Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-06-07
JACKDEMPSEY
FACES HARDEST
FIGHT OF LIFE
Champion on Trial Tuesday on
Charge of DOdging Army
Draft.
EVIDENCE IS TANGLED

SAN FRANCISCO, June Z. - Jack
Dempsey, heavyweight boxing champion
goes to trial on Tuesday on the charge
OF being a draft dodger.
The legal battle which will ensue
promises TO bristle with thrills and SEN
sations-a fight involving situations
without parallel in the annals Of law.
For the Dempsey case, in its entirety,
includes so many unique, complex and
startling twists that even the shrewdest
lawyers of the Pacific coast insist they
are incompetent to make a prediction as
to the outcome.
weeks by the introduction of more than
100 witnesses; 1t might conclude within
an hour after the jury is in its box. For
legal minds, long concentrated on the
case. admit that anything is possible.
MAXINE'S STORY
MAY DECIDE.
The fate of the heavyweight champion
of the world rests largely upon the story
that will be told by Maxine Gates Demp-
sey. the wife he divorced more than d
year ago. But the remarkable feature
is that Maxine Gates Dempsey never was,
in the truly legal sense, the wife of Jack
Dempsey.
For Mrs Dempsey. after frankly and
publicly admitting that she was WON
an of the underworld before she mar
ried Dempsey and afterward, makes this
smashing statement
Il entered into a marriage contract
With Jack Dempsey at a time when
knew full well that the decree of divorce
which I had secured from my other hus-
band was not effective"
She claims that Dempsey Knew II was
bigamOus marriage. Dempsey denies
IL, adding:
When I met Maxine early in 1916
she posed first as a woman who had
never been married. Later she admit
fad hat ha
told me that decree had been effective
about two years earlier"
HER STORY MAY
BE RULED or.
One of The many legal points at issue
in the case, therefore, is.
SIf Maxine Gates Dempsey was never
the legal wife Of Jack Dempsey. was
she entitled to support and will her
story be permissible as evidence -
Certainly the full story of Maxine
Gates Dempsey. dealing with her mar
ried life to the FugilisUic champion. viii
not he permitted IN court If the defense
succeeds in its plans For it is its
contention that the only part OF her
tale that is relevant testimony is On
this point:
"Did Dempsey amply support her.
thus making her a dependent as he
claimed in his draft questionnaire-or
didn't he?"
The defense claims that the major
portion of Msxines recital, already
ChrOQlcle0 IN the newspapers, mas QOLA-
ing to do with the case; that it is a
plant that belongs only to a divorce
court, and il points out that Maxine
Gates Dempsey made absolutely no effort
to tell her story when Dempsey sued
her for divorce charging inddellty.
She entered no defense TO this suit and
did not appear in court
SAYS JACK DID
NOT SUPPORT HER
Maxine Gates Dempsey's story is to
the effect that Dempsey, when filing ont
his QUESTIONABLE, named her as q de-
pendent, although prior TO that time he
did not support her-nor did he amply
provide for her afterward.
Her charge covers the years of 1917 and
1918.
Dempsey, further along in his ques-
tionnaire, also named his mother. sister,
father and an Invalid brother also as
among his dependents.
The defense hopes to prove conclusive
" by their testimony that through 1917
and 1913 Dempsey did support has blood
dependents.
The Dempsey case on Tuesday will be
a federal jury trial before Justice DoOl-
ing.
The government will be represented In
court, By Col c. W. Thomas Jr., assist
ant to the United States district attorney.