East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-07-09

Mrs. Mabel Warner this morning
demonstrated that not all the sensa-
tlonal charges OF forgery are to be
made by one size, when r. II. Thomp-
son, her handwriting expect from Spo-
kane, declared that the signature of
James w. Young to the alleged orlgi-
nal will to his estate, is a forgery ana
also that a number of letters intre-
.duced as the undisputed writings OF
j. w. Young, were forgeries. He fur
ther declared the letters were forged
by DR.. F. ID. Watts whose wife will
be the chief beneficiary II the origi-
nal will is allowed to stand and the
fourth will is knocked out.
The will Is the one which is sup
posed to have been made in this city,
Sept. 3, 1891, and witnessed by JUS
tice of the Peace Joe Fl. Parkes ana
by j. d. Peck, a resident of this city
at that time, but now residing in
Pasco. The document Purports to
give half section of wheat land ly-
ing north Of this city, to Mrs. Nora
Watts, a niece OF the deceased and
leaves the balance of his estate to be
divided among his heirs in accordance
with law. The farm which is dis
posed of by this document is the one
over which there has been much con-
troversy recently and which at pres
ent is in the possession Of Mr.. ana
Mrs Warner.
Parkes Admits signature.
The will was not offered for pro-
bate until some time after the death
of James w. Young, thorough search
for a later document having been
carried on for several weeks after his
death. When none was found this
was offered for probate. Parkes adj
mitted his signature but Peck could
not be located at the time. Mrs. War
ner claims that not much of an effort
was made to find him.
on the witness stand this morning
Thompson declared the signature or
James w. Young to the document was
a forgery by tracing. He said 1t had
been first traced with a blue ink and
then retraced with black ink. He all
SO declared there had been an attempt !
al erasure and insisted that II was one |
of the most bungling pieces Of for
gerry he had ever witnessed in all the |
years of his experience. TO make his |
contention clear he submitted the sig |
nature to a magnifying glass and ex-
hibited il to the court. The evidence
of tracing and attempted erasure were
and under the glass they showed up
very plain. 1t was not evident how
ever whether the tracings were made
originally or recently and the attor-
neys for the contesting heirs had no
hesitancy in declaring that the sigma
ture had been tampered with recently
and while il was in the possession or
Mrs. Warner and her witnesses.
Says Watts Forged Letters.
Hardly less startling than the testi-
mony as TO the signature of Young
to the will was the declaration that a
of the letters which had been
introduced TO show the kindly feeling
of Young toward Mrs. Watts and his
other heirs with the exception of Ma
bel Warner, were forgeres Strangely
enough those letters which were sin
gled ont as forgeries were written with
an indelible pencil while those which
the expert declared were genuine were
written with ink. Without going into
detail he declared that the general ap-
pearance of the whole letters were
those of forgeries and quite different
rom those which he insisted were gen.
line.
The climax to his testimony came {
when taking piece of paper upon Z