Mystery Man Fights for Estate.
“J. C. R.,” the man of mystery, whose case has puzzled the country since he was found at Watseka, Minn., in June, 1907, has stepped from a comfortable home in Chicago into a tragic drama, the central figure in which is a wealthy rancher of near Dickinson, N. D., whom he claims as his father and from whom he is seeking to obtain $100,000 as his share of the estate.
No stranger story has ever been told than that of “J. C. R.,” the man who couldn’t remember. In 1900, it is now claimed, he was Jay Allen Caldwell, obstinate son of a former Chicagoan. Then he was struck on the head with a spade.
For a dozen years thereafter, without memory, without knowledge of his own identity, and without means of caring for himself, he wandered about, known only as J. C. R.
A few months ago a Chicago woman identified him as her missing son, Earl Iles, and J. C. R. gained a name and a home at the cost of his quondam fame. Bereft of his chief attributes of interest, the man and his little tragedy dropped from sight.
The suit which his lawyers filed early this week against A. J. B. Caldwell, whom he claims as his father, has been dismissed, but the lawyers say this was permitted in order to get more evidence, and it will be filed again within a few weeks.
Dispatches from Dickinson, the scene of the tangle, disclose the fact that seventy-five residents of the town, former neighbors of the Caldwells, identified J. C. R. as the missing son three months ago. Caldwell reiterates his charge that J. C. R. and his Chicago backers are conspirators, but Caldwell’s daughter has identified the man of mystery as her brother.
Mrs. H. E. Pitkin, 895 East Oakwood Boulevard, Chicago, who identified J. C. R. last summer as her long-lost son, Earl Iles, has disappeared from her home.
And to complete the complexity of the enigma, J. C. R., the mute object of the whole identity tangle, is being kept in hiding by those who are backing his claims for $100,000 worth of North Dakota farm lands now held by the supposed father.
Friends of the elder Caldwell alleged that it was Mrs. Pitkin’s early knowledge of Caldwell, junior, that gave her the information on which she satisfied the authorities with her identification of the man as her son. They charge that it was through this information that Mrs. Pitkin gained the custody of the man, which later resulted in the promotion of his fight for the $100,000.
It appears that for the last couple of months the mystery man has been in Dickinson. In the first part of that time he was busy asking questions of old residents—or, rather, writing them, for, along with his other afflictions, he is a mute.
The answers to the questions seemed to satisfy J. C. R. He filed suit against Caldwell. Simultaneously papers were filed making it impossible for Caldwell to transfer his lands in whole or in part.
Dickinson rubbed its eyes and sat up with a start when news of the suit filtered through town. The “dummy,” who had been going up and down Main Street with his pencil, his paper, and his ever-increasing questions about old times, had come into the open and announced himself as no other than Jay Allen Caldwell, old man Caldwell’s son.
No one who was willing to admit the fact knew what had happened to Jay. He had just disappeared one day. Not a word did he send home in all the ensuing months and years. His father, after waiting what seemed a decent time, produced notes aggregating $70,000. The notes were signed with the name of Jay Allen Caldwell and were drawn in favor of his father, who went into court, got judgment, and took his son’s land in satisfaction.