Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-05-24
BERGMAN TESTIFIES
The Defendant Believed Garner Was
Insane, But DR.. Harroun Said
He Was Not.
BLAMES JAMES HARRIS
The Defendant Tells Why He Did Not In
form Mr.. Oatron of the Oonvict's Ac-
cusation Against Him When 1t
Was First Known.

The last two hours of the afternoon
hearing in the conspiracy cases yester-
day We're occupied by Judge Laughlin,
for the defense, in reading an affidavit
by Garner, sworn to January Is before
General Charles F. Easley. This was
prepared after Garner had made the
original affidavit rejecting upon Messrs.
Catron, Fornoff and others. 1t was
taken in the presence of Judge Laughlin
and Colonel Bergman by a stenogra-
pher, and corrected by Garner after be-
ing typewriter.
This statement is an extended repeti-
ton of the one submitted on the first
day of the hearing by District Attorney
r. c. Gortner, and tells again the story
of the alleged conspiracy to kill ex-Gov-
ernor Thornton, District Judge Nc
Laughlin, Mayor Sloan, Colonel Berg
mann, Attorney Crist and others. 1t al
so enumerates the crimes claimed to
have been committed by a gang in Mis-
souri, and New Mexico. According to
this statement, which would fill a page
of this paper, Garner was born thirty
six years ago at CRANKY, Mo-; has trav-
eled extensively in Missouri, Kansas,
Colorado, Oregon, California, Tennes-
see, Texas and other states, selling
medicines or peddling books. He was
married at Purdy, Mo-, over four years
-.. H. ~ T,a-A, t. xv-n ~, 1901 tho
he became a member of the gang in
Newton county, Mo-, to which he says
belonged a man named Fritz, of Nc
Donald county, Mo-; Samuel STAINS
bury, Frank Wilson, of Waddill, Mo-;
j. w. Wilson, of Lehigh, l. T.; George
Watson, of CRANKY, Mo-; Bert McCur-
ty, of CRANKY; Clint Cantrel, of Grange
vile, Mo-: John H. Williams and j. e.
Tate, of CRANKY; Folden Bailey, OF
Waddill; J.. Meyer, of Brunswick, Tex,
and c. P. Goodwin, of Kerrville, Tex.
According to the statement, it was John
H. Williams and j. B. Tate who nego-
tiated with Garner, and to whom he
paid $4,000 for the privilege of joining
the gang and sharing in it's earnings.
He was to receive the money again
when he committed a crime to prove
his good faith. Pending such an act he
took a mortgage on $50 head of cattle
from Fritz, he said. After he Joined the
gang, the first job was holding up a
Frisco train above Aurora, Mo. Garner
feigned sickness, and did not go with
them, The gang afterward told him
they had attempted the hold-up, but
had become mixed with their own men,
and had to leave it after doing a great
deal Of work. After that the alleged
meeting with Hon. T. B. Catron took
place in Newton county, Mo. Williams
told Garner later, the witness says, that
the gang had blown open a safe and
broken into the United States mail at
Waddill, Mo. Also, that while Williams
and a man named Bailey were discuss-
ing a crime a little girl named Maggie
Campbell, daughter Of a Missouri farm
er, was caught listening to them. They
cut her throat from ear to ear. Witness
says that Williams also claimed that a
postmaster, John Names, who kept
money for the gang and misappropri-
ated it. was lured to a field near Webb
City, his throat cut and the body thrown
into an abandoned shaft. Williams also
told Garner that he (Williams) and
Tate killed a ranchman named Jess
Poore and his family on the Gila, near
Silver City, N. NJ. Poore made a fuss in
an Indian depreciation claim which Will
liams had falsely entered against the
government for cattle, and Poore was
killed and his house burned over his
head. This happened seventeen years
ago, and the blame was laid upon the
Indians.
Garner then relates with much detail
how he managed to get employed in
the kitchen at the penitertiary, and thus
had a chance to carry out the whole
sale poisoning plot. He tells over mi
nutely the strychnine story, repeating
statement submitted and published last
week. In 1897, at the ~penitentiary, Gar
ner was converted at a Christian En-
deavor meeting, and this led him, he
says, to write u these confessions. He
confessed his participation in the plot,
he says, to Colonel Bergman, o. L.
Merrill and Captain j. B. Hart.
According to this statement, Garner,
when he demonstrated against killing
so many people, was told it was mot
worse to kill such people than it was to
kill dogs, and he should ram it down in
to the mob" Garner says he discovered
that the guard Burns, who the witness
asserts struggled in several packages
Of poison to him, was Folden Bailey,
who lived a mile from Waddill, Mo,
and who was to be sent to him to assist
in the poisoning plot. Garner was also
to give a signal with a piece of paper
fastened to the outside wall to show his
accomplices that he was ready to exc
cute the plot.
TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS.
At the hearing of the conspiracy case
this morr ing there was noticeable a
certain tension between the parties in
terested in the matter. There seemed to