Barker agreed, though with all the corruption and evident failings in the Memphis legal system, he couldn’t help but wonder whether it was worth the effort of taking up another case in the city. He had come to learn that many of the men involved in Truman’s case were members of the Masons and the Elks, the latter being the very organization that the showman belonged to and that was paying for his legal representation. Were they sticking together to protect one of their own? The government had already spent eight hundred dollars on the Memphis trials, with nothing to show for their money.9 Try as he might to be positive, Barker was beginning to see the conviction they had fought so hard for slip away.
By January 1907, the new trials had still not been called. They had been postponed repeatedly and Blum suspected foul play. Almost two years had passed since the Igorrotes had signed their contracts with Truman and everyone, including Frayser, knew they were desperate to return home. Blum believed that Frayser was using his considerable influence over the judge to persuade him to delay the trials in the hope that the tribespeople would tire of waiting and demand to be sent back to the Philippines. As soon as they left America, the cases would be dropped and Truman would be freed from jail.
Barker and Blum decided to change tack. Just because Truman’s trial in Tennessee had gotten bogged down in quicksand did not mean that he would evade justice. The showman had taken the Igorrotes across America and into Canada, robbing them as they went. The fact they had traveled so widely meant that Truman could be prosecuted in a number of states. Barker and Blum took a train to New Orleans, where they met with the state’s attorney and the district attorney to discuss the possibility of securing an indictment against Truman for the wages he embezzled from the tribe in that city.
Both of the New Orleans officials said they would gladly assist in the prosecution of the case, and gave Barker and Blum the impression that the New Orleans legal system was a good deal less corrupt than its counterpart in Memphis. Barker wrote to the bureau suggesting they make one last attempt to secure a conviction against Truman, this time in New Orleans.10
To Barker’s immense relief, the head of the bureau granted him permission. On January 18, Truman was indicted by the grand jury in New Orleans, charged with embezzling fifty dollars from Feloa.11 It was a small fraction of the money the showman had stolen from the tribe while they were on show in the city, but the district attorney thought it would be enough to secure a conviction. Barker didn’t want Truman or Frayser to know that he was pursuing fresh charges in another state and swore everyone who knew of it to secrecy. He agreed with the bureau that they would not risk discussing it over the wires, lest any confidential information got back to the showman and his associates. Instead they would communicate by mail.12
Truman had been in jail for four months. In that time, he had called Barker, Blum—and especially Frayser—every name under the sun. Every other day he sent messages to Frayser and his friends in the Elks, demanding, begging, and pleading that they get him out. The showman swung between bouts of self-pity and outbursts of rage, in which he railed against the injustice of the world, the ingratitude of the Filipinos, and the faults of the Memphis legal system.
Despite being locked up, Truman still had eyes and ears all over the country. They included friends, former business associates, Elks, and rogues who had started visiting the Igorrotes at their Memphis lodgings. One night Julio left the tribe’s rooms to use the outside privy. Just as he reached out to open the toilet door, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He stood rooted to the spot. “When are you going home?”13 asked a voice, referring to the witnesses’ return to the Philippines. Without looking round, Julio said he didn’t know. “Do you ever go out at night?”14 the man asked next. Julio replied, “No,” then fled back inside without bothering to answer the call of nature. Barker had since learned that the man was a former undercover detective turned criminal, recently released from the penitentiary.15
Fearing that Truman planned to interfere with the legal proceedings by using his contacts to intimidate, bribe, or even kidnap the Filipino witnesses, Barker instructed the man he had hired to guard the tribe not to let any of the Filipinos out of his sight, day or night. They couldn’t afford to take any chances.
31
A Surprise Reversal
SHELBY COUNTY COURT, MEMPHIS, FEBRUARY 1, 1907
Feloa’s court testimony describing, through an interpreter, how Truman stole his money
THREE MONTHS AFTER the Igorrotes made their debut in a Memphis courtroom, the first of the retrials was called, for the theft of twenty-eight dollars from Feloa. The tribespeople had gained confidence since their first court appearance, but they were badly homesick and Barker feared the long wait had sapped their resolve. Their opponents, meanwhile, proved more willing than ever to play dirty. Truman had beefed up his legal team with the addition of two men named Prescott and Powell. Barker assumed the Elks were footing the bill for such hefty legal representation.
Together Truman’s attorneys set out again to portray the Igorrotes as un-Christian savages whose testimony could not be trusted. At the original trials, Frayser had referred to Truman’s claim that he kept the Igorrotes’ money in order to prevent them from squandering it. According to Truman’s version of events, when the Igorrotes got hold of money they threw it away on bull pups at twenty dollars apiece and pint bottles of whiskey at five dollars each, and insulted American women by offering them money. Now, standing in the Shelby County courtroom, Frayser put it to Julio that when they were staying in the house on North Front Street, the interpreter had been going to the store to buy whiskey and cigars. “No sir,” said Julio firmly.1 Barker shook his head in annoyance.
Frayser painted Julio as a liar who had been given all the freedom he wanted by Truman, but who had then inexplicably turned on his boss. Frayser continued, “I will ask you if it wasn’t a further fact that you people were out on the front, on the front steps and in the back yard [of the North Front Street house], undressed and making such an exhibition of yourself that the policemen were sent down there to make you stay in the house?” “No sir,” Julio replied.2 At one time these ridiculous allegations would have offended the interpreter, but nothing Truman or his allies said could shock or wound Julio anymore.
Frayser’s manner of questioning was aggressive and intimidating. When Dengay took the stand, Frayser did his best to tie the Igorrote up in knots, quizzing him about who was present when the alleged larceny took place, and exactly where in the room each person was standing.
A new interpreter had been found for the retrial, an earnest young Filipino named Asterio Favis, who was studying law at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and who had no involvement in the case. Speaking to the interpreter, Frayser said, “Ask [Dengay] the names of fifteen of those Igorrotes [who were in the room during the alleged larceny]; ask him to name about twenty five of them?”3
INTERPRETER: He asks if you mean those from whom [Truman] took money.
FRAYSER: Ask him to name twenty five of those Igorrotes there in the room.
DENGAY through INTERPRETER: Filian, Sardoui, Gotaman, [Dengay], Feloa, Julio, Anguito. He forgets the other names.
FRAYSER: I will ask you if you did not on the former trial name all of them; ask him if he didn’t name every one he saw there?
INTERPRETER: He wasn’t asked, he says.
FRAYSER: Ask him if he didn’t give those names on the former trial.
INTERPRETER: No. Because you didn’t ask him, he says. He only gave Feloa, and Julio and his own [name].
FRAYSER: He says I didn’t ask him and he didn’t give me the names of all those that were there?
INTERPRETER: Yes sir.
In the Philippines, the Igorrotes didn’t routinely refer to each other by name, but this subtlety of Igorrote culture was not discussed in the courtroom. Additionally many of the tribespeople had changed their names since coming to America, or had been given new ones by Truman and his associates.
Fr
ayser badgered Feloa about the precise nature of the testimony he had given concerning the alleged thefts at the previous trials three months earlier.
FRAYSER to INTERPRETER: Ask him exactly what I ask you: if what he is saying here today is the same that he has said at other trials?
FELOA through INTERPRETER: Yes he says, he said that the money was taken from [Dengay] and then from him.
FRAYSER: Ask him is everything he said here today the same as he said on former trials.
General Kortrecht got to his feet to object: “I submit if the court please that that is impossible for a man to take a line of evidence like that and state that every word is the same.”4
Undeterred, Frayser continued. It was an ugly spectacle, intended to portray Feloa and his fellow Filipinos as liars who were too ignorant to understand their own testimony. The scene was about to get uglier.
The other witnesses secured by Barker and Blum to give evidence on behalf of the Igorrotes were two “negresses,” Lizzie Williams and Sallie Peoples, who had lived near the Igorrotes and regularly passed the North Front Street house. The two women testified that the only time they ever saw the Filipinos leave the house was when they went to use the outside toilet. Additionally, they said that the windows of the house were covered at all times and the doors were always closed.
During cross-examination, Frayser accused the two women of colluding with each other over their evidence before the trial. He also made a pointed reference to the color of the women’s skin, lest any of the jurymen had failed to notice it.
FRAYSER: What condition did you say the windows were in?
PEOPLES: They had the windows down and had blankets over them. Something looked like blankets; they looked like blankets to me.
FRAYSER: Did Lizzie tell you she saw blankets or something up there?
PEOPLES: No, she didn’t tell me nothing about it. I told myself because I seen it . . .
FRAYSER: You say she told you?
PEOPLES: No, I seen them myself, I live right there.
FRAYSER: What color blankets were they?
PEOPLES: They looked like old gray blankets to me.
FRAYSER: All of them?
PEOPLES: I don’t know whether they were or not.
FRAYSER: How close did you get to those blankets?
PEOPLES: I would be passing there and I would just see them; I would be going to Mrs. Patton’s grocery.
FRAYSER: Were they close enough for you to say they were old gray blankets?
PEOPLES: They looked like old gray blankets to me, them I seen.
Frayser then changed the subject, asking Peoples how she had ended up as a witness in the case. She explained that Barker and Blum had visited her at home in Memphis and asked if she had seen the Igorrotes when the tribespeople were staying on North Front Street.
FRAYSER: You told [Blum and Barker] Lizzie Williams knew something about this?
PEOPLES: No, I never told [them] anything about Lizzie Williams.
FRAYSER: Were you as polite to [Blum and Barker] as you are to me?
PEOPLES: I am with you just like I am with everybody else.
FRAYSER: What did you get mad at [them] about?
PEOPLES: I aint mad at [them]. I aint mad at anybody.
FRAYSER: Do you always treat white people when they cross examine you like you are treating me?
PEOPLES: I treat everybody alike.
While Truman’s legal team focused on race and religion again, Kortrecht, Blum, and Barker emphasized the honesty and vulnerability of the Igorrotes, and the dishonesty of their former boss. Barker testified that Truman had admitted to him, in the presence of Funk, that “he took one thousand dollars from various Igorrotes in a criminal manner.”5 Funk dismissed the claim as untrue. Undeterred, Barker continued: Truman had admitted to him that he had stolen “something in the neighborhood of $75.00 or $100.00” from Feloa.
The prosecution played their trump card in the form of Col. Hopkins, who had offered to pay his own traveling expenses from St. Louis for the pleasure of testifying against his old adversary. Hopkins testified that Truman had told him he stole the Igorrotes’ souvenir money to ensure the tribespeople were entirely dependent on him and that way “he could handle them better.”6 On the subject of Julio and his honesty, Hopkins said that Truman had told him the interpreter was trustworthy and “a very responsible fellow.”7 Hopkins added that he had found both statements to be true.
Of the nine witnesses called to give testimony on behalf of the Igorrotes, only Hopkins and Barker had white skin, a fact which Barker and Blum feared could prejudice the jury against them. The five witnesses who appeared on behalf of Truman were all white men. They included Fleetwood, the former Shelby County jailer whom Truman had befriended and who was now a deputy sheriff, a newspaper reporter from the Commercial Appeal, and Callahan, who said under oath that Julio bought “liquor at the store next door, at Mrs. Patton’s.”8 He also stated that when Truman visited the North Front Street house the Igorrotes willingly “deposited” their money with him.
The showman’s attorney then produced Mr. Smith, a policeman whose willingness to lie on behalf of Truman was enough to bring his entire profession in to disrepute. The Memphis police officer, whose job it had been to patrol North Front Street when the tribespeople were there, swore under oath that he and his partner had visited the house where the Igorrotes were staying “fifteen times a day.”9 Despite their frequent visits, officer Smith stated that the tribespeople had never made any complaint to himself or his partner about the way they were being treated. He had seen Truman at the house on one or two occasions and had observed that the tribespeople looked “glad to see him.”10 Julio was stunned by the man’s lies. The police had come to the house only once in the whole time they were living there, and had stayed for just five minutes.
The trial in the criminal court lasted three and a half days and was “bitter and personal,” culminating in each side addressing the jury for five hours.11 Blum and Kortrecht were “comprehensive” and “convincing.”12 But Prescott, who spoke on Truman’s behalf, was utterly “brilliant.”13
The jury deliberated for twenty-four hours but could not reach an agreement. Three jurors believed Truman was guilty and the other nine favored acquittal on the basis that Truman had merely “borrowed” the tribespeople’s money and not stolen it.
With the jury deadlocked, Judge Moss invited the prosecution and defense to address the jury again. Kortrecht and Blum used the opportunity to emphasize the suffering of the tribespeople, who now faced going home with virtually nothing to show for their two years in America, during which they had worked hard and sacrificed much.
Truman’s team pushed the race angle hard and stressed “the unreliability of all colored testimony,” describing Truman as an innocent man who was being persecuted by the government, and who was the victim of “personal spite, amusement park feuds, and other ‘conspiracies.’ ”14
But still the jury could not reach a verdict. In view of this, Judge Moss said he had no option but to declare a mistrial.
The Filipinos stood silently for a moment, trying to make sense of what had just happened. All around them there was noise and movement. People were screaming at them, asking them questions they didn’t understand. The judge was banging on his desk. Barker and Blum were speaking but the tribespeople could not hear over the din. The strange sensation reminded Tainan of the first time he had entered the sea and put his head under the water. Mistrial. What did that mean? What about the other cases? Was Truman staying in jail?
Barker took Tainan and Maria by the arm. He indicated to Blum to lead Julio, Feloa, and Dengay out and into the anteroom first. He would follow with the others. Maria leaned against Barker so heavily that the government agent feared she was about to faint. The last few days had been physically and emotionally draining.
No one spoke for several minutes. Barker and Blum looked at each other over the tops of the Filipinos’ heads. They too were sickened by
the travesty of justice they had witnessed. Though they had seen it coming, they felt ill prepared for this moment. What could they say? Tainan broke the silence. Did we lose? he asked. Yes, Feloa said before anyone else had a chance to answer. The tribal chief began gesticulating furiously and shouting in his own tongue. Dengay joined in. Barker didn’t know what they were saying, but it wasn’t hard to imagine. He looked over and saw a tear rolling down Maria’s cheek.
How did this happen? Julio asked. Why did the jury believe Truman’s lies this time? More than any of the others, the interpreter had trusted Barker and Blum to ensure justice was done. When Feloa and Dengay had demanded to go home, Julio had stuck his neck out and assured them that they would win, that Truman would be punished. Now that he had been proved wrong, the interpreter wanted answers. Barker had never seen Julio angry like this before. He didn’t know what to say. The Memphis legal system was corrupt and racist. But that was hardly an answer.
Kortrecht had reassured Blum and Barker that he would not allow verdicts of “not guilty” to be entered. He would insist instead that the cases were “retired.” The distinction was an important legal one but it would mean nothing to the Igorrotes.15
There’s still New Orleans, Barker said to the Filipinos, adding that they stood a better chance of a guilty verdict in Louisiana. But he wondered whether any of them, even Julio, had the stomach for another fight. We won’t give up, insisted Barker. We will get a conviction. He looked around the room. No one was listening.
Three days later, on Saturday, February 9, in the Shelby County courtroom of Judge Moss, all three cases against Truman were formally retired at the request of the assistant attorney general. Together with Barker and Blum, Kortrecht had reached the conclusion that there was little point in pursuing the outstanding cases in Memphis—the second retrial and the theft of $444.55 from Julio. On hearing he was a free man at last, Truman punched the air.
He got up to leave and felt a hand on his shoulder. Spinning round, he came face-to-face with Frank Kenner, who identified himself as an inspector with the New Orleans police department.16 What do you want? Truman demanded angrily. I’m arresting you, said Kenner holding up the requisition papers. Frayser was stunned. He had not seen this coming. He reassured Truman that he would sort the matter out. Then Frayser picked up his briefcase and fled the room.
The Lost Tribe of Coney Island Page 33