MYSTERY MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 February 1933, Page 2

MYSTERY MAN

IDENTIFIED BY WIFE “I DON’T KNOW YOU” A bearded gold miner, in overalls, who was found living at Whittier, a lonely town in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, vehmently denied that he is Co.'onel Raymond Robins, Prohibition leader, man of wealth and close friend of President Hoover. The colonel vanished more than two months ago while on his vay to visit White House. Although positively identified as Colonel Robins by his wife, his nephew and other relatives, the man protested that lie was Reynolds Rogers, a mining engineer, who has been looking for gold in the Great Smoky range. When told .that liis friend Mr Hoover had telegraphed congratulations from White House, he shook His head and said: “That means nothing to me.” Teh man is being detained in hospital at Asheville, North Carolina, and a police official there stated: “There is an extraordinary mystery. It may he mistaken identity, genuine loss of memory, a case of dual personality, or Colonel Robins, for some mysterious reason, may ho shamming.” When Mrs Robins met her supposed husband for the first time since his disappearance, she threw herself into his arms, hut he repulsed her coldly. “I don’t know this woman,” lie said. John Drier, New York, who identified the man as His uncle, was similarly rebuffed. “I’m not your uncle, and you may bring Mr Hoover, Mr Roosevelt and the whole Cabinet here to prove it,” he was told. Mrs Robins said afterwards: “Despite his changed appearance and crude overalls 1 had no difficulty iu recognising liim,' because his voice is unmistakable. “Of course, the heard he has grown makes a difference to his looks. It is a bewildering puzzle to us. We never expected to find him alive, believing he had been murdered by liquor gangs, who had threatened him with death. I cannot explain why my husband should pretend not to know me.” It is thought that an appeal from the President may induce the man to give proof of his identity and solve the riddle. It is stated that in his overalls were many Press clippings describing Colonel Robins’ disappearance and speculations about His kidnapping by gangs.