The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-05-04
NO MYSTERIES ITO BURNS.
Detective Burns a. Mcclnre,A

rtMN.aa 49, 40 3tEhHSf-.
The finding of writer's of anonymous
letters Illustrates only q little Of what
4 mean when I say there are no mys-
lerles. Ifdonst care what the case may
pc. every criminal caves a track by
which he may be traced.
The criminal understands this after
you get him. though he has made his
plans aver SO carefully: but he thinks
D the next time he will not be
caaght. 1.-THE mex time" he will jus,
as surely leave q track-of another
Kind, perhaps, but q rack neverthe-
less. 1t all seems SO simple-afterward.
II always seems that the particular
For example, there vas a very inter-
estlng feature in the land-frauds cases.
United States Senator Mitchell of Ore
gon was convicted of participation in
these frauds. Senator Mitchell's law
partner. Judge Tanner, while being in
t~errogated by Mr.. Francis J. Heney,
VINO was at that time assistant to the
United States attorney general, and
VINO was conducting the investigation
before the grand jury, stated that there,
was a partnership agreement, drawn
up at lit time Of the formation of tha
partnership between Senator Mitchell
and himself. which contained q stspula-
ton whereby all moneys received by
the frm for practising before the de.
paTtments at Washington were to go
to Judge Tanner-it being, OF course, q
violation of the federal statutes for
Senator Mitchell TO accept money
earned IN this way. Here was the
track-wide; broad, and deep-and yet.
those two clever lawyers entirely over
looked 1t. Why h necessity Of such
q clause? This suggested suspicious
circumstances, and, therefore, led me
70 make d close scrutiny of the CON
tract. which was produced by Judge
Tanner and was turned over to me by
Nj. Heney.
On investigation, I found a water
mark In the paper, and two misspelled
words in h document; ! also noted
that a dark ribbon had been Used in
its typewriting. And how simple was
the procedure that led to the undoing
of these mem! My investigation dis
closed the fact that this particular
paper had noe been manufactured until
1909, While the date of the contract be-
tween Senator Mitchell and Judge Tan
ner written on this paper was dated
1901. 1t was, therefore, a physical i'm
possibility for this particular contract
to have been written at the time stated
by them.
! Further investigation disclosed the
fact that Judge Tanners son was, at
the time of the Investigation, acting as
the stenographer of the law firm.
therefore 1t was fair to assume that, =.
this contract was written as a defens ).
this Young mar had done the typewrit-
ing. He was Immediately called be-
fore the grand jury. He denied
typewrtting a partnership agree
rnent between his father and SEN
ator Mitchell. He was asked then
and there to write a letter, dictated by
Mr.. Heney. in which Mr.. Heney used
h two misspelled words found in the
partnership agreement-the word sal
airy" was spelled 'salery." and the
word CONSTITUENT was spelled Com
stituant." Judge Tanners son mis-
spelled these two words just as he had
written them in the partnership agree
ment. When Judge Tanner was con-
fronted by this situation. he came Into
open and confessed to perjury.
Again interested in the psychology Of
such a situation, I asked the Judge:
How in the world is it possible that
you walked into such a trap-men as
learned in the law as you and Senator
enthusiastically in View Of the fact
of the high place you have held in this
community. having been a Judge on he
bench and one or the leading attorneys
of the bar?"
He said: MI. Burns, that question
is easily answered. + was not a detec.
tive