Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 August 1937 — Page 14

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Justice Crater Vanished 7 Years Ago Today and Wite / Asks Death Ruling

New Yorker Stepped Into Taxi and Never Was

Bi United Press MIAMI, Ariz., Aug. 6.—Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater of New York, who disappeared Seven years ago, was living in a transient camp in Nogales, Ariz. in the spring of 1935, Royce E. Martin, 34-year-old miner, said today, Mr. Martin was acting labor superintendent of the camp at the time. He said he recognized the jurist through photographs appearing recently in a magazine,

NEW YORK, Aug. 6. years ago today at 9:30 p. m,, Supreme Court Justice Joseph | Force Crater, 41 vears old, in sound | health and apparently at the peak |

Seven State |

of his career, said goodby to friends| ~

in front of a Manhattan restaurant, stepped into a tan-colored taxicab and rode into oblivion. For all anyone knows, the mys-| tery which enveloped Justice Cra- | ter also swallowed up the taxicab and the driver. Neither has ever | come to light. When Justice Crater rode off to] whatever destiny was his, he left behind an ever-broadening wake of speculation, gossip and hints of political scandal, but not a singie clue | to his fate. His wife, Mrs. Stella M. Crater, believes that he is dead—that he | was murdered. She believes that | some sinister force, some way con- | nected with politics, swallowed up | husband and left no trace of | upon earth. Statutory Period Ended Now that the seven-year statu- | period has elapsed, she wants him declared legally dead. She needs | his insurance, some $20,000. For nearly a month after Justice Crater disappeared, his friends and | political associates said nothing. | They believed he would They did not wish to jeopardize h what might prove to be unpleasant publicity his chances of | winning the Democratic nomination for election to the full 14-year term the Supreme Court bench. But after this month of silent waiting, the search started. Police a private detective, friends of the jurist, Mrs. Crater herself and newslaunched investigations eventually covered the Uniand extended into Can- | Mexico. Europe. Africa and Australia Police offered a 25000 reward. Bere it was withdrawn a stack of letters two feet high and containpurported “leads” to Justice Crater’s whereabouts had accumulated at police headquarters. Unidentified Bodies Checked

Unidentified bodies of suicides | and murder victims throughout the nation were checked against Mr. | Crater’s description. Only one bore | any strong resemblance to the] missing jurist. A Pinkerton detec- | tive shortly after the disappear- | ance found a dead man on the grounds of the Agua Caliente JockClub in Lower California. But, | others before and since, this ead” also failed. Only three theories as to what | happened to Crater appear to be at all plausible: 1. He committed suicide He disappeared of his own voIitgn and still lives 3- He was murdered Mrs. Crater and most of fiends have ruled out the first. Joe could take a blow,” his wife

her

him

ory

reappear. |

wit

payers which States

ada

ino

ike

his |

| Seen Again. | |

| might | him the hall's nominee for election

| Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Gov-

| worth living.

| recommendation | ner (D. N. Y.), whose secretary he

| East Side, and which, after faliing | into

BLD

GROCERY CO.

FOOD STORES

| leader, | George F. Ewald, tried in 1930 on |

| phone calls to New York.

| the nomination.

his wife he would have to return to New York, but he promised to return in time for her birthday the following week.

Departed For New York

“He left that night,” Mrs. Crater said. “That was the last time I ever saw him.” Investigators subsequently learned something of Judge Crater’s

movements in New York. On Aug. 4 he visited his town apartment at 40 Fifth Avenue and told the maid he would leave for camp again Aug. 7. On Aug. 5 he visited his office in the Supreme Court building. The next day he and his confidential secretary, Joseph Mara, spent the morning removing personal papers from the office. He sent Mara out to cash two checks totaling $5150. Simon H. Rifkind, Senator Wagner's law partner in whose suite Crater formerly had maintained an office. visited and conferred with the judge. Later Justice Crater and Mr. Mara returned to the apartment where the justice dismissed his aid with the remark that he was going swimming “up Westchester way.” That remark, relayed by Mr. Mara, never made sense to Mrs. Crater. Her husband did not like and sel-

Justice Crater

said recently, breaking her long Slence to reporters. “He wohld fight back. He wouldn't kill himself.” Political Angle Considered Those who hold to the theory of suicide point out that Tammany have decided not to make

to succeed himself. Proud of the appointment to the bench, made by

ernor of New York, Mr. Crater may have felt that life was no longer There is more evidence to support the theory that Mr. Crater left of his own accord, although there is none to indicate he still lives. Justice Crater was appointed to the bench on April 8, 1930, on the of Senator Wag-

had been before Mr. Wagner resigned from the appellate division to run for the Senate. Previously he had served as receiver for the Libby Hotel, a costly white elephant which had been erected to serve as a "Ritz for Jews” on the lower

receivership, was condemned the city to make room for a housing and street-widening project.

Hints scandal had

of political

the condemnation

into the hotel and some one made

dom went swimming. Bought Theater Ticket That evening Justice Crater called

‘on Joseph Gansky, a ticket broker |

{ friend, and arranged to have a | single ticket to “Dancing Partner.” a Broadway show, left for him at the theater. The ticket was called for and used, but whether Mr. Crater or someone else used it is not known. After leaving Mr. Gansky, Mr. Crater entered Billy Haas's restaurant on West 45th Street. He found William Klein, an attorney, dining with Sally Ritz, a pretty chorus girl, and, since they were both friends, joined them at their table. Dinner over, Mr. Crater and his friends left the restaurant together and parted on the sidewalk in front, the justice entering the taxicab which bore him no one knows where. All his activities in the few davs before his disappearance, some investigators believe, indicate careful planning by Mr. Crater. They believe he intended to disappear and that he probably is still alive,

Raised $22,500 Cash Some time before his disappear-

ties and made other financial arrangements in order to get $22,500 in cash—equivalent to one year's salary as Supreme Court justice. Did he plan to buy the nomination? There are those who believe he did. Joseph G. Miller, special

assistant to the Attorney General in the Ewald investigation, said there were indications that he obtained the $22,500 “for a powerful Tammany politician.” The Ewald case had supplied precedent for such conjecture and also a possible motive for getting rid of Mr. Crater. In Mr. Miller's opinjon Mr. Crater “could very well have been disposed of because of his knowledge of the Ewald case and its ramifications.” Mrs. Crater leans to a similar belief. “He knew too much,” she said. Investigators learned and newspapers made much of the fact that Crater had a penchant for chorus girls. He knew several and liked to dine with them. Mrs. Crater knew that and didn't mind. “I Understood,” Says Wife “ He may have gone on parties with other women, but that was; politics,” she said. “We were hap- | py, and I understood.” | Mrs. Crater became worried when | he did not return to Belgrade Lakes for her birthday. When he sent to present, she became piqued. Toward the end of the next week she became worried. On Aug. 15 she tried to reach him in New York by telephone. She asked Simon H. Rifkind, Wagner's law partner and Mr. Crater’s friend, to look for him, Four days later she sent the | chauffeur, Fred Kahler, (o New

ance Mr. Crater disposed of securi-

York to search for the judge. | On Aug. 27, two days after he | was to have taken the bench, Mr. | Crater still was missing. Mrs. Crater, notified of his failure to appear, drove all night, arriving in New York on the verge of a breakdown. Mr. Rifkind, she said, advised her not to go to police. He believed “Joe” would show up. His political associates thought perhaps Mr.

APOLIS TIMES

Crater had “gone on a bender.” Mrs. Crater was advised to stay | out of the state. She returned to Maine. On Sept. 3 the news broke in the newspapers. Detectives searched the Fifth Avenue town apartment, They found no clews. Mrs. Crater tried to see Senator Wag[ner and engage his assistance in| the search. She reported later that | he refused to see her. Mrs. Crater did not return to New York until January, 1931, five months after the disappearance. Then occurred one of the many inexplicable incidents which from time to time have complicated and deepened the Crater mystery. In the top center drawer of a dresser which detectives had searched thoroughly, she found two things which certainly had not been

envelope and a black wallet. In the one she found currency and checks

approximately $2,000,000.

In Ewald Case of 1930 He also was legal adviser to Martin J. Healy, Tammany district in the case of Magistrate |

the charge that he and his wife paid Healy $10,000 for his post on the bench. Although the jury dis-

gation of magistrates’ courts and eventually to the Hofstadter committee inquiry which forced the resignation of Mayor James J. Walker. The Libby proceedings were concluded, but the Ewald case still was developing when, 23 days before he was to take his place on the bench, Crater joined his wife

| at their Belgrade Lakes, Me., sum- | | mer camp.

He arrived at the eamp on Aug. 2. That night he made several ele- | What- |

ever the calls were about, they!

| made him extremely “irritated,” his |

! wife said. Some profess to believe | that he was told then that Tam- | many did not intend to give hith |

The next day Judge Crater told

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totaling $6690. In the bother she found an undated memorandum addressed to “S. M. W.” the initials of Mrs. Crater’s maiden name.

The memorandum, labeled ‘“confidential,” listed in the judge's rap- | id scrawl the names of persons who | owed him money. Two paragraphs!

Crater expected “a large sum” for | his work as Libby Hotel receiver and *“ a very large sum” for “services” in connection with the hotel condemnation. No one ever found out what the second paragraph meant. It is certain, however, that Crater had no official connection with the condemnation proceedings.

Note Mentioned Weariness The memo ended: “Am weary. Love, Joe.”

How the envelope and wallet got into the drawer, months after Mr.

very

vrater’s disappearance, apparent- |ial interest in the Crater m

ly no one knows. What line” implied, if anything, a mystery, Mrs. Crater years later expressed the feeling that police efforts to find her husband had been in-

remains

of the memorandum disclosed that | efficient. Detectives who visited her| ————————————————

summer camp spent most of their | time fishing, she said. She appealed | at the time to John F. Curry, then | | Tammany leader, and found him | “kindly but cautious,” she said. Subsequently she attempted to | retract her allusions to “murder” | and police “inefficiency.” “I am afraid that the same sin- | ister something that took Joe away | { from me might come after me if] I talk too much,” she said. “I do| | not know anyone who would have | | murdered him.” There was a brief revival of offic- |

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