Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-09-06
Mysterious Letters Dis
appear from Safety
Deposit Box.
SO SAYS DR.. THAYER IN
SUIT AGAINST CASHIER.
Bank President, Alleged Author
of Letters, Goes Bail
for Friend.

accused of having removed mysteri-
Gus letters, said to have been written
by David M. Cook, president of the
Citizens National Bank, in Netcong,
to Mrs Thayer, wife of DR.. Henry w.
Thayer, from the doctors safe deposit
box In the bank, j. Frank Best, cashier
of the Netcong bank, warm friend OF
Mr. Cook, is held in $500 bail for d
hearing before the grand jury the first
Tuesday in October. He was arrested
late yesterday afternoon. Mr.. Cook
went his bail.
The nature of the letters has not been
made public by DR. Thayer. In his
complaint he said that he values them
at $1,000. 1t is believed that DR..
Thayer will reveal the contents of the
letters when the case is tried before
the grand jury. His wife is expected
to be an important and rather sensa-
tional witness.
Mr.. Cook had been an intimate friend
of the Thayers for years and frequently
visited their home. The break in their
friendship came when Mrs. Thayer told
her husband of letters she says she had
ago the doctor met Mr.. Cook on the
platform of the Netcong railroad sta
ton and punched him in view of scores
of commuters. Mr. Cook made no ef-
fort to defend himself.
Check Went to Protest.
Some weeks ago Dr. Thayer fell i'll
and came to New York for treatment
in a hospital. While he was in the
hospital one of his checks won't to pro-
test and he communicated with Mrs.
Thayer, telling her to go to his safety
deposit box and get certain securities
on which she could raise money and
arrange his bank deposit.
The letters mentioned above were, il
is claimed, in this deposit box.
II thought. of course. they would be
safe there" the physician said last
night. "It never occurred to me that
they wouldn't be-"
But they weren't" broke in his
wife, "as developments have shown.
When DR.. Thayer sent the --ey to the
box I went to the bank. l know little
about things of that kind and turned
the key over to Mr.. Best, with the re-
quest that he bring me the papers from
the box. I told him the papers l de-
sired.
''Wher Mr.. Best came from the vault
the papers were all disarranged and l
had trouble in sorting them. Then the
box was locked up and l took the key.
No one else could have got into the
box"
And the letters on which the pro-
posed civil action against Cook was to
have been partially based were s5one
when got back to Netcong," the doc
tor interrupted. Everything else was
intact. My wife told me her story,
and / arrived at the conclusion-a
most logical conclusion-that Best had
taken those letters to protect as far as
possible the president of the bank of
which he is cashier.
Had Run of the House.
Mrs. Thayer for months has OBJ
jected to Cooks having the run of our
house, but she did not tell me her rea-
sons for this until she turned the let
ters over to me. The letters spoke for
themselves
They certainly did" Mrs. Thayer
again interrupted. "They were ad-
dressed to mo- and 1 know"
Mr.. Cook said last night that the
charge against Best was ridiculous.
President Cook refused most positive
ly to discuss the letters or the pro-
posed action of DR.. Thayer.
"Of course, am innocent of this
charge Mr.. Best said last night. II
can't understand how such an accusa-
tion could be made against me-
MIR. Cook Taciturn.
Mr.. Cook refused to discuss the mat
ter today.
"Is it true" he was asked, that the
trouble between you and DR.. Thayer
was precipitated because check of
DR. Thayer's went to protest?i
'The case has not come to trial yet"
replied Mr.. Cook.
rs it true that you wrote letters to
Mrs. Thayer?"
''The case has not come to trial yet
Mr. Cook until recently lived at Cliff
ton and Grafton avenues, in the Forest
Hill section He now has winter
home in Maplewood and summer
home at Budd Lake. Last November
his wife died, and in February OF this
year he married Miss Letitia Elder, of
this city. the nurse who attended her
during her last illness.