New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-12
Alleged Victim
OF Amnesia Is
Former Convict
Bridgeport Pa,icn; Says He
Is Victor Weiss; Served
Term at Blackweii's for
S12,00 Red Gross Theft
Tells of Memory Lapses
Asserts He Was Injured in
Paris in II; Believed To
Be Fake S'L;eut. Hamon''

BRIDGEPORT, Conn, Aug. 1.-THE
young man, presumably an amnesia vic
tim, who wandered into Bridgeport
hospital the Other afternoon, and who
is believed to be the patient VINO posed
or some time at the North Hudson Hos
pital, Weehawken, as Lieutenant George
Hamon, a relative of Jake Hamon, the
Oklahoma politician, said this after
noon that ne was Victor Weiss, who had
served time on Blackwelrs Island.
He said that ana a great deal more
He told Sergeant Michael Arnolsky of
the local force that he had served over
seas with an ambulance unit st the be-
ginning of the war, and suffered ar
injury to his head; that he returned
to the United States, CLEANED up ST.
000 in a Red Cross drive in New York,
was convicted in the Court of General
Sessions before Judge Mulqueen, was
sent to Blackwells Island and freed
after serving twenty-five months.
Says He Was in Baltimore Hospital
He declared that there were frs
quent lapses of time that he couldn't
account for, and that his head hurt him
continually. He left Baltimore hos
pital after July and said he was un-
able to explain where he had been or
what he had done since his departure
from Baltimore.
Weiss is q prisoner here, pending
the arrival of the Weehawken authori-
ties. He refused to say positively
whether he was the patient who had
posed as Lieutenant Hamon at Wee
hawken.
81 might be-" he said, "but if am
l can only say l deserve to be locked
up. Any man that goes to Weehawken
ought to be locked up"
He went to Europe, he said, in July,
1917, with an ambulance outfit, and
was stationed for a time in Paris. He
injured his head in an automobile &C
cident, he said, a short time after his
arrival overseas, and was sent to an
emergency hospital He was later re-
head was made. His headaches, he de-
clared, began with his injury and were
constantly recurring. His organiza-
ton commander sent him back to the
United States, and he arrived in this
country on Thanksgiving Day, 1917.
Admits Robbing Red Cross
Shortly after his arrival, said Weiss,
and while his head still ached he was
asked to participate IN Red Cross
drive. Il got about $4,000 out of it,"
he said.
After he had Joined another ambu-
lance outfit at Allentown, Pa, Weiss
said, he was summoned one day before
the camp commander and asked to ex-
plain his Red Cross collections. His
explanation apparently didn't suit the
commander or certain members of the
enlisted personnel and he was given by
his guards an lawful heating"
He was sent from the camp to New
York and tried before Judge Mulqueen,
he said, on the specific charge of OBJ
tanning $500 from Aaron Singer. The
charge was changed from grand to petit
larceny, he said.
After serving twenty-five months Weiss
was released on parole, he said, with six
cents. That was in June, 1920. He
later woke up in Portland, Me, he said,
without knowing how he got there,
and after several months drifted from
Portland to Baltimore, staying for a
long time at the Maryland General
Hospital.
He asked that the authorities com
municate with Mrs. Helen Schwab, of
81 Post Street, Yonkers, who, he said,
is his sister.