The Washington times., 1911-08-07
ADMITS HELED
INLORIMER CASE
Beckemeyer Illinois Soon Forsakes His House Of False
hood, Then Confesses All, Expecting To Be
Believed - Says He Got Money.
By IUDSON C. WELLIvER.


identifying the leaders. aside from Lee
Brown appears to have been a verit-
able czar on the Democratic side,
powerful enough even to deliver
majority Of it for a Republican speaker,
and later for a Republican Senator.
without even being required to let his
weakling followers know what it was
all about.
Men like White and Beckemeyer would
seem to have performed throughout
that session like men in a trance The
all they needed.
Beckemeyer on Stand.
II. J. C. Backemeyer. lawyer at Car
lyle. III. and one Of the Democratic
members of the Illinois Legislature who
voted for Lorimer for Senator. looked
on the witness stand, a good deal more
like Kansas farm nand than like
lawyer or a solon. His halds and face
were covered with a coat of tan that
maj atChed his russet shoes.
EeCkemeyer was one Of the men who
went to ST. Louis on July 15, 1909. for
the ''cutting-up' of the jackpot. He
for LoriTer. and that Lee ONeill
Brown paid this. Later, at the St
Louis gathering. he got 500 from Repre-
sentative Wilson. which was his slice of
the jackpot.
If Beckemeyer had been the farm
hand ne looked like, he would have
had to celebrate faster to hold his job
than he did while in the stand today.
He looked forty years old and through
out the examination seemed utterly
dazed
Beckemeyer's story was that on June
q, 1909, soon after the adjournment OF
the legislature, he met Brown, Demo
cratic leader, in st. Louis, and Brown
gave him $1,000, saying:
Here's the Lorimer money; therell
| be some more before long,
Some more" referred to the jack
Beckemeyer was, despite his cum
brous processes, the most dangerous
witness that has yet been produced
He had an abhorrent desire to tell
the truth In wandering about in the
| maze of his former denials and eX-
| plantations he presented truly pa
thetic figure. In the early months
following publication of the White
thing, Just as they all did. He went
up to Chicago to see his friend
NANNY" Abrahams. Abrahams, 1t
will be recalled, was member Of the
| LEGISLATURE with Beckemeyer. White
described him as the man who man
aged" our railroad passes and Pull
man transportation affairs; and other
testimony has pointed to him as one
of the closest personal agents of
Lorimer.
| one of the most beautiful passages in
that noble tribute which Lorimer paid
| to his Democratic friends, when he ad-
| dressed the Senate last spring, was the
| tear-compelling reference to the sweet,
soul-refreshing friendship, as boy and
man, between the Senator and the
saloonkeeper-legisla who managed
| our railroad passes and Pullman trans
portGtion."
Taken Back Over Story.
Judge Hanecy took Beckemeyer back
over all the complexity of denials, tesri-
mony, explanations, etq, that have
emanated from him
| Now, Mr.. Beckemeyer, when you
testified TO that, did You tell the truth
| or a falsehood?"
regularly and replied. That was true,
or THAT was not true" He got tired
at last and blurted out:
20, judge, II you want to get me te
ing about this thing I'll just admit il
| and save you the time"
| We'll, if you'll admit that you are q
wholesale liar, It may serve to shorter
this examination considerably"
Beckemeyer said that after he got the
5000 jackpot money in st. Louis, he tool
it home and deposited $500 Of 1t in hi:
| bank account. He told the banker II
! was some money that had come to his
| wife from an estate"
He also deposited 500 in his father!
account, but his father never knew
where Ii came from.
Not Promised Pay.
How curiously a guilty conscience
haunts a man and makes even a crisI
500 bill look at him with accuSnt
glances, has been illustrated severa
times in the tales of furtive procedure
by which these thrifty participants II
the Doodle sought to cover up all sus
picion Oddly enough, too, the very
steps that were taken TO prevent sus
picion were often those which after
ward :. identified the transactions a!
i wrong. -.--.--