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SHIFT IN GOW CASE PLACES BLA ON SUICIDE Witness Tells of Maxwell's Alleged Part in McGuire Transaction. More of the banking methods of William Gow. on trial before Justice Crane, in the Supreme Court. Brooklyn, on a grand larceny charge in connection with the wrecking of the Brooklyn Borough Bank, were shown yesterday in the testimony of Arthur D. Campbell, the cashier, who turned state's evidence. He was on the stand nearly all day, his testimony making up the bulk of the prosecution's case. District Attorney Clarke will rest for the prosecution when Mr. Campbell concludes his testimony to-day. The cashier, who escaped trial on the same indictment by testifying for the people, testified yesterday that Mr. Gow floated the Excelsior Fire Insurance Company by an illegal use of the funds of the Borough Bank, that fraudulent and unsecured notes, signed by irresponsible persons, were used by the defendant to cover his overdrawn account, and explained the details of Mr. Gow's alleged apof propriation of the Carrie McGuire account $145,000. Mr. Campbell's testimony of the part of Howard Maxwell, the suicide, in the alleged theft of the McGuire money was generally accepted as an aid to the defence. The defence was further strengthened by the statement of Robert J. Cuddihy, the McGuire executor, that he had no difficulty in drawing money on the account at any time, and that he had withdrawn the last dollar and closed the account on the day the bank collapsed. Richard W. Jones, jr., formerly president of the defunct Oriental Bank, of Manhattan, was crossexamined by Martin W. Littleton, attorney for Mr. Gow, and told much the same story of the defendant's alleged financial feat in acquiring $1,000,000 assets for his International Trust Company as was outlined by District Attorney Clarke on Wednesday. Mr. Jones said, however, that the $145,000 in McGuire money was already credited to the International Trust Company when the Oriental Bank made its loans aggregating $750,000, whereas Mr. Clarke stated the $145,000 was the last. item secured. After Mr. Cuddihy had been cross-examined and Arthur D. Campbell started his history of the wrecking of the Borough Bank it became evident that much of the blame for the McGuire transaction would be put on the shoulders of Mr. Maxwell, the bank president who shot himself after being indicted. The witness said that after the $145,000 had been deposited to the Carrie McGuire account Mr. Gow instructed him over the telephone not to loan any of the money, because it wouldn't remain there long, and not to tell Mr. Hurley, vice-president of the bank, about it, because he might want to borrow the money. "Mr. Gow called me on the telephone on the morning of September 30. 1907," said the witness, "and asked me to draw a cashier's check for $145,000 and send it over to him in New York. I asked him what we were to get for it, and Mr. Maxwell, who was in the same room with Mr. Gow, came to the telephone. "I asked him what I was going to get for the $145,000. 'Mr. Cuddihy is going to give us a check for it,' he replied. He told me that it was all right, and that I should send the check over. I made out the check on the Borough Bank to the International Trust Company. and sent it over to Mr. Maxwell. It came back paid. It was indorsed to the Oriental Bank and signed by Howard Maxwell, as president. On October 1 Mr. Maxwell told me that Mr. Cuddihy would give us a check for the amount very soon. The next day he said he hadn't received the check yet, but told me to credit $145.000 to the McGuire account, which I did. "When young Mr. McGuire called soon after to get some checks certified I told Mr. Maxwell there was no money there, and he instructed me to transfer $105,000 in the chairman's fund, which he controlled, to the McGuire account. A day or two later $12,000 more was transferred from the chairman's fund to the McGuire account. The account was finally made up when Mr. Maxwell brought a check for $28,000 signed by Frank W. Doolittle, Mr. Gow's secretary. I immediately credited it to the McGuire estate Henry M. White, a bookkeeper, identified the entries which showed the history of the deposits and withdrawals in the McGuire account, as recited by Mr. Campbell. Mr. Clark asked the cashier about the $250,000 Maxwell note on the Borough Bank. "Was this note, as was usual with notes given by the Borough Bank, entered in your books?' re"No, it was never entered," Mr. Campbell plled. "Mr. Gow asked me on October 24 If there wasn't some way the notes could be entere on the books, but I told him there wasn't." Mr. Campbell swore that although it was the custom to read all the large notes at the directors' meetings, the Burr, Jenkins or Maxwell notes were not mentioned. The largest individual loan, prior to September 27, 1907, was $50,000. he said. The flotation of the Excelsior Fire Insurance Company was taken up. "I told Mr. Gow in August, 1907," testified Mr. Campbell, "that he could not draw out money because the reserve fund was very low. But on August 7 Mr. Gow executed a loan of $137,500 to other members of his Excelsior Fire Insurance Company from the funds of the Borough Bank, as follows: John S. Jenkins, $13,250; E. B. Armstrong, loans of $36,750 and $37,500; Eugene Van Skirk, two loans of $25,000. "This money will never go out of the bank," Gow said to me, 'until it goes into the International Trust Company and can be safely carried, because of additional privileges we will have then.' The reserve fund was then less than 15 per cent of the deposits, which is illegal." Mr. Campbell testified that the defendant cancelled his overdrawn account by crediting himself with the following notes, which were never made known to the members of the board of directors and remained unsatisfied in the bank until late in October, when it falled: By James Bartlett, a negro hotel porter. March 27, 1907, $25,000; James R. Studwell, March 27. 1907, $25,000; Charles Pfeiffer, August 27, 1907 $21,000; Charles Pfeiffer, September 3. 1907, $10,000; Herman Veit, February 26, 1906, $9. 204 19. The only note indorsed was that of Herman Veit, to which Mr. Gow affixed his name on its second renewal. The trial continues to-day, the defence opening its case.
