The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-09-03

Ine secrecy VI IiC July boH, JuIltS
have been selected not by chance
drawing but by the we'll trained
| hand of a clerk who knew what was
expected Certain clerks in the
courts, Riccardi claims, have been
paid regular fees for handpicked
iuries, and the ends of justice have
been a plaything in the hands Of
those who turned the wheel of for
tune for guilty or innocent
McDonough's System Reached All
Parts of Hall of Justice.
Riccardi says that the police courts,
the Police Department, the County
Clerks office, the District Attorneys
office and many public employees
at the Hall of Justice have been
drawn into and made a part of Pete
McDonough's amazing system.
The result has been that the inno-
cent have suffered and the guilty
gone free, that widows and orphans
have been deprived of their rights
and their property, that life and
death even have depended not upon
the question of right or wrong, but
upon the ends and aims of Pete Nc
Donough and his circle of asso-
ciates or upon the amount of money
that might be obtained.
1t has cost from $50 to $500, Ric-
card says, to. guarantee a verdict in
criminal trial. He and Pete Nc
IDonough have paid such sums many
times and there were no failures.
The public would not have believed
such incredible statements. The Grand
Jury did not believe them when Ric-
cardi first presented the plan.
81 will prove it," said Riccardi.
And he did. He allowed three
members of the Grand Jury to select
the names of twelve men they chose
on the jury in criminal case. He
went into Judge Franklin K. Crit
fins court the second day after and
had the twelve names drawn first
from the jury box. The evidence is
locked up in the safe of Max Kuhl.
The story shocked San Francisco.
The question of how it was done
was a mystery even to lawyers, to
ring.
How was it done?
The answer to that question has
at last been given by Riccardi and it
opens the door upon an appalling
scene-the corruption of both civil
and criminal courts.
The Manipulating" of a jury was
so thoroughly systematized in San
Francisco that it gave Riccard no
trouble at all when he agreed to
demonstrate it for the Grand Jury.
This is his story of the one instance
which was but a repetition, he says,
| of countless occasions through many
years when the same thing had been
done:
81 came to the conclusion several
months ago that in order to elimi-
nate any doubt from the minds of
the grand jurors that l had been
telling them the truth that | would
demonstrate the system of picking
juries as practiced by Pete Melon
ough and myself.
chairman HARRISON and Jurors
| Volkman and Wetmore We're select
ed as a committee to observe the eX-
pertinent. After telling them that
they might name any twelve jurors
they chose on a criminal court panel
| would have the twelve drawn and
give them the verdict in advance,
went to Judge Griffin's department
in the Hall of Justice.
81 saw Clerk James Groom and
asked him for a copy of the jury
panel.
"He gave me the list in his own
handwriting, which l have preserved.
! There were 80 names to be drawn
from for the Booth case, which was
to come up the next day.
"The list of names which Groom
gave me was checked by him so that
the known convictors could be dis
tinguished from the known acquit-
tors.
81 took the list back to the Grand
Jury committee, but l did not tell
them which were the convictors or
which the acquittors.
''They picked out twelve names at
random. They had picked three
names checked by Groom as acquit-
tors. | then told them that the ver-
dict would be 8 to for convic-
ton. That is what it was.
owe took the precaution to put
the original list selected by the COM
mittee in sealed envelope and lock
it up. 1t is still there and can be
compared at any time with the list
of jurors selected in the Booth case,
which is matter of public record.
The committee had their represen-
tative in court when the jury was
drawn and they know that the two
lists are the same.
Left Jurors Names With Note for
Clerk
"With my list of twelve jurors that
wanted l went back to the Hall
of Injustice and started out to find
Clerk Groom. He was not in. | left
note with one of the men in the
county clerks office and enclosed the
| list of twelve names. In my note
requested him to have the twelve
Gr;twn without fail.
Groom called me up later and
said that he had received my note.
That was all l had to do. The
'Houdini' was performed the next
morning in open court. The twelve
slips / wanted were loose in the box.
They were drawn first, The twenty
other names were in the box bound
together with a rubber band. The
band was SLIPPED off by the clerks
practiced hand after the first twelve
had been drawn"