The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-01-23
LIFE MAY HINGE
ON HAM0N TRIAL
Net Of Evidence Winding
About Clara, Ardmore
Gossip Indicates
by MILDRED MORRIS.

l. ~ >. Ctafl correspondents,
ARDMORE. OKLA, Jan. 22.--As
Clara Smith Hamon waits in her
sisters cottage. "a little gray home
In the west" for the trial In which
she will answer to the charge or
killing Jake l.. Hamon, oil multi
millionaire and republican national
committeeman of Oklahoma, she
faces fight for her life.
kctch u star Witness.
This was made plain today by in
formation from reliable sources that
those fighting the accused woman
are weaving around her net Of evi-
denCc from which she will be able To
eXtricatc herself only BY disclosures
of 80 startling nature as to shake
tho entire southwest.
For IL was strongly intImatcd to-
day that the dying words OF Hamon,
as told in oourt by witnesses for the
prosecution may not be the same rs
those ascrlbcd to the oil King In
newspaper statements by Frank
kctCh. administrator Of the estate
and Mrs. Jake Hamon, the widow.
ketch. who was the first person
summoned In the hospital whore
llamon died will he one OF the star
witnesses for the state. And, ac-
cordlng To statements of persons
closely associated with the Hamon
interests, KetCh on the witness
stand will disclose the truth"
His story, 1t was indicated may be
this:
Dying statement Misauotcd.
Tho statement given the news
papers declaring that liamon in his
dying words had said he had shot
himself accidentally was published
In accordance with the dying mans
wish, but what he really diVulged to
ketch, his wife and others was that
The accused woman had shot him In
his room, and not In hers as she
claims, and that she shot him not
accidentally as she says, but delibcr-
ately.
There Is no written record OF
mons dying words.
one of lannon's friends, denying
that the Hamon interests with their
power and millions are active in the
prosecution Of the accused woman,
said today:
There was time when the
| liamon interests were willing to
holp tho girl. but now thcy are not
( lifting "A finger either way. They
/ are willing the law should tate its
| course and whether this means i'm e
| prisonmcnt for life or the electric
| chair depends on the evidence. The
attorney general has come into the
case, and il is for him TO unfold
! this evidence. Those friends OF
Hamon who VIII he called as wit
ncsses will tell the truth on the wit
ness stand a. they will be hound
under oath, and that the truth may
divulge an entirely different story
from what has been told. Jake
/ Hamou was one of the squarest,
finest men who ever lived and every
one around here knows that. He
has been slandcrcd, but In spite Of
this Mrs. HJmon, the widow. has
made special request that no one
connected with his Interests eight
the girl.
IIumonitcs Not Concerned.
''rhc attorney general Will CON
duct the prosecution, not the liamon
interests, let that be Understood.
The Hamon interests are ~ con-
ccrned in the outcome Of the trial
one way or the other
From other sources there was in
timation OF coming disclosures
showing that unless the accused
woman relinquishes all claim to the
Hamon millions, she As given the
alternative OF life imprisonment or
the electric chair,
The title to rich oil claims is at
stake in the ease, it was also hinted,
Information today that the widow
had purchased house here Is re-
garded as significant, but according
10 her iS-yoar-old son. she has made
no plans to leave Chicago, and he
and the dead oil kings father will
Oecupy The house.