Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1915-03-26
Third Trial for
Jim Jam Jins

Jury for Case in Federal Court
Secured-Defendants Charged
With Sending Obscene Litera-
ture-Similar to Case Against
Frost.
Bismarck, March 25.-The
case of the United States VS.. Sam
uel H. Clark and c. H. Crockard,
editor and business manager re-
spectively of the publication
known as JIM Jam Jems and
charged on wo counts with send
ing obscene literature by express
or channels of interstate commerce
opened before United States Dis
trict Federal Judge w. F. Booth
of Minneapolis in the federal
court of Bismarck at 2 o'clock
yesterday afternoon.
United States District Attor-
ney M. A. Hildreth of Fargo is
prosecuting the case while the de-
PENDANTS are represented by At
torneys Tracy and George Bangs
of Grand Forks and Dudley Mash
of Minot. Because of the prom.
inence of the defendants and the
publication, and the national in.
terest centered in the case, the
court room was taxed to capac.
ity with spectators when the tria!
opened.
History of the Case.
This is the third trial of Clark
an dCrockard. In March 1913
thety were summoned into feder
al court before Federal Judge
Willard to answer to "a account.
of sending obscene literature
through interstate commerce
channels. The first trial resulted
in a disagreement.
The second trial was held il
June of that year when the de
PENDANTS were found guilty OF
both counts. Judge Willard i'm
rosed a fine of $4,000 and cost
for each count on each defendan
with sentence of two years eacl
IN the federal penitentiary. Ih'
verdict of the jury was based o,
two specific charges of the Marcl
and another issue of Jim Jan
Jems known as the sensational
edition that year. Clark ant
Crockard carried the case to tn
United States Circuit Court o
Appeals and won it, the highe
court in its decision of March 2
1914, ordering retrial on tn
grounds that the case involved
not only the two paragraphs o
the issue on which the defendant
had been found guilty, but the en-
tire articles of those publication
Something like l48 errors wer
also put forth by the defendant
IN their appeal, but these wer
set aside by the higher court Tn
present or third trial now unde
way is accordingly re-trial o
he two counts on which Clarl
and Crockard had been foun.
guilty. Judge Willard. who pass
ed sentence in the trial of June
1913 has since died. and Judg
Amidon of Fargo against whom
Booth is serving in place of Judg
an affidavit of prejudice had beel
filed.
Jury is Secured
Both the government and tn
defence exhausted their pre-emp
tory challenges before a jury wa
finally secured shortly after 6 o
clock yesterday evening. In al
81 jurymen were examined
Both the government attorne..
and counsel for the defense ex
ercised caution and exacting an
swers in their examinations.
was plainly seen that the case
going to be hard fought and tina
the legal talent involved will pu
forth their best efforts. Severa
of the jurymen examined admit
ted they had formed an impres
sion in the matter and were ex
cused. Almost all stated in tn
examinations that they had a
some time or other read the pub
lication or parts of it, and per
used newspaper articles GOVERN,
two previous trials. and had a
some time or other heard thes
cases and the present case dis
cussed. While there were man!
Nat knew the defendants person
ally, there were also quite fev
strangers to Clark and Crockar.
examined for the jury.
Rapid Fire Questions
Attorney Hildreth directe.
much rapid firing questioning t
the score of friendship acquaint
ance with the defendants. Ere
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