Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-04-11
STRAIGHT DENIAL PLANNED
BY ATTORNEYS FOR INNES
Believed He viii Claim He
Never Saw Mrs, Dennis
After Her Return

| Although counsel appointed by the
! state to defend Victor E. Innes and his
wife refuse to discuss their conference
with the prisoners further than 10 say
that it was satisfactory, 1t is under
( stood that the defense will be a clear
cut Denial that lines mad any financial
transactions with Mrs. Louis helms
Dennis after he secured divorce for
her in Carson City: and that he never
heard from or saw her after the middle
of the year, 1913.
I This report is given color by study
of the statements made by Innes and
/ his attorneys in Portland, while the
/ hunt for the missing helms sisters was
at its height and before lines had been
arrested.
| A defense Of this character will nee
essarily mean plea of mistaken identi-
/ ty or at least that various sums of
money alleged to have been sent by
Mrs. Dennis to addresses in Carson
I City, Portland and San Antonio were not
received by him.
! EVIDENCE OF KILOGRAMS.
| Copies OF kilograms, and express re-
ceipts show that Mrs. Dennis at various
4 times. from June Z, 1913, until January,
1914, only a few months before the dis
appearance Of the sisters, sent varying
sums Of money to different addresses in
/ the three cities named the sums aggre-
! eating about $4,000. Mrs. John W. helms
| has declared that all this money went
either to lines or Mrs. lines.
In a statement made in Portland TO a
Journal correspondent, before his ar
rest, Times asserted that he last heard
from Mrs. Dennis about the middle of
1918, when she wrote him, asking a
certified copy of her divorce decree for
use in q suit for alimony which she
contemplated bringing against Walter
Dennis.
! While he has refused to make any
statements recently, Innes said then
that he was in Atlanta from April Is to
/ May 8, 1914. This was just a little more
/ than month before the helms sisters
disappeared and only two months be-
fore the receipt here of the famous let
/ ter signed by Mrs. Dennis and mailed
in San Francisco in which she asserted
that Bee" (Beatrice) had gone the un-
known path and that she had gone to
get Marshall and follow.
SEARCH FOR SISTERS.
The search for the sisters started
after the receipt of the letter by Mrs.
helms, and she almost Immediately
started q search for Innes, who she de-
clared was to meet and marry Lois in
San Antonio.
| lines was located in Portland, where
he was under surveillance some days
before he was placed under arrest. AT
that time he made a statement through
his attorney, John McCourt denying
any knowledge Of the whereabouts OF
the two girls. In that statement he
admitted that he was in this city, while
travelling with Mrs. lines for her
health, from April Is to May s, but he
denied emphatically that he saw Mrs
Dennis or any member of the helms
| family, while he was here.
He denied any romantic, as we'll as
financial relation with Mrs. Dennis,
and hazarded the opinion that she must
have been insane if she made statements
about him attributed to her by Mrs,
Nelms To substantiate this he said that
while she was in Carson City getting
the divorce that she was subject to
morbid, melancholy moods, and that
once she told him Of an attempt at sui
eide in order that her son might re-
ceive $4,000 or $4,000 life insurance
which she then carried
lines lawyer, Judge McCourt at that
time, said without quoting his client
that Mrs. Dennis was probably infatuat-
ed with Innes.
Innes in his statement declared that
Mrs. Dennis must have known that he
was married as he had told her that he
was the father of two fine boys