The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-07
LIKE BLACKMAILING SCHEME
MRS. ANGEL AS THE ALLEGED
WIFE OF THE MILLIONAIRE.
Mrs. Cody's Anxiety to Meet George
Gould Because She Had the
Key to the Whole
Situation.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

ALBANY, N. Y, March 6..Mrs.
Sarah Angel and John Angel, the
missing witnesses in the Cody case,
were on hand at the opening Of court
to-day. Mrs. Angel is the woman who
it was contended had been married to
Jaw Gould and who was the mother of
his child
The first witness to-day was Mrs.
Seguin of Rouses Point, who testified
to having written a letter to Mrs.
Beebe, at the dictation of Mrs. Cody,
in which she indirectly asked for funds
with which to prosecute her investiga-
ton as to the marriage of Jay Gould
and Mary Brown. She said in the let
ter that while it would be very difficult
to procure a marriage record the other
(the birth record was now all right"
A second letter, identified by Mrs. Sc
gum as from Mrs. Cody to Mrs. Beebe,
asked for 500 and told that Mrs.
Pierces lawyer had arrived in Albany
with a deposition from Mrs. Angel to
the effect that she was never married
to Jay Gould. The marriage, the depo-
sition set forth, was to a F'renchman
named Vidas, who starved her" Mrs.
Cody's letter continues: Il think the
woman is crazy. I am going to try to
get an affidavit from her to the effect
that she had a child by Jay Gould.
Isn't it a shame that the villain at
this late day should fail us?''
A third letter to Mrs. Beebe tells of
Mrs. Cody's anxiety to meet George
Gould personally, because, as she says,
she has the key of the whole situation"
in her hands. IF the case goes to
trial. she proceeds, you and 1 will be
dead and buried, for that old fool is
constantly changing her mind and
every now and then contends that she
was never married to Gould.
Nicholas j. Dack had written some
letters in 1895 for Mrs. Cody, who had
asked him if he could write in more
than one kind of handwriting. One of
the letters which he had written and
which was dated Oswego, N. Y, and
signed H. Moore, was to Miss Helen
Gould and suggested to her the advisa-
biIfty of personally seeing Mrs. Cody,
who had control of the entire case and
was in a position to put an end to the
entire scandal
Still another letter to George Gould
told Of the case against the Goulds
having been placed in Mrs. Cody's
daughter of Jay Gould. 1t suggested a
personal meeting with Mr.. Gould with
a view to putting a stop to the pro-
ceedings which threatened.
The most significant testimony ad-
duced to-day was that of David n. Car
valho, handwriting expert, who, by a
chemical test in the presence of the
jury, showed that the record in the
book of the CooperVille church had been
erased and changed, and that the name
of Mary Brown, the supposed wife of
JAY Gould, had been written over a
blank space, the word "illegitimate"
changed to "1egitimate,', and in the
place where the name of the mother of
the illegitimate child had originally
been written was interpellated the
name Jay Gould"
This proof, in connection with the
strong testimony Of Mrs. Hoyle of
Rouse's Point to the effect that the
original Sarah Ann Brown was dead
and that the present Mrs. Angel (the
supposed pretender to the name and
family of Could was only a niece of
the woman who was mentioned in the
already disputed birth notice, put the
case of the defense in a nearly hopeless
condition.
It is intended, however, by the de-
Tense to prove that, although basis for
the claim against the Goulds never
really existed, Mrs. Cody believed in
her case, having been buoyed up and
encouraged by two lawyers, William
McMurtrie Speer and Amasa ]. Parker
Jr, who assured her that they were al
ready in possession of facts similar to
those which she thought she had