Arizona republican., 1919-06-20
HOW SHE MADE
 MONEYFORM MAN
 |S TOLD BY G|RL
Nina Wagner Relates Talv of Life Wrecked by w. D. Thornton - Says She Made Money for Him I'm morally

Directly Z. contradicting the story which she is" alleged to have told in the county attorneys office when she vol unteered to make a statement, Nina Wagner declared yesterday that W. D. Thornton. the man from whom she is alleged to have stolen S1,000 in cash and $l,700 in Liberty bonds, profited by her acts of prostitution. According to her own story on the stand, Nina and Thornton, who is serv ing six-month sentence for violation of the Mann act in briging her here from Oklahoma, traveled from town to town where she engaged in the prac tice that made hundreds of dollars for Thornton He taught her how to make money. she said.
 Confronted by the typed copy of her alleged interview with the county at- tOrney. the witness said she could not remember having made certain of the answers, and others she denied. She claimed that she had been intimidated by w. V. Anderson, Thornton's counsel who she said, had threatened her with ten years in the penitentiary unless she entered a plea of guilty and asked the mercy of the court for a suspended sentence.
 Asked if it were not a fact that be- fore she met Thornton she worked" the hotels, the witness denied the ac- cusation. All questions put by the county attorney were to the effect that here was a young adventures who had a wealthy old man in her clutches whom she meant to fleece.
 Why She Accompanied Thornton
 He questioned her closely as to her reasons for coming west with Thorn ton, and Nina replied that it was fear of him. his threats against her and the years he had controlled her every act.
 "Is it not fact you intended going to California to go into the movies 2" asked the state prosecutor.
 When the witness did not reply, Laney produced a letter which Nina admitted writing Pat Allbritton in which she said she was going to Cali fornia to begin life over again. She said she was leaving Oklahoma to go into pictures on the coast and asked Allbritton not to recognize her if they met on the coast. She also charged him with not treating her kindly, stating T like a man to prove he loves me in money"
 You were glad to get an easy mark like Thornton to lavish money on you,' charged the county attorney.
 He reminded the girl that when she came to his office she said that her first husband, James Sibley, had died in France, although she had told others that they had been divorced, until it was shown there was no record of the divorce. She became somewhat con- fused when unable to state she had received official notification of his death.
 The confusion lasted only for a mo- ment, for the girl showed little if any emotion throughout the long examina- ton. She did not even blush when she admitted that she and Thornton used her marriage license to Tony Wagner to avoid arrest. She married Wagner who is in the army, the day after Thanksgiving and went away with Thornton two months later. She said when she left here for California she met Wagner in San Bernardino, where she gave him a $500 Liberty bond and a s100 bond. The remaining bonds and money she turned over to the federal authorities when brought here from California in the federal case
 Tells of Her Undoing
 Under direct examination, Nina pie tured herself as a young woman of 19 who as a girl of 16 met Thornton while she was working in a hotel at Colgate, Oklahoma. She said she met him in July three years ago and they re- mained together until it was necessary for him to send her to Dallas for a criminal operation.
 It was he, she said, who started her on the downward path and who prof ited out of her undoing. She told of towns in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas where they travelled and of the amount she made in each place which she turned over to Thornton In Dem ing, on their way to Phoenix. she said, he gave her money and Liberty bonds which she earned. He afterwards took them from her and before she left him to go to California, she took the money and bonds from his shirt while he slept, claiming them as her property.
 The absence of the bonds and cash was haled by the defense as an oppor- tunity to ask for dismissal which was not overlooked in any of it's aspects Claiming it was a disgrace to dispose of the very thing in litigation, Spencer F. PuSh asking for a dismissal on the ground that it was an unjust prose cutiOn,' in the absence of proof.
 Laney replied that when Nina Wag- ner was brought from California she confessed to the federal authorities she had stolen the property and that wher Thornton pleaded guilty of white slavery, execution had been levied tC pay his 5000 fine, while one of the bonds had been returned to Thornton: wife, whose property it was. He de- rlared that it was poor taste of counse 10 criticise the acts of the fedora authorities.