The Penn's Grove record., 1908-07-24
FUGITIVE WALKER
BACK FROM MEXICO
New Britain Bank DefauIter
Landed in San Diego, Cal.
WAS PENNILESS WHEN CAUGHT
Charged With Taking $541, S82, the
Aged Financicr Now Declares
That He is Innocent-Story of
His Grimes and Wanderings.

San Diego, Cal.-Penniless and in
well-worn but well-keptc clothes, Will.
lam F. Walker, who disappeared
from New Britain, Conn, February
10, 1907, leaving, as treasurer of the
New Britain Savings Bank, a short.
age of over a half million dollars,
was landed here from the steamer St
Denis. His long fight to prevent ex.
tradition from Mexico thus came tc
an end.
Walker was brought from Essen.
aga, Lower California, by T. F. Egan,
Superintendent of the State Police OF
Connecticut, and Detective Hoffman
of the Pinkertons.
A large crowd gathered at the pier
to see the prisoner landed, and there
were many cameras pointed at the
gangplank when he started ashore.
But he kept his face hidden and was
hurried into a cab by his two guards.
He was driven to a restaurant, fol-
lowed by the crowd.
Walker shows the heavy marks Of
his long incarceration. His hair and
beard of yellow-gray are straggly.
and his face is pasty white and heav-
lily scanned. He had not a penny,
When he was captured in the mount
aims of Lower California he had only
$1.01 in his clothes, and this has
been spent.
After frequently declaring that he
would have nothing to say to the
newspapers, he finally made this
statement:
''The fight is not yet over. 1 am
an innocent man. I did not like my
treatment in Mexico. All the money
with which 1 left New Britain was
my own l have non left"
After leaving New Britain and
sending a message to his wife that
dent, signing a false name to the tel.
egram, Walker went to Rhyolite,
New, where, it is understood, he
bought some property. He then came
to San Diego, and from here went tc
Lower California, in Mexico.
The route for the trip East has not
been decided on by Walkers guards.
They expect, however, to have him in
New Britain at the end of the week.
story OF Walkers
At the time of Walkers disappear
ance the books of the New Britain
bank were being examined by the
State Banking Department. His
shortage was first estimated at $780,.
900, but this figure was a~fterward re-
duced to $541,S82. This included
the funds of the Baptist Convention
Of Connecticut, amounting to $780,.
900.
Walker, while a fugitive, sent a
confession to the president of hi9
bank, in which he said that the loss
was o~ccasioned by a bond swindle
into which he had been inveigled by
a former employee of a Wall Street
firm of brokers. The swindlers, he
alleged, got $4,000 in cash 1t one
time, and $4,000 at another time.
1t was also reported that he had been
in New York City, who took several
thousands from him.
When captured on the other side
of the Mexican boundary line Walker
put up a stiff legal fight to prevent
his extradition, and his case went to
the highest courts of Mexico, the final
decision being that he should ba
turned vel to the United States and
Connecticut authorities.
Hartford, Conn.-Wm. F. Walker.
the defaulting treasurer of the Saw.
ings Bank of New Britain, who is
expected to arrive here within a week,
will probable spend the remainder
of the summer in Jail, after being
taken before a Judge of the Superior
Court on a bench warrant and made
to plead. 1t is not expected that he
will be tried before fall.