The San Francisco call., 1898-05-05
Grave Charges Against the Late T1illiOnaire'S Exec
 ufOr and SOn=in=LaW.
Superior Court Asked to Make De- fendant Restore the Property of Plaintiff and Render True
 Account of All He Did.

There is a great scandal In the Lun- ing estate. Oscar T. Luning, one Of the sons of the late millionaire, Nicholas Iuning. has sued Execut' George Whittell for an accounting, charging him with crimes enough to make Dick Turpin blush
 WhittelI is plaintiffs brother-in-law. He is also one of the executors of the I,uutng estate, valued at nearly eight millions, and president of the corpora ton that now manages the Luning es- tate.
 The suit was filed yesterday in the Superior Court. It practically alleges that George Whittell has defrauded plaintiff out of about a million dollars by schemes, trtckery and devices equiv alent to the methods of bunko swtnd- Ter That the story told in the plead ings may be intelligible to the public a few preliminary facts should be borne in mind.
 Nicholas Luning died on August 1, 1890, leaving a will which disposed Of an estate valued at nearly seven and a half million dollars. Six and quarter of those millions were invested in Gov ernment bonds and cash notes on such men as the Crockers and Huntington, all of which were soon converted into cash He left five children, two sons and three daughters, to wit: John and Oscar Luning and Ellen Fife, Anna Whittell, wife of defendant, and Clara Cunningham. George Whittell, who is president of the Pacific Union Club, and Marion B. Langhorne were execu- tors of the estate. The estate was to be divided equally among the heirs. Whittell is now president and Lang horne is secretary of the corporation that manages the Luning estate.
 Three of the heirs were married wo men. unaCCustOmed to business, while John Luning was equally averse to business matters. and Oscar the plain tiff, was frightfully addicted to liquor until two years ago. at which time he reformed and opened his eyes, as he claims. to the fact that he had been living in a sort of pink dream, during which time, he says, Whittell operated on him by ways that were dark and tricks that were vain, turing him into contracts, into signing papers and do- ing other things that have resulted in stripping him of everything he has ex-' cept the income on $500,000.
 Immediately after Luning's death WhittelI advised all the heirs that the safest thing for them to do would be to form a corporation to handle the busi ness of the estate. He proposed to look out for them as executor of the estate and president of the company. The three married women, one of whom was his wife, and the two sons of the dead millionaire. one who now alleges that he was until two years ago drunkard and the other wholly unacquainted with business matters at once consented and the corporation was formed. The nominal capital was ten millions, but the real value was that of the estate, three-quarters of the ten millions. There were one hundred shares, twenty for each heir. A dividend of $100, 900 was paid to each heir within a year. John Luning remained away nearly all the time, taking no part in the business of the estate, while Oscar was incapa- citated from drink.
 One day, so runs the story, Whittell said to Oscar Luning: You are drink ing so much that you will be foolish enough some day to assign your whole