Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-11
MURPHY AND HIS TEN DOLLARS,
An Adroit Young Man Tried
On q Serious Charge.
Commencement of the October Term
Of the Supreme Court.
Proceedings Yesterday in the Various
Tribunals-Judge Wade Scores n
Defendant-Court Notes.
New Cases.

New Cases.
James H. Murphy was on trial in tn
United States district court yesterda,
upon charge of passing counterfeit
silver dollars at Fresno Flats in the fal
of 1891. The jury was partially em
paneled Saturday last, and was com
pleted yesterday morning. The tria
lasted all the afternoon and when cour
adjourned the arguments of j. B. Dun
lap, counsel for the defendant, and U. S
District Attorney M. T. Allen we're com
pleted. Judge Ross then announced tn a
the case will be given to the jury thii
morning.
A number of witnesses were present
from Fresno Flats and testified in the
case during the trial. Among then
were several bartenders who received
some of the counterfeit dollars Murphy
is charged with passing. The dollars
themselves, seven in number, were dis
played in evidence, and proved to be q
reasonably good imitation of the dollar
OF our daddies. Murphy, who,had been
living out on the Flats, came to town
the day he is alleged to have COM
mitted the crime. and spent the
day and night in measurable riotous
living. He bought drinks for himself
and others, played poker and went to a
dance. The witnesses testified that he
paid in dollars almost in very instance
and took the change. One witness swore
that he had no money when he came to
town, and another testified that when
he took one of the dollars for drinks he
thought it bad, and marked the coin,
asserting to Murphy that he believed it
was counterfeit. The latter replied that
he supposed he, the defendant, made it,
as every body said ne had. The testi-
mony was very clear and direct in al
most every instance.
The defendant, when he took the
stand entered into an adroit and plausi-
BILE statement, in which he claimed that
he he'd not knowingly passed any coun-
terfeit money. He attempted to account
for all the money he had that day, and
his testimony aimed to establish the
point that other people might have
passed the bad coins instead of himself.
His attorney, before the taking of tes-
timony began, moved that the court in
struct the United States attorney to
elect under which of the nine counts in
the indictment he would prosecute.
This motion the court denied, when
Mr.. Dunlap entered the plea that his
defendant had been once in jeopardy,
which was also denied, and the trial
went on, as stated above.
The plea of jeopardy brings up the
previous history of this defendant, and
his two trials for murder at Fresno,
which the government could not get
into the evidence upon this trial. Muir
ply has had career around Fresno
Flats which the government officers
have been investigating for months.
Some little time before his alleged
crime in passing counterfeit money, he
came down from San Francisco and got
in with man named Mckay. They
were around Fresno Flats for awhile,
when, one day, heavy box arrived by
express for Mckay. He took it out OF
the Office, and it was not long after this
that counterfeit dollars began to appear
in that neighborhood. Murphy's arrest
on charge Of counterfeiting followed,
the complaint being fret made ont in
the state court. 1t was removed from
thence to the federal court, the original
complaint being dismissed. 1t was on
this action that Murphy pleaded that he
had once been in jeopardy.
To return to Murphy and his partner,
Mckay. Murphy was let out on bail,
after the counterfeiting charge had been
made against him. In the meantime,
Mckay and others had located mining
claim six or eight miles north OF the
Flats. One day Murphy was talking
with some fellows in town, and the sub.
ject OF McKay's claim came up. There
was good deal of jocular conversation,
in which Murphy was prominent, and
be finally proposed that they should go
out there and, as joke. pretend to jump.
the claim. The others fell in with the
idea, among them being man who had
rifle. On the road out Murphy sug-
gested that he carry the gun, and when
they arrived at the camp he had it.
They surrounded the camp, and with
considerable noise called on Mckay to
come out of his cabin. He did 80. Muir
ply either was or pretended to be quite
drunk, and in fourishing the rifle it
went off. In some manner it went off
twice, and the second shot killed Nc
Kay. OF course the boon companions
were exceedingly shocked, and Murphy
either was or pretended to be the most
distressed of them all at the tragic end
of his former partner. They had not
been on very good terms after Murphy's
arrest, and the killing caused much ex-
citement. Murphy was arrested for
murder, and on his first trial the jury
disagreed. The second trial resulted in
his acquittal. The theory OF his defense
was that the shooting was purely acci-
dental.
The district attorney endeavored to
get some Of this history into the case,
but it was not admitted. The govern
ment officers have worked hard on the
case; none more energetically than N.
r. Harris of San Francisco, in the Sc
cret service branch of the government,
and an expert on counterfeiting. They
have theory that certain mining
shaft near Fresno flats would reveal the
existence of the mysterious box received
by Mckay before his death and the coun-
terfeiting outfit. But the shaft is 80
feet deep, and Is feet of water stands in
it, which has covered up the traces of
any such articles, and the water has
never been pumped out. Altogether
the history surrounding the defendant
is an interesting one.
THE SUPREME COURT.
October Term Begins with All Justices
Present. Sixteen New Attorneys.