The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-19
BETRAYED BY THE TYPES
FORGERY OF WILL SHOWN BY A
WRITING MACHINES MECHANISM.
Noted Farley Case in Supreme Court
from ebanon-Mrs. Hawkins
Shut on from Fortune.


story that woIld delight the heart of DIR.
A. Conan Doyle or any other writer of the
modern high-class detective tale. The peo-
pie of Noblesville, as a general proposition.
believed that if old Mary Jane Farley did
not in reality leave the bulk of her money
to pretty young Mrs. Jennie Hawkins she
ought to have dono So And this was prob
ably true, for had not the young niece lived
for years with the feeble old lady and at
tended faithfully and cheerfully to all her
wants; had she not devoted her young life
almost entirely TO her aunt in her old age
and illness? And what of it, if she had,
a year or so before the death married Haw
kins, who had neither wealth nor high rep
utation in the community She had been
so closely confined at her aunts side that
she had little opportunity to pick and
choose. And, anyway, Hawkins might be
all right if given the opportunity to show
what he could do. And if not to Mrs. Haw-
kins. to whom should the money go? The
only others near of kin were her two
brothers, the Messrs. Evans, men well
along in years and already possessing more
than the common share of this world S
goods. In fact they were rich and old,
while Jennie Hawkins and her husband
were poor and young, and the money meant
so much more to them than to the brothers.
No, the story did not come out just
right, but, for all that, it is not the less
interesting to lawyers, detectives and all
that ilk whose trade leads them to ponder
upon and unravel human mysteries involv-
ing property rights and crime.
When Mary Jane Farley died in the sum-
mer of 1895 there did not seem to be any
will. and it looked as if all her money would
90 IN
of law. This was heavy blow to Mrs.
Hawkins and her husband, and long after
others had ceased to hope they continued
the search for the missing will Finally one
day as the winter set in the news was
whispered about NobleSville that Hawkins
had found the precious document among
some of his aunt's papers, and she had
done the right thing by leaving the most
of her money, some 10000 or $4,000, to
Jennie. Sure enough, in two or three days
the will was brought into court to be pro-
bated. 1t was a typewriter document,
very simple in it's construction and had
been drawn in May by an attorney named
Pfaff. 1t bore the signatures OF two we'll
known citizens as witnesses. There seemed
not only the attorney, but both the wit
nesses as well had very shortly followed
the testatrix to the grave. Death had
This coincidence only served to excite the
suspicion of the brothers Evans, and they
boldly charged that Hawkins had forged
set aside upon that ground. And, alas for
human sympathy ana the rights OF ro-
nance, the facts brought forth by mex
orable modern machinery, proved in the
minds of the juryman that the will was
spurious, though the plaintiffs attorneys
did not go to the unnecessary length or try
ing to show who forged 1t.
TYPEWRITERS IN EVIDENCE.
Attorneys Fertig & Anderson, of Nobles-
vile, undertook to unravel the mystery for
the plaintiffs, and c. c. Shirley, of Kokomo,
and George Shirts, of Noblesville, under
took the defense, afterward calling to their
aid Judge T. J. Terhune, of Lebanon. Mr..
Anderson came to indianapolis with the
will to consult typewriter experts and COM
pare it with the work of various machines.
1t was said to have been written by Mr..
Pfaff upon a machine in the office Of Sen
ator Boyd, but the senator had been try
ing a large number OF machines, with
view to purchasing one, at that time, and
it might have been written upon any one
of dozen. Anderson applied to George II.
Field, State agent of the Remington, who
assured him that 1t had not been written
upon any one of a dozen well-knoWn ma
chimes. There was a new machine on the
market, however, the Blickensderfer, whose
writing he had never seen, and this might
be it, Mr.. Anderson found twenty different
makes of typeWriterS on the market here
in his investigation. When he struck Dixon
Edgerton, agent for the Blickensderter
comparison showed that the will had prob
ably been written upon that machine. lie
found there was but one such machine IN
Noblesville, belonging to an architect, and
there were some circumstances connected
with this machine, but they decided that II
was not necessary TO prove the luehllcal
machine and the author of the forgery SO
these circumstances We're not brought up.
The trial began at Noblesville and was
the topic of conversation wherever men or
gathered
these conversations, where one of the jurors
was talking point was brought up against
the defense and the juror remarked that
that would be explained away later. He
was overheard, and upon this ground the
plaintiffs attorneys moved the dlsmlssal OF
the jury and demanded change or venue.
The jury was dismissed and the case sent
to Boone county, where 1t was tried three
weeks ago. The plaintiffs mad nothlng TO
document 1t is true that Deputy Auditor
Fred Shepard, Of this county, and other eX-
perts testified that the signatures or tesla
trix and witnesses, all written with an in
delible pencil, looked as though they We're
written by the same hand, yet Jurles are
accustomed to hear experts on both sides
and the question of the signatures was not
the really material point, for Mayor Will
son. of Noblesville, testified that ne was
present when the will was executed, ana
though a trainload of witnesses came over
from Noblesvile Ifext day to impeach MS
veracity another trainload came on the DAY
following to sustain his reputation
The plaintiffs showed the jury that the
will could not have been written upon
tYpe-bar typewriter, for there were IN
dentations about many of the letters, SHOW
ing conclusiVely that 1t must nave peen
written upon q machine where the type is
embossed upon a wheel. All sorts of ma
chimes were operated in the presence of the
Jury to show this Then It was shown that
there are but four wheel machines In eX-
istence the Hammond, the Crandal, the
Munson and the Blickensderfer. The blank
lines for signatures had been made by strik-
ing the characters for undermining, ana Just
above the lines were indentatlons OF q
double-footed letter, either h or an II.
Microscopic examination showed that one
of the indentations slanted little, showing
il to be a X. Below the line We're very
faint indentations of the parenthesis mark.
1t was shown that upon the Blckensderter
machine these characters are placed IN the
relative positions that would make these IN
dentations possible. While in none or the
other wheel machines are the letters so
placed At either end of these blank lines,
as a sort Of a flourish, the section mark had
been used. Very few machines nave this
character and the Blickensderfer is one of
them.
Then came the clinching testimony of the
plaintiffs. They introduced athdaVlts by
the president of the Blickensderter Com
panv and the man who oversees the making
of the dies for the wheels. proving tnat TINS
character had never been on the Dickens
derfer machine until October 1875, whereas
the will was dated in May, 1898. This
showed conclusively that the Will had been
drawn six months after II was dated and
after the death of Mary Jane Farley, and
the Jury found it to be a forgery.
-s-0-e--
TO-NIGHT'S COUNCIL MEETING
Reports to BE Made on the Gameweu