The record-union., 1896-01-23
ARGUMENTS CONCLUDED.
KOValGF Reward Referred TO the AttOr-
l0y-GeneraI.
Attorney Anderson Gives Notice That
He Will Garry the Matter
Into Court.


the State for the arrest and conviction
of the Weber murderers.
Governor Budd and Secretary of State
Brown were present and H G. Soule, at
torney for E. L. Bennett, one Of the
claimants, was the first to address the
board. He claimed that Bennett was
entitled to the reward he having been
the first one who furnished to Captain
Lees the information which led to the
arrest of Kovalev and his conviction.
The Governor interrupted him, say
ing that as matter of fact Captain
Lees did not act upon BENEFITS informa-
tion, but that his action was the result
Of an article published in a San Fran
cisco paper a few days afterward.
Soule said he did not know regard
ing that, but he did know that Bennett
told Lees about it, Stevens told Ben
nett his secret, but refused to tell it to
the police, and Bennett told it to Lees,
who should have acted on the informa-
ton. If he did not, his failure to do so
was a failure to his duty.
DUNNS OPINION OF LEES.
C. Fl. Dunn, attorney for G. H. Jost,
another of the claimants, said he wished
to call the Governors attention to the
remark of Mr.. Soule A man came to
Captain Lees-who knew that a terri
ble murder had been committeeman
told him that he could show him a
man who knew who the murderer was
and where to find him. The fact that
Captain Lees paid no attention to him
and failed to act upon the information
showed him to be unfit to hold his posi-
ton, or even to hold the position of
Chief Of Police of a country town. There
was no excuse for his negligence.
The Secretary of State said that Mr..
Dunn was out of order, as Captain Lees
was not on trial, and W. A. Anderson
said that he might show, before the
matter was through with, that Cap
tain Lees was on trial.
Mr.. Soule said the sole purpose of a
reward was not to encourage officers
to do their duty, but to stimulate peo-
pie to try and capture criminals.
The Governor asked if Bennett spent
any time in running down Kovalev. He
would not even give Stevens money
with which to go to Sacramento to get
proofs, but went ana told the story to
Captain Lees and made no effort to
find the criminal himself Jost, on the
contrary, hung around places that were
only frequented by the criminal class,
iE order to find his man.
Secretary of State Brown proposed to
limit the time of counsel. The Gov
ernor said, that as far as he was con-
cerned, the attorneys for Bennett were
wasting their time. for he was con-
WINGED he was not entitled to cent.
Attorney Soule said if that was the
case, he would show that Captain Lees
was not entitled to the reward, and he
proceeded to read court decision on
that point
ANDERSON TALKS.
W. A. Anderson continued SouIe's ar
gument, arguing that Captain Lees,
being an officer, was not entitled to the
reward for performing the duties of his
Office. Beside, Lees did not at that
time know of any reward having been
offered, and therefore had no valid con-
tract with the State. Lees took action
in arresting Kovalev a few days after
Bennett told him his story, and the nat
ural presumption would be that he
acted on the information furnished by
Bennett. Captain Lees was a wealthy
man and did not need the reward
Captain Lees was a careful man, the
Governor said, and had become wealthy
by judicious investments in real estate,
and not from his salary
Mr.. Anderson said Lees wanted to
gobble the whole thing. The other
claimants were willing to divide the re-
ward. In the Worden case the reward
was divided among those giving i'm
portant evidence.
RYAN TO THE RESCUE.
1ict,~fo+ 4-+o,.,,.orv I},.,,, - e.
Captain Lees, who had been forced to
return to San Francisco. He had, he
said, told the latter that he would rep
resent him. It seemed to him that most
of the remarks were directed against
Captain Lees, who, he thought, was the
greatest detective in California.
HAMILTON's CLAIM.
W. T. Hamilton said that the identifi-
cation by Mrs. Beesley of Weber's pam
taloons, which were found in Ko-
valleys possession, made it possible TO
hold the latter. He had given to the po-
lice the information about the missing
clothing himself. He had, with mem
bers of the Committee of Safety, hunted
among the hoboes and criminals for the
missing clothing, N order to find the
murderer. He had secured the twenty
dollar piece with the suspicious marks,
which might have proved a elew.
The Governor did not see what the
twenty dollar piece had to do with the
reward, and Hamilton stated that a de-
tective could easily seS that it might be
an important clew. 1t would very
quickly attract the attention of an ex.
perienced hunter of criminals Mr.
Hamilton proceeded to make a forcible
argument on the value of his discover
les in fixing the guilt on Kovalev.
JOST ONLY WANTS PART.
c. II. Dunn, Jost's attorney, then took
up the argument for his client. He said
that Mr.. Jost did not expect to receive
all the reward, as Captain Lees did.
He proceeded to score Captain Lees Sc
verely for what he claimed was his ne
glect of his duty. If the Captain had
read the account of the murder as pub
lished in the papers, he said, he would
have easily recognized the fact that the
murderers belonged to the lower class
of criminals, and would first seek a
large city in which TO spend their ill
gotten gains. He considered that the
conduct of Lees showed him to be unfit
Ecr his position.
ALL AGAINST LEES.
The Governor wanted to know why
all the attorneys were attacking Lees,
and Mr.. Dunn said it was because he
was claiming the whole reward, and did
not propose to recognize the rights Of
"Pure a