The San Francisco call., 1896-07-09
| McP|KE SCOTS
At LEES THEORIES,
Declares That the Old Man
Is Not What He
Used to Be.
FORGERY TRIAL CLOSING
All the Evidence Is Now In
and Argument Has Al.
ready Begun.
HOTEL employees FXAMINED
Bellboys. Clerks and Chambermaids
Add Their Little Mites of
Evidence.

!
and Creegan for forgery is now in, and
probably the arguments will be finished
by this afternoon. Possibly bv tomorrow
morning verdict will have been reached
and the guilt or innocence of the two de-
| PENDANTS determined.
Yesterdays testimony esta blished strong
ly the fact hitherto unproven that
Becker was in this State at the time of
the forgery. Numerous hotel employees
from Oakland and Sacramento identified
him as having been in these cities. Some
| expert testimony on the process of raising
a draft was also given by Captain Lees and
Expert Gumpel. The value of Captain
Lees expert testimony was somewhat dis
counted by Attorney McPike in his argu-
| ment.
G. w. Kingstury, the cashier of the
| Lick House, was the first witness called.
He testified that Dean or Seaver, under
| the name of A. d. Howe, had registered at
the Lick House on November % and re-
mained until the 5th of Decem Der. The
hotel register with Deans signature was
| introduced in evidence.
Miss Kate Brady, a chambermaid at the
| Galindo Hotel in Oakland, testified that
| she had seen Becker at the hotel, where he
| been at the hotel over a week, and kept
his room nearly all the time except when
| the chamEermaid was doing her work in
the room. He had told her always to lock
the door OF his room when she got through
| with her work
G. E. Harrison, the clerk of the Golden
Eagle Hotel at Sacramento, identified
| Becker as the man who had registered at
| the Golden Eagle on November 80, 1895, un-
der the name of AL Dressed, and remained
until December z At the Golden Eagle as
at the Galindo Becker remained most of
the time III his room.
Charles Walsh, the elevator boy of the
Golden Eagle, corroborated the statement
OF Clerk Harrison, that Becker. or Dressed,
had kept to mis- room nearly all the time
he was at the hotel.
Cornelius Geebel, the bellboy of the ho-
tel, also identified Becker as the man
Dressed who had stopped at the hotel.
Lizzie Morrison, cham Mermaid at the
| hotel also recognized Becker as the man
who had staid at the Golden Eagle.
Cashier Michael f. Bray of the Grand
Hotel in this City identified Creegan as
on November 30 as ]. P. Holland OF Chi
cago. Creegan had remained a guest at
the hotel until Decem Der II.
! b. +. Schunhoff, a druggist on Seventh
street, near Broadway, identified satchel
shown him as being very similar to a
/
Train Agent HI. G. Hubbard identified
Becker as the man whose signature he had
! required to identity his railroad ticket.
Becker had written the name of g. L.
Werner. and had been accompanied by a
man giving the name of j. Harris.
Captain Lees took the stand and mod
estly admitted that he had had some
forty years experience in detective work
| He had known of Becker for a long time
and knew him to be an expert with pen
aud brush. He had examined the $4,000
check ana had it photographed. The
photographic copy showed more plainly
the defects of the draft than the original.
| As tending to show his competency to
| examine the drafts Captain Lees admitted
/ that he had raised many checks himself,
but merely for experiment. With the aid
OF lens the captain then proceeded to
examine the check. The name "a. H.
Dean" and the letters tive" had been left
intact. The letters "nty" had been added
after extraction. The ''nty" and the first
| ''2'' in the $4,000 were Off slightly different
| colored ink from the rest of the writing.
| Furthermore the captain detected that the
''2'' had been changed from "1' and
after the tive" the indistinct trace of the
| loop OF an ''l'' was visible.
| Captain Lees testimony was inter-
| mingled by some expert testimony OF
Coiner A. t. SPOTS of the Mint in regard
| to the marking OF $40 pieces coined at the
| Mint in this City. The detective then
| proceeded with his expert examination of
the draft. He gave as his opinion that in
| the work q fine camel's hair brush or
pencil, and also a fine pen had been used
In making the catches where the perfora-
tions had been, Lees declared that very
sharp knife and a block of some hard
wood or substance had been used.
More hotel employees were examined at
the opening OF the afternoon session.
First, however, John Bedford, Pullman
car porter, testified that Becker and Cree
gan had got on his car at Sixteenth street,
Oakland, and had ridden to Tracy, where
they had changed to the Santa Fe car.
The porter transferred their luggage,
which consisted of one small and tw
large grips.
Manager Carlson of the Galindo Hotel.
Oakland, testified that Becker had stopped
at his hotel from December to 18.
Becker had first been assigned room at
the hotel facing the court, but he had OBJ
jected to this and was given suite facing
on the street. G. R.. Sharp, the night
clerk at the hotel, had seen Becker and
another man come out of the former
room ct the Galindo. He could not iden-
tify Becker's companion, but thought he
was taller. Elmer Hartman, waiter at
the Galindo. corroborated the previous tes-
timony as to Becker's habit OF keeping to
his room. Detective Seymour was calleu
and identified the satchel which he had
got from Druggist SchunhoH st AGO
Seventh street. Oakland.
M. Gumpel, photographer and an
expert on handwriting, gave it as his
opinion that the signatures upon the rail-
road tickets, hotel registers and other
memoranda were written by the same
person. The witness was then given the
forged draft and proceeded, with the aid
of a magnifying glass and blackboard, to
give an exposition from an experts point
of view. He detected various slurs in the
forged writing, showing that it had not
been done with pen, but with brush.
At the conclusion of Expert Gumpel's
testimony Mr.. Black stated that the pros
ecution here rested. The defense had no
additional evidence. and the argument of
the case began. According to agreement !
the defense opened the argument.
Attorney McPike opened his argument
with few compliments to Captain Lees.
The attorney admitted having made
mistake in asking to have Lees excluded. |
I'VE thought" said McPike, ''that Cap
tain Lees was what he was twenty years
/ Il l. s-s,A -.