The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-03-04
THAT WHISKY SEIZURE.
The Men Arrested are Arraigned Be.
fore Commissioner Farrell.
Distillery Formally Seized Monday. Pa
pers in the Moore Case Taken from
the Revenue Office.


ed the following:
walter Johnson, eX messenger in
the office of Collector Dave Mum, at
the custom house, yesterday pleaded
guilty to the charge of extracting
valuable papers from the office of
Eugene Priest, chief clerk of the Of
flee, and in whose care the office is
placed. The papers were the reports
OF the Revenue Agent Q. H. Ingram,
and were secret in their nature.
Last Tuesday the distillery of
Moore Bros, near Columbia, was
seized, and the Moore brothers were
arrested. Saturday their trial was
held at the custom house, and they
were bound over. In Mr.. Priests
Office is certain book in which he
keeps all the secret reports, and to
which he alone is expected to have
access. 1t was in this book that the
report'Of the seizure of Moore Bros. >
distillery was placed Saturday af-
ternoon by Mr.. Priest.
Saturday night Johnson, accom-.
panied by boon companion named
Charlie Norman, returned to the
ces locked, johnson went out to the
ianitOr's house aud secured the keys
for that floor, saying shat he had left
an umbrella in one of the offices.
The janitor, knowing Johnson to be
an enploye of the revenue office, let
him have the keys.
ut seems that an effort was first
made to secure the papers in the
Moore case from the office of Reve-
nue. Agent Ingram, but they were in
too bad shape to be accessible there.
The report furnished Mr. Priest was
taken from the book by Johnson.
While in the building the young
men were seen by the pension agent
and his wife, who was in his office
with him. The agent remarked to
his wife that he would wager that
the bows were up to some mischief
from the way they acted. The lock
on the revenue agents office door
was broken.
Saturday night Col. Ingram
found Johnson in the Climax saloon,
in company with the Moore broth
ers. and all seemed in deep consul
tation. Suspecting som ething wrong,
Col. Ingram called up Mr.. Priest
and communicated his suspicious to
him. Sunday morning Col. Ingram
and Mr.. Priest met at the latter's Of
fee and found the papers in the
Moore case gone, and at once sus-
pected who had stolen them. All
day he remained at the office. ex-
uecting that an effort would be made
to return the papers Sunday, so as to
prevent detection, but no one came
Yesterday morning, when John
son stepped from the elevator, he
was met by Mr.. Priest, and led into
the Collectors office and told that
his game was up, and that he must
produce the papers, or the Marshal
would be called. After several de-
malls of any knowledge of the mat
ter, on being told that he would be
handed over to the law, and would
not be spared, he finally handed
over the papers. He had waited too
late to return them.
while the exact motive for the
theft is not known, it is supposed
that I'll Q Moore Bros. wanted to find
oIt who had been the Government s
informant against them, but if such
was the case, they were happily dis
appointed, as the party's name does
not appear on the documents at all.
Or ii may have cen possible that
they wanted to see the amount of
evidence against them. The case il
a very ugly one, and may have other
developments"