The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-05
HAVING FUN WITH
THE AGED CHIEF
Attorney Knight Laughs at the Eff
forts of the Police Department
to Convict Mrs. Botkin.

What do 1 think of the new arsenic
discovery of the Police Department.
said George Knight yesterday evening in
reply to a question. "Why / was so
much interested in it that I have been
out on the bay all day throwing scud in
the faces of some of these fellows who
think they own fast launches.
Coming to the point I did not consider
1t of sufficient Importance to inform Mrs
Botkin of it. In fact, we are not par.
ticularly concerned as to what Chief Lees
has done or may do. Notwithstanding
his forty years of experience lie is in
many ways making a show of himself
Oh, he is bright one. He had the whole
business corraled in Stockton, in his
mind, and when that imaginary case van
ished into thin air he gathered himself to-
gether and went on an entirely different
lay. He and his detectives searched the
records at the Owl Drugstore and sue
ceeded in finding nothing. Then a couple
Of idle drug clerks looked the book over
and found that Mrs. Botkin had bought
some poison on June l. These amateurs
gave the old gentleman his cue, and it re-
CURED himself and four lieutenants to
verify the fact. Result. he returns to his
star chamber and jollies himself with the
idea that he has his case made.
Even granting for the sake of argu-
ment that Mrs. Botkin did buy some
was committed, as a single fact 1t does
not amount to anything.
DO you suppose he will search any
further In this great city to learn whether
or not anybody else bought arsenic?
There are very many women in this town
who know the man Dunning in mannear
Chief Lees is not looking for them. Does
the public suppose for an instant that
IN this case those women, Arbogast and
Thompson and others and the man
Tennessee, will ever be brought forward
again? Not on your life. They have
served the purpose of the Chief and are
relegated to obScurity.
Who is this man Dunning who dares
to stand forth as accuSer and Judge?
The betrayer of good, true wife and
an innocent child; consorter with passe
and blaSe women and racetrack toutS; the
leader of endless drinking and carousing
| bouts SO scandalous as to make any de-
cent man blush for him.
anybody obse%e any ndcaon euf of bs
coming here from Chicago to face this
! woman and denounce her as the guilty
one? No. He Is displaying the same kind
Of 'manhood'-of backbone-that sent him
| flying to the dogs here. He stays 2OOO
miles away and hides himself behind an
! affidavit. May heaven help such a biped
| for he needs some elevating assistance
so FAR as Lees is concerned he ought
to be ashamed of his attitude in this
matter. That superannuated Argus of
| the City Hall has his hundred ewes fast
ened on Mrs. Botkin, and he will fall into
more than one Stockton slough before he
Will look In another direction for the
| guilty person.
why, he had the matchless effrontery
| to publicly announce that he proposed to
| prostitute the Grand Jury and use it s
dragnet to fish for witnesses to try and
| save his distance and hold the woman
on another charge; and, Furthermore, to
| make statements to that jury as Chief of
Police that he would not have dared to
make In public And what did he get ?
Possibly the Chief has forgotten the
Dimmig case, which, while he was work
ing 1t up, he stated to me was the most
remarkable in his experience of forty
years. 1t was, in the way Lees handled
| 1t and in the manner in which it ended.
| Why, in that affair DINING acknowl-
edged having bought cyanide of potas-
| SUM in nine. different places, and the
| then head of the detective department
had a sure thing. But it was another
waterhaul. He had two chances to con-
Wet Dimmig and the fellow was acquit-
ted. DINING is now driving a hack for
the United Carriage Company, a broken
| man. The Chief had DR.. Bowers dancing