The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-11-01
MOONEY CASE RE-
VIEWED TO DATE
Everybody now Knows that
Original Conviction was
On Perjury = Mooney
Must Show that Prosecu-
tors Knew This.

San Francisco Oct. 30.-In the
third week of the hearing before
Referee Shaw, appointed by the
Supreme Court of California, the
general design or plan of Mooney
and his counsel began to be APP
parent. There are just three is
sues to be settled: Was perjury
committed? Was it with the know
ledge of the prosecuting authori-
ties? Was it by the connivance of
the prosecuting authorities That !
perjury was committed-that no |
other form of evidence was offered |
against Mooney and Billings-has |
been amply proved in the past,
and has now been reproved as the
defendants themselves have retold
the story. Since it has been stipu-
lated by attorneys on both sides
that no one claimed to have seen
Mooney at Stewart and Market
Streets except Oman, Mcdonald
and the Edeau women, these wit
nesses alone are being concentrat-
ed on. The first of these is OXman.
The complete alibi having been
proved, with the consequence that
Mooney was not at the place where
Oxman claimed to have seen. him,
and hence that "the honest cattle
man" perjured himself in saying
that he did see him, the next task
is to show that the authorities
were not only aware of the fact
that Oxman was lying, but that
they themselves KNOWN gly suborn-
ed his perjury. When the week
closed the first of the witnesses
called for this purpose-a very re-
luctant and hostile witness, the
Pacific Coast manager of the
Burns Detective Agency-was on
the stand.
The proceedings were halted,
however, by another appearance of
counsel before the Supreme Court
itself, this time on the question of
whether the court should reverse
it's previous ruling, and give the
referee the power to enforce the
sustaining of objections to offered
:. testimony. The court has not yet
l announced its decision. The situa
: ton is complicated by the introduc
;. ton in the U. S. Supreme Cour
t during the week, of a renewed mo
: ton for petition for a writ of hab
: cas- corpus, the motion contendins
t that the so-called witt is issued b.
e the California Supreme Court is il
f name only, and that the presen
r hearings are mere travesty, befOr
a referee who has no power beyon'
S those of notary public.
: The week opened with Billing
: still on the witness stand, unde
d cross examination. He has made
\ splendid witness, direct and forth
n right, and if once or twice he los
4 his temper and "talked back" t
a Asst. Atty. Gen. Cleary, no on
"a who listened to Cleary's badgerin
l. could blame him. Once when Gle
1t larry accused him of having ode
lie stroyed evidence" he retorted,
lg never destroyed nearly as muc
DR. evidence as the district attorne
re did in my easel" He stated ais
ne that it was only by persuasion {
st his attorney, Edwin V. McKenzi
R. that in 1880 he had been willin
Ill to give up the frame-up charg'
before the Supreme Court; aske
to what he himself attributed h
conviction, he said firmly, ITO
deliberate frame-up."
t Mckenzie himself, next called
: witness, affirmed this, and toe
# the whole responsibility for the u
f fortunate situation, which, wh'
J. the Supreme Court had refus,
n Billings appeal, gave them
Ie chance to say that he himself HI
?. ceased to accuse them of framil
E. him. Even Mckenzie, who had sa
!. that he did not feel he could "s
id sumo the burden of convicting
s the San Francisco officials" tao
re ly acknowledged the error of
is tactics, for he too, when asked
ID he himself thought there had be
% corruption on the part of the pre-
\. ecuting authorities, answered, &C
IN tainly-the most glaring and I
In speakable corruption!" Maxw
r. McNutt, once Moneys attorn
nc and now a judge in San Mat
Is County was next called as a W
ness and repeated the story of
conversation with Swanson in
16, when Swanson told him that
intended to chang Alexander Be
mann along with Mooney" and
, a lated how he decided to come i
ose the case because of his feeling Il
'iie there was "too much Swanson"
VI it. He exhibited the original c
Isl tact prints of the famous Eli
leu Building abb photographs of 7
q and Rena Mooney, and testii
as that the films themselves had n
&c 5 er once been out of the hands
LOT the district attorneys office
par IS the police.
,nco The last witness before
H. Burns Detective Agency mana
IN was John A. Fitch, of the
, Anu York School of Social Work, '
'i'" testified regarding an interv
~ with Cunha in 1917, in which F
an. any ert's assistant said the '"whole =
go taken o,,+ and stT,1no. ,,1e' ,,,;tI
rds, cerer,onI, and +bata =
ear every single witness had peril
Oh himself l would not lift nv fin
OF to help Mooney" During this
iake timony, Cunha himself was in
ll courtroom, but made no attemp
Tue deny that he had been CORE
are quoted.
odg- who+avor A. dao;s;o -
are State Supreme Court on proce,
u the next week of the hearing