Arizona republican., 1907-07-13
HOW BOXTON
WAS CAUGHT
The Acting Mayors Story
of His Downfall
The Way He Became AN
Instrument of the Prose.
cutiOn.


stand in the Glass trial did much to
earn immunity from the punishment
promised him conditionally by Spreck
els. Langdon. Heney and Detective
his entrapment last fall at the home
of one Roy. a restaurateur. who. CO.
operating with the prosecution. bought
for $500 his. supervisorial vote against
the ordinance prohibiting child pat
ronage of skating rinks-only to turn
him over to the law. He told how
Spreckels. Heney. Langdon. Burns and
a dozen others outside the doors"
walked in ON him and confronted him
with statements. proof and threats of
punishment: how they Offered TO let
him go free If he would turn up" his
confederates and accomplices inside
and outside the board of supervisors;
how he agreed and a written guaranty
I of immunity was drawn up. signed and
midnight. they sent him home under
an escort in an automobile. and there
after for a week watched and guard
eI hin, like a prisoner. The mayor
/ told the story OF his perfidy without
| a visible sign of embarrassment or
show of unusual discomfort.
Both the direct and the cross-exam-
ination of Boxton concluded with to-
days proceedings. Other witnesses
called We're President Homer s. King
of the Bank of California. a director
of the Pacific States Telephone COM
pany. and Henry T. Scott and Frank
T. Drum. respectively president and
director OF the corporation. The last
named is under indictment on the
charge of bribing fourteen supervisors
to fix the legal gas rate of S5 cents
instead OF IS cents.
In the cross examination of Boxton
/ Attorney Delmas injected the identifi-
cation by the witness OF certain court
papers connected with the attempt last
fall to remove Langdony from office
and appoint in his stead Abraham
Ruef. the presumed object being to
kill the graft investigation in the bud.
Among these papers were Langdon's
| injunction complaint and the super
visors' answer. In the former Lang
don swore that one of the objects in
resisting his removal from office was
the prosecuting Of various members of
the supervisorial board for crimes of
/ be-taking.
| Now the supervisors had turned
states evidence and been by Langdon
promised immunity; hence Delmas'
purpose in getting this paper into the
record was to discredit the prosecu-
| ton in his argument to the jury. In
| the latter-the answer to Langdon's
complaint-the eighteen supervisors.
| including Boxton. swore that they each
stand guitless OF bribe taking or any
crimes: from this Delmas can argue to
the jury that Boxton is a perjurer and
therefore his testimony against Glass
is not worthy OF belief.
1 The examination of Homer S. King
I was to draw from him the statement
/ in effect that Louis Glass as acting
! president of the company was the only
4 official who had authority to sign
1 checks or make disbursements without
i authorization by the board of direc-
4 tors. The attempt was moderately
/ successful. Mr.. King was very anx-
ious TO be excused. that he might ac-
company a sick daughter to the noun
tains.
H He finally suggested to Heney:
There are other directors from whom
you can get everything I know. I've
already told you. before the grand
jury, that | did not know anything.
| WHY can't -ou let me GO"
Mr. King. said Heney, with much
h.,cf a
we shall conduct it in our own way
Frank Drum was questioned at
length about his part in renting rooms
in the Mills building by Agent Halsey
for the purpose of paying bribe. mon
eys to supervisors. He said he intro
duced Halse- to Agent Cannon Of the
building. but confessed that in a gen.
eral way he knew. from Halsey. that
the rooms were to be used for inter-
viewing supervisors on the rival tele-
| phone subject and that Halsey desir-
| ed secrecy in the matter. Drum said
| that at that time. he. as manager of
| the Tevis estate, represented the
| Tevis interests on the Pacific States
board of directors. Drum could not
recall having had a talk with Glass
about the Home company's franchise
application then pending before the
| Observation-Disclosures talk, that
is: of course we all knew about 1t and
1t was more or less a general topic"
he said.
/ The examination of President Scott
was TO determine. among other things.
that after the storm of the bribery
prosecution broke. Glass shipped Hal
sey out of San Francisco in disguise
to Manila. gave him a position there
with the telephone company. OF which
he is president. and caused him to be
carried on the pay rolls of the San
Francisco company as a pensioner in
the sum of Sl75 per month. All Scott