RICH MISER’S DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 October 1931, Page 5

RICH MISER’S DEATH

MURDER AND FORGERY ? JUDGE’S STRONG COMMENT [BY CABLE —PBESB ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] (Received October 30, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 29. The strange story of Drinan was carried another stage, when Justice McCardie gave judgment in favour of the trustees. He said that both signatures to the documents purporting to transfer Canadian stock to Haiat, were gross clumsy forgeries. He added that the case raised a grave issue. He could not determine whether Drinan died accidentally, or otherwise. The position was all the more serious because both signatures we;re witnessed by one. Charles Beale, at one time employed at the British Consulate at Nice. Both by letter and verbally, Beale had asserted he had seen Drinan sign in the Consulate. This was a gross and fraudulent falsehood. Saintsun. jalso formerly employed at the Consulate there, hai the" gravest allegations made against him as well as Beale, but neither had ventured to appear in Court. The Judge ordered that all the papers should be sent to the Public Prosecutor.

John Drinan, aged 83, was found, dead at the foot of the stairs in a boardinghouse in Nice on February 5 last. He had been living in very miserly fashion, and some surprise was caused by the size of the estate, which was valued then at £76,000, and mostly left to London poor boxes, His relatives thought his estate would approximate £200,000. In the King’s Bench (as above) the Public Trustee sought to establish whether stock to the value of £BO,OOO in the CanadianPacific Railway, at present in the custody of a New York Bank, belonged to Drinan’s estate, or to the estate of J. Haiat, also deceased, w r ho met Drinan on the Riviera in the closing days of Drinan’s life.