James J. Bennett v. United States

Very early in the morning of June 21, 1953, three cars, a Cadillac, a Mercury and a Buick, assembled on the outskirts of Odessa, Texas, at the Moonlight Bar. The Cadillac was registered in the name of appellant, James J. Bennett. Title to the Mercury was in the name of Bennett’s wife, Fern Bennett. The Buick was owned by Wesley Kehert. All of the parties had a common purpose to drive from Odessa to Fairbanks, Alaska. The party consisted of Marilyn Jean Casey, Norma Crosby, Carol Ward, Kehert, Bennett and his wife. The overland journey through Denver, Spokane and Canada took about ten days.

In November, 1953, the grand jury at Fairbanks indicted Kehert, Miss Crosby and the Bennetts on a charge of transporting Miss Casey from Texas to Alaska in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. The charge involved the trip which began in Odessa on June 21. The four stood trial together in May, 1954. James Bennett and Wesley Kehert were convicted by the jury. Fern Bennett and Norma Crosby were acquitted. This is the appeal of James Bennett.

Essentially, the defendant-appellant has two points in his brief. The first is that there was insufficient evidence to sustain Bennett’s…