The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 9, 1900, Page 1

The Tall, VOLUME LXXXVIII-NO, 39. SAN FRANCISCO, }IOND}\Y, JULY 9, 1900. I’RIEE FIVE CENTS. RING OF LOCAL LAWYERS REAPING A RICH HARVEST IN THE PROBATE COURT OF JUDGE JAMES M. TROUTT BY STEALING THE PROPERTY OF THE INTESTATE DEAD - John M. Chretien and Fel- low Conspirators Present a Bogus Heir and Are Awarded the Estate of Joseph Sullivan. )| : : S : ° P Ll . o s . b L4 ' . . . . h . - - " . i > s Saving, 1 § * 4 > - @ £ N . Chosen by Judg: . . . ‘. P . » . e . . ® . B > . kS * covere S s not yet f 3 a of le g(‘xl & . - b & * ® - - . . B . b e F . E £ » . ; P n . * c . D e : 3 man, unable to read or write and em- phatically opposed to giving information $52 May 22 of any kind. If she had been able to ) write Chretien could have communics n J with her and that meant th: his E penses would have been reduced. He sald 1 ¢ nt an agent to the mysterious wo- o o s 1 whose identity myst remain a my 1 : tery far as the records of Judge : . utt’s court are concerned, and could : e get no satisfaction we He therefore reported that having an s . that the dead man had a brother liv- be either in Ireland or England he deter- ; go to San Jose and make an in- on. He went and says he drove A the country in a direction known % = o himself. He sought the mysteri- - S os oman whose name and identity are by e i and received from her the “.,_‘ enich | € y;n of his hopes, the startling o i i that Sullivan had a brother | 1 s v ; 2t % Soho Square, London. | T e e heir had been found. John o Al g s n had taken the first step in the il scheme to secure possession of ker had to be paid hrough a bogus heir. He re- e s body to an Francisco and says he sent behind necessary information and instruc- s tions to London, taking the precaution to . ertek shed 1it. | prepay all postage. v and Judge h 3 it the amount | The Heir Vanishes Mysteriously. was § ws A out of the es- | And then he is forced to confess his dis- t T dge Troutt's | may. The scheme to produce an heir had other minor | not progressed far enough. His letter to hn Sullivan” was returned to him, he nd then the ullivan was | says, by the London postal authoritics, with the announcemnent that John had moved and had left no address. The terfous old woman living somewhere | near San Jose had been mistaken and | John M. Chretien asked the court for en- | couragement and advice. He wanted, he | said, to ecommunicate with the postal | authorities of London to enlist them in | his cause, to persuade them to make a | | search which if undertaken by London f | range Ride Into the Country. months passed and no heir had What was left of the estate sion of the Public Ad- the odious John M a remarkable docu- that be not only be for what he had expected to do. The estate had been heir was shadowed , mysterious witnesses were hinted | solicitors would involve great expense. He wanted to advertise in the London newspapers and, to carry the farce to its 8 completion, he wanted to take the testi- and the ground was gently broken for | mony of aged and afirm persons whose ivancing, into the plot, which subse- | jdentity is still a mystery In order that quently developed into arhamerul success. | the proof of the heirship of John Sulii- Ruef had already recdved some money. | van, which was to be established, might The doctors and the undertakers had been | not be jeopardized. paid, but Chretien had secelved mothing. | For ail of this Chretien asked the Court Records Are m the Office of the County Clerk to Destroy Evidences of the nt evider Rogers Mr. ulation attorney abl appeal Troutt to perm ent of John M. Chr an John Sullivan tien quest is made th: allowed to make his deposit et in which the court is in traordinary as was the a j L S S R e s _— & HE grossest crimes against the dead are being committed in ths probate court of Judge James M. * ‘ . Troutt in this city. A ring of attorneys has found this court a rich field for criminal operations, || Important P! and this morning The Call expos:s a conspiracy which in its shameless audacity, in its outrageous - use of an agency which should protect the dead and in its success in filching the estate of a dead > man is shocking. The Call has boen engaged in the invistigation of local probate and collateral in- 4 | Stolen Fro ¢ heritance affairs for some tigne; and in the progress of its inquiry has discovered an instance of delib- 4| o erate and well-planned fraud which must demand the attention of the Grand Jury. o b The estate of a dead man has been cowmpletzly stolen by a ring of lawyers. The property has ¢ 4 been awarded by Judge *Troutt to a bogus heir whe never appeared in court, and the only doc nt €| 4 which would have given a shadow of proof for his fictitious heirship is missing from the office of the 3 + County Clerk. The amount involved was comparatively small, something more than $5000, but the ¢ | & methods which gave criminal success to a plot in which heirs were invented and destroyed, in which '; + court processes and legal forms were used for évil ends cnd in which dcad men were impersonated, give 11 » & dangerous promise that other and larger estates may be stolen in like manner. | Crlme 1 The case which The Call exposes this morning is that of Joseph Sulliven, who died without will ¢ | e ® or known heirs on May 5, 1899, this city. Three days after his death Judge James M. Troutt ap- 4| : pointed the notorious John M. Chretien attorney for the absent heirs. The Public Administrator, John - { A. Drinkhouse, through his attorney, Abraham Rusf, took charge of the estate. Several months later & | * Chretien hinted that he had found in the brother of Joseph Sullivan the only heir. As a matter of fact, ¢ . this brother had been dead several years. In Octobir of last year Attorney James Taylor Rogers gave @ ! notice that he would appear for the only legal heifs—two nieces and a nephew of Joseph Sullivan— ¢ g v ogpin s . supposed to be residing in London. - r who lived some- 4 Not until April of this year was thers another important move made in the conspiracy, when b + Chretien announced that he had fcund the brother of Joseph Sullivan, who was supposed to be either ¢ © in Ireland or England. The crafty attorney said that he had found the heir in Sacramento, and begged ; ¢ that he be allowed to take his deposition ore George T. Knox. No reason was given for this extra- | view of the fact ® ordinary request, and the court wos in session. . Etrange as was the demand, Judge Troutt granted it. awarded Abraham 4 The deposition was taken, but has never been s:tem in the County Clerk’s office. The man who made it o BEE. 5 Svutis: b ? and the witnesses who signed it were impostors. 38 > r‘l‘r\l:l:‘plluxl‘x( the ‘;rair;" f A day before the deposition was supposed to be filed John A. Drinkhouse appealed to the court ¢ nt merrily on . to be relieved from his administration, and asked that John Sullivan be given the property. Judge ths 1 before the elu- . Troutt fixed May 3 as the day for hearing, and on April 30 James Tayler Rogers filed a sensational doc- ¢ b e S odu + ument, in which he demanded a hearing and an opportunity to prove that John Sullivan was an im- 7. 5 4604 ededeiedeisie® & postor, a bogus heir imp:rsonating a dead man. James Taylor Rogers demanded the further right to ¢ + prove that the people he represented were actually the nieces and nephew of Joseph Sullivan and his & only heirs. P Four days later—on May 4 and not May 3, a most significant fact—Judge James M. Troutt :, R awarded the estate to John Sullivan, and in his decree of distribution, which was hidden away in the ¢ office of the County Clerk, he declared that James Taylor Rogers had appeared in open court and had 4 & confessed that what he had asserted four days before was false, and that the people he claimed to ¢ represent were not the nieces and nephew of Joseph Sullivan nor in any way related to him. These & ¢ are the scandalous facts which reveal the atrocious operations of a ring of lawyers who operate in the § ¢ probate court of Judge James M. Troutt. This is the expose of how scoundrels are permitted to feed f upon the dead in this city. [ R e o e o o R R e e S S | °9 B . * A B e e e e e e o O S S S S0 e £ * a vt oo ed JAMES TAYLOR ROGERD PECLARES THE FICTITIOUS HEIR AN IMPOSTOR. . | THE BEGINNING oF THE END O GIGANTIC PROBATE: ERAUS .- ASiaND IS CEFOSITION. CHARACTERS WHO FIGURE IN THE SCANDAL OF THE PROBATE COURT. e o T S o o S o T o T o o o ] P eP P VeV EIEDEI® DI IORe PAhOPIIIPIIGODPEPIO®OIIIeIeDede *hebebebeioe L e e e el ] than an extremely shadowy reallty in the case. Before this happened, however, there came another startling surprise in this shameful conspiracy to steal through the probate court the property of the unpro- tected dead. While the industrious Chretien was scouring England and Ire- Ireland in a long distance search for the elusive John Sullivan another attorney equally industrious had evidently been at work. This lawyer had not been in the case. He had never been heard of or seen in connection with the estate and his pearance was as mysterious as were his subsequent actions. It is needless to say that his interjec- tion into the affair was a most disagree- able and annoying surprise. While the conspirators were insisting that the were looking for John Sullivan, brother of the dead man, this new attor- ney, James Taylor Rogers, threw a bomb- shell into their midst by announcing his appearance as attorney for the only heirs- at-law of Joseph Sullivan, his nieces Miss Mary Ann Sullivan and Miss Helena Sul- livan and his nephew Philip Sullivan. These “heirs” had never been heard of and James Taylor Rogers gave no further information in reference to their identity. He did not even tell where they were to be .found, but like three jacks in a box they bounced into the case. James Taylor Rogers did vouchsafe the assurance, how- ever, that in due time he would submit proof of his clients’ heirship. That was on October 16, 1899, and one thing was cer- tain: If John Sullivan, the alleged brother of Joseph Sullivan, were alive the nieces and nephew of the dead man could not be, under the law, heirs. The very documents in the case were beginning to smell of fraud and to tell of the conspiracy which subsequently ripened into vicious suceess. Proving Heirship Out of Court. James Taylor Rogers proved to be a very patient lawyer. He had given no- tice that he would appear in court and prove the heirship of three persons. He knew that another person, who, he In- sisted. was dead, was claiming the estate, secure it if no protest was made. But Mr. Rogers made no effort to represent his'clients In court for more than six months from the day he filed notice that T e e S e AR AR S S S his only | and would In the natural course of events | I ham Ruef, the attorney for Administrator, agreed to it. And, the climax of mysterious proceedin Judge James M. Troutt issued a mission for the taking of this A man who had never been seen not clearly been traced. whose nce was a question of serious doubt and attack, was allowed to prove his right to thousands of dollars out of court It was admitted that e could come to | San Francisco, but he couid not go into court. The stipulation between Ruef and { Chretten was flled on April § of th year, and on the following day Judge Troutt issued the commission to Notar George T. Knox. Eight days later Pub- llc Administrator John A. Drinkhouse filed a petition asking that his final ac- counts be accepted, his trust dissolved and the entire estate be distributed to client of . the mysterious Chretien. The sh nal feast on But they were to meet of the dead. a startling snag before the prey their hands. Record Stolen From the County Clerk’s Office. When the deposition of John Sulli was taken no an he says. There filed in the ¢ sked to be relieved Iministrator. If that de is the only shadow f proof of th of the man to whom the estate was awarded, was flled in the office of County Clerk William A. De: it has been slen. It is not in he it t in the vauits where such doeuments are kept for safe keeping far as the probate court of Judge Trouit is concerned, it is as if it never existed The shameless character of the en affair 1o thus apparent. A ma appeared in court, who was be either in England or Ireland, mysteriously found in Sacramento permitted by Judge Troutt to prove heirship in a notary’s office, has por sion of an estate by authority of a d position which should be in the office the County Clerk and is not there Grand Jury of San Francisco should re- quire very little more to begin an invest estates of the de More than this, the “J¢ was awarded an estate sand dollars by order of Ju not a resident of Sacramento and neve has been. The attorneys who stipuls that his deposition ken, the who took it, the Judge who accepte cannot produce him or t signed the document he ha After eleven months of had been found, In a single week made appearance and proved his heirship, the Public Administrator was rea present his final accounts and g estate to this new found heir, standing the extremely significant that more than six months befo other heirs had been inter] case and their attorney, Rogers, had given assurance would prove their heirship in court fact these heirs, whose clalms were pending, were what they professed to be, then the man who was about to receive the estate But affairs progressed was an impostor. | merrily on and Judge Troutt fixed hearing of the petition of the Public 4 trator for the morning of May 3. e petition was not heard on that morr |ing; a bombshell had been thrown into the camp of the probate conspirators and they were covered with consternation j | as the estate was to pass into their hands. James Taylor Rogers waited untfl four | days before the day set by Judge Troutt for the final hearing and distribution of { the estate and then he presented a sensa- tional document which exposed the entire shameful plot to rob the at last taken ests of those behalf he promised. on . b to appear. He denounced the man who was about to receive the estate as im- | poster, a bogus heir who w | Ing himself to be what he | should not receive a cent of the e | The man who had never beem in court, whose heirship had been proved by a | deposition which is not in the County Clerk’s office. whose identity is tery, was a scoundrel suj ¢ un- ppOTt ¥ | serupulous attorneys. The John Sullivan | who was a brother of Joseph Sullivan | died, Rogers declared, several years ago London. Bogus Heir Denounced in Court. This sensational document was filed on Continued on Page 'l’hrec.r