# Bill of exceptions and trial testimony, United States v. William P. Colbeck et al. (S.D. Ill., filed 2 February 1925)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-292316479-colbeck-testimony/

The digitized trial transcript in the Colbeck mail-robbery case, filed as a bill of exceptions on 2 February 1925. The title page lists the defendants and their counsel; the index lists the first witnesses, among them the two mail custodians named in the indictment.

An item of 897 digitized images in the [Colbeck case file](/items/nara-285094043-us-v-colbeck-case-file/), catalogued as "Testimony from the case United States vs. William P. "Dinty" Colbeck, et al." The title page, shown above, reads "In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Southern Division," lists the fourteen defendants with their aliases (here spelling "Oliver Dougherty"), and gives "Case No. 25. Violation of Sections 194 and 197 of the Penal Code of the United States." It ends "Bill of Exceptions," with the name of the court reporter, L. M. James. A handwritten note in the margin reads "Filed Feb. 2, 1925."

The appearances list Horace L. Dyer, Special Assistant Attorney General, and Thomas Williamson, United States Attorney, for the Government. Defence counsel from St. Louis, Quincy, Granite City and Springfield appear for separate groups of defendants: one firm for Colbeck, Dougherty, Ryan, Robinson and Smith; others for Lanham and Dietmeyer, for Hackethal, and for Eppelsheimer.

The first index page, stored [here](/media/nara-292316479-colbeck-testimony-index.jpg), lists a ruling on a motion, a ruling on juror challenges, and the examinations of the first prosecution witnesses, ending with Harry R. Kuehnan and George A. Roberts, the two men the indictment names as the custodians of the mail. Only the title page and this index page have been read for this archive. The testimony itself, including that of Raymond Renard, which the Seventh Circuit describes, is not summarized or quoted here. The date span given above runs from the first day of trial, as the [Seventh Circuit](/items/courtlistener-colbeck-v-us-10-f2d-401/) gives it, to the filing date.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/292316479