“Yes.”
“Now then, on the Saturday in question, when the body of Fred Milfield was discovered, you were in or near Santa Barbara, were you not?”
“Yes.”
“On the Friday night previous, you had occupied cottages Thirteen and Fourteen at the Surf and Sun Motel on the coast highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco?”
“Yes.”
“That is a short distance below Santa Barbara — between Ventura and Santa Barbara?”
“Yes.”
“And did you have any communication with anyone while you were there?”
“Yes.”
“A telephone communication?”
“Yes.”
“With whom?”
“Objected to,” Mason said, “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“Sustained.”
“Was it with one of these defendants?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will ask you what this conversation was.”
“Same objection,” Mason said.
The judge frowned. “If it appears this conversation was with one of the defendants, Mr. Mason...”
Mason said, “If the Court please, it’s perfectly proper for Counsel to ask this witness if he recognized the voices of either of the defendants, and if either of the defendants made any admissions to him over the telephone. But as to anything this witness may have said to the defendants, it’s entirely incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”
“I think that’s right,” the judge ruled.
“But Your Honor,” Burger protested, “I want to connect this up. I want to show that because of the conversation, the defendants knew where this witness was staying, knew that he was at the Surf and Sun Motel.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” the judge asked.
“I’ll connect that up with my next witness.”
“Well,” the judge said somewhat hesitantly, “I’m going to admit it if you change your question so that it covers only that specific point.”
“Very well, Your Honor,” Mr. Burger said. “Mr. Lassing, I will ask you if you communicated with the defendant, or with his office and told him where you were staying?”
“Well, I communicated with his office.”
“With whom did you talk?”
“With Mr. Judson Beltin.”
“And who is Mr. Beltin?”
“He is the secretary of Roger Burbank — sort of a manager.”
“You know that, do you?”
“Yes.”
“Of your own knowledge?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve had business dealings with Mr. Burbank through Mr. Beltin?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you tell Mr. Beltin?”
“I asked Mr. Beltin if I could get those drilling contracts on the Skinner Hills property. I told him I was there at the Surf and Sun Motel and I was going to be there until noon and asked him to get in touch with me, if he had any definite answer to give me. He told me that...”
“I really see nothing to be gained by introducing the conversation of Mr. Beltin,” the judge ruled. “I presume Mr. District Attorney, it is your contention that Mr. Beltin subsequently communicated this information to one or both of the defendants, and that has some bearing upon the case?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“I will let the answer stand up to that point, but I don’t think that any conversation between Beltin and this witness is at all pertinent.”
“Very well, Your Honor. I will now ask you, Mr. Lassing, what time you checked out of the Surf and Sun Motel?”
“Right around ten o’clock in the morning.”
“When was this conversation you had with Mr. Judson Beltin?”
“Late Friday afternoon, about four forty-five, and also Saturday.”
“There were some people occupying the two cottages with you?”
“Yes.”
“Who were they?”
“Some of my associates — a driller and a geologist of my own, a man who gives me some financial backing at times, and another man who has an interest in my business.”
“You had been investigating the Skinner Hills oil field?”
“Yes.”
“How did you know that it was an oil field?”
“Well,” Lassing said, scratching his head, “I did know it, and I didn’t. I just happened to stumble onto it. I saw that Milfield and Burbank were getting together and buying up a lot of property. Well, us oil men sort of keep an eye on any large-scale movements in potential oil properties. They’d organized a Karakul Fur Company, but that didn’t fool me any.”
“So you went out and looked the ground over?” Burger asked.
“Yes.”
Burger said. “Now then, Mr. Lassing, I’m going to ask you a question. Did you have any conversation with one of the defendants concerning your occupancy of the Surf and Sun Motel some time after you had checked out?”
Lassing fidgeted, then said, “Yes.”
“With whom?”
“Carol Burbank.”
“What did you say?”
“I take it,” Judge Newark said, “the district attorney understands this question is not to call for extraneous matters, but only for some declaration which will have some bearing upon the case?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Answer the question.”
“Well,” Lassing said, “she asked me if I’d say that — well, if I’d just refuse to give the names of the people who occupied the cottages with me, just make it look as though I had something to conceal — just not give out any information about who they were.”
“And what did you do?”
“Well, I told her all right, I’d do that.”
“Is this,” Mason asked somewhat scornfully, “the grounds upon which you’re going to claim a subornation of perjury?”
“Yes,” Burger snapped.
Mason smiled, “She didn’t ask him to commit any perjury.”
“I think she did,” Burger said.
“Never mind the discussion between counsel,” the judge ruled. “Go ahead with your examination, Mr. Burger.”
“That’s all.”
“Any questions on cross-examination, Mr. Mason?”
Mason smiled, said, “Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Lassing, I will ask you if Carol Burbank, at any time, asked you to testify to anything that was false?”
“Well, no.”
“Did she ask you to make any statements whatever that were false in character?”
“Well, she asked me to just keep quiet.”
“Exactly. She asked you to keep quiet. She didn’t ask you not to make a true statement in the event you were called as a witness?”
“Well, no.”
“But just to keep quiet, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Not to divulge the names of the persons who occupied those cabins with you?”
“That’s right.”
“She specifically asked you to say her father was not there, didn’t she?”
“Why no.”
“She asked you not to mention the names of any person as having been in that motel with you, didn’t she? Or did I understand your testimony correctly?”
“That’s right. Yes sir.”
“And in your opinion any person would include her father?”
“Oh, I see what you’re getting at now! Well, she asked me to refuse to tell the name of any person who was there — to act as secretive as I could about the whole business.”
“Asked you to refuse to say her father was there?”
“To refuse to mention the name of anyone who was there.”
“To refuse to say her father was there?”
“Well, if you want to put it that way — I was to refuse to give out any name — any name at all.”
“To refuse to say her father was there?”
“Yes.”
“That’s all, Mr. Lassing. Thank you.”
Mason smiled triumphantly, looked over at the prosecutor’s table and said, “If that’s suborning perjury, I’ll eat it.”