Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-26
DEFENSE PLANNING
TO CALL PALM|ST'S
SISTER AS WITNESS
Trial Board Idle Today as
Mrs. BIalock Faces
Grand Jury.
RUMOR SHE GAVE NEW
DATA is UNCONFIRMED
Appears Refreshed After Seven
Hours on Stand, Concluded
Last Night.

Mrs. Helen F. Blalock. the palm read
ing fortune teller, who barred the sordid
episodes of her life in pressing her
charges against Capt. Guy E. Burlin-
game, went before Federal grand jury
today and repeated the story she un-
folded before an extraordinary trial
board of her relations with the veteran
police officer
( In the meantime, there was lull in
the trial boards proceedings. recess
having been taken until l o'clock to-
morrow afternoon at the urgent request
of Burlingames attorneys, who. it was
/ learned, are planning to furnish the
greatest surprise since the trial opened
by putting Mrs. Blalock's sister on the
witness stand as a witness for the
defense.
The palmist has persistently and most
vigorously resisted the efforts of the
/ defense to draw her family into the case,
and on three different occasions broke
down on the witness stand and sobbed
when Chief Defense Counsel William E.
Leahy mentioned her sisters and her
! father.
New Information Runored.
Mrs. Blalock completed her testimony
before the special trial board last night
: and was excused. and though plainly
fatigued at the close of the severe and
unrelenting examination she had under
gone for more than seven hours, she ap-
peared to be greatly refreshed when
! called before the grand jury this morn
ing. Although there were rumors that
! she had given the grand jurors infornla-
ton not heretofore revealed, no confir-
! nation of this came from the grand
jury room.
Mrs. Blalock refused to talk to inter-
viewers after leaving the jury room at
1:50 o'clock 1t was said she had signed
! the customary voucher before the jury,
calling for a So witness fee and So for
| daily subsistence, but beyond that, no
information was forthcoming from
court attaches.
Accompanied by the protective De-
partment of Justire guard which has
escorted her ever since her arrival in
Washington last Thursday night, Mrs.
Blalock arrived at the District Supreme
Court Building at 1888 o'clock. and
I went into conference with William II.
Collins, assistant United states attor-
ney for the District. who was assigned
to investigate the Burlingame- -Blalock
case at the direction Of the Gibson SUBJ
committee of the House. She was clos
eted with Collins for less than 10 min
utes and then led to the grand jury
i witness room, trailed by group of
newspaper reporters.
Mrs. Blalock appeared to be willing
enough to talk, but the Department OF
Justice agents advised her to remain
silent until after she had related her
story to the grand jury. She needed
their advice, but promised to permit the
newspaper men to interview her as soon
as she left the grand jury room.
May Last 10 More Days.
With the brief respite in the trial
boards hearings, 1t became apparent
today that the trial of Capt. Burlin-
game will continue for at least another
10 days. Corporation Counsel william
W. Bride, the principal prosecutor. said
that he had IS more witnesses to be
heard whose direct testimony probably
would take two days. while the defense
counsel has indicated that his defense
testimony would occupy about seven
days. This would use up nine days
without allowing time for the summing
up arguments, which likely will occupy
another day.
Handwriting and typewriting experts
will be the first witness put on the
stand by the prosecution when the trial
is resumed tomorrow, according to
Prosecutor Bride They will be called on
to testify to the authorship OF the va
ried collection of love letters. receipts
and cancelled checks introduced as evi-
dence as well as the genuineness of the
various signatures on the documents.
Typewriter to Play Part.
The typewriter on which the now
famous Heart Sore" and Broken
Hearted Daddy" letters were written
as we'll as the testimony of the hand
writing and typewriter experts are des-
tined now to play more important
part in the case than at first expected
in view of recent developments.
Although Mrs. Blalock has said she
Is certain Burlingame wrote the letters,
for she discussed their contents With
him, she has admitted that he gave
none of them to her in person. The
defense, 1t has been indicated will make
an effort to prove that the letters were
not written by the veteran police officer.
Mrs. Blalock was attired in the same
outfit when she went before the grand
jury today that she wore to the trial
yesterday-a short sealskin fur coat, a
conservative figured dress and natty
dark blue felt hat drawn tight over her
head.
In all of the testimony that has
poured into the record in the first two
days of the trial, there has not come an
inkling of what caused Mrs. Blalock to
turn on Capt. Burlingame. On the wit
ness stand yesterday she mentioned
several "quarrels" she had with the
police officer, but they were regarded
as mere prelimnaries to the subse-
quent filing of her charges.
Mrs. Blalock may never return to the
CONTINUED on Page 3, Column %