Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/763

 756 FEDERAL REPORTER. �In the present case the indictment has been found against nine defendants, to-wit : Jane H. Lewis, Andrew J. Park, Marcus T. Saeia, Frank Allison, alias Ward, Henry T. Bass- ford, George E. Bradford, George W. Westbrook, Mary T. Eussell, and Franees Helen Peabody. Five of them only are now on trial, to-wit : Andrew J. Park, Marcus T. Sacia, Frank Allison, Henry T. Bassford, and George E. Bradford. �The general charge against them is that they combined and confederated together to defraud the United States, and that one or more acts were performed by one or more of the parties to give effect to the fraud. �The indictment specifically sets forth that the nine defend- ants named therein entered into a conspiracy to defraud the United States in the following manner: By depriving the United States of the benefit and advantage of the provisions •of a certain last will and testament, made on the first day of October, 1873, by on& Joseph L. Lewis, whereby he devised and bequeathed, after making certain legacies, ail the rest of his property, amounting in value to more than $1,000,000, as follows : "I give, devise and bequeath ail the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real and personal, and of every kind whatsoever, of which I may die seized and possessed, and to which, at my death, I may be entitled, unto my exe- ■cutors, in trust, to expend and apply in reducing the national debt of the United States of America, contracted in the cause of the rebellion in 1861," which said will was duly made and executed by said Joseph L. Lewis, who afterwards, on March 5, 1877, at Hoboken, in said district, departed this life, leaving the same unrevoked, and was duly presented for probate to the ordinary of the state of New Jersey; and further, by preventing the said residuary bequest from being applied by the said executors to the use of the United States, as provided in said will, by falsely and fraudulently opposing the lawful probate of said will, and falsely pretending that the said Jennie Holbrook was, in fact, the widow of the said testator, and that the said will was invalid and of no effect, and that she, as said widow, was entitled to a large share of the said estate bequeathed as aforesaid for the benefit of the ����