Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1910 — DR. KANNAL TESTIFIES IN W. H. MARKER TRIAL. [ARTICLE]

DR. KANNAL TESTIFIES IN W. H. MARKER TRIAL.

Relates Dealings With Tipton First National as President of Livestock Insurance Company. Dr. H. J. Kannal, veterinary surgeon, of this city, who was the president of the Farmers and Citizens Livestock Insurance Co., of Lima, Ohio, which recently made an assignment, was called to Indianapolis Tuesday to testify for the government in the case against W. H. Marker, former cashier of the Tipton First National Bank. His testimony is reported as follows in the Indianapolis News: Dr. Harvey J. Kannal, of Rensselaer, was the principal witness for the government yesterday. Dr. Kannal has been mentioned prominently throughout the trial as being identified with the Farmers and Citizens Livestock Insurance Co. He was president of the company at the time it was placed in the hands of a receiver. Dr. Kannal said he obtained his first information about the company from Marker. He said he called at the bank in Tipton and asked him* what he knew about the company and about White. He said Marker told him White and the company were all right. He said he bought 310 shares, but paid for only ten of them. He could not tell what had become of the other three hundred shares.Dr. Kannal said he knew nothing of the arrangements made for getting $25,000 from the-bank, although he saw the pass book containing a credit entry of $25,000, but he had asked’ nothing about it. He said he gave very little time to the affairs of the company, his place of business being in Rensselaer. He said he usually managed to get to Lima once a month, and while there he would sign a book of blank checks to be filled out later by the other officers for various amounts that were needed. He said when his notice was called to the impairment of the capital stock of the insurance company, he went to the Tipton bank with White. There they met Marker, who, he said, told them everything was ready. Marker then, according to Kannal, placed four notes

on a desk and told him to sign them, designating the lines on which his name was to be written. These notes were for $20,000, the amount needed to protect the capital stock of the insurance company, according to Kannaj. Marker then gave White, Kannal said, two certificates of deposit and two drafts. White and Kannal then came to Indianapolis. The drafts on the Tipton bank were deposited in the Capital National Bank, and then White and Kannal went to Lima, taking the certificates of deposit with them. Kannal said that one day he was called up in his office in Rensselaer by telephone, and when he responded, the man at the other end of the line said he was representing the firm of Gifford & Gifford, of Tipton. Later, however, the speaker said he was W. H. Marker. Kannal said he was asked if he had been subpenaed by the grand jury and if he knew how things were going at Lima. The speaker, Kannal

said, wished to arrange a meeting with him at Indianapolis, and that at a later date he met Marker in the street near the Denison hotel. At the time he was with White. He said that after Marker had asked him if he was on his way to testify before the grand jury, he said he hoped he would not do him any more damage than he could. “They think they have me on one hundred counts,” Marker is alleged to have said “but I will give them a fight.” Attorney Spaan asked Kannal only one question. “What kind of a doctor are you?” “A veterinary surgeon,” replied the witness.