Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-05-16
Sensational Statements Made by Schultz, Alias William H. Garner--An
Alleged Dastardly Plot Revealed by Garner and Then Denied by
Him With the Story OF a Conspiracy to Injue
Hon. Thomas B. Catron.

was to be Carriers attorney in the case
at Albuquerque, and to see that Garner
landed in the penitentiary. City Mar
shall Fred Fornoff was to furnish COM
plete directions for the work and supply
the poison.
Merrill and Colonel Bergman, said
the witness, gave the instructions as to
what should appear in the statement,
and for making the statement Garner
was to be released from prison, and
| Colonel Bergman vas to furnish him
with money after his release. Colonel
Bergman promised these things by all
that was good and bad. When this
stare of the plot was reached Garner
was removed from the cell which he
had occupied with a mate and placed
in another by himself, given pen and
paper and spent a week in preparing
his statement.
SOME WRITTEN DOCUMENTS.
District Attorney Gortner here intro
duced a paper in evidence, which Gar
! ner said had been written by Colonel
Bergman for the purpose of aiding
him (Garner) in preparing the state
ment.
The witness also stated that Colonel
Bergman promised that a heavy re-
ward would be his portion for doing the
work. Garner then copied the state
ment and gave it to Henry Bergman,
who took it to the Colonel. After that
| Garner had several interviews with
Merrill and Colonel Bergman, when
they said the dates given in the state
ment were not right, and would have
to be made to read in 1892, as the time
when Mr.. Catron was supposed to have
appeared in Missouri to arrange for
the poisoning of the different persons
he wanted killed.
Another written document was then
introduced as evidence by the district
attorney, which Garner said had been
written by Merrill, and the copy sent
to Colonel Bergman by a nan by the
name of Clark. All the statements
which had beer made We're written in
the form of letters to Colonel Berg
mann. The greater part of the writing
was done the first summer the witness
| spent in the penitentiary, he said.
Some time last summer Garner, he
testified, wrote a note to Colonel Berg
mann, complaining that the colonel and
the governor had not kept their prom
Uses; then when his term had nearly
expired he was told by Colonel Berg
mann that he (Garner) had made these
statements, and he would have to face
them and the persons implicated. There
was so much in the statements that he
| could not remember from time to time
what had been written.
A third document was then intro
duced by the district attorney, dated
September II. 1897, which purported to
give in detail what took place at the
meeting held in Williams barn in Mis-
souri, at the time Mr.. Catron was to
have been there. Garner said that
| Colonel Bergman wrote the statement
and that he copied it.
NlIotllCi pdPCl, Pui " eiA6 W VIC q
statement Of the arrangements made
by Mr.. Catron with Garner and Will
liams, in Albuquerque, was also intro
duced. The subject matter Of this
statement Garner said he got from a
talk he had with Merrill in the store
house at the ~penitentiary, but he had
to write several different versions of it
before he got it to please Merrill. The
statements were understood to have
been manufactured for the purpose of
forming a chain of evidence against Mr..
Catron. When T. B. Hart came to the
prison he and Garner were both put to
work on the plot, and they would write
statements together. All Of these state
ments were written at the dictation of
Colonel Bergman and Mr.. Merrill. The
first time the witness ever saw Mr.. Cat
ron was at the county Jail, when Mr..
Catron called to see Walter Locke.
At this point in the hearing Mr.. Gort-
ner produced something of a sensation
in the court room by placing before the
witness a small bottle, which was sup
posed to contain strychnine. which was
identified by the witness as a familiar
object, and which Garner said had been
given him by Merrill.
HOW POISON WAS DELIVERED.
Then followed a long story from the
witness, telling how poison was fur !
nished him by Fornoff, by a guard by
the name Of Burns, which was to be
struggled, according to the plot, In diff
ferent ways, by Fred Fornoff. The most
favored way of getting the stuff inside !
the prison walls was to place it Oh all
manner of small bones and have 1t
dropped by different visitors, who was
always followed by Garner for the pur-
pose Of picking them up, but they were
always furnished by Mr.. Merrill and
distributed about the grounds by the
guard Burns, who was the agent of Mr..
Merrill said that the reason
that he wanted the poison introduced in
that manner vas because he wanted to
get rid of Burns, and Garner was to
say that Burns gave him the poison.
VlCIiHl luIliioHcu lHc SUN, dHu oAc
time sent two packages to Garner in old
hats, which were sent to his cell to be
About nine packages of poi
were sent to him in different ways,
and he was instructed to say that
Moore, Fornoff and Motsenbecker sent
them to him. These packages were all
given to Barney Spears, who gave them
to Merrill.
During the time that the poison was
being furnished Garner he was en-
in carrying supplies to the
kitchen from the store room and gar
len. About the time the soldiers went
to the war with Spain, Garner was
sick from the worry he had over
1is connection with the plOt. and Mer-