The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-21
WITNESS UNWILLING
NONRESIDENT DECLINES TO TES-
THY IN GAMBLING CASES.
CASES WILL BE SHELVED
SEVERAL WILL BE ASSIGNED TO
DEAD DOCKET TODAY.

Horace r.. Hunter Writes Solicitor
General That He Hasn't the Time.
Says He is Not DESTROYS of Testi-
flying Against the Accused - His
First Appearance n Forced Issue
He Says Cases Against owen
Travers, Charles ODeII, T. o. Nc
Bride, John Mcbride and j. l..
DOss RELOCATED TO the Dead Dock
| ct.
When the Superior Court convenes
| this morning, and "the cases against
| Jack Monahan, julius Rosenthal and
others, charged with keeping gambling
| houses, are called, they will be assign
ed to the dead docket, because Horace
Hunter, who. in July, 1901, testified
against these men at a special session
of the grand jury, and as a result of
whose testimony special presentments
were returned, declines to appear as a
| witness against them.
The absent witness is in North
Carolina, and writes that he is
neither DESTROYS nor willing to come.
He says that he cannot afford
to lose the time from his work. and
that, Furthermore, he has no desire to
appear against the accused, as his ap-
pearance in the first instance before
the grand jury was a forced issue, and
was never contemplated by him.
The sports do not exactly I'M
derstand what the writer means
by forced ISSUE" but they say
they don't care. Two letters to
the same end have been received
by the solicitor one being in response
to letter written when the cases were
assigned in December. and the other
having been written a short time ago.
POwerIess without witness.
Four indictments for gambling and
two for keeping open tipping house on
Sunday were assigned to the dead dock
ct in the Superior Court, when
Solicitor General w. W. Osborne
produced the letter. and told the court
that without the witness the state was
powerless to prosecute it's case. There
was quite a knot of spectators in the
court room when the cases were called
and the announcement was a surprise
to many.
The special presentments against
Charles O'Dell T. o. Mcbride, John
Mcbride and James L. Doss, each
charged with keeping a gaming house
and three against Owen Travers
charging him with keeping an open tip
ping house on the Sabbath, were
assigned to the dead docket, where
they are likely to remain, at least so
long as the nonresident witness re-
mains away.
Indictment "A Year and n Half Old.
The presentments against the four
who were charged with the conduct
of gambling houses were returned July
s. 1901. while those against Travers
were found week earlier. At that
time the Good Government Club was
making night hideous for the sports
In less than a week 38 indictments
for gambling and kindred vices were
returned by the grand jury. The noise
of the roulette wheels and the rattle
of the bones were temporarily hushed,
and more than one of the sports spend
unhappy hours in Jail, while others fled
to escape the ire to come With the
departure of the star Witness the last
great wave of reform ripples noiseless-
ly to the beach, as the cases are quiet
ly assigned to the dead docket
other Cases to Come Up.
There are quite a number of other
gambling cases. however, of later birth,
which will be disposed of in the Super
Tor Court this week. In one of these.
at least, the prosecution is preparing
for fight. This Is the case of the
State against julius Rosenthal, John
Monahan and Cad D. Bryan, Jr., which
was the outcome of the Kiley shooting
affair in the keno rooms last Novem-
Der.
More than fifty witnesses have been
summoned and about 100 jurors drawn.
For the past week the deputies have
been kept busy serving witnesses and
jurors and it is likely that the court
room will be crowded when the case
comes up for determination tomorrow.
There are alsoa number of cases against
parties renting property knowingly for
gambling purposes, and it is not at all
unlikely that fight will be made in
these cases.