Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-03
FORMER BOSS TESTIMONY NOT
TAKEN
HENEY FORCES DEFENSE TO
CHOOSE
Ford's Attorneys Must Either Decline
to Call Witness or Take Risk Of
"Abe" Being Called to
Refute Stories

duces testimony in its behalf thereby
comforting on the prosecution the right
of rebuttal, Abraham Ruef will not be a
witness against the general counsel of
the United Railroads, accused of buying
the vote of Supervisor Thomas F. Lon
ergan in favor of the trolley franchise
for $4,000.
This was made known today when, half
an hour after the opening of the fore
noon session, Assistant District Attorney
Heney closed the prosecutions S case with
out having called the former political
boss of San Francisco to the stand. 1t
was all along understood that he would
be the star witness for the people, since
1t was to him, if the accusation be true.
that TREY L. Ford, acting under the
order of Patrick Calhoun, paid the 100000
fee" part of which found it's way into
the pockets of Mayor Schmitz and the
supervisors.
Ruef May Have Refused
Two explanations, neither of them
sanctioned by the prosecution, are adj
vanced for the failure of Heney to swear
Ruef; that the ex-boss at the eleventh
hour refused to give the testimony
wanted is one; the other is that Heney
believing that Ford and Calhoun will
take the stand and deny their guilt. de-
cided to hold Ruef in reserve as a trump
card until the time comes for rebuttal
Should the United Railroads attor6evs.
however, elect to offer no evidence for
the defense-the tactics adopted by Del
mas IN both of the Louis Glass trials
the prosecution will not be able to place
Ruef on the stand and will have to dom
tent itself with the purely circumstan-
tlal case thus far made out
The defense will announce its decision
at the opening of court tomorrow MORN
ing A big crowd was on hand at Temple
lsraei today to see and hear Ruef, and
when he was not produced they went
away keenly disappointed
WiIIcutt's Book MISSING
George p. Willcutt secretary and con-
troiier or the United railroads, was re-
called TO the witness stand when the
Ford bribery trial was resumed this
morning. He brought with him the cor
poration's journal and ledger for the
years l9O5-1906, from which the prosecution
desired to show bank account credits COR
lroboratfve of the $175,000 already testtfied
to as having been deposited in the Wells
Fargo Nevada national bank to the order
of Thornwell Mullaley and the 100000 IN
the mint to the order of Ford.
! 1t developed that the desired records
were not contained in the journal or
ledger. and Secretary Willcutt was dis
! missed without cross-examination Adam
M. Dollar, cashier of the United Rail-
roads, was called by Assistant District
Attorney Heney and testified that 100000
of the $175000 in the Wels-Fargo sanl
was turned over to him by Treasurer
Starr for operating expenses. The re-
naming $4,000 had been already ac-
counted fol-. 1t was paid to the relief
corporation.
The 100000 credited to the order of
TREY l.. Ford was withdrawn by him
from the mint in currency Heney drew
from Cashier Dollar the fact that all
moneys turned over to him for operating
expenses by Treasurer Starr were in
variably gold or silver.
Heney called for the company's cash
book, but Dollar asserted ignorance of
its whereabouts. nder cross-examina-
ton by the defense he corrected this by
saying it 'and other books of the corpo-
ration are in New York, being exported
The prosecution called Charles r. King
a United Railroads office boy employed
in the law department. He was unable
to- remember whether he had seen Abe
Ruef visit TREY L. Ford's office.
Ruef's Sister Testifies
Mrs. Henrietta Sittenfeld. Ruef's sister,
and for twelve years his confidential
stenographer, secretary and cashier, took
the stand. Mr.. Heney showed her the
original of the trolley franchise passed
by the board of supervisors and asked her
whether she typed 1t. She said she did
not think So.
Cashier Rossetti of the Wells-Fargo
Nevada National bank was recalled to
complete his testimony respecting United
Railroads deposits.
Mr. Rossettis testimony established
the fact that the 100000 withdrawn from
the mint by Mr.. Ford was not, nor was
any part of it, deposited in bank: Heneys
inference being that the fact was ex-
planned by the other alleged fact that
Ford gave the money to Ruef.
Robert Lamott, cashier of the Crocker
National bank, testified to United Rail-
roads deposits, as also did William E.
Conner of the Bank of California and
Frank G. Arnold of the Mercantile Trust
company, the burden of their evidence
being that the United Railroads CUSTOM
arily dealt almost exclusively in gold,
silver and checks, and that the deposits
ing of currency was infrequent and un-
important In amounts.
The first witness called at the after
noon session was Jesse B. McCarter of
the Crocker National bank. He testified
that no deposit of $4,000 in currency from
the United Railroads was made in August
of 1906, the time when that and like
sums were Withdrawn from the mint by
Ford. He said that currency is not
much used in San Francisco and the re-
ceipt of such an amount in bank notes
would be memorable.
Cass B. Bowling OF the Union Trust
company, where the United Railroads
kept one of its many accounts. gave tes-
timony similarly eliminative.
Prosecution Closes
1t was 2:25 p. m. when Mr.. Heney alb
ruptly announced: ''The prosecution
Closes" This sudden termination Of the
case for the people without the calling of
its star witness. Abe Ruef threw the
big crowd in the synagogue into u buzz
of excitement 1t had been confidently
expected that Ruef would take the stand
and tell of his dealings with officials OF
the United Railroads.
Schmitz Case Continued
Superior Judge Dunno by consent Of
counsel continued today for two weeks the
case pending against Eugene e. Schmitz
nnn ann - -.