Houdini is dead, but Lawyer Martin W. Littleton is still alive, very. Lawyer Littleton is the man who last week extricated Harry Ford Sinclair from the oil scandal.
There was always a trick in Houdini's more startling performances, something like a false bottom or a split ring. It seemed perfectly legitimate, because the public goes to see a contortionist to be amusingly deceived. There was a trick in the Littleton release of Sinclair, too, only when the verdict was announced, the public did not seem amused.
Prosecution. What the Government had to prove was that Oilman Sinclair had conspired with Albert Bacon Fall, Secretary of the Interior in the Harding Cabinet, to lease the Teapot Dome oil reserve fraudulently in 1922. The Government proceeded to show that Fall avoided other bids for the lease until after Sinclair's lease was secretly signed; that Sinclair later gave Fall $304,000 in cash and Liberty Bonds, $233,000 being for a one-third interest in Fall's ranch, for which Sinclair never took a receipt. The Government was prepared to show that the Fall ranch was worth only $70,000 by its owner's sworn statement. But the Government thought best to withhold this evidence until its rebuttal. There were other matters which the Government would have liked to introduce but could not, notably the U. S. Supreme Court's unanimous verdict in a civil suit, that Sinclair's lease was "shot through with corruption," and that Fall was "a faithless public officer." Lawyers Atlee Pomerene and Owen J. Roberts banged home the first part of their case, then rested until the defense should develop things further.
Defense. It would suffice, the defense knew, if it could introduce "a shadow of a doubt" in the jurors' minds. Chasing this shadow, Sinclair's lawyers had visited Fall in El Paso, Tex., and brought back an elaborate deposition of his side of the case. Fall was ill and temporarily excused as a defendant. He had never testified before on this case, and his testimony as a defense witness was expected to contain strong points.
Here came Lawyer Littleton's trick. The defense dropped the Fall deposition unexpectedly, abruptly, and terminated its case without giving the Government the openings it had counted on. The effect was the same as Sinclair's last trial, which was halted and called off before all the evidence was in, when it was found that Sinclair was sleuthing his jury. This time it was not a mistrial, however. Except for summing up, this trial was over.
The defense case was thus rested almost entirely upon the testimony of Captain John K. Robison, U. S. N. retired. Robison stated that he, as chief of the Navy's Bureau of Engineering in 1921 had made the suggestion which led Secretary of the Navy Denby to have President Harding transfer Teapot Dome to the Interior Department. It was his idea and Secretary Denby's he said, to have Fall lease the oil reserve to some company which would build tanks, and store oil for the Navy. Also, there would be royalties. Secrecy was urged because in 1921, the Navy Department had a "scare" about war with Japan.