109-Day Trial

Calvin Coolidge died. John Patrick O'Brien became Mayor of New York City. The Japanese quit the League of Nations over Manchuria. Germany fell under Adolf Hitler's sway. Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated President of the U. S. The U. S. went off the gold standard. Beer came back. And still the National Diversified Corp. fraud trial ran on & on in Manhattan Federal Court.

After six months bald, hawk-eyed Judge John Munro Woolsey had tried to speed the longest U. S. criminal trial a bit by convening court a half-hour earlier each morning. That was after Chief Defendant Otto E. Goebel went on the stand every court day from March 30 to May 18. When he finished testifying he was 25 Ib. lighter and his hair had turned snowy white. The charge against him, his two sisters-in-law (Misses Irene & Elizabeth Flautt) and six salesmen was scandalous but simple. Goebel and associates had succeeded in bilking $3,000,000 from 400 Roman Catholic priests, 6,000 laymen with the proposal to make "movie and talkie pictures of a thoroughly high-class, moral type, such as would appeal to church people." Superfilm from National Diversified was to be called Mary, The Virgin. The company did produce two cinemas featuring Eddie Dowling, good Catholic comedian, before going into bankruptcy in 1930. The Government then brought mail fraud charges. What prolonged the trial was the thoroughness of its Federal prosecutor, Jacob J. Rosenblum. The defense introduced 30 wit nesses, the prosecution 68. It took two clerks to keep the 941 exhibits straight. After three months one of the two alter nate jurors died.

Last week, when 15,000 pages of testimony had been taken and the trial had passed into its record-breaking 109th court day,* Judge Woolsey turned the case over to the jury. Before he had them locked up he drew protests from the defense by declaring "One of the interesting things in this case is that we have been in a corporate fairyland, and you never could tell when around the corner you might meet an appreciated asset or an ingeniously contrived surplus."

It took the jury, old friends since Dec. 12, 1932, overnight to reach a verdict. All defendants were convicted on all counts. It took Judge Woolsey one hour to pass sentence. Defendant Goebel got five years in prison, was fined $41,000. Irene Flautt got four years, same fine. Her sister was not fined, was ordered imprisoned a year and one day. All the rest were fined $41,000 each, committed to prison for from two to four years.

Judge Woolsey thanked the jurors for their extended services, promised them jury exemption for five years. Then the 13 good men & true went home to pick up the threads of private lives dropped seven months before. An insurance salesman, who had amazingly managed to keep up his business during holidays, recesses and at night, found his daughter engaged to be married. A violinist was glad to have had the $3 a day fee during the winter, but his chances of summer engagements had been ruined. A butcher had lost many customers. A Liggett traffic manager had somehow managed his work at night and in the early mornings. A book agent was sorry to have missed his annual trip to Florida. Judge Woolsey smilingly suggested the jury form an alumni association.

*The National Diversified case broke all endurance records for a U. S. criminal trial. The Willett v. Sears conspiracy case, tried at Dedham, Mass, in 1923-24. reputedly holds the record (13 months) for a U. S. civil trial.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.