FEAR OF ENEMIES

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 9

FEAR OF ENEMIES

COURT WITNESS’ STORY. MAY BE “TAKEN FOR A RIDE.” Dr. Lewis K. Eastman, owner of the Keystone Hospital, 1623, North Kostner Avenue, Chicago, was accused by a witness of participating in an alleged extortion of 2000 dollars. The witness, Herman Hartlaub, testified at the trial of Dr. Eastman on charges of malpractice before the medical committee of the State Department of Registration and Education. Dr. Eastman faces the revocation of his license if he is convicted. . . Hartlaub, who is under conviction for practising medicine without a license, was called as a rebuttal witness. He testified that Dr. Eastman had threatened to take him for a ride if he ever revealed the alleged transaction. Hartlaub was asked by Dr. Gilbert Fitzpatrick, a member of the board, if he felt that his life was in danger because of his testimony. “I believe it is,” Hartlaub said. I have asked for a permit to carry a revolver, but so far it has been denied me.” Under cross-examination Hartlaub denied that he had ever asked Dr. Eastman for money for the promise of not tost if yin Hartlaub testified that he was approached by William Leon Abt. Later Abt was an optometrist with offices at the Keystone Hospital, but at that time was a salesmen for an optical company. “Abt suggested that I send some of my patients to the Keystone Hospital for treatment,” Hartlaub testified. “I gave Abt permission to do some work in my offices, and one day he brought a girl there, who said she was a good friend of his. He asked if I would let him use my operating room to perform an illegal operation upon her. I let him do it. Late that night he called me up and said he had had to rush the girl to the Keystone Hospital because she was going to die. “That same night I met Dr. Eastman and Abt in a restaurant near the hospital. Dr. Eastman said it would take 2000 dollars to cover up the case, that he had already spent 200 dollars in fixing a clerk at the coroner’s office. I mortgaged my home and paid him the money before I learned that the girl was not ill and had never been at the hospital. Later Abt confessed his part in the scheme and . told me that unless I kept my mouth shut I would be killed or broken because of Dr. Eastman’s pull. “I went to an assistant State attorney, who was later killed by gangsters —McSwiggin I believe his name was—and asked him what I could do. (McSwiggin was shot to death in 1926). McSwiggin said, ‘Dr. Eastman has as much pull as State’s Attorney Crowe himself.’ ”

Hartlaub then testified that after Dr. Eastman had been charged with malpractice he went to him and asked to be protected. Dr. Eastman promised to keep Abt from testifying, he said. Then Hartlaub went to the hospital and was seized by three armed men, who held him prisoner for four hours and threatened to kill him if he told his story, he said.