New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-18
Cert, Missing.
Insurance Man.
Hit Over Head
Millionaire, Slugged in
Morning, Lies at Hospital
All Day Unconscious as
Police Search for Him
Suspect Is Under Arrest
Attack Made at Entrance
to Hudson Tube; Absence
Causes Son to Begin Hunt

Louis A. Cert, metropolitan manage,
OF the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance
Company, with Offices at 1877 Broad
way, and millionaire was knocked
IN the head as he stood at the entrance
OF the Hudson tube, Cortlandt and
greenwich streets, at 1O:3O O'Clock
yesterday morning. While New York
and Newark police carried on a search
for him throughout the day the insur-
ancc man lay unconscious and uniden-
tilted at Broad Street Hospital.
Mr.. Cert, when he had failed to
keep an II o'clock appointment in
Newark, had not appeared for another
with j. P. Morgan, and had failed to
follow his usual custom of tclcphon-
ing to his brokers', was reported miss
ing and the anxiety of friends and
business associates increased as the
day wore Oh without any trace Of him
being found.
At II o'clock last night, while the
police were still specializing on the
fate Of the missing man, Cert recovere d
consciousness at the Broad Street Hos
pltai and revealed his identity to the
attendants there
The blotter at the Old Slip station
showed that Solomon Pincus, twenty
one, a jeweler, of 1878 st. Johns
Place, Brooklyn, had been arrested by
Special Patrolman William McGisskin
at the Hudson Tube station immediate-
~ after Cert had been assaulted.
Pincus was arraigned in Tombs'
court on charge of felonious assault
and was held for further examination
to-day. In Tombs prison last night
Pincus said that he was innocent OF
the charge of assaultng Cert and
would have witnesses to prove that he
had no part in the attack.
McGisskln, the police said, saw the
assault, but was unaware OF the iden-
tity of the man who had fallen. When
attacked, Cert, it is said, was hurled
against an az" pillar. The ambulance
from the Broad Street Hospital was
summoned: Meanwhile Pincus was
taken to the OLD Slip Station.
Son Starts Search
The search for Cert was begun at
noon yesterday, when Louis A. Cert
jr., his eldest son, returning from
Maine, learned at the Plaza Hotel that
there had been several telephone calls
for his father and he had failed to
keep important business appointments.
The sons theory was that his father
had been Frustrated by the heat, and
accordingly a report of the case was
made to every hospital in New York
and Newark. The police say that un-
doubtedly this report was received at
the Broad Street hospital, where Cert
was lying unconscious.
No explanation has been given why
Cert was not identified by the hospital
authorities. Police say that the man,
though unconscious, must have had
plenty of material in his clothing by
which he might have been identified.
Detectives in striving for clcws
talked to his secretaries, f. 7. Wells
and David Adler, who had dined with
him at the Hotel Plaza on Monday
evening. The secretaries said he was
in fine spirits and the talk was chiefly
on topics of business and golf. Cert
laughingly declaring that he would
rather win good game of golf than
make $4,000 on the stock market.
Did Not Consider Robbery Theory
Throughout the day Louis Cert jr.,
MADE every possible effort to trace his
father by communicating with friends
in New York and outside the city. The
theory Chat Cert was held up and
robbed was rot regarded seriously by
the son, as he said his father rarely
carried more than $50 on his person
and never wore jewelry.
Early information gathered by the
police indicated that Cert had taken a
tube train for Newark yesterday morn
ing, but the investigation in that city
showed that he had not met any one
there.
Cert is fifty-six years old. He has a
palatial home at 70 Lloyd Road, Mont
clair. N. j., but the family has been
spending the summer at East Quogue,
Long Island. Officers Immediately com
municated with the summer home, and
were told by Mrs. Cert that her hus-
band had left there Monday.
First notice of his disappearance
came from broker in Wall Street, to
whom for years Cert had been &C
customed to telephone eight or ten
times a day.
The injured man has been in the in
surance business in New York for
twenty years. Before coming here he
lived in San Francisco, st. Louis and
Baltimore. He is an intimate friend of
David R. Francis, Ambassador to Rus
STA.