The daily sentinel., 1909-03-22


The Los Angeles Examiner of
March II in announcing the disap-
pearance of the women, says in part:
Detectives have been making a
fruitless effort to locate Mrs. Jessie
Taylor and her half sister, Miss
Bertha Holmes, who have disappeared
from the city. presumably to avoid
appearing as witnesses in man
slaughter case.
The two women were in the auto
mobile with j. y. Dudley. sales agent
for the Stearns Automobile company
on the night of February "a. when
Dudley's automobile ran down and
killed Woodman j. Thomas at Broad
way and Fifth street.
G. b. Williams and Fred Gregory
also were in the automobile and the
prosecution alleges that Dudley was
driving at reckless speed at the time
the fatality occurred. Both women
were questioned at the inquest and
are expected to appear at the court
of Justice Chambers this morning to
repeat their testimony. For some
reason, and through some agency
which the detectives have not been
able to solve, the two women left
their apartments at the Hotel Pres
ton, 2O6 East Ninth street, and are
now, presumably, beyond the jurisdic-
tion of the court.
II is openly asserted that large
sums of money are being expended by
certain automobile dealers to clear
Dudley of the charge of involuntary
manslaughter, which has been lodged
against him. One story is to the
effect that the women have been spir-
tied away by friends of Dudley to pre-
vent their testifying against him. An
other story is that the husband of
Mrs. Taylor, who is a wealthy sheep
man of Grand Junction, Colo, advised
his wife to get out of the city in order
to avoid the notoriety of an appear
ance in court
Dudley's attorneys, lie Compete
Davis and II. f. Morrow, promised
Deputy District Attorneys Mccormick
and Keetch to give them every assist
ance in locating the women.
Taylor, the husband of one of the
women, has retained Attorney +. Ii.
Thompson TO look out for the inter-
ests of the women, and il is said that
Thompson hired Jack Adams, who
says he is a special constable and does
work for lawyers, to aid him in the
case. Thompson declares that he is
ignorant of the whereabouts of the
women. and that neither he nor his
tOHElhDlG NtlG toHAAA1dIi VI any HlpA
to spirit them away.
The Los Angeles Herald of March
is in detailing the preliminary eX-
animation of Dudley, the driver of
the machine. announced that the
women were still missing. Fred w
Gregory, one of the occupants of the
auto, was the principal witness at the
hearing on the 18th. The Herald in
this account on the 18th says in part!
The case was continued from the
9th until yesterday in hope that the
two women, Jessie Taylor and Bertha
Holmes, who were In the motor car at
the time of the accident, could be
found. but the deputy district at
torney stated that the police were un-
able to find them. There is bench
warrant out for their arrest.
Gregory testified that he had met
Dudley last December and was ac-
quainted with him, but not intimate
ly. The witness stated that he saw
Dudley at the Palace cafe on the
night of the accident.
THE girls and myself had visited
several cafes. We went to the Ker-
kow, to the Imperial and then to the
Palace. where we met Dudley and G.
B. williams passed our table. We
had not been drinking much and only
drank beer. | don't think we drank
more than three glasses of beer at
each place.
When Dudley approached he stat
ed he had an automobile outside and
would take us home. We accepted
his invitation, and the five of us en-
tered the auto. After riding around
for a short time we went 20 the Sad
dlerock. where we remained about
an hour We then left the place and
entered the motor car again"
Had Dudley been drinking?" ask
ed Deputy District Attorney Arthur
Keetch.
81 don't know whether Dudley had