Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1910 — END OF JOHNNY JOHNSON [ARTICLE]

END OF JOHNNY JOHNSON

Former Logansport Banker Ends Life In Wabash River. Logansport, Ind., February 19. The body of John F. Johnson, aged 54, former President of the State National Bank, now defunct, and who served a six-year sentence in the Federal Prison at Columbus, Ohio, was found in the Wabash River to-day. There is little doubt he committed suicide.

Johnson had conducted a gram brokerage business here since his release from prison. He was on the short siJe of the market during a sudden rise in wheat last December and he lost every dollar he had. As a result he was forced to sell his home and liquidate other assets. This fact and worry caused by the crash of the Stare National Bank and his subsequent term of imprisonment probably unbalanced his mind. He had been missing since last evening, and the supposition is he jumped off the Wabash Railroad bridge into the river.

Johnson succeeded his father as President of the State National Bank and also became President of the Monticello State Bank. His honesty and integrity were never questioned, but on the morning of May 20, 1897, depositors in the local bank and citizens generally received a rude shock. They found the doors of the bank closed and a notice posted to the effect that the institution had been closed by George B. Caldwell, National Bank Examiner. The following day President Johnson was arrested and charged with embezzling the bank’s funds to the amount of over $550,000. The fact of his arrest caused the suspension of the Monticello State Bank. ■

Johnson for several days refused to make a statement as to his guilt or innocence, but finally acknowledged that he had been taking the bank’s funds and using them for his private purposes, and from this statement it was gleaned that the practice had also been followed by his father before him. The fickleness of fate was never better exemplified than in Johnson’s case. Had the Bank Examiner delayed just one day in closing the bank and causing Johnson’s arrest he would have made a “killing” on wheat, for the day following his arrest the price went soaring. Johnson’s margin, however, had been exhausted and he was unable to take advantage of the soar in prices.