Stimulants and Sedatives

A businessman put up about $3,500 to buy a racehorse. Prosecutors said that before a March 1959 race at a California track he supplied a former trainer with a sedative to slow the rival horses; the night before the race the trainer injected their own horse with a stimulant and gave depressants to five competitors. The horse still finished far down the field and the businessman lost a $6,000 bet. He was tried with others on charges of conspiring to bribe race participants, conspiring to drug racehorses and fixing particular races. The main evidence came from accomplices who had been dropped from the case to testify, supported by recordings of his telephone calls about the investigation. The defence argued the accomplices' word was uncorroborated and that the prosecution had coerced witnesses.