GREAT MAN HUNT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 809, 8 July 1933, Page 22 (Supplement)

GREAT MAN HUNT.

ARRESTED U.S. BANKER. WOUNDED WHEN FOUND. ALLEGED SELF-IXFLICTED. When the great hunt of Joseph W. Harriman, one-time millionaire, financier and banker, ended at an hotel at Roslyn, Long Island, it did so in a desperate manner, for Harriman was found suffering from wounds caused by stabbing. The wounds over the heart were stated at the hospital in which the financier lay in a serious condition, to be self-inflicted. They are dangerous, but not expected to prove fatal. Harriman, who vanished from a nursing home on the eve of his trial on charges of misuse of bank funds, stabbed himself Avhile detectives were Availing outside the hotel to which, he had been traced. A note was found in the banker’s room asking that his relatives should be notified. Mr. Harriman is said to baA*e registered at the inn under another name. A man registered under the name of “Mr. Thomas,” and the staff say that he spent the night pacing his room. Next- morning the Federal authorities had ordered the arrest of the financier if lie were caught trying to leave the jurisdiction of the Court. On the eve of his trial on charges of i having misused the funds of the Harriman National Bank and Trust Company, and having made false entries in his books, Mr. Harriman disappeared from a nursing home in the heart of New York, where, on bail of £SOOO, he had been undergoing treatment for a nervous breakdovvn. Tavo theories had been advanced regarding his purpose. One was the outcome of five notes he left behind him, in which he is stated to have hinted that lie might attempt suicide.* Watch at Son's Grave. The other was that he had gone -to the grave of his son, Air. Joseph Harriman, jun., who was buried in a Long Island cemetery. His counsel told the police that Mr. Harriman had never recovered from the shock of his son’s death in 1928. and the police feared that any act of self-destruction he might have contemplated would be attempted at the son's graA’e. The cemetery had been surrounded. A full description of the missing financier was broadcast from a chain of wireless stations, and a network of sleuths Avas spread along the borders of New York State. The police were loath to accept the suicide theoi - y, apparently regarding it as a subterfuge to co\ T er up his moA r ements. One of the main worries to the authorities was the numerous false reports arriving at headquarters. According to them. Air. Harriman had been “seen” at something like 50 places, and | each time a squad of police rushed to the I scene, only to find that the “suspect” AA-as not the missing banker. Air. Harriman’s physician declared that the banker was not in a fit state and that if he were caught and the case pro- : ceeded. his life Avould be in danger. But this did not cause the police to relax their search for one instant. Alt*. Harriman was first arrested on March 14, when he lay ill in bed. He was granted bail in £SOOO and entered the nursing home. The Harriman Bank failed to open under President Roosevelt’s licensing decree. It was the only bank in NeAV York to remain closer!, and an investigation folloAved, resulting in the appointment of a receiver. The charges facing Air. Harriman relate to £64,029. but it is alleged by the prosecution that the sum of £332,234 is actually