The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-05-06

In his long stay on the witness stand yesterday afternoon, Attorney J. Warren Upson, chairman of the
 Waterbury Republican town con- mittee, presented the following evi- dence in response to questions by Special Prosecutor Hugh M. Alcorn. Highlights of his statements were as follows:
 A. MT. Leary called me one morn ing and asked me if would meet him in the directors room in the Waterbury Trust Go.
 @. Can you fix tho date? A. January, 1888. I think that was January 4.
 e. Now will you go ahead, MT. Upson?
 A. The subject matter of the con- versation was the conduct of MT. Rowland and others in connection with the affairs of the City of Wa terbury.
 c. Will you tell what was said? A. MT. Leary said that he had received 8 letter from Rowland commanding from MT. Leary, the return of certain records in the con- troller's office that were not avail- able at the time MT. Rowland entered the office. MT. Leary said that as he viewed the matter, there was contest between the Republi- can party and the Democratic party and that he wanted to talk to me about the matter because I had been Republican Town Committee at the time and I was the only one he could talk to. He said that in this con- test between the Republican party and the Democratic party. he was the one under attack because he was the only Democratic official who had failed of reelection and then, of course. it was in his interest as an individual, to have this contest avoided, if possible. He, thereupon, said that if there were to be a con- test. if this political contest went on, he would be bound in his own de- fenSe to use all the instruments in his power to fight back. He said that during that period from the last week of August in 1885, we - that is the word he used = have been gathering information about the Republican party and that he proposed to enter it against the Re- publican party and the Republican party leaders in Waterbury; and he proposed to publish that informa- tion and he already had made ar- engagements to have articles appear in the Waterbury Democrat to di. vulge all this information he had. He said this information would be very harmful to Republican leaders in Waterbury, including myself. And he thought before that harmful ir1- fluence was set to work he ought to advise me what he was going to- do so that I might think of some thing to be done to make it unnec- essary to publish those articles.
 c. Did he say anything about the disclosure here in Waterbury with regard to the conduct of the city government?
 A. Well, he said an attempt would be made in his opinion to show that the city government had not been properly operated while he was con- troller.
 e. Did he say anything about any irregularities?
 A. can't definitely state whether he said anything about irregularities or not. I know that he said that an endeavor would be made to show that things were not in proper order in the controllers office.
 Q. Tn what connection was that said, do you know?
 A. He said that the claim had already been made that certain records were missing in the con- troller's office and that he antici- pated that an effort would be made to pin Che responsibility for the loss of those records on him as controller e. Was any suggestion made to you to make an agreement at that tiNaaI