Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-12-02
], Burns, Who Former
y Employed Defendant, APP
pears in Court and Then
Starts for Chicago.
ACCUSED MAN USED
MRS. KINGS SECURITIES
Prosecution Puts in Day Trac-
ing Business Transactions
With View to Establishing
Murder Motive.

Concord, N. c.. Dec. 1.-Gaston B.
Means, in the course of his numerous
and often spectacular financial trans
actions, once represented himself
as commercial agent of the German
government, with advance knowledge
of events planned in Germany, accord
ing to evidence offered by the state
today at Means trial in Cabarrus
county court on a charge of murder
ing Mrs. Maude A. King.
John R. Todd, a Chicago broker,
testified that when Means opened a
margin account in cotton with his
firm last January he said he had ad-
vance information of the contents of
the forthcoming speech of the Ger
man chancellor in the reichstag, pro-
duced book in which he said was the
telephone number of Capt. Karl Boy
Ed, former naval attache of the Ger
man embassy at Washington, and
mentioned the Hamburg American
line as a sort of reference" Means
lost $4,000 when cotton prices de-
clined, the witness said.
Had German Connection.
This was the first reference at the
trial to any connection between Means
and the German government but after
Means New York apartment was
raided by the police, it was intimated
that he had represented the German
government in this country. Whether
this has any bearing upon the pres
department of justice has not been
made known.
William ]. Burns of New York, by
whom Means formerly was employed
as detective, came to Concord today
He visited the court room and talked
with Means several times. The pur-
pose of his visit was not divulged, but
it was learned that he engaged trans
portation tonight for a hurried trip to
Chicago.
Financial Motive Sought
The state devoted its entire time to-
day to tracing Means financial oper-
ations, with the purpose of showing
that he was using the securities and
money of the dead woman and her
mother for his own benefit and thus
establishing a motive to support the
murder charge.
Hugh NJ. Garretson, assistant cash
ier of the Illinois Trust company Chi
cago, testified that on December 26,
1916, Means borrowed $1,000 from
the trust company on securities which
were described as being part of those
in the trust fund of $125,000 for Mrs.
King and her mother, held at the Mer-
chants Loan and Trust company and
previously revoked on a paper signed
by Means and bearing the signatures
of the two women.
Securities Paid Loan.
Edward f. Mack. vice president of
the Central Trust company, Chicago,
testified that on December 81, 1916,
Means borrowed $4,000 from his
bank on $4,000 worth of securities,
which later were sold to pay the loan.
The securities described by Mack were
similar to those which it had previous
ly been testified formed part of the
revoked trust fund.
After this testimony had been Of
fered, the state announced it was
ready to present and read to the jury
numerous letters, kilograms and other
documents which were filed with the
court on Thursday. The defense OBJ
jected to taking up this line of evi-
dence on the ground that it had not
had sufficient time to examine the
documents, and asked for an adjourn,
ment of court until Monday. This
WAS granted The contents of the
documents have not been revealed.