The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1907-12-14
GREAT NUMBER OF WITNESSES
ARRIVE IN DENVER FROM
IA PLATA COUNTY.
INIuE FEDERAL COURT
INVESTIGATION OF THE CHARGES
AGAINST W. r. MASON AND
J.. II. vANDERWElDE.

Denver.-The News Wednesday
morning says: Twenty witnesses ar
rived in Denver yesterday morning
and forty-five will arrive this morning
from Durango to appear before the
federal grand jury summoned to probe
the killing OF Secret Service Agent
Joseph A. Walker over five weeks ago
near Hesperus. La Plata county, by
William R. Mason and Joseph II. Van
derweide. The jury will be impan-
ueIed this morning at ten O'Clock in
nthe Federal Court.
The members of the jury will be
sworn in instructed by Judge Lewis,
and will at once proceed with the in
vestigation OF the killing. Sixteen
members of the twenty-three to be i'm
panneled will form a quorum.
The government will be represented
by United States District Attorney
Earl NJ. Cranston. and Assistant
United States Attorney Ralph Hart
zen. They will be assisted by S. r.
Rush, assistant attorney general of
the United States. who has been spe-
cially assigned to the case by the In
terror and Secret Service Departments
at the direct command of President
Roosevelt.
Walker was engaged in unearthing
alleged fraudulent entries Of coal
lands in La Plata county Sunday, No
yember 3rd. when he was shot down
and killed by Vanderweide. who was
accompanied by Mason. Walker and
some assistants, who were investigat-
ing a mine OF the Union Pacific Coal
Company. A Chapson. an expert geol-
ogist for the Department of Justice,
and P. J. Callahan. a secret service
agent, and Tom Harper. a La Plata
county miner who had worked in the
mine under investigation and was
therefore familiar with its workings,
were with Walker and Chapson. Cal
ahan and Harper were lowered into
the mine with rope swung from
-timbers over the mouth Of the
mine. while Walker stood guard
above.
So far as the testimony has devel-
oped Mason and Vanderweide came
over the crest Of the mountain. Van
derweide riding a horse, with a shot
gun across his left arm Mason was
Aeading his horse. Mason and Van
Oderweide both declare that as soon as
Walker saw them he commanded
them to halt and at once opened fire
the secret service man and fired, the
shots taking effect in his left side,
shoulder. and one piercing the jugu-
lar vein. An investigation by the men
below led to the discovery that the
rope had been cut, and Harper vol:
unteered to climb the steep sides Of
he shaft and locate the trouble. He
found the lifeless body of Walker near
he mouth Of the shaft. but no one in
sight. An examination OF the body
showed that a charge Of buckshot had
been fired into Walkers body. and that
one of the pellets had cut the jugular
vein. In the subsequent legal investi-
cations Mason and Vanderweide were
held for trial to the District Court Of
La Plata county and admitted to bail.
Mason was superintendent OF the
mine and Vanderweide had worked for
the company for four years His wife
conducted boarding house at the coal
camp.
The investigation by the federal
grand jury which opens today is IN
usual. 1t is held under an old fed
eral statute which gives the national
government the same right to prose
cute as the state when a felony ia com
mitted against the United States Over
fifty witnesses have been subpoenaed
TO give testimony before the grand
jury so that the probing will probably
continue a couple Of weeks.
The secret service officers say they
have secured mass of evidence which
will go far toward establishing the fact
at conspiracy Of extended ramif-
&tion existed and that Walker was
the victim Of this conspiracy.