The Washington herald., 1920-07-10
MILLIONAIRE SNOW
FREED OF CHARGE
EXPLOITING MURDER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

Snow was innocent OF the charge
and he certainly proved his inno-
cence beyond a doubt of any sort"
Judge Hardison held there could
not be a conspiracy involving Mrs.
Acker and Langdon, IL Snow was
innocent. SO the other two defen-
Idants were dismissed.
Assistant District Attorney Archer
did not seem greatly disappointed at
the verdict.
Unless Mr.. Laskey, the District
Attorney" said Archer. decides to
ask the grand jury for an indict-
ment against Mrs. Acker and Lang
don. charging them with framing
Mrs. Snow, We will treat the deci-
sion as final. Mr.. Laskey will &C
over the evidence on his return from
San Francisco and IL he thinks IL
is worth IT he may call on the grand
jury for further action"
Henry Z. Davis, counsel for Mrs.
Snow, declined to make any COM
ment on the verdict, except to say
that IL anything further was done
it would be up to Mr.. Archer. Be
ing a witness" said Davis. II must
withhold comment on the verdict"
There are two points on which
the court based its decision. One
was the improbability of a man of
SHOWS age and experience enter
ing into such a proposition, espe-
cially after he had been warned by
Stewart h. Brown.
The other point was the alleged
incredibility of telephone con-
versation which was overheard by
Attorney Henry f. Davis in Mrs.
Shows home on July 5.
The words, 81 have the DOPE" did
not signify to Judge Hardison that
Snow understood Mrs. Acker 10
mean that she had the novocaine
with which to drug and eventually
kill Mrs. Snow. In fact, Judge Har-
Olson intimated, il might have
meant to Snow that the woman
was referring to dope" which, in
common parlance, meant evidence
with which to divorce Mrs. Snow.
Therefore because the aged patent
attorney said "all right" after he
had heard Mrs. Acker say II have
the dope" did not incriminate him
or imply that he knew she meant
a drug. so Judge Hardison said.
Purpose OF Dinner Parties.
Judge Hardison also laid stress
on the numerous dinners and tea
parties at which Mrs. Snow and
Mrs. Acker were present. These af-
fairs, the court thought, tended to
show that Mrs. Acker was only
after evidence which would d-serve
as a basis of a divorce suit by
Snow. and the woman was certainly
hn a
which would lead to Mrs. Shows
death.
Assistant District Attorney James
B. Archer. who has been conducting
the prosecution, was asked by Judge
Hardison IL he thought that a man
of Shows age and experience would
be likely to do such a thing as TO
conspire to murder his wife. Archer
replied that men sometimes do
crazy things, especially when pas
sion or some other equally hot de-
sire gets control over them.
The governments case began to
fall early yesterday when Stewart
K. Brown, an employe of the Poto-
mac Electric Power Company, took
the stand as a defense witness
Brown, according to his testimony,
was to be one of four people who
were to do away with Mrs. Snow,
as proposed to him by Mrs. Acker.
On learning that he was to be 2
party to this final act Brown imme-
diately went to George p. Hoover
and made an afidavit, II was re-
cited in court. This was few
days before Mrs. Acker went to
Mrs. Shows home to expose the al
legged plot. Brown gave all the de-
tails of the proposed murder, he
said, and swore to II.
Mrs. Acker was employed as a de-
tective by the power company. Brown
said, and he first met her in that
He was hired to do two
"jobs" OF shadowing Mrs. Snow. he
said, once at the Powhatan Hotel
and the other at the Washington
Hotel. He denied that he was pres
ent at a conference between Snow.
Mrs. Acker and Langdon at time
when IL was agreed that Mrs. Snow
was to be killed.
Hoover was informed of the affair
on July 1. Brown said. and later
Hoover himself took the stand and
varified this statement.
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