THE 1921 B-SOX TRIAL TRANSCRIPTS  
 

            One of the first things everyone learns in B-Sox 101, is that there are no transcripts from the 1921 trial. They were, Eliot Asinof was told when he went searching in 1961, all long gone. We have some transcripts from the 1920 grand jury, and a fairly complete record of the 1924 Jackson vs White Sox trial. But when it comes to the actual “Black Sox trial,” we have had to rely on the accounts which appeared in the newspapers, some of which look like transcripts, because they are in Q & A format.
 

            So the news that the CHM documents contained actual transcripts from the 1921 trial was big news indeed — at least for those who had taken B-Sox 101. For me, these born-again documents raise hope that more may someday surface.
 

            As I’ve written here before, the transcripts we can now read are numbered pages 510 to 697. Last issue, I wrote about two pages that were somehow separated from the rest (676-677), but are in the CHMD (Chicago History Museum documents). As we read them, we need to keep in mind that these pages were removed from (and thus spared the fate of the rest) the trial records, and ended up in the office of Alfred S. Austrian, Comiskey’s lawyer. They therefore had a significance for the White Sox, and I think the easiest explanation is that they were as important to the Sox as the transcripts of the players’ grand jury statements, and were likely used the same way — as ammunition that might head off future lawsuits.
 

            In fact, at issue in the 1921 transcripts, is whether or not the grand jury statements will be admissible at the 1921 trial. To determine that, Judge Hugo Friend permitted the three players to testify separately, and away from the jury; they would have their own lawyers present, and be cross-questioned by the prosecuting attorneys. The 1920 grand jury judge, Charles McDonald, also testified. Judge Friend ruled that the GJ statements were admissible, but Cicotte’s statement could only be used against Cicotte; and so on. That made for a lot of redacting.
 

            In the 1921 transcripts, the GJ statements themselves have been placed “off limits.”  The players may talk only about the circumstances in which they told their 1920 stories. Both sides object frequently when the testimony ranges near or outside the boundaries set by Friend.
 

            Below are my notes, made on perhaps the third or fourth reading of the transcripts. Yes, I had copies made, because I think they will be handy reference tools in our future research. I’ll let you decide how important this “new find” really is.
 

            Eddie Cicotte. There are many versions about just how Eddie Cicotte wound up in Austrian’s office, on his way to making history at the grand jury. Cicotte said, in 1921, that he was called (phoned) and then taken to the office by Sox secretary (GM) Harry Grabiner. This is a good place to remind all that we are reading prepared testimony, coached by that Dream Team of defense lawyers. What they said, is not necessarily the truth. And the fact that the players were all acquitted by the 1921 trial jury in the end, does not make their words any more reliable.
 

            In Austrian’s office when Eddie arrived was Comiskey, Austrian, and Kid Gleason. After a few minutes, State’s Atty. Hartley Replogle arrived, and he stayed an hour. Cicotte said he then went with Replogle and Austrian to Judge McDonald’s office, and spent about fifteen minutes with the judge. (Eddie mentions no long wait before seeing Austrian, no “Tell it to the grand jury” from an upset team owner.)  After Eddie talked to McDonald, the judge was not happy, he wanted and expected more on the gamblers. Cicotte said that he did not cry that day, but may have had tears in his eyes. He said he was promised immunity, by Austrian, and Replogle [emphasis mine]; further, there would be no prison time, and no fine.
 

            Joe Jackson. Jackson said that he was asked by Gleason to go to see Austrian on September 28 — at 6 AM? That’s what he said; he was told to see the team lawyer at 1:15 or 1:30 PM, and that’s what he did. When he met with Austrian, he was informed of his suspension (Cicotte had given up eight names, including his own and Jackson’s, that morning), and his imminent indictment.
 

            Back in Notes #425, I wrote this about pages 561-564:
 

As he sat with Austrian and Gleason, he was asked if he knew that he was indicted, or was about to be. “I said, No, I didn’t know it, though I knew there were some scandal.” Gleason then takes an envelope from his pocket, gives it to Jackson and says “I am going to get out of here,” and leaves. The envelope contains — Austrian reads it to him — his suspension from the Sox and his final paycheck. Austrian tells Jackson that he needs a lawyer “damn bad” and Jackson starts to leave, to find himself a lawyer. But Austrian says, “‘Just sit down there a minute,’ and he walked between me and the door.” Then Austrian calls McDonald. Jackson has nothing to tell him. He wants a lawyer, he wants Austrian to find him one, he says he would pay for a lawyer. Austrian seems to want Jackson to stay put, until he knows what Jackson will say, what he has to say. Jackson (and it seems he refers to Austrian, not McDonald): “Well, I told him I would tell him what little I had heard about it.”  The pages I have run out there — cliffhanger!
 

            Well, as we all know, Jackson never did get his own lawyer. He trusted Austrian, who returned the favor by making sure Jackson would sign away his immunity. Most people interpret that as a sign Austrian was working harder that day for Comiskey and the franchise, than for the players; a lawyer working for Cicotte and Jackson would have been “damn sure” (as Jackson might put it) that their clients received something in exchange for their testimony, which, after all, was voluntary. In defense of Austrian and Replogle, they might argue that signing a waiver of immunity was something that might work in their favor — they were not making any deal, they had clear consciences.
 

            Back to 1921. Jackson recalled that he was told by Austrian that he’d be given “the same conditions as Cicotte.”  That is, he would not be tossed in jail. Eddie was free, wasn’t he?  Jackson then went to the courthouse with Austrian, where they met with Replogle for 15-20 minutes. Jackson said that he saw McDonald for “probably five minutes” before going to the GJ — significant, I think, because of McDonald’s recollections of what was said in those few minutes, which was so at odds with what Jackson said minutes later in the grand jury room, without McD present.
 

            “He [McDonald] didn’t like the story.”  Again, the judge was looking for the names of gamblers, and for more than Cicotte had given up; Jackson, it seemed, knew less. Jackson said that Austrian had told him that the GJ “didn’t care nothing about getting no ballplayers, the gamblers was the ones they wanted to trample under their feet.” Jackson had no recollection of the “Swede is a hard guy” story. He had asked for a bailiff to help him get safely away from the courthouse, he said, because Buck Herzog had been stabbed by a crazed fan a day or two before; Judge McDonald assigned two bailiffs to Jackson, and he got drunk with them after he testified. No mention of having some booze before, to relax him or loosen his tongue. Again, in 1921, Jackson had likely been rehearsed, and his story polished.
 

            Lefty Williams. Lefty said that he was called on the morning of September 29 by Joe Jackson. (Jackson, hung over, was supposed to meet again with McDonald, but was running late and only made it as far as Austrian, where he had ASA call the judge. Jackson gave McD his address, and did not meet with him again.) Actually, Jackson’s phone call was answered by Lefty’s wife, and when Lyria put her husband on the line, Austrian was on the other end. Lefty said that Austrian promised him immunity, in exchange for what he knew about the fix.
 

            Interestingly, Lefty Williams had already called a lawyer, Jerome Crowley, who was on his way to Williams’ apartment. In another fifteen minutes, he’d be there. Timing is everything. Austrian told Williams, “You don’t want any lawyers.”  Lefty trusted Austrian, following the lead of Cicotte and Jackson. He was soon in Austrian’s office, and convinced by Austrian that if he cooperated, there would be no prison, no fines.
 

            The three players had all placed their fate in the hands of Austrian, Replogle, and Judge McDonald. Cicotte had nearly backed out, nearly not testified. Once he did, “the dam burst,” and the two players that followed Eddie also trusted Cicotte, who surely would not “spill the beans” and get nothing in return.
 

            Judge Charles A. McDonald. Batting cleanup in this 1921 sideshow, McDonald’s version was, as expected, at some variance with that of the players. McDonald’s is familiar to us, because it is the one which was widely reported in the newspapers, the one which became history. But the transcripts add some details.
 

            Cicotte wanted to testify to the grand jury without his teammates or the press knowing. It appears that Eddie was indeed smuggled into the courthouse and the grand jury room without notice. But although he was taken out the back door, he was spotted by a reporter, and that was the end of that cover-up. Had he not been spotted, his appearance not been page one news all over the country — would the suspensions still have followed?  Would Jackson and Williams have followed?  We’ll never know.
 

            McDonald (as well as Replogle and Austrian later) denied any promises of immunity to the players. In fact, he denied making any deals at all, which is why Cicotte balked and almost left the courthouse without making the GJ stop. McDonald testified that he was in the grand jury room for Cicotte’s testimony, but not for Jackson, and not for Williams. McDonald confirmed Cicotte’s story about hitting the first batter on purpose, then pitching to win the rest of the series. Regarding Jackson, McDonald recalled that the outfielder told him that “he could have played harder.”  McDonald never heard Jackson say he played the whole series to win, because he skipped Joe’s GJ appearance. Timing is everything. Would it have mattered if McDonald was present in the GJ?  Would Jackson have changed the judge’s understanding?  Well, we might at least have a more coherent, less confusing account from Jackson, if McDonald had been present, asking questions or clarifying what Jackson said. We’ll never know.
 

            I am summarizing above, nearly 190 pages of transcripts, boiling them down to just a few pages. It would be wrong to take my summary as anything but my own reading of the pages. In fact, now that I’m on record with my own account, it is just as easy to ask Is Carney’s interpretation correct or biased? as it is to wonder which version of things is closer to reality, the three players’ or McDonald’s?  If we can parse and debate and discuss ad infinitum (or maybe ad nauseam) Joe Jackson’s 1920 grand jury statement — and we do — the 1921 transcripts are similar fuel for the Hot Stove.
 

            I suspect that once these transcripts “get around” — maybe on the internet — we will see a lot of folks sympathizing with the players, whose side, I think, most fans instinctively take. As I’ve written before, Judge McDonald, Austrian and Replogle all had agendas. But so did the players, and the fact that their stories about getting promised much, then being indicted, may be only as believable as the possibility that they were all very well coached for this court appearance. So in the end, we are all put in the jury box. We listen (read), then talk amongst ourselves, and only much later, make up our own minds.