Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-20
.SLEUTH TELLS
OF WORK FOR
PAT CALHOUN
EXTRAORDINARY TESTIMONY
FINALLY ADMITTED
SENSATIONAL VERBAL BATTLE
OCCURS IN COURT
Secret Tactics of United Railroads
Betrayed by Former Detective
After Unusual Fight
Between Attorneys
GRx Associated press. ]


OAN FRANCISCO, May 19.-In the
~ trial of Patrick Calhoun, president
~ of the United Railroads, there was
injected late today an extraordinary
chapter dealing with the uses and
methods of detectives.
John Helms, at one time head of a
private detective bureau in this city,
narrated in detail as a witness for the
prosecution the secrets he claims to
have learned during his term of en-
ployment as an agent of the United
Railroads.
His testimony, which related to an
early period in the history of the graft
prosecution, already involves the
names of several persons more or less
prominently identified with the de-
fense, and there is a promise of reve-
lations more sensational when he re-
sumes the stand tomorrow.
Helms had scarcely started his mar
ration when there ensued legal
wrangle that has had no parallel in
the five months that have elapsed
since the trial was commenced.
Five of the defendants attorneys
protested against the admission of
Helms testimony, and the spectators
were hardly aware of the important
issue involved, for counsel on both
sides, with flushed faces and voices
raised to angry pitch, were engaged
in a legal battle that waged for nearly
an hour.
Judge Lawlor finally ruled the evil
dence was admissible, and Helms teti-
fed under objection until the session
of court had been prolonged half
hour beyond the usual hour Of ad-
journment.
Summoned to Aid
Helms testified that he had come to
this city in response to request by
Attorney Louis Hoeffler early in May,
1907. at which time the first trial OF
TREY L. Ford, counsel for the United
Railroads, had been commenced.
Hoeffler, he said, instructed him to
watch everything done by the prose-
cution and report the information SO
gathered.
Assistant District Attorney Heney
attempted to learn what persons were
shadowed by Helms, but the court sus-
tained an objection by the defense
Helms said he once informed MIR.
Calhoun that the men on motorcycles
were constantly "1osing" Burns, VINO
Travelled in an automobile, and Mr.
Calhoun authorized him to hire an au-
tomobile and men to man 1t.
The argument against the admission
of testimony was commenced when
Mr., Heney asked question concernlnS
the relations between Helms and w.
L. Abbott, one of the United Railroads
attorneys, indicted simultaneously with
Mr.. Calhoun and Mr.. Ford.
''This is offered" said Mr.. Heney.
with the intent to show a guilty con-
seriousness on the part of Patrick Ca.-
houn: to show his conduct in interfer-
ing with the course of justice and the
fabrication of evidence"
'I assign that statement as miscon-
duct" said A. A. Moore. 1T Is not
a sign of guilty consciousness TO 1ol-
low Burns, who has followed every one
else. The defendant is still presumed
innocent. notwithstanding the diatribes
of a public prosecutor who accepts no
pay from the state, but gets $3.50 per
month from a private individual.
Denies Guilty Conscience
"His following of Burns did not show
a guilty consciousness. IL showed COM
mon prudence"
as it admitted, then, that the alle-
CATION of the witness is true?" asked
Assistant District Attorney John
O'Gara.
'It is not" responded Stanley Moore
angrily. "It is only conceded as a
basis for this argument. Suppose this
man believed, as he had right 70
believe, that perjury had been commit
ted in this trial and that perjury was
still in process of manufacture--would
the defendant not have right to guard
against this kind of evidence?
"Is Burns the only man whose move
ments cannot be followed-Burns,
Burns whose myrmidons meet you at
the door of this court room and thirty
of whose followers are probably with
in sound Of my voice as 1 address tho
court?"
Alexander King of Georgia presented
the legal points for the defense, and
when he had finished John ]. Barrett
and Earl Rogers addressed the court.
Helms, when permitted to resume
his testimony, said that he had worked
without assistants for three or four
months, reporting to Attorney Hoef-
fer. Continuing he said:
"At the end of the time he told me
to report to Mr.. Abbott, who / un-
derstood was receiving the reports 1
turned over to Hoeffler l saw ABB
bott first at the car barns and he gave
me a general outline of the work and
instructed me to keep in close touch
with the prosecution. He authorized
me to engage as many men as saw
fit, to shadow anyone who acted sus-
piciously about the court and see that
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