Hide & Seek

His credentials as a Canadian chartered accountant were in perfect order. New York City's William T. Knott Co. had no hesitation in hiring the man who presented them. "Alexander Douglas Hume" started as accountant auditor, soon was upped to assistant treasurer. Early this year, just before the examiners came, the assistant treasurer and his pretty wife went skiing in Canada. They never came back. Missing from the Knott accounts was $275,984.

The New York district attorney's office had no difficulty in locating Alexander Douglas Hume. He was not the man they wanted. He was a major in the Canadian Army. The other man had used his credentials, lived for four years under his name. Who was the rascal?

In one of the missing treasurer's many bank accounts the district attorney finally found the name Ralph M. Wilby scratched on a paper, then scratched out again. The police went looking for Ralph M. Wilby, found him at last in Vancouver, British Columbia. In neighboring Victoria, two New York detectives finally served their man with a bench warrant, charging 17 counts of grand larceny.

Wilby preferred to remain in Canada, refused to waive extradition. Last week he appealed for a writ of habeas corpus, lost. Lest Wilby's lawyers and the Canadian courts have a second thought about the case, the New York detectives hustled Wilby out of town, started for the States by way of roundabout Nanaimo. They were too slow. British Columbia's Attorney General ordered Wilby returned for a new appeal. Said the angry Attorney General: "I don't think any responsible United States official would countenance this hide & seek procedure."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.