Weekly journal-miner., 1917-12-26
TH|E[ DETECTIVE ON STAND IN
 FRAME CASE
DEFENSE SCORES POINT AS LOS ANGELES OPERA TOR TELLS OF INSIDE AFFAIRS OF JEROME PORTLAND COPPER CO.
CFrom Thursdays Rsliyl

The defense in the Mahoney-Frame UeromcPortland Co.) suit introduc ed a sensational bit of evidence yes terday afternoon when a Thiel detec- tive named Kramer was placed on the stand Kramer, ii seems, had been hired last May by Mir. Frame to keep an eye on the activities of some Of the officials and employees of tho company.
 According to the story told ycstcr- day by MT. Kramer, the affairs of the Jerome-Portland company had been in Q state of disquietude for a long term prior to the starting of the suII by the minority stockholders. Frame, who was in active charge of the com pany's affairs, began to miss mail matter from the postoffice box in Jerome and Thiel operator was hir- ed to come in and look things over. Kramer went to Jerome, assumed the name of Carr, and posed as one of the stockholders of the company, giving his place of residence as De troit. Frame believed that some ot the important business affairs of the office were being reported to out siders, and having a pretty good idea of where the leak was occurring, he directed Kramer to make the ac- quaintance of certain of the discon- tented stockholders. Kramer, ac- cording to his story of yesterday, be- came a friend of Miss Lucille Jones, the company's stenographcr, and af- ter gaining her favor, he states thai she showed him a very important let ter which had been mailed to the company and which had been inter ccpted before it reached the hands of Frame. The stockholders, it IS said, believed that Frame was carrying on transactions which were not for the good of the company, and had em- ployed one of their number to go through the company's mail each morning, access to the postoffice boA being had by working combination which was in possession of the man in charge of the work.
 Two of the stockholders who are involved in the present suit, Messrs Brookshire and Sullivan, in their tes timony of several days ago, denied that they were the moving spirits in
 
 Mahoney to start the action, not car ing to figure prominently in the sult themselves. The testimony given yes terday by Kramer would indicate that Brookshire and Sullivan had been the real instigatrs of the action, his knowledge having come, he said, from facts which were revealed tC him by Miss Jones. It was primarily for the purpose of refuting the Broollshire-S Sullivan testimony that the detective was placed on the stand. He was also put there in an effort by the defense to show that Miss Jones, had, while in the employ of Frame, been busily engaged in the secrets of the company, secrets which later gave the plaintiffs what they alleged to be sufficient grounds upon which to base their suit.
 Miss Jones, while on the stand one day last week, told the court how some unknown person had searched her room for papers she was sup posed to have in her possession, and the testimony of Kramer yesterday disclosed the reason for this search. Frame and his associates had belicv ed that the young woman was in league with the persons who were rifling the company's mail box each day. and the search of her room was made for the purpase Of ascertaining whether any of the missing letters and papers were in her possession.
 The case will in all probability be closed this afternoon, each side hay ing agreed to submit its case to Judge Lyman without arguments, us- ing briefs instead. Yesterday marked the sixth full days testimony which had been given. The suit was started several months ago by some of the minority stockholders in an effort to compel Frame to restore large block of stock to the treasury. which, the complaint alleged, he had secur- ed in fraudulent manner. In case. Frame loses the suit and is compelled to turn over the stock in question, the control of the organization will automatically pass from his hands and into the hands of Messrs Sulli- van, Brookshire and Mahoney.