Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-09
SINCLAIR SENTENCE
LONE u. S. VICTORY
Conspiracy Charge Against
Fall Is Only Oil Case
Left for Trial.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The conviction of Harry F. Sinclair
for contempt is the only one that has
been obtained in the many cases which
the Senate certified to the District of
Columbia Courts as result OF dis
closures In the celebrated oil investiga-
tons.
In all, eight cases were remanded,
and all have been disposed of except
the criminal conspiracy charge against
Albert B. Fall, former Interior Secre-
tax and it is regarded as doubtful
tl,@ Is one ever will come to trial,
because of the failing health of the
aged defendant.
Sinclair was acquitted of the criminal
conspiracy charge brought against him
as a result of the Teapot Dome naval
oil reserve lease, but subsequently was
sentenced to six months in jail for con-
tempt of court as result of the en-
ployment of Burns detectives to in
vestigate members of the jury which
was to have tried him. His appeal
from that sentence now is pending.
Edward L. Doheny, together with Fall
was found not guilty by jury which
heard charges of conspiracy against
him growing out of the lease of the
Elk Hills California, Naval Oil Reserve,
to him by the then Interior Secretary.
In that case was involved payment
of 100000 to Fall at about the time
the lease was made. Doheny said it was
a loan.
The charge now pending against Fall
grows out of the Teapot Dome lease
and rests upon the contention of the
Government, set up at the Sinclair
trial. that Fall received a total of $780,
900 from the wealthy oil operator
Sinclairs defense was that the money
was paid for a part interest in the
Three Rivers, N. Mex, ranch proper
ties of the former cabinet officer.
The other two cases were presented to
the courts by the Senate against Rob-
ert w. Stewart, recently depoSed as
chairman of the board of the Standard
Oil Co. of Indiana. Stewart was &C
Quilted on both charges, one involving
contempt of the Senate and the other
alleging perjury before the oil COM
mittee.
The Indiana oil man appeared three
years after the first phase of the inquiry
closed and at time when the commit
tee was delving into the affairs OF the
Continental Trading Co, Ltd, of Can
ada. which made profits of more than
$1,000 900 in dealing in American oil
and most of which in the form of Lib
erty bonds went to Sinclair, Stewart
and Harry NJ. Blackmer and James E.
O'Neil Blackmer and ONeil, both
American oil men. went to Europe at the
time the oil inquiry was at its height.
Government agents failed to locate
ONeil to serve a summons on him as
material witness in the Sinclair trial,
but they did serve Blackmer and upon
his refusal to return TO this country he
vas adjudged in contempt under new
u enacted statute and fined 100000.
This case also is on appeal.
While the Supreme Court yesterday
upheld the Sinclair conviction on the
basis of its ruling in the Nal Daugherty
case growing out of the Senate inquiry
into the administration of the Depart
ment of Justice by Harry NJ. Daugherty,
the conviction in the lower court was
based upon another Senate contempt
conviction in the '90s.
Elverton r. Chapman, New York
stock broker. refused to testify in the
Senate sugar investigation, and was
convicted of contempt by jury. He
was sentenced to one month in the Dis
trict of Columbia JAIL wAich he served
in 1896. and fined 500, which he paid
in the same year after the verdict of the
jury had been upheld by the Supreme
Court.