New-York tribune., 1922-10-21
M Mystery Of Tin
Box 1angles
Bucket Hearing
Broker and Phone Girl Are
Threatened With Contempt
Charges for Removing IL
In McKenna & Co. Failure
Contained d Securities
Young Woman Refuses to
Give a Complete List,
Fearing Incrirnination

The tale Of a pereprinating tin box
supposed to contain securities. "a.
moved from bankrupt brokerage Of.
nee by m employee as she quit with
the failure and returned TO the re.
ceiver's office three days later by an
ebliging friend, who hired d mess er rge,
boy to convey II thither, was told YES.
terday at . preliminary hearing Of the
William II. McKenna & Co. case. This
concern, which had offices at 20 Hroad.
way and 25 West Forty-third Street
failed on October s, leaving liabilities
Of more than si,ooo.ooo.
AS result Of the testimony Arthu,
L. Ross, attorney for the receiver
John L. Lyttle. Of 2ss Broadway, served
on Robert B. Holmes, a stock broker
Iii East sThirty-fifth Street, and Mrs
Muriel Jensen, Of Newark, former tele.
phone operator in the uptown office
of William II. MeKenna & Co, orders
signed by Federal Judge Hand to show
cause why they should not be punished
for contempt of court in having taken
q security boz in the technical pos.
session Of the receiver in bankruptcy
retaining 1t for three days.
William 81. McKenna, senior partner
OF the firm, has been indicted for
grand larceny, but his junior partner
Aigerron w. Brown, has not.
Executives Vanished First
A week before the receivership the
Consolidated Stock Exchange, where
the firm once had a seat, ordered it's
tickers removed from the McKenna of.
fees. Early on the afternoon of the
failure the executives gathered ur
without explanation to their subordi.
mates. By 8 o'clock the employees
drifted away, the last one locking the
door behind him.
preliminary hearings in advance oi
the regular bankruptcy proceedings
were called by the receiver before q
week had passed. They brought out
yesterdays tale Of the mysterious tin
box. The story obtained from Holmes
and Mrs. Jensen, who is a pretty young
woman in her early twenties, and con.
siderably frightened yesterday, was:
Mrs. Jensen took the box, when the
failure occurred, to the offices of the
Hercules Cement Company, where she
had friend, Edward Goode. She put
the box in Mr.. Goodies office. With
Miss. Ethel Dunbar, of Argyll Road
Brooklyn, the stenographer, Mrs. Jen-
zen met the uptown manager, John A
Pothoff, at the Hotel Algonquin, where
they all had tea.
Miss Dunbar went home and Mrs
Jensen and Pothoff went back to the
McKenna branch office, Pothoff trying
for some time to get the partners on
the telephone.
Box Travels to Newark
At noon the next day, Saturday, Mrs,
Jensen went to the Hercules office to
get the box. She .telephoned to C. R.
Hulsler, in the Woolworth Building
Mr.. Hulsler responded to the call, car
ried out the box, Mrs. Jensen having a
suitcase, and they went to Hulsler's
office. They had dinner in the Wool
worth rathskellar and then Holmes ar
rived with his car. He took Mrs. Jen.
sen and the box to Newark.
The box, however, was locked. There
fore, Holmes and Mrs. Jensen stopped
at locksmith's In Newark and had
him undo It, Mrs. Jensen said there
were q LOT Of German securities and
some blank checks in the box. but be-
yond that she refused to specify, say.
ing it would tend to incriminate her.
Returning to New York late Satur-
day Holmes took the box to Western
Union office on Monday. He directed
it be taken to Receiver LyttIes Of
Ace, on Tuesday. In the meantime
Pothoff, the manager, had wired Mrs.
Jensen at her fathers cottage at
Manasquan, N. D., on Sunday and she
came e a New M tbe 1ork prnas Monaay, .or riding to
taxicsb supplied by Paul Granville, a
casual acquaintance. To Pothoff she
told the story Of the tin box, later ad-
hitting it as witness. Holmes also
admitted his part yesterday.