The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-15
A LEON|NE ROAR
BY JUDGE WALLACE
Disappearance of an Ex-
hibit in Won Tiede-
mans Case.
Nobody Is Able to Solve This
Latest Mystery Of the Su-
perior Court.
Chances of Escape Seem Very Bright
for Man Who Is Charged
With Perjury.

Judge Wallace's leonine roar was heard
in Department 6 of the Superior Court
Yesterday morning when Clerk Solomon
informed him that the photograph of Mrs.
Sarah Owen Spencer was missing from
the papers and exhibits in the case of Carl
Won Tiedeman, indicted for felony. to
wit, perjury. Mr.. Solomon said the pic
ture never came into his possession SO far
as he knew.
cit is an outrage that anything like this
should happen" said his Honor, and the
bench shook with thunderous denunci-
alton.
Won Tiedeman, the handsomest and
most stylishly dressed man in the room,
appeared to take philosophical view of
the loss of the picture. Ii he was sorry he
did not show it by his couptenance, but
in his experience as an operator he has
had much experience in controlling his
facial express on, so no one CO uld tell ex-
actly what he thought in regard 10 the
evident disgust and surprise with which
Judge Wallace regarded this invasion of
his courts jurisdiction and archives.
The Importance OF the disappearance of
this picture may be judged from the fact
that it was like the piece de resistance in
French dinner. Without it the banquet
cannot proceed any more than Hamlet
could be played with the Melancholy Dane
omitted.
Briefly stated the position of the case is
as follows: Won Tledeman was indicted on
a charge OF forging deed to property be-
longing to Mrs. Harriet P. Christy, and
when he was arrested for that CRIME he
declared that he was the victim OF de-
signing woman. To establish this he pro-
duced in court the photograph of the
woman who, he said, declared herself TO
be Mrs. Christy-
At once the photograph was identified
as pic ure OF Mrs. Sarah Owen Spencer,
who had formerly been mixed up IN some
forgeries of deeds, but VINO at The time of
Won Tiedeman's trial was notin California.
Won Tedeman pretended that he did not
know Mrs. Spencer and said that he had
accepted in good faith her averment that
she was in fact Mrs. Christy.
Believing this statement and conceiving
Won Tiedeman to be the much abused VIC
tim of untoward circumstances the jury
returned verdict of acquitta.
Won Tiedeman was happy, but Mrs.
Spencer didn't like it, so she came all the
way from New York to prove that she was
not in California at the time Won Tiedeman
swore that she appeared before notary
public and made statement that she was
Mrs. Christy, and that consequently Won
Iledeman swore to lie.
Clerk Salomon's announcement of the
loss OF the picture caused quite commo-
ton. Deputy County Clerk Oscar Tolle
was summoned to tell what he knew of
the missing document. He said that after
the trial of Won Tiedeman in Judge
Belcher's court, all the papers in the case
were delivered to Deputy County Clerk
M,,la Mr1Io haxy GO
asked about the matter and could give no
information. He mad never seen the pic
ture. Other deputies in the County Clerk s
office were also questioned, but without
result.
Further efforts are to be made to find
the picture, as District Attorney Barnes
considers il hazardous for the prosecution
to proceed without It,. Ii 1T is not pro-
dnced at the trial for perjury it may be
| impossible to show that Won Tiedeman
swore falsely, and the chances for convic-
| ton are exceedingly remote.
| Mr.. Mulcahey testified that the papers
| had been handled by great number OF
persons, including attorneys, mem bers of
| the Grand Jury, deputies in the Office of
the District Attorney and the officers OF
| Judge Wallace's department OF the Su-
perior Court. He supposed all the papers
and exhibits were together when he sent
| the documents in the case TO Mr.. Solomon.
| At 10 O'Clock this morning the search
| for the vanished photograph will be re-
sumed. 1t might be possible to substitute
a copy were it not for the fact that it was
not a finished portrait, but was simply
what is called a proof" on thin paper,
and the name of the artist was not printed
| on 1t so that it could be Identified.
County Clerk Curry declared last night
that his Office would use every possible
effort to find the picture.