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Show Murderer Recovered Nest Egg Pardoned Life Convict Returned After Thirty Years for Money H Had Put In a Bank. "1 have had many experiences In my professional practise which have taught me that truth Is not only stranger than fiction, but that many times a fact, an experience, an authentic authen-tic record. Is something beyond the power of tb.3 Imagination to picture," said to me ex-Judge A. J. Ditten-hoefer, Ditten-hoefer, who la the lact survivor of all the Lincoln presidential electors from New York state. "And one of the strangest, although not the most romantic, ro-mantic, of my experiences began one day when my old friend, Louis Thal-messinger, Thal-messinger, the bank president, you know, came so cautiously and secretively se-cretively into my office that I knew before be-fore he spoke that he had some Important Im-portant communication to make. "Closing the door after him, he looked Inquiringly around the room, o as to assure himself that he was alone with me. Then he drew his chair close up to my desk. " 'Judge,' he said, almost In a whisper, whis-per, 'I have just made an extraor-dlnrry extraor-dlnrry discovery. It positively frightens fright-ens me.' He was pale and nervous, and as he spoke my first Impression was that he had discovered a serious defalcation by some one of his subordinates. sub-ordinates. What was my surprise, therefore, when he continued, after 1 had cautioned him to tell me clearly and completely what the facts were: 'Judge, I have just discovered that we have carried In our deposit account for nearly 30 years a 'silent' deposit oi nearly $40,000. There is no recollection of who the depositor was, or of any of the circumstances connected con-nected with the mailing of the deposit. It has been absolutely forgotten all these years. It was left without any agrement as to Interest upon It, and u we figure at six per cent., the bank's customary rate for discounting, the bank must have earned on the deposit as much as the principal amounts to. What are we going to do about It?' And Mr. Thalmessinger moistened his dry lips. "'Why' I said, 'there is nothing to do. You've got the money, the bank is solvent, and you can pay It over to the depositor if he ever presents a draft for it.' "'Yes, said Mr. Thalmessinger, 'but how are we going to know whether wheth-er the man who claims It If he ever does Is he who deposited It? Or how are we going to know his heirs, If he is no longer living?' " 'That's easy enough to determine,' I answered. 'If any one demands the money, you simply say that, to protect the bank, he will have to sue for It. If he gets a judgment from the courts, that relieves you of all responsibility In the matter.' "With this advice Mr. Thalmessinger Thalmes-singer seemed content and went away. But It was not more than a month later when he again appeared at my office, and this time he was as greatly excited as before he had been secretive. se-cretive. ' 'Judge,' he cried, 'you remember my speaking to you about that large sum of money that has been with us unclaimed for 30 years? A man has been at the bank, offered his check and demanded the money, declaring that he was the depositor of It' " 'Tell him that he will have to sue,' I said, 'unless he can be properly identified to the satisfaction of the bank.' "Well, the bank refused to pay, a suit was brought which attracted no public attention and what do you think the trial disclosed? The man who claimed the money had made the deposit all right, and a few days later had been arrested for murder, and ultimately sentenced to be hanged, this sentence afterwards being be-ing commuted to life Imprisonment. For 30 years he was kept In Sing Sing. Then, one day, he received full pardon, par-don, and the next he presented himself him-self at the bank and handed in a check for the full amount of the $40,-000 $40,-000 that he had placed there a generation gen-eration before. "The Identification was complete. The courts gave, the man Judgment. The bank paid him the money. Then he vanished as mysteriously aa seemingly seem-ingly he had appeared. I do not know, but I have always suspected that he went either to Europe or to South America." (Copyright, 1910, by E. J. Edwards.) |