Part 24 (2/2)
A case of considerable interest was tried before Hon Clifford D Gregory in the month of March, 1899, in the city of Albany, New York It was entitled the ”People of the State of New York against Margaret E Cody,” as charged with the crie J
Gould, in which she threatened to divulge certain information which she claimed to possess about his dead father, Jay Gould The character of this information was such that if true it a their death and hence also affected the legitimacy of the entire Gould family Mrs Cody asserted that Jay Gould was el soe she gave birth to a daughter, a Mrs Pierce, as still alive and living somewhere in the west As Mrs Cody offered to sell or secrete the information which she said she possessed for a consideration, Mr George J
Gould and his sister, Miss Helen Gould, instantly deter else than a clear case of an attened the reputations of their dead parents They instituted cri that Mrs Cody when she wrote the letter well knew that her claiel and that Mrs Pierce was their daughter, was absolutely false Two trials followed, the first in 1898 in which the jury disagreed, and a second one in 1899 which lasted over a week It was in the second trial that chemical tests on a certain entry in a church record in the presence of the jury wereof another character than that which had been substituted was still existent beneath the writing which was apparent to the naked eye
The following are excerpts of the judge's charge to the jury:
”I wish to invite your attention, for a few moments, to the baptismal certificate You have had produced here before you the original baptismal record of the church at Cooperville It has been substantially adue made in this certificate I do not think that the District Attorney claims that there is any evidence that Mrs
Cody herself changed this record; there is no clai officer that she went there and obtained this book, and with her own hand changed this record; but he asks you to infer and find froiven, that she was a party to this change, that she was privy to this change, and that knowing that fact she had guilty knowledge when she wrote the letter upon which the indictment is based
”You will re, was placed upon the stand; and he has testified in your presence as to his qualifications in deters, and what his experience has been during a long series of years He tells you that he has examined this record, and that there is no question but some of the words have been erased and others substituted in their places He tells you that the words 'Jay Goulds' were not the original words in the certificate, or if they were, the present 'Jay Goulds,' as they appear in the certificate, have been forged; that the words 'Mary S Brown,'
the 'sex es which he has described to you are forgeries
”I shall submit to you, as a question of fact, whether or not Mrs Cody had any knowledge or took any part, or authorized or connived at any of the changes made in this certificate I do not say that she did; I leave it to you to say, from the evidence in this case, whether your minds are convinced that she had any part or parcel, or undertook in any way to accoes which have been made in this baptismal record
And if you find as e at the time this letter ritten; if you find as iven to her by Mrs Angel, then I leave it to you to say whether she had such knowledge, such guilty knowledge, as should prevent her, if acting honestly, fro a letter such as has been described here and contained in the indictuilty
In the trial of the People v David L Kella the dates of three notes for 6,000 each, the contention of the prosecution was that the dates of the notes had been changed by cheent was applied to the suspected places and the original dates restored The verdict of the jury was guilty
In the Holt Will case, tried in Washi+ngton, D C, in the reat stress was laid on the fact of the difference in the admixture of inks found on letters contemporaneous with the date of the will, and it was asserted also that the ink hich the ritten was not in existence at the tied to have been made, June 14, 1873, and probably not earlier than ten years later
Furthere Holt up to the tis and correspondence to ”sand” his writing
The jury decided the as a forgery
Another famous case in which the scientific testiat a conclusion was in the trial of the fahe will contest, tried before Hon
Frank T Fitzgerald, one of the present surrogates of the county of New York The story of this case is incorporated in the opinion which is cited in part:
”Hon Frank T Fitzgerald, Surrogate of the county of New York:
”That Richard Tighe died on the 6th day of May, 1896, at No 32 Union Square, in the city and county of New York, where he had lived for fifty years prior to his death, and was at the time of his death over ninety years
”That the testator, on or about the 27th day of March, 1884, in the presence of the attesting witnesses, duly signed the instru, and duly published and declared the same to be his last will and testament, and requested said witnesses to witness the sa witnesses did subscribe said will as attesting witnesses That at the tined, published and declared the said instruhe was in all respects competent to execute the same, and was not under any restraint or undue influence That the said instruned, published and declared by testator was and consisted of the identical sheets of paper and the identical writing now appearing upon the sa; the testator did not publish or declare the ures written in or upon said instrument in pencil to be a part of his last will and testaures were upon said instrument at the time when said instrument was so published and declared to be the last will and testament of the testator
That the said last will and testaal cap paper
”That the said last will and testainally prepared with blank spaces left for the insertion of the numbers of shares intended to be bequeathed and devised to the various beneficiaries na of Caroline S Tighe, the wife of testator, and that at some subsequent time and before the execution of the said instruhe, the blank spaces hereinafter referred to as filled in in ink, were filled in by or under the direction of the testator Upon said instruinally left thereon, in sos superis, which have been either wholly or partially erased, and in other instances ink writing different from the body of the instrus wholly or partially obliterated
”That the said words written in ink filling such blanks as aforesaid expressed the final deterard to the beneficiaries to whoures written in pencil filling such blanks as aforesaid ritten only deliberately and tentatively and that as to those words and figures the testator had not at the time when he executed, published or declared said instrument to be his last will and testaive the several shares of his estate and property covered by said words and figures, but the testator atte disposition of said shares thereafter, and intended the final disposition thereof to be in ink writing”
CHAPTER XXIV
CHEMICO-LEGAL INK (CONTINUED)
FAMOUS CASE OF CRITTEN V CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK--STORY OF THE CASE INCLUDED IN THE OPINION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS AS WRITTEN BY JUSTICE EDGAR M CULLEN--THE PINKERTON CASE OF ”BECKER”--STORY OF HOW HE SECURED 20,000 THROUGH THE ALTERATION OF A 12 CHECK--BECKER'S COMMENTS ABOUT HIMSELF--A CRITICISM OF BECKER AND HIS WORK--NAMES OF SOME CASES IN WHICH CHEMICAL EVIDENCE WAS PRESENTED TO COURTS AND JURIES