Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-21
RAY HAMILTON'S FATE.
John D. Sargent Swears He Is Dead,
for he Saw the Dead Body.
SOME VERY DRAMATIC TESTIMONY
Given by the Witness, Who Finally Breaks
Down and WeepS.
INDIGNANTATDR. GREEN'S STATEMENTS

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.1
NEW YORK, June 2G.-John d. Sargent,
without his leggings and dressed like any
ordinary citizen of New York, sat in a big
armchair in a private room of Root &
Clarke's law offices to-day, and for more
than an hour answered the questions fired
at him by Colonel c. W. Fuller, counsel for
Mrs. Eva Mann. Ex-Surrogate Daniel G..
Rollins was appointed on June II referee to
take the testimony of Mr.. Sargent as to the
circumstances of the alleged death of Robert
Ray Hamilton. The reference was ordered
that the testimony might be filed for use in
fighting the suits that are to be brought to
determine Mrs. Mann's right to dover in
the Robert Ray Hamilton estate.
Judge Beach, in Supreme Court Ch am
bers appointed Edward r. Vollmer guard
ian ad litem in the matter to represent the
children of Schuyler Hamilton. Mrs. Eva
Mann had been invited to be present, but
didn't come "You say that the body
identified by you as Mr.. Hamilton's was
not badly decomposed," said Colonel Full
Ter. ''If DR.. Green, who saw 1t before you
did, swears that it must have been in the
water ten DAYS; that it was so badly decom-
posed that recognition was impossible; that
the upper lip and mustache were eaten
away by fish and turtles; that the body was
swollen as much as it could swell without
bursting, and that the flesh had turned
purple, would he be telling the truth?''
Sargent Intimates Green Lied.
Mr.. Sargent (springing to his feet excit-
edly)-Did he swear that? Will you swear
he swore that?
Mr.. Fuller-He says that, and you say
the body was not decomposed badly. Can you
explain the discrepancy?
'No: neither can Dr. Green" said the
witness. 81 stand by my statement, and
have three men to prove its truth. If Dr.
Green testified as you say, he testified to an
Untruth. The decomposition was trif1ing,
and the change no more than you would ex-
pect in a man who had been drowned. The
fishes had not destroyed the features.
Something had drawn the upper lip so that
his front teeth might be seen, but no one
who knew him in life could make mistake.
DR.. Green's Imagination must have been
working very strongly"
'You have said that Mr. Hamilton's leg
was crooked as the result of an old fracture,
so much so that you could see the crooked
ness through his leggings when he
walked ?''
"Yes; it was very noticeable, especially
when he walked over broken timber or even
ground"
''Dr. Green says he saw no trace of an old
fracture in the body found in the Snake
river"
Details of the Death and Burial.
''f9e could not have examined very close
". did not see the broken leg then my
self I only looked at the features" i"
In repl., !, to a series of questions Mr.. Sar-
gent said that Hamilton was the eighth man
drowned in the Snake river last summer.
He was sure of the dates he gave in his
former testimony. Mr.. Hamilton left the
ranch on August %, and was buried three
days after his body was found, on Septem-
Der s. The following day C. D. R. Moore
and Gilbert NJ Spier, Jr., arrived at the |
ranch They did not ask TO see the body, |
but asked witness advice about taking it |