The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-24
VAN VALKENBURG CASE.
Arrest Of Detective Gibson will Not
DELAY the Reckoning.

Washington. March 23-Mr. II. Bar
ring, senior members of the detective
firm of Barring q McSWeeney, is here
today. He just came from New York,
where G. a. Gibson, one of their deteC-
tiVes is on trial for perjury. Mr.. Glib
son is the man who made the complaint
against Van NalkenDerg i'm the now
famous senatorial bribery case. Mr..
Barring says that he suspected from
the first that there was a job in the
prosecution Of Gibson for the purpose
of disqualifyng him as n witness in
the bribery cases, although it is fact
that Gibson cuts very little figure in
these cases. Gibson, says Mr.. Barring,
made the complaint on information
and belief
"What Gibson knows about the Van
Valkenburg case can be substantiated
by dozen other witnesses" says Bar
ring. "However, the Van Valkenburg
people evidently didn't know this and
considered him an important witness.
To what ends people who find them
selves in hole win go, cropped out
Yesterday during the trial of Gibson.
When Spear and Carey, attorneys Of
Jersey City, took the stand in behalf
four or five weeks ago a detective
named Perkins, of Pittsburg. and an
other man, alleging to be Attorney
Bergner, of Harrisburg. came to them
and proposed that they should take
measures to furnish the proof that the
said c. \. Gibson was unworthy of be-
lief and entirely unreliable AS they
put it, they We're told to get up some
scheme to disqualify Gibson as a wit
ness They at first set to work and
employed Gibson on a fake case. eX-
pecting that if Gibson was q man of
such character as reported to him, he
would make false reports to them and
to this end they had him shadoWed bv
other detectives. Nevertheless, Gibson.
as was testified to by Spear and Carey,
reported nothing but actual facts. II
! appeared to us from the copies of the
| reports that came to our agency that
something was wrong about the whole
! business and We suspected that Gibson
| was being made q tool i'm some black
| mailing scheme. our Mr.. McSweeney
| wrote to Gibson, after he had been
! in tho case about two weeks TO dpmnnd
| from his client a fun statement oX-
! planning as to the aim object of his
! work ana If such explanation Were not
! satisfactory to drop the case then and
! there. The case was dropped. 1t isn't
! quite clear 10 Us yet through what
agency the Shray divorce case in which
| Gibson was compelled to appear as q
| witness and which resulted in his ar-
rest was dragged on to the court cal
endar after it had been dead since 1899
There seems, however, to he no doubt
now that the trial Of this case was part
and parcel of a scheme TO ruin Gibson. .
MI Barring says that a persona
fight has been made upon his agency
ever since their connection with tbf
Van Nalkenburg case, but that the,
are now ready to turn the tables o0l
every man implicated In this schem,
Will have an opportunity of testing Jer.
sey justice. Mr., Barring had n Ions
talk with Senator Penrose this morn
ing about the libel suit against Van
Nalkenburg and it is generally under
stood that the case viii be vigorousI,
prosecuted. Mr., Barring left for New
York this afternoon