The San Francisco call., 1897-01-27
EXECUTORS OF A LIKE
OPINION.
The Millionaire'S Son Insisted On
1t Despite the Protest of
Other Interests.
a NEW WITNESS FOUND FOR
MRS. CRAVEN.
Webb Saw the Bonanza King in Hsr
House on the Date of the
Marriage Cont act.

There is discord in the ranks OF the Fair
lawyers and heirs. While all lined up II
the common cause against Mrs. Craven
and her pencil deeds, they have taken to
ouarreling among themselves over the
best way to defeat these documents.
Cooney is the rock upon which they
have split. The prosecution of the young
notary in the criminal courts was an inno-
vation in the programme OF the campaign
against Mrs Craven prepared just after
DR.. Marc Levingston withdrew the famous
pencil will. The groundwork of the evil
dence upon which the police are now
seeking to convict Cooney of perjury was
laiu by the attorneys for the special ad-
ministrators of the estate, w. NJ. Pierson,
r. B. Mitchell and Garret w. Nc En-
erney. When detectives in the employ OF
these interests fell afoul of the records OF
the printing house OF ii. s. Crocker d Co.
the chestnuts they pulled out were 10 be
used not in a criminal prosecution OF
Cooney, but as lever to defeat Mrs. Cra-
ven's deeds in the civil litigation pending
before Judge Sack.
Captain Lees was at once called in to aid
the cause of the estate. Every movement
of Fair on dates that have vital besrln g
on the big issues involved was duly traced
and chron cled. First of all Lees diScov-
cred that Fair was in San Rafael on Sep
tember q, 1894, the day on which Mrs.
Craven says the dead bonanza king made
the pencil will in her house at 2U01 Cali
fornia street, and handed her deeds to
property worth 81. 500, 900 in the presence
of Mrs. Haskins. For day or so the
chief of detectives thought he had un-
eartned a mares nest, but a second inves-
tigation convinced him that Fair came to
San Francisco during the day. returning
to the Marin County suburb In the even
ing. There was more work along these
lines and the detective talent turned its
attention to Cooney and his acknowledg-
ments on the pencil deeds.
The Crocker printing house story, as 1t
is now known, with its detective printing
defects, was the result OF this labor. But
the discoveries which have since been her
aided with a flourish of newspaper type
by the Fair side of the case were originally
not to be made known al all. 1t was the
inten ton to spring them as sort of mine
on Mrs. Craven, when she would be totally
unprepared for them, in the civil Htiga-
ton. The attorneys for the special adj
ministrators of the estate favored this
plan. So did Reuben Lloyd and Russell
J. Wilson, the legal advisers OF Mrs. Her.
mann Oelrichs and Miss Virginia Fair.
1t was Charles l.. Fair, through his at
torneys, Knight d Heggerty, that jun ped
over the traces. They were cognizant of
every move Lees and his detective force
made, and the moment the Crocker story
was strung together they launched ont in
the criminal prosecution of COoney, in
spite of all sorts of protests on the part of
the other attorneys in the case. McEner-
ney and Pierson deplored this movement,
but once it was precipitated were forced 10
give it all the support at. their command
in self-interest. Lloyd and Wilson fell in
line in half-hearted way.
The wisdom of the move is seriously
questioned now by the executors and ad-
ministrators and rumor has it that young
Fair is rather inclined to believe be made
hasty Jump. The exoneration of Cooney
would prove a serious blow to the cause of
the heirs. 1t would mean a tacit defe al
of the Fair children in the first serious
skirmish they have taken part in. Ii
would indirectly go long way TO estab-
Iish the validity and genuineness oi
Cooney's part in the transaction, which is
one of the points the opposition have Wig
orously opposed from the inception OF the
lawsuit. That is why, now that they
have been dragged into the legal puddle
every resource at the command of the
millions of. the dead bonanza king is now
directed 10 convict Cooney. That is why
also, there IS a marked GOODNESS between