The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-11-30
WAS TT ARSON?
The Case Against Kolitz Being
Investigated.
he Is Charged With Wilfully Buraing Prop
ertY, ard Then Making False Returns
to the Insurance CompanieG.


The hearing in the case Of the People vs..
Louis Kolitz, on two complaints entered
against hin-one for wllfully burning
property Insured and the other for pre-
senting fraudulent claim 10 the insurance
company-was called up before Justice
Gee on yesterday morning, aud was con-
tinEed until the afternoon on account Of
The absence Of several important witnesses.
In the afternoon the counsel for the
prosecution ssistant Prosecutor Eich-
nor, r. w. Young. Oscar w. Moyle and S.
S. Markham-came in, leading some dozen
witnesses. A few minutes afterward
lSolitz. accompanied by Mrs. Kolitz and
several witnesses, also appeared. After a
wait of half an hour O. w. Powers, Of
counsel for Defense made his appearance.
and announced that he was TOO III 10 con
quot the case alone and must wait for Mr..
Lewis. After another wait Of fifteen
minutes M. Lewis put in an appearance
and the case was then taken up.
Ths policies issued TO kolilz by the Ger
man American, the Home aud Hltn8 In
surance companies, the inventory OF loss
submitted to the insurance companies By
Eoiitz and an affidavit MADE By him in re-
started were admitted as evidence.
Chief Stanton, OF the ire department,
was sworn as q witness. he testified that
he remem bered the Kolitz fire. The alarm
WIS rung in at about 1905 on the
night of the 10TH of July. The IRE he
found was in the candy store. Found II
was hottest on the east side OF the candy
store near the northeast corner of the base
ment. Thst the fire was fully put out be-
fore he lefs the building. Had q CONVEX
sation with kclitz regarding the origin OF
the fire; did not remember the details Of
the conversation.
w. !. I.angton was then sworn in as q
witness. he had known Kolitz for a y ear.
Koltz was tenant OF bis. A few days
before the tire be had pressed koltiz Tor
two months rent then due, but h0ltiz had
asked him to walt 8 few days. He told
Kolitz ne would wait only until Monday
(the ire occurred on Saturday mighty. Was
MOI on bad terms with defendant.
Is. +. Grant, manager of Heber J. Grant
6 Co., was then sworn. He said he had
gone 10 Kolitz's store on the morning alter
the FIRE Found the door of Kolilz's stors
nailed up, but asked Webb Il Feveryear,
who kept the bakery next door, TO let him
Into the burned part of the building. Was
taken down into the basement and got into
the candy store through place where the
ire had burned through the board partl
tiou Noticed that the fire had been hot
test and had done most damage in the vioin-
ity OF a bench on which some kind Of a
small heating stove had been set. The
rafters were burned above this stove, the
partition was burned through where il had
been and the bench on which it had sat
was burned through. Here he thought the
fire had originated.
After going through the cellar he went
up stairs ana looked around. While he
was up there Kolitz came in. He Ques-
toned kolitz about the origin of the ire.
Was told that there was no explanation
defendant could give, as the furnace in the
basement had been put out al about 80 in
the afternoon Of the day before and there
were no kerosene lamps in the building
On being asked who was the last person in
the building on the night Of the fire. de-
PENDANT said he was; that he had been
there at about II midnight (tne alarm was
sounded at 1905 an Had been waiting
on a customer. Witness then told Kolitz
he had better prepare an inventory of his
loss and submit it to the insurance COM
pauies, SO they could adjust the insurance.
A day or two after this kolitz handed in 3
sworn statement of his loss to witness, and
witness then took the inventory and went
over to the burned store &c verify it.
Thought it was very queer that defendant
should have on hand such large Quantities
OF high priced extracts as he had
investigated.he could find none of this and
asked kclitz to tell him where the stuff
had been stored. Kolitz volunteered 30
show hin and led him down into the base
meat TO the place where the bench and
stove had been set in the northeast corner
Of the basement ard said that down under
his bench he had put the extracts and all
the receipts for them. Witness searched
the floor, which was of cement, for some
tracee OF these articles, but could find
tracestOf neither the bottles nor the case in
which Kolitz alleged they were kept. Ia
verifying Kolitz's inventory he came
across many of the things that were men
toned therein. Whenever he could find no
traces Of any article, he asked defendant
where il had been stored. And every art
icie that was so missing kolitz said had
been stored in the fatal corner'i where
the stove and bench had stood. Witness
csl ed defendants attention TO the fact
that it would be impossible 70 store all
those goods in that corner, even if they
were n the store but defendant answered,
They were there. all the same" In this
corner he could find no traces OF the goods,
and had any traces been there be would
have found them, as the floor ives cement
Appraisers OF the loss were appointed one
by Kolitz and one by tbs insurance COM
panies, and these had gone over the store
10 verify the inventory given IN by kolitz.
de had been called in by these appraisers
in regard to several items, and had
found large discrepancies between the
amounts alleged to have been there
and the amounts that actually were there
While IN this search he had gone into the
''fstal c0rnerH where the stove and bench
had stood aud found there several broken
and unbroken extract bottles. Had not
seen these when ne had examined the de-
bVis the morning after the fire. Would
nave seen them at that time had they been
there. Noticed that these bottles were en-
tirelv unsmoked. queer fact If The bottles
hat me through fire. The witness then
pointed out several discrepancies between
the amounts Of things said TO haye been in /
the store by Kolitz, Of a large part Of which |
10 traces could &c found. None of the de-
brss had been carried awsy, he thought, as
he hireds watchman 70 Keep his eye or the
premises during the time the search was
being inade by him and by the appraisers.
The case Was continued until 10 g.
%. this morning, and will probably take up
the whole day.