Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-15
4 NASTY CASE AGAIN STIRRED,
Capt. F. M. Garrett Wants to
Get Out Of Jail.
His Daughter Malta Has Gone Back
On Her Testimony.
She Has Sent a Letter to Governor
Markham Bsggin & for Her Fathers
Pardon-Reminiscenc
of the A fair.

lo pSShio q PiOJ tb1b thO Ddh l. huCirSe
papers have been worked to revive one
of the most digustingly sensational
cases that ever occurred in Los Angeles,
that OF Capt. +. M. Garrett, convicted Of
incest with his daughter Malta, a good
looking young woman, and sentenced to
10 years at San Quentin, where he is
now serving his sentence.
But such is the fact, and the willy old
man is engaged in trying to have
manufactured sentiment to procure bis
pardon, just as he is supposed to have
manufactured evidence before and dur
ing his trial in the futile endeavor to es-
cape conviction. The new phases OF
this remarkable case are OF such ma
ture that the following article from the
Examiner will be read with much in
terest by those who followed the reports
of the trials. It's adroit and specious
covering up of the facts OF the case is in
keeping with the past record of the old
man, who has succeeded in persuadiDQ
his unfortunate daughter to contradict
herself once more, this time in the en-
deavor to get him out OF instead of into
the penitentiary. The article in sub
stance is as follows:
SPECIAL PLEA.
Capt. F. M. Garrett, tall, SO uare-
shouldered, honorable looking man,
whose 81 years of life have been largely
spent in the United States employ as a
steamboat officer and secret service
agent, is in San Quentin prison, serving
out 10 years. sentence for a crime he
never committed. He says he is inno-
cent, and the prison officers believe him.
His daughter says he is innocent, and
she was the witness who convicted him.
Father and daughter alone can ever
know.
The etory is one of mere girl perjur.
ing herself, as the evidence now ap.
pears, and sending her father to San
Quentin in order to cave her lover.
In 1889 Captain Garrett resided in
Los Angeles with his two dauQhtere-
one Is years old and the other IL. 1t is
the oldest daughter, Malta, who is con-
cerned in the case. For some years pre-.
vious to that time the captain had lived
in st. Louis. and there, during the great
strike of 1886, he worked ss railroad
detective with Thomas Furlong, now at
the head of the United States secret
service. Nearly all of his earlier life
had been spent as a steamboat captain
on the Mississippi river, and as an ex-
pert in that capacity he held many gov
ernment commissions. He was also
connected with the national secret GER
vice for time, and it happened that he
gave the fret order which Detective
O'Malley, since prominent, received in
the service.
OBJECTED TO THE LOVER.
The troubles which eventually brought
him to prison began when young man
named James Edgcomb appeared and
courted the elder of the Garrett girls,
The father objected to the suitor, but
there were clandestine meetings and
Malta and her young man were soon
engaged. secret marriage was
planned, but the lovers promises were
repeatedly broken and at last che girl
was forced to tell her father that she
had been betrayed.
Aiming himself, the captain, frenzied
with wrath, began a search for the
seducer, and for two days he used ali
his skill in tracing him. But Edgcomb
kept out of his path, and finally the
father swore out three warrants and the
young man fell into the hands OF the
police. The prisoner was held with bail
fixed at $1,000, and while in the city
prison he sent for Malta Garrett and
married her. The marrisge was only
part OF the plan, however, for in COM
pany with Edgcomb's friends the girl
went to the police au horities and
charged her father with being the cause
of her trouble.
The captain then was arrested, and
on the statement of the daughter he
was convicted and sentenced to San
Quentin for 10 years. Edgcomb, of
course, was acquitted, and he has since
rewarded his wife by unceasing cruelty.
At last, however, the young woman has
escaped from the husbands domina-
ton, and che has sent a.petition to Gov
ernor Markham, pleading strongly for
her fathers liberty, and telling the full
story. Her letter is as follows, written
from Mobile, where she now resides:
THE DAUGHTER TELLS HER STORY.
MOBILE, Ala, Sept. 8, 1892.
His Excellency Governor H. H. Markham, Sac
ramento, Cal.
DEAR SIR--I am informed that my
father, Capt. F. M. Garrett, has petit
toned you to pardon and release him
from prison at San Quentin, where he is
now serving 10 years sentence. / am
his daughter, and was the principal
witness against him, and wish to make
a statement of the facts. l signed the
bills of information and aided others in
securing his conviction.
My father, my little sister and were
keeping house, and we were happy
family until mat man by the name
of James Edgcomb, who on one after
noon, while my father was at his Office,
called at our house, and, when went to
the door, introduced himself and asked
that he might call on me. / was only
15 years old, and felt highly elated over
the idea OF receiving attention. / told
him would give him an answer next
day, as | had to ask papa. l told papa
when he came home, and he told me not
to have anything to do with such man.
However, James Edgcomb came the
next day, and papa forbade him the
house. pleaded and begged to allow
him to come once in awhile, but papa
said he had said all he had to say on the
matter. But what he said did not daunt
me. / let him come to the house against
my fathers will. We became engaged
to be married, but l was BETRAYED by
him. | went to him one day and pleaded,
but he refused and cursed me. re-
turned home and told my father, and he
became go enraged that for two days he
hunted Edgcomb, intending to kill him.
He couldn't find him, though, and so he
made charges on which Edgcomb was
arrested.
Papa was 80 angry with me for the