00:00Vice List Wanted by Chief Beavers, Promises Probe, Atlanta Constitution.
00:05Wednesday, June 4, 1913, Head of Police Department invites Carl Hutchison to furnish him with list
00:10of houses. More witnesses will give testimony today. Grand jury determined to go to bottom
00:16of vice allegations, but will not touch bribery charge at present. Renewed activities on the part
00:21of the police vice squad have come with the taking up vice probe by the grand jury, which was started
00:26yesterday morning, when a number of principals in the Felder Beavers controversy were summoned to
00:32tell what they know of alleged operation of vicious houses and hotels in Atlanta. The grand jury will
00:39probe deeply into the charges hurled at the police by attorneys Thomas B. Felder and Carl Hutchison,
00:44following the dictographing of Colonel Felder and Mayor James G. Woodward by city detectives,
00:50and the charges that Colonel Felder had attempted to bribe G.C. February, clerk to Police Chief James
00:56L. Beavers. This was made apparent Tuesday by orders issued for the summoning of additional witnesses
01:01for the hearing today. It was charged by attorneys Felder and Hutchison that numbers of vicious houses
01:07were in operation, and that the police were either unaware of them, and were incompetent, or that the
01:13police were in league with the proprietors. Beavers asks for list. If Mr. Hutchison will give me a list
01:19of houses where he has proof that illegal practices are carried on, I will arrest the persons responsible.
01:25declared Chief Beavers. We have been making every effort to apprehend such places, and would be glad
01:31to have evidence given by anyone. At present there are 22 men on the vice squad, and they go on
01:37duty
01:38each evening with instructions to arrest proprietors or inmates of any houses or hotels where they can
01:44find proof of immoral practices. Already several arrests have been made in raids. Gives list of houses.
01:50When summoned before the grand jury, Attorney Hutchison produced a list of 30 houses and hotels,
01:56of which he has personal knowledge, according to his statement. Attorney Hutchison remained before the
02:01body for nearly an hour, and before leaving gave the foreman, L. H. Beck, a list of witnesses to be
02:06summoned to back up his allegations. I have certainly handed them the dope on this thing, and now it's up
02:11to
02:12the grand jury to act, he smilingly remarked as he left the jury room. Colonel Felder, Mayor James G.
02:18Woodward, Police Chief James L. Beavers, and Charlie Jones were others who appeared in secret conference
02:23with the grand jury. As announced by the foreman at the adjournment of the first day's session,
02:29the grand jury has resolved itself into a committee of the whole to find out the truth of the charges
02:34hurled as a result of the Beavers-Felder feud. It is believed that the number of witnesses called for
02:40Wednesday's session will make it necessary for the grand jury to continue for at least another day,
02:45and probably longer before making a finding. What will jury do? Whether it will then return
02:51indictments against proprietors of the various resorts, or against any member of the vice squad,
02:56or will merely submit its report at the end of its term and allow the city and state authorities to
03:01take a hand, has not yet been indicated by its present movements. Following the efforts of
03:07foreman Beck and solicitor Hugh Dorsey to keep the forthcoming probe a secret up to the day upon
03:12which it was undertaken, the same officials have attempted to keep everything about it under cover.
03:16Even the names of several important witnesses who have been summoned to appear today are keep
03:21secret, and officials in the solicitor's office refuse to admit that they have actually summoned
03:26witnesses for a continuation of the hearing, that only the charges of open vice, which were a part of
03:32the accusations hurled by Colonel Felder at the police after the dictograph sensation will be
03:37undertaken at present was the statement made Tuesday afternoon by the foreman. Colonel Felder was the
03:42first witness to be called at the morning session, and he came from the room a few minutes later. He
03:47refused to talk of his testimony except to declare that he had carried out what he had declared publicity
03:52he would do, and that he had given the jury enough facts to return indictments. Woodward is questioned.
03:57Mayor Woodward was questioned closely about what he knew of vice conditions here. He stated that he had
04:03told the grand jury that his knowledge was only hearsay, but that it was his opinion that the city
04:08was full of vicious houses and hotels. Charlie Jones, a saloon keeper who has been open in his views
04:14against the closing up of the Tenderloin district, was also summoned before the body. He is said to have
04:19told the grand jury that he knew nothing of any vice conditions and got his release without further
04:24questioning. Newport-Lanford, chief of detectives, and John Black, a city detective, had also been
04:30served with summons but were not called before the body. Mrs. Mima Formby, a woman who gave the
04:36detectives an affidavit that Leo M. Frank, indicted for the murder of Mary Fagan, had telephoned and
04:42asked to bring a girl to her house on the night of the murder, was one of the those for
04:46whom the grand
04:47jury asked a subpoena. The woman was not reached by the bailiff, and it is said that she is out
04:52of the
04:52city. Only vice charges probed. Anticipating that the grand jury would take up the bribery and graft
04:59which resulted from the dictograph being used upon Mayor Woodward and Colonel Felder, Chief
05:03Lanford submitted the names of several principals whom he wished summoned. They were G.C. February A.I.
05:09Collier, Jr., George M. Gentry, J.M. Hewitt, and Detective R.S. Osborne. It was made apparent that
05:16these men were not summoned and that the intention was not to take up this phase of the case but
05:20to stick to
05:21the vice probe.
Comments