(6 of 6)
At the station Magistrate Thomas A. Aurelio had just booked a 26-year-old Negro charged with assaulting his 16-year-old stepsister. As Richard Whitney waited his turn, he spent ten minutes alone in the bull pen, actually under lock and key for the first time. Then he was led before Magistrate Aurelio. After accepting bail from the impassive prisoner, the magistrate could not resist the opportunity to deliver a few quotable remarks from the bench. Remarked he: "My little experience in life has been that it's a whole lot easier to make money than to hold on to it, even in hard times. I guess that applies to all of us."
Richard Whitney said nothing, and Magistrate Aurelio sighed to himself: "Well, it's all in a lifetime."
Three days later Richard Whitney had plenty to say. In General Sessions Court he pleaded guilty with extraordinary alacrity to Prosecutor Dewey's charge of stealing $105,000 in stocks and bonds from his wife's and sister-in-law's trust fund, thus making himself liable to a five-to-ten year prison sentence. In a 700-word statement, Mr. Whitney again took all the blame, volunteered to help straighten his firm's muddled affairs. Sentence was therefore withheld until next week and his bail was continued.
* In Wilmington, Del. last week a lawyer for Mrs. Margery Pyle Montgomery Jr., rich, redheaded, fox-hunting widow with whom Mr. Whitney has been especially friendly for several years, made this extraordinary statement for his client: "If any duly authorized and properly constituted investigating group that is inquiring into the general Whitney situation wishes a statement from Mrs. Montgomery, she will give it. "She is fully aware that so long as Mr. Whitney's name is prominent in the news, some degree of spotlight will be turned upon her."
* Richard Whitney's participation in his firm was 49½%. The other partnersF. K. Rode-wald 21½%, Edwin D. Morgan Jr. (no relation to J. P. Morgan) 21½%, Daniel G. Condon 3%, Henry D. Mygatt 3%, John J. McManus 1½%. Net indebtedness of all the partners to the firm was fixed at $817,000 by Cashier Rosenthal last week.
