Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-20
HELM REVIEWS
OIL Jury ATTACK
Declares FaII-Sinclair Trial
Should Be Removed From
D. C. Supreme Court.

Following another bitter attack IN
the Senate today on the verdict OF
acuuittal in the Fall-Doheny case,
Senator Heflin, Democrat of Alabama,
declared that the forthcoming trial of
Harry F. Sinclair and former Interior
Secretary Fall on a charge of con-
spiracy growing out of the Teapot
Dome oil lease should be moved from
the District Supreme Court to some
other jurisdiction.
After he had recited in detail the
history of the Fall-Doheny case and
again fiayed the jury, Senator Hef1in
asserted that Immediately following
the verdict the lawyers for Sinclair
and Fall had asked that the case
against them be quashed.
II think the Government ought to
move those cases from the District OF
Columbia said Senator Hefiin, re.
ferring to the SinclairFall charges
because a good many of the people
that are drawn into the jury box here
in Washington are related by blood or
in some other way to somebody in the
Government"
Before turning his remarks to the
Sinclair-Fall case, Senator Hef1in re-
interated the criticisms he leveled at
the F'all-Doheny jury several days ago
based on newspaper reports that the
jury had dice and a photograph in
the room the night it was celebrating
over the verdict. He referred to pub
lished reports that the phonogra ph
''who insisted on a verdict for acquit-
tai way in the night and would not al
low the others to Sleep
Mobile Records Cited.
In his speech last week Senator
Hefiin made the statement that Jess
Smith had been murdered. When he
took the floor today he stated that on
Saturday he received a message from
the Department of Justice, telling him
that the district attorney of New York
was writing to ask him for any facts
he might have relating to the death
of Smith. Renewing the assertion that
he believed Jess Smith was killed, Sen.
ator Hetiin declared that about that
time I'VE were discussing here a gen
eral investigation and it was rumored
that Jess Smith had gotten nervous
and was going to tell what he knew.
The Senator added: But he never
lived
The record of a Noble court pro.
ceeding was quoted by Senator Hef1in
as bearing on his charge that Smith,
intimate of former Attorney General
Daugherty, sought during the Hard
ing administration to collect funds
from boOtleggers.
The Alabama Senator quoted the
court record as it was read before
a secret meeting of the Senate iu-
dietary committee last April. Accord
ing to this record. Aubrey Boyles.
then United States district attorney
for southern Alabama, told the court
that friend of his named Boykin
had told him Smith was seeking to
raise S2,00O,000 to pay off a Republi-
can NATIONAL committee debt and
planned to have the men in the
liquor business and the breweries"
contribute.
Boyles himself was on the stand be-
fore the judiciary committee when
this section of the court record was
read, and he denied that he had testi-
fled as the record showed before tn.
Mobile court.
The Alabama Senator again told the
Senate that Smith was murdered in
Daugherty's apartment here. and that
the coroner's verdict of suicide was
wrong.
Says He Knew Too Much.
'He knew too much" Hefln de-
clared. They had to get rid of him.
Boyles' version of the story told by
Boykin, as it appears in the court
record read before the judiciary COM
mittee, follows:
He said he had q three quarter of
an-hour long distance telephone mes
sage from Jess Smith. He said, You
know Secretary Mellon loaned the Re-
publican national committee $4,000
900. Only So 200, 900 has been repaid.
There is a deficit of $4,000 900. Jess
Smith is charged with getting up that
money.
THE plan is to have the liquor
men, the men in the liquor business,
and the breweries. contribute to this
fund. United States attorneys in some
places have been arranged with. They
will be expected to collect from the
bootleggers the money and contribute
certain portion of it to that fund"
Questions Source of Money.
The Senator added that he didn't
know whether the $5,000,000 said to
have been loaned the Republican COM
mittee by Secretary Mellon was Mel
Ions money or the Government
II know that 100000 was
brought in to Mellon, and Jesse Smith
was assigned to get the other 81. 0OO,-
OO0." he said.
1t was a part of the plan, he con-
tinued, to have a man appointed
United States marshal in southern
Alabama who would act for Smith
and collect the loss.
"I am going to keep on until this
thing is laid before the American PEG.