Too Many Lawyers, One Accused Man
A convicted man’s defense became a fight among attorneys, a wealthy widow’s charity and an accusation aimed at Seattle’s police chief.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many attorneys sometimes hang a man charged with crime. The case of Henry Craemer is at present in a great muddle. Attorney John L. Green, who was regularly appointed Craemer's attorney, is at war with Otto F. Wegener, one of Craemer's staunchest friends, who, it is said, wants to dictate the policy of the defense in a manner not satisfactory to Green. Green succeeded in getting Craemer's name to two promissory notes, each for $5,000. Shortly after this, Fairfield & Cross were brought into the case, through the efforts, Green says, of Wegener, and John Fairfield assumed charge until called suddenly away to Boston.
About this time Mrs. Lucile Angel, a wealthy German widow of St. Louis, who knew of Craemer and his family, instructed her attorney to see what could be done for the convicted man. Her attorney knew W. S. Relfe, and wrote on to him, telling him to do what he could to help Craemer out of his predicament. Relfe has not yet taken a prominent part in the case, but there seems to be no objection to his assistance. Just before the late statement of facts was prepared, Green became aware that a studied effort was being made to compel him to play second fiddle to Mr. Cross or to force him entirely from the case. Green is naturally pugnacious and objected to summary dismissal; nevertheless the statement of facts was prepared without his aid.
Green still claims that he is in the case and that Wegener is trying to make the defense more a bludgeon to be used on Chief Bolton Rogers' head than to clear Craemer. If a new trial is ordered Green says he will do his best to clear Craemer, who, he says, can be shown, under the light of newly discovered evidence, to be innocent of the terrible crime.
“Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many attorneys sometimes hang a man charged with crime.”
The Craemer case shows how a criminal defense can become a proxy fight among lawyers, patrons and police. The details are murky, but the pattern—public suspicion, private money and a fight over who controls the narrative—remains familiar.
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