The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-25
FIXED GAME
TALES To BE
EVIDENCE
Court Admits Confessions
Of White Sox Players
to Grand Jury.

Chicago, July 25.-Judge Hugo
Friend today ruled that the grand
jury confessions of Eddie Cicotte,
Claude Williams and Joe Jackson,
that they were paid to throw games
in the 1919 Worlds Series, are ad-
missible as evidence in the base
ball trial.
The judge, however, informed the
state that if the defense presented
further evidence that the confess
sions were not made voluntarily by
the players, he would instruct the
jury to disregard them. Each con-
fession can be used only against
the man who made it
The ruling, considered the most
damaging blow yet given the de-
fense, came after Judge Charles A.
Mcdonald, who ordered the base
ball scandal investigation, tested
that no promises of immunity were
made any of the men The players
had claimed they were told they
would be given immunity.
Judge Mcdonald was the first
witness after the jury was called
He gave details of the alleged con-
fessions, emitting all names but
Cicotte's
"Cicotte told me the plan to
throw the 1919 worlds series first
came up at New York, where it was
arranged that the games could be
thrown for 100000" testified Judge
Mcdonald. He said he went out
after the meeting and when he
came back there was $4,000 in
big bills under his pillow He said
he hit the first man up in the first
game of the worlds series, while
trying to walk him.
Chicago, July 25.-Eddie Cicotte.
Joe Jackson and Claude Williams,
former White Sox players, told
their own stories in the baseball
trial today of how they confessed
to a special grand jury last fall
that they had received money 20
throw games in the 1919 worlds
series. fs
Each of the men declared that
his confession had been made only
after Judge Charles Mcdonald, who
ordered the baseball scandal in
Vestigation, Hartley Replogle, for
mer assistant states attorney who
directed the inquiry, and Alfred
Austrian, Chicago American league
attorney, had promised them that
their confessions would never he
used against them and were wanted
only so that baseball gamblers
might be "trampled under foot"
Judge Mcdonald, chief justice of
the criminal court, teStifying at the
afternoon session, denied virtually
every statement attributed to him
by the three players He declared
that he had never in any way even
discussed immunity with Cicotte or
Jackson.
Williams, he said, had appealed to
his sympathy and he told the play
er that a trial court might and
probably would take into consider
alton the fact that Williams was a
low salaried player who had yield
ed to temptation because he was
badly in need of money"
Il told him that a court would
give him consideration only if he
made a clean breast of the whole
affair" Judge Mcdonald said
Judge Mcdonald testified he saw
Cicotte sign the immunity waiver.
Their testimony was given with
the jury absent from the court
Judge Hugo Friend, as to whether
their confessions are admissible as
evidence in the case. The defense
maintains their confessions were
involuntary
Cicotte and Jackson admitted that
they had signed something" in the
grand jury room but did not know
whether it was an immunity
waiver.
Jackon's testimony kept the court
in an uproar of laughter when he
told of repeated sprees about the
time of the grand jury investiga-
ton and explained that he had got
ten two court baliffs drunk.
"Replogle, Mcdonald and Aus
trian told me I'd never be prose-
cuted and the only way I'd be used
would be as a witness" continued
Jackson. "All l wanted to do was
to tell my story and get out-drunk
or sober.
1.-The next time l was supposed to
come back and see Judge McDon-
aid, but 1 could not make it 1 got
teed up again that night.
In the jury room 1 signed some
t1ing-it may have been animmunity
waiver. l was ready to sign any
thing then"
Chicago, July 25.-A new baseball
scandal was brewing today as
agents OF the states attorneys Of
f.ce continued their frantic search
for immunity waivers and confess
SONS signed before the grand jury
last fall by Eddie Cicotte, Claude
Williams and Joe Jackson.
Information in the hands OF AS
sistant States Attorney George
German indicates e New York
gambler paid $4,000 for tho papers
soon after they were stolen from the
states attorneys files.
States Attorney Grove is pre-