Dimond for removal, as the majority of the overt acts alleged in the indictment were committed in Washington, D. C, where Dimond had been stationed. The Government officers were not a little worried over the defense Dimond was making, and the newspapers were all inclined towards the assumption that he had no connection with the conspiracy and that he was innocent of any criminal knowledge thereof. The anonymous letters contained statements that no one but a co-conspirator could have made, and if it were possible to prove Dimond to be the writer of them, his defense would fall.
Burns had not accepted the theory of Rittenhouse, and was working on other lines to connect Dimond with the letters, but had been unsuccessful. One afternoon after Court had adjourned, while Dimond was still on the stand, and the Government officers had almost concluded it would be impossible to break him down, Judge Pugh, Rittenhouse, and Burns accompanied Heney to his offices, and while there discussing the case, Heney asked Burns for the anonymous letters, which Rittenhouse had brought to San Francisco, and was reading them over in an effort to find some connection with Dimond in them. The anonymous letters had erroneously spelled the Special Agent's name STACE instead of STEECE. As soon as Heney read this part of the pen written letter "If your Mr. STACE had been worth the powder to blow him up," etc., Rittenhouse remarked in the presence of Burns and Pugh, "Why, Dimond has been calling STEECE STACE all afternoon." Heney looked up and said: "By, G—d, that's right, Rit!" Burns gave a look of doubt as to the correctness of the statement, but both Heney and Pugh immediately recalled the fact. Mr. Heney read the following portion of the letter which referred to a Mr. BROHASKI in Tucson, Arizona. This meant Zabriskie, who had been Schneider's attorney when he first made his confession of the conspiracy to Special Agent Holsinger. As soon as Mr. Heney read the sentence containing this name BROHASKI, Rittenhouse again remarked, "Dimond has been calling Zabriskie BROHASKI, too." Heney looked up with the smile of satisfaction that had not then become famous and said:
"That's right; Good for you, Rit!" and brought his fist down on his desk, saying "We've got him; We've got him!"
Burns was inclined to doubt even this statement, but both Heney and Judge Pugh recalled it, and the former paid no attention to the doubts of Burns. Turning to Rittenhouse Burns said:
"Now that goes to show the importance of you being down there all the time, Rit."
Rittenhouse immediately rejoined, "What's the matter with the 'King of Detectives?' he was asleep this afternoon."
As a result of these identical errors by Dimond on the stand in the course of his examination and numerous other coincidences which Rittenhouse then pointed out to Mr. Heney in Dimond's admitted correspondence, it was clearly proven that Dimond had written the two anonymous letters to Secretary Hitchcock, and the Government even proved that he was the writer of one which he claimed to have received from some unknown source, and which he had written to himself to use as a "club" on Hyde to make the latter pay him a fee of $10,000 which Dimond claimed was due him from Hyde.
Judge Stafford, of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, presides at the trial of the four defendants, while Judge Arthur B. Pugh, Special Assistant to the Attorney-General, and Daniel W. Baker, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, ably represent the Government in the proceedings. Hyde is defended by A. S. Worthington, a prominent lawyer of Washington, D. G., and the legal interests of Benson are skillfully guarded by J. C. Campbell, of San Francisco.Page 487
