The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-10
THE REPORT COMPLETE.
His Sureties Compounded a
Felony After the Exposure
Became Public.
THEY WILL BE PROSECUTED.
Steps Have Been Taken to Recover
Some of the Thousands of
Dollars Taken.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa, March 9.-The Jour
nails Pierre Is. Dak.) special says: The
legislative committee investigating the
Taylor defalcation made its report Just
before adjournment. Proceedings were in
secret, and the report is now made public
for the first time
The committee declared from the evil
dence before it that it is shown a conspir-
acy existed between the sureties of Taylor
and the defaulter to "hold up" the State
and compel a settlement. 1t says:
We do not find that there was any collision
among the sureties or any other persons with
him to defraud the State prior to the time
when it became apparent to John T, McChes-
ney of New York, one of the bondsmen, that
Taylor would not be able to make his settlement
with the State.
But we do find evidence strongly tending to
show that in the latter part of December, 1894,
and after McChesney discovered that Taylor
could not raise money enough to make his set
tlement, MeChesney, together with Taylor, D.
K. Tenny and C. H. Wells and c. T. Mccoy,
acting agent at Pierre, entered into
d scheme TO gather up all the funds
held by Taylor, amounting to over
| $4,000 and the real and personal property
owned by Taylor, wherever located and place
|
OF compelling the State to agree not to prose
| cute Taylor criminally, or. in other words,
| to compound felony on condition that
| property and money to the amount of $780,,
! 600 should be delivered up and paid over to
the State, thus relieving the sureties by paying
their liabilities with the funds stolen from the
State The evidence showed they had at
| tempted to carry out the scheme with fraudu-
| lent intent to defraud the State.
Tenny and Wells are the Chicago law
yers of Taylor and McChesney. The COM
mittee finds that the total amount stolen
| by Taylor was 1914, 070 10. As to where
the money went the evidence shows among
| other things that he loaned Ex-Governor
| Mellette moneys amounting to $780, 900 and
| that he loaned Judge Kellam $4,000 and
! purchased a negotiable note for $1,000
| given by United States Senator Pettigrew
which was repaid to C. T. Mccoy, Taylor's
agent, on or about the 18th of January, 1895
| sit is further found that during the
month of December last he transferred
from fifteen banks where he deposited
public funds about 100000 to himself and
! for his benefit to New York and Chicago;
that he appropriated to his own use prior
to December last $145, 800"
! The evidence shows no collision on the
part of any State officer with the default
ing Treasurer. There is, however, testi-
mony showing gross negligence, to say the
least, on the part of Thomas H Ruth, ex-
Commissioner of School and Public Lands.
The report states that action to recover
has been begun in thirty different counties
and that services have been had on all the
different defendants in the case; that suits
have also been instituted against McChes-
ney in New York and William Taylor,
father of the defaulter, in Indiana.