Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-10-30
Trial of Farmer Brings Out
F. Testimony of $500 a
Month Bride Offer to
Agents

Cherokee county, was FOUND guilty
by jury in United States court
Thursday afternoon of attempting to
bride a federal prohibition agent
and sentenced by Judge Samuel H
Sibley to pay a fine of 81, 800 anc
serve two years in the Atlanta fed
eral penitentiary. The jury re-
manned out but ten minutes. Coun-
sci for the defense served notice
that motion would be made for a
/ new trial. Harden's bond was fixed
at $4,000.
The trial consumed the entire ses-
sion of court Thursday. having been
continued from Wednesday. Gov
eminent witnesses told the jury how
q dictograph was planted in the
room OF E. E. Dixon, prohibition
enforcement officer, in the Wilmo,
hotel on March 10, and how Harden
paid $500 to Dixon for protection
against raids while other federal Of
hcers listened in the adjoining room
It was testified that Harden prom
ised Dixon $500 for each month the
latter would protect his stills in
Cherokee county from federal raids
Harden declared in his statement
to the jury that he made Dixon a
loan of $500 at time when the lat
ter was in debt on account of I'LL
ness in his family, and that he did
not attempt to buy protection with
/ the money.
Herbert Clay, attorney for Harden
4 characterized The trap laid by the
s officers to catch his client as "a
concocted plan which followed their
4 failure to get evidence against him
in any other way"
Assistant District Attorney Paul
Carpenter, arguing before the jury,
declared Harden was a menace to the
community in which he lives, and
that he had been interested in prac-
4 tically every large still operated in
f Cherokee county during a long pc
Rod
Throughout the trial, Harden sat
with his counsel with his eyes fas-
tened on the men in the jury box
REe was unmoved when he heard the
verdict
You have been gambling with the
law Judge<. sibley told Harden II, In
passing sentence. and you have
tion of your country. And in at
tempting to bride a federal agent,
Sou have tried to stick a knife in tho
very fundamentals of our law. In
view of your former prominence
your actions are inconceivable. You
Of S00
two years in the penitentiary."
The defendant recently completed
an eighteen-month sentence in the
Atlanta federal penitentiary follow
ing his conviction in federal court on
Illicit dfstilling charges.
How prohibition agents used die
tagraph and carefully laid trap to
listen in" while Harden offered to
pay E. E. Dixon, federal agent,
$500 a month to protect him against
whisky raids, was related by wit
nesses to the jury.
For many years, it is said by fed
eral agents, the defendant was the
First citizen of Jasper, Ga. He was
%foreman of the grand jury, an active
3church worker and a prominent and
prosperous merchant, farmer and
#capitalist.
Some months after the national
&prohibition act became effective he
twas convicted in federal court of OPP
erating a distillery and sentenced to
&eighteen months in the Atlanta pen
Ettentiary. His conviction came, it is
said, as the proverbial bolt from the
Hblue" to his toWnsmen. who had
known him only as Cherokee coun-
ty's leading citizen. Harden served
the sentence, and after his release,
lis said to have caused the prohlb1-
tion enforcement officials consider
liable trouble. In the language OF a
government witness who testified on
Thursday. eve could seize stills
(which were planted by him, we could
Xdestroy his liquor and catch his OPP
Uerators, but it seemed we were never
able to find Harden on the spot.
Makes "Protection" Proposition
E. e. Dixon, one of the officers
who sought for many months TO con-
meet Harden directly with the man
Fufacture of liquor and arrest him.
told the jury that Harden approach
Ed him early in March in the Atlanta
@5postofffce building and made him a
proposition to pay him we'll for pro
teefion against raids on stills ne
was preparing to operate.
The officer reported Harden's offer
Ito buy protection to D. J. Can't
Supervising prohibition enforcement
Officer, and after a conference WIN
|Dther federal officials, including Unit
ad States Attorney Hooper AleXan-
der. it was decided to ''go through
with the performance" and nab Har-
den while he was in the act OF pay
Ing over the money.
Then the trap was laid, Mr.. Dixon
#testified. A dictagraph was planted
III DiXon's room at the Wilmot hotel
#Harden met the officer there or
March Is, He paid him $500, said
the witness, and as they left the
room. a squad of officers who had
been listening i'll the adjoining room
#placed Harden under arrest, he was
later released under $4,000 bond.
Mr.. Dixon further swore that Har.
den declared to him that he haC
previously bought protection against
haids from other officers. He salo
HHarden told him early in the spring
i'm Atlanta, shortly after Judge Sam
horthern district of Georgia, that he
was in Atlanta for the purpose OF
#observing Judge Sibley's attitude to-
ward moonshiners, SO I'll know how
to operate in the future"
Denies Money Was Loan
On cross-eXamination by Attorney
Herbert Clay, counsel for Harden
Mr.. Dixon denied that he told Harder
he was "a poor man in strained cir.
cumstances" and that he needed
money badly to pay for his automO'
bile Attorney Clay then quizZed the
witness in an effort to draw th'
statement that federal officials
agreed in a conference following re-
peated efforts to obtain facts against
Harden in connection with operating
stills that IF we can't get him one
way, We'll get him another"
The witness denied that the money
paid him by Harden was intended
A purely as a loan, by reason of the
witness alleged representation tc
Harden that he was broke" "Ht
gave me thA money expecting pro
lection against raids on stills he in.
tended to operate" said the witness
y 4 lively tilt occurred at this juno.
Continued on Page 7, Column 81