(3 of 3)
Indeed Means has been recently indicted for bribery and bootlegging. In 1917 he was indicted for the murder of Mrs. Maud A. King, a millionaire widow, who was shot after going automobiling with Means. He was acquitted. Two years later he produced a will of Mrs. King which was declared a forgery. According to his testimony, he has been employed by the German, British, Mexican and U. S. Governments, besides individuals. His employment with the German Government took place under Captain Boy-Ed and Ambassador von Bernstorff before the U. S. entered the War, and for it he is reputed to have received $1,000 a week. In going before the Committee he waived immunity—as was necessary, because he is about to be tried in New York for bribery.
Mr. Means asserted: 1) that he had received for Jesse Smith $100,000 in cash from a representative of Mitsui Co., Japanese bankers, in connection with a War contract case with the Standard Aircraft Corporation; 2) that he had received, also on Smith's behalf, various sums from the Dempsey-Carpentier fight film affair; 3) that he had tried "to get something" on Senators; La Follette and Caraway; 4) that President Harding had ordered that he investigate Secretary Mellon in regard to liquor withdrawal frauds—"the President wanted that information in regard to him: to catch him, and we caught him." Etc., etc.
As the hearing closed Senator Ashurst said: "Mr. Means you may be under indictment, but you may have to-day rendered the cause of truth and justice a valiant service. It is the first time I have ever seen the end justify the means."
Afterwards Secretary Mellon commented on Mr. Means' testimony: "It is merely vicious piffle."
The head of the film company which photographed the Dempsey-Carpentier fight testified that he had paid between $60,000 and $65,000 to three men for alleged protection in taking the fight films out of New Jersey. The three men, he declared, were "Jap" Muma, who represented himself as a friend of the Attorney General, William E. Orr, represented to be a friend of Jesse Smith, and Ike Martin, proprietor of a Cincinnati amusement park.