The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-25
WHACKED UP WITH wendell.
WITNESSES TELL or SYSTEM OF
ARMORY GRAFT.
sworn Testimony OF Employees They
Had TO Give Up Part Of Their SAL
aries. Chiefly by Mythical Renting
OF Homes Owned by Capt. Wendell.

- vi - ~N1A VI AAA NO
the charges Of blackmail and ~extortion
made against Capt. Louis Wendell Of the
First Battery. The Governor acted upon
a request by Capt. Wendell that such a
court be appointed.
The District Attorneys office continued
Yesterday its Investigation OF the Wendell
charges. Nine witnesses. most OF them
employed at the armory in West Sixty
sixth street, testified before Magistrate
Crane in the Tombs police court. The
proceedings were held in the Magistrates
private room and were in the nature Of an
investigation to determine what action
should be taken by the court.
William l.. Fuchs testified that he started
to work in the armory in September. 1898,
as %ianitor, at 81 a day. Capt. Wendell was
running the place then. al now. The
Captain was a friend Of Fuchs's father and
one day he proposed to William that he
drop the drug business and enter the
National Guar as ianitor.
1--WE got a vacancy; my son, Charlie, lis
going West-there's a nance for you,"
was the encouraging way the Captain put
81, Fuchs said.
Fuchs took the job, and a few days later
Capt. Wendell. according to the ~jsnitor,
called him aside and said: The place
pays 81 a day; you get 81 and I'll see you
later"
From September 81, 1896, Until January,
1899. Fuchs, according to his statements,
paid Capt. Wendell the 81 a day out of his
pay. He made the payment once a month,
putting the money for the first few pay
ments into the top drawer of the Captains
desk. This, he declared, was done ac-
cording to agreement with the Captain,
but later he dropped the envelope con-
tanning the none into a slot in the top
of the desk. He supposed the change
was recommended because the payment
by way Of the drawer was too conspicuous.
Things went along in this way, Fuchs
said, until about January /, 1899. There
was a big blizzard that morning and Fuchs
got al early start for the armory. He had
Just pushed the working end Of a snow
shovel into a big drift when another man
came out of he rmory, with a shovel,
mits, CATERS and all x up.
Hello, what you dom here2" said Fuchs.
I'm the new janitor," replied the man
with the shovel.
That was the first intimation Fuchs had
that he was to be reduced in rank" from
janitor to laborer. The reduction" car
RED with il a cut in pay from 81 to 81 a day.
Fuchs testified that the cause OF his losing
the janitorship was that he had told a
certain Lieutenant who had a grudge
against Capt. Wendell about the money
that was being dropped into the desk.
Fuchs continued to labor in the armory
until the summer of 1903, when he left to
become a rubber in a Turkish bath.
In July of the present year, being out OF
a job, Fuchs said he presented himself to
Can't Wnndal n nnin The Canfain SaiA
that Fuchs hadn't trea ted him right but
nevertheless told him to report for work
up at Kingsbridge, where Charlie Striebel,
the armory engineer-paid by the city
was building sheds for the Captain. Fuchs
was supposed to give the engineer a hand
with the work, and he did 30 for twenty
days. In August Fuchs returned to the
armory as a laborer at 50 a day. Then the
Captain asked him now he would like TO
rent a house up at 1s2d street and Amster-
dam avenue. II Fuchs would rent the
house the Captain would give him his old
job as janitor back at 81 a day.
Fuchs said he inspected the house. 1t
was nothing but a big, long hall, with nc
partitions in it. The Captain said he would
put in partitions, and Fuchs promised to
report to his wife. The wife would nave
none of it. Things went along all right then
until the captain went 10 see FucnS q
brother-in-law, Charles N. Steck, a chiropo-
dist. to get his feet fixed" The Captain
dropped a word or two there about how
nice it would be if Billy would move up tow
and Billy, according to his own testimony,
decided hat he had better humor the Cap
tain. He didn't take the hall but moved
into one of the Captains houses at 2 AQue-
duct avenue. He was informed that the
rental price was SIS a month. He paid that
for one month, and then il was pushed up
to $40. He testified that the Captain told
him he would have to pay more because
he had been made ~janitor. Fuchs is still
living in the Bronx house at $40 a month.
Fuchs also testified that private horses
belonging to Capt. Grirhsgart, l. M. Fingel-
stein and a Miss Hungerford were kept in
the armory and he thought the money for
the keeping OF these horses was paid to
Sergt. John j. Jensen. He testified that
review on December 7 being the last occa-
sion. 1t was possible to get almost any
thing one wanted to drink, even champagne.
Fuchs didn' I know where the liquors came
from.
The witness testified that on September
81, 1898, Sergt. Jensen came to him with a
paper which he asked him to sign. 1t was
an affidavit TO the effect that he, Fuchs,
had never handed over any part of the
salary which he had received. Fuchs de-
clared that he refused to sign at first, but,
being in straitened circumstances and being
obliged to provide for a newly born baby,
be finally gave in.
Ohio Winkler, a Waterman at the armory,
who has said that he paid $50 a month for
one of the Captains houses which he never
used, told how the arrangement was made
Capt. Wendell, when he applied for a job
at the armory. sent him up to Fort Wendell,
where he ~wasinvited upstairs into an Office by
the Captain 3 son Charles. Charlie, accord
ing to the Waterman, told him that he was 70
get So a day but that he would have to rent
ahOuse. He didn't know just exactly where
the house was, but he paid $50 rent on De-
cember 1 10 +. Osborn Smith Il Co. OF lSlst
street and Amsterdam avenue. This firm
collected most OF the Captains rentals.
While Winkler was paying $50 rent for
one Of the Captains houses be testified that
he was living at the Captains own home
and paying for his keep. Winkler testified
that Charles Wendell had told him to pay
the money to Smith Il Co., and Fuchs, the
annory ~janitor, had shown him the way
to the place. Sometimes, after he got
throug with his work at the armory, Wink
Ter took care OF the Captains COW.
Why did you give the Captain rent for
a house you didn't use?' asked Assistant
District Attorney Hart.
Elz-N. III ~ 49,. 49, .at.e.1 y -