he furnished it
to me- The service of the replevin writ was
never completed on me.
Direct examination resun,ed.-Hall said at the
time of replevying the liquors that he knew
Putnam well enough to know that he had some
good point or he would not have taken that
course, and that Putnam told him he would
stand between him. and all harm, that he
should not lose anything by it.
Cross Tesanoed--I think l made the answer to
Hall that never knew Mr.. Putnam to make a
very serious mistake as far as my personal
knowledge went. had the greatest confidence
ordered the men to stop drew a loaded revol-
ver-did not cock it; did not present 1T to any
body for it was not necessary;
Charles Fl. Williams, called by Government
I am Deputy Marshal and was the latter par
of July last; was present when these liquors
were taken by McGlinchy and others. Abou
twenty minutes to seven was going out of thu
door to 90 to supper, leaving in the office MIR
| L. ~,oI 30 hTx-vklA ckrnn
I saw a two-horse jigger standing by the dool
and five or six men in the street. ca my
eye up Myrtle street and on the corner of Con
gress and Myrtle and the other corner were GOV
cred with longshoIemen, call them. turned
around and went to the liquor room to lock thu
/ door, but there was no key. shut the doc
and had my hand on the knob when McGlinch.
and Hall pushed up against me and against tn
, door. 1 asked Hall what he wanted in tina
room; he took document out of his poke
e and said he had a writ of replevin to take tn
liquor; left the door, and some one sung out
= its all right" and the crowd of men cam
: running in. I went up to the Sheriff's roor
and notified Adams that McGlnchy was takn
, the liquor, and we went right down. Adam
. went out of the door where they were loadin
= and ordered them to stop; Rounds and shr
the door on Myrtle street to stop them, Will
+ Adams went into the liquor roon he came OIL
J., in few minutes and sung out to me that
was all right and opened the Myrtle stree
door. l saw McCue, Hoffman and McGlinch
rolling liquors out; they were about fftee
l. minutes getting the liquors and leading it.
T. did not see Mr.. Putnam in the building.
n Nothing new was elected on cross-examn
T. ton.
'e James L. Rounds, called by the State. Men
y, Der of the police department.. Was in I'll
70 Office on the night these liquors were takene-
p heard a rumpus in the corridor and stepped o,
- to see what it was and saw McGlnchy an
e. Hall at the liquer room door; asked the
Il, what they wanted; Hall said everything is 4
in right have got writ to take this liquor"
10 started to notify the sheriff and met William
~ who / supposed had gone to supper, and Adam
is coming down the STAIRS The only responder
as / recognize as being there were McGlinchy. al
9. Hall. 1 should judge there were thirty or for
. men there all told.
ed George McANister called by the State. l a
gs the city weigher and gauger: ! gagged the
a. liquors at the request of McGlinchy TIL
were then in the city buildings 1t was on Il
oG 18th of July. There were 81 casks, with {
in pacity of 1240a net gallons.
It's Cross E1amined-I cannot swear what Il
=: was in the casks. They called it liquor an(
lis nut it down on the certificate as liquor. shou
Sc have put it down buttermilk if they had Sc
Is that was what it was
,,.- Direct Resunaed-This did not smell. like b.
ny termilk. have no doubt from the smell tt
Al IL yyas iinuOr