The San Francisco call., 1910-05-24
Will OF MISER
BELIEVED A HOAX
Mysterious Heir Makes Claim
for Estate of Late Susan
nah Moore

flood of anonymous letters and rnys-
terious dealings. will. supposedly
that of Susannah Moore, which was
filed yesterday by the public admin
istrator, may end the strife over a
$4,000 estate or be the means of dis
closing a remarkable hoax Accord
ing to the vague and illiterate will,
the entire estate is left to Mrs. Mary
C. Davies or Davis of Idaho, but the
investigations of Attorney John J.
OToo1e of the public administrators
Office seem to indicate that the will is
false and that the property rightfully
belongs to two nieces of Susannah
Moore, Margaret Kane and Mary
Huner, of New York
Susannah Moore died in her shack
at Franklin and Chestnut streets De-
cember z, 1908, at the age OF 49, She
lived amid filth and there were evil
dences everywhere about her home of
the fact that she received money and
goods from nearly all of the charitable
institutions of San Francisco. Immedi-
ately following her demise. Public Ad-
ministrator Hynes made a complete in
vestigation of the premises, discovering
bank books which showed that she had
over $4,000. Her property, a so vara
lot at the northeast corner of Frank
lin and Chestnut streets, was valued
at $4,000, and she had several loans
outstanding, making total of $4,000
HEIRS IN NEW YORK
1t later developed that the heirs to
the estate were the New York nieces.
but affairs were complicated by let
ter which was given to the public ad-
ministrator by Mrs. Dean, who lived in
the shack at Franklin and Chestnut
lnf
her and was dated Carmen, Idaho,
September 3, 1909. It was unsigned.
The writer told in an almost illeg-
ible scrawl of a nephew of Susannah
Moore who had stolen the will at the
time of the earthquake The sub
stance of the letter was that the prop
erty belonged to an illegitimate daueh-
ter. A stamped envelope addressed to
John Davies, Lemhi county, Idaho, was
inclosed with the note that informa-
ton could be found in that quarter.
Hynes wrote to Davies and received a
reply from Winnemucca New, dated
October 20. Again the missiye was un-
signed and extremely illiterate It's
import was startling. In a confused
fashion the writer mentioned visions,
begged forgiveness, and told of the
mysterious nephew, 1.-The bad man who
would cut throats for a trife" The
will, statement and several pictures
were inclosed with the explanation
that the evil nephew had died and
placed the documents in the hands of
the writer
The statement accompanying the
will was signed by Susannah Moore.
APPEAL Is DRAMATIC
In jumbled way the aged and mys-
terious miser told of her life. Her
mothers maiden name was Gum. and
l0 Gnr fy1T
The pitiful tale of the illegitimate child.
born of an English father and reared
by an unknown brother, Pete" The
reference to the nephew as bogus, the
history of the sadness of later life, and
the final appeal in which she speaks of
her old and trembling hands seems al
most too artisticaliy drawn to be real.
Then there is the constant assurance of
the authenticity of the facts. She re-
fers to the place of her birth as ST.
Johns, New Brunswick. Attorney
OToole discovered that she was born
in Dundalk. ireland.
In the will the question has arisen
as to the meaning of the date Janu-
ary II, 1906. Does 1t mean that the will
was drawn up at that time or that the
date is the anniversary of her seventy
ninth birthday? 1t is also stated in the
will that at the time of the drawing
the writer lived at Chestnut and Frank
lin streets. 1t was later discovered
that on January IL, 1906, Susannah
Moore was keeping boarding house at
First and Folsom streets.
Another phase of the case which in
tensifies the mystery-it Is known
that Susannah Moore married a man
named Crosse and lived with him In
San Francisco for many years Crosse
died after a long illness and a wife
from whom he had never been divorced
turned up and took the body to New
York. 1t was then that the mysteri-
Gus miser took her maiden name of
Moore. No mention of this episode is
made in any of the letters
WILL BELIEVED A HOAX
The final fact that seems to indicate
that the WILL the illegitimate daugh-
ter, the robbery, are a hoax, is that
Attorney O'Toole while in New York
learned from Attorney J. J. Dwyer of
Hartford, Conn.,, that he had handled
the estate of one Peter Schmidt and
had received letters from the same Mary
c. Davies in which she claimed that she
was an heir. 1t is found that In all of
Mrs. Davies letters there has always
been some one acting for her; she has
never signed her own name. The type
of letters in the Schmidt case are of
the same illiterate character and are
Identical in writing, although the
Schmidt case has not been found to
have any connection with that of Su-
sannah Moore
Is the mysterious letter written in
the Schmidt case dated from Winnie
mucca and the letter written in the
Moore case dated from Winnemucca
an odd coincidence or is the whole
scheme part of a taking conspiracy? !?
Is it possible that agents inquired into
the Moore case, discovered some essen
tial facts and endeavored to secure the
estate through these suspicious meth
ods? Is the illiterate letter system a
hoax or does the property actually be-
long to Mrs. Mary c. Davies of Idaho?
These are the questions that are vex-
ing the public administrator-ques
which he is anxious to have settled in
court?
BASEBALL "O- AWARDED