Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1893-10-26
WEEKS IS COMING BACK.
West Superior EmbezzIer viii be Tried for
His Several Crimes.


WASHINGTON, D. c.. Oct. 21.-Francis
H. Weeks, the abscoEding New York
lawyer who sought an asylum in Costa
Ricr, has been surrendered by that
government tc the United States
authorities. The State Department
received a message to this eff
feet last night from the United States
consul at San Jose. The dispatch fur
Their says that Weeks will leave for New
Orleans in charg of an officer next week
on board the steamer Foxhall.
Weeks is the son of Robert D..
Weeks, broker, and was educated at
Williams and Columbia colleges. Short
| ly after leaving Columbia he was mar
ried to Miss Louisa Blake, daughter of
wellknown Boston merchant. Weeks
at this time was partner in the law
firm formerly composed of Henry q:
De Forest and John A. Weeks, aud
which he joined in 1868. For
awhile law kept him actively en-
gagged and then he became a 'Spromot-
err" He was successful, and became
known as q man who could invest
money at high rate of interest and
yet securely. He gave up the greater
| part of his time to founding towns and
to the development of land in Wiscon-
sin.
In 1884 he became interested in the
| West Superior Land and Improvement
| Company, and Of this he soon obtained
control. 1t was practically gold mine,
and it's operations were tremendous. It's
original capital was $750,000, but last
| April the figures were fixed at $l4 ,OOO,-
| 600. Nevertheless the company paid
dividends of from 20 to go per cent.
| Weeks, as soon as he controlled this
| company, became it's treasurer and then
started the West Superior Iron and
Steel Company. This was as great a
failure as the other was success. To
keep it going Weeks, who was treasurer
of this company, also, kept pouring his
own money and all he could get else
where into the Golfers.
When the end came there had disap-
peared $600,0O0, the greater part of
which belonged to estates which Weeks
held in trust, and $550,0OO which came
from the treasury Of the land company
Weeks, however, showed no sign of his
difficulty until April q. On that day
| he made an assignment to Law
yer Richard w. G. yelling, of 2
Wall Street, New York. The as
signment was recorded on Mon
day, May /, and on the afternoon be-
fore an express wagon drove up to the
Weeks house at II East Twenty-fourth
Street, New York, and took away seven
| trunks. These were moved to the
Grand Central depot and there we're
checked to Plattsburg, n. Y. Neither
| Weeks nor his wife has been seen in
New York since.
On May /, after the assignment had
| T ND
| Company deposed Weeks as it's treas
urer, and the company's counsel, Will
lam Nelson Cromwell, attached all of
| Weeks interest in the Iron and Steel
| Company to recover the $55O,00O taken
| from the treasury. On May II Justice
| Patterson, in the supreme court of
New York, removed Weeks as trustee
of the estate of John Jacob Astor
| Bristed, who died in 1882. Then for
the first time the story of his defalca-
tons became public. On July 20 AS
signee yelling filed his first report,
showing liabilities amounting to
| ST SAC, $3.50 and the actual as
sets only $531, 702.S6. The credi-
tors appointed a committee, Of
which the chairman was Charles c..
and the secretary, f. kingsbury Curtis,
of Stearns & Curtis, of New York. 1t is
to their work that the present measures
against Weeks are due. They have fol-
lowed him by means of agents and now
propose to bring him to justice.
According to the only information
furnished Of Weeks flight, he, accom-
panied by his wife, went to Plattsburg
and thence to Montreal and Quebec.
From the latter city they went to Hall
fax and there took steamer to ia
maica. The stay there was brief and
the first rest was at Panama, where
they put up at the Grand Central Hotel;
1t is reported that Weeks consulted
with lawyers there and was advised
that Panama was not safe because of the
extradition treaty with the United
States On June 20 Weeks and his wife
left Panama on the steamer Costa RIGA,
and on July 4 they landed at Puntas
Arenas, in Cost Rica, and proceeded at
+, once to San Jose.