resides, and was a State Senator at the date of his indictment. He is heavily interested in mercantile pursuits, being the principal owner of a large general merchandise store at Fossil, Ore., as well as president of the Butte Creek Land, Livestock & Lumber Co., the offending corporation, of which Hendricks is secretary and general manager, C. B. Zachary superintendent, and Glass bookkeeper. The Mays brothers, as well as Hall, were supposed to have had guilty knowledge of the fraudulent operations of the company while they were holding official positions in the United States Attorney's office, and are accused of overlooking the alleged transgressions for obvious reasons. Loomis and Stratford were also special agents of the General Land Office, who are supposed to have shut their eyes to what was going on, both having made investigations and reported favorably to the Department at Washington. Hermann was charged with knowledge of the offense, while A. C. Zachary and Watson were supposed "dummies." The issues involved have resulted already in the conviction of H. H. Hendricks, Coe D. Barnard, Charles A. Watson and Clarence B. Zachary, and was the case in which John H. Hall was convicted, February 8, 1908.
No. 2918—Indictment returned February 13, 1905, against Binger Hermann, John N. Williamson, Franklin P. Mays, Willard N. Jones and George Sorenson, charging them with a violation of section 5440, Eevised Statutes, by entering into a conspiracy to defraud the United States out of the possession and use of, and title to, 200,000 acres lying in different states and territories, by means of a fraudulent plan contemplating the obtaining of title, in the first instance to 150,000 acres of State school lands in Crook, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Baker, Union, Umatilla and Wallowa Counties, through the use of illegal affidavits and applications and the subsequent inclusion of such school lands in the Blue Mountain Forest Reserve, thus creating the possibility of their use as base in exchange for valuable timber lands under the lieu land act of June 4, 1897.
This is the famous "Blue Mountain Forest Reserve" case, and was the one in which Mays, Jones and Sorenson were convicted on September 13, 1906, after a trial lasting 25 full days, with evening sessions. By stipulation, it had been arranged that Hermann should first be tried in Washington, D. C, for the alleged destruction of 33 letterpress copybooks belonging to the General Land Office, of which charge he was acquitted in April, 1907. It is significant, however, that Heney did not prosecute him upon this occasion, United States Attorney D. W. Baker, of the District of Columbia, appearing for the Government, and although the evidence was decidedly strong against the accused ex-Commissioner of the General Land Office, a jury turned him loose.
No 2938—Indictment returned April 8, 1905, charging Charles A. Watson with a violation of section 5392, Revised Statutes, consisting of perjury committed in swearing to testimony given in his final homestead proof before United States Commissioner James S. Stewart.
The defendant in this case was convicted on August 8, 1906, but by reason of his becoming a witness for the Government in the Zachary case following, and confessing that he had been induced to commit perjury in making a homestead location for the benefit of the Butte Creek Land, Livestock & Lumber Co., Judge Hunt suspended sentence, and he was permitted to go on his own recognizance. Watson was a herder in the employ of the corporation, and confessed on the stand that he had been used as a "dummy" by some of its officials in taking up a homestead claim within their immense illegal inclosure of Government land in Wheeler county, Oregon.
No. 2940—Indictment returned April 8, 1905, against Frank E. Alley, A. R. Downs, Edward R. Downs, Rev. Stephen W. Turnell and John Doe, charging them with a violation of section 5440, Revised Statutes, by participation in a conspiracy to defraud the United States out of public lands situated in township 28 south, range 3 west, Willamette meridian, by means of false affidavits and proofs of homestead entry and settlement and through false affidavits and proofs of timber entries.
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