The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-02
THE CROOKED WAYS.
Prospects that the Cases will be
Taken Elsewhere.

A new phase has crept into the "crooked'
whisky business and one that threatens to
prove very serious one to those indicted Of
late by the Grand Jury. The government
officers seem determined to secure convic-
ton, if possible, and they, it is said, will re-
sort to certain statute, which is rather
sweeping in its provisions. 1t is limited that
if it should turn out in the first trials verdict
of acquittal is brought in, it is probable the
effect of the following statute will be tried:
Section 80 of the act of March 2, 1867,
reads:
That if two or more persons conspire either
to commit any offense against the laws of the
United States, or to defraud the United States
in any manner whatever, and one or more of
said parties to said conspiracy shall do any
act to effect the object thereof, the parties to
said conspiracy shall be deemed guilty of q
misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof,
shall be liable to penalty of not less than
$1,000 and not more than SIC, 900, and to i'm
prisonment not exceeding two years.
And when any offense shall be begun in
one judicial district of the United States and
completed in another, every such offense
shall be deemed to have been committed in
either of said districts, and may be dealt with,
inquired Of tried, determined and punished
in either Of said districts in the same manner
as if it had been actually and wholly commit
ted therein.
From the above it will bs seen that there is
discretion given to the prosecuting officer
to have the causes determined either here, in
St. Louis or Indianapolis.
Whether he will cause the parties charged
or to be charged with conspiracy to 60 North
remains to be seen. District Attorney Beck.
with, when questioned whether he would
cause removal of the cases to st. Louis OF
elsewhere, was significantly silent. only say
ing that our winter weather was most I'M
seasonable, and did not agree with most con-
stitutious.
There is now no doubt but what the con-
spiracy charge is to be the artillery of the
campaign. On it the government will proba-
bly, rest its heaviest fight, for the statute
inflicting penalty for conspiring to defraud
the government is so broad it admits testi-
mony of almost any kind tending to show
conniving and conspiring .pf
Facts in themselves not amounting to any
thing will be admissible to perfect the link,
and if here, as in St Louis, the revenue
plan to defeat the government, the cases will
assume q severe aspect. 1t
Those who nave already been indicted feel
perfectly sangulne that they can easily prove
their entire ignorance of the crookedness of
the whisky brought here.
Yesterday afternoon, in response to . re-
quest from the Marshal, Messrs. w. j. B han
and John Thorn appeared at the bar of the
United States Court to answer the indictment
against them for the non production Of their
liquor books.
The reading of the indictment was waived,
and the parties pleaded not guilty, and they
were released on $4,000 each, John !. Adams
being the surety.
The Grand Jury during the greater part OF
the day were kept busy investigating other
cases, and it was reported around the Custom
House that the four indictments they brought
into court before its adjournment. were
against John A. Walsh, Pat. Harnan, A. 8.
Coward and John Henderson.
The last indictments found charged the
above with conspiring to defraud the govern
ment
The parties will probably be arraigned to-
day.
Last evening representative of the BuLLE-
TIN visited Gen. Brady at the St. Charles Ho-
tel for the purpose of learning of
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
in the crooked business but was informed
that there was nothing startling in the whisky
arcana. Gen. Brady expressed desire that
every person possessing the least kno Wedge
of
DERELICTION OF DUTY
on the part Of any government Official should
make known to him at once such violation OF
duty, and expressed desire to ferret out
every act of fraud that had been committed
against the Government.
There was something of stir in crooked
circles last night over the rumor that there
was probability of q change of venue from
here to St. Lonis. and those who we're most
interested seemed to think that the Govern
ment intended to persecute instead of prose-
cute.
Thursday will probably show some startling
developments, and it may be said that the
heavy bombardment from the official guns
will commence with the session of the Grand
Jury on that day.
There is considerable excitement over the
denouement Of the whisky crusade here.