Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-07
tde Hunt Stox.ts
for WaIttE Unger

the name OF wv, n. tnger on
csober IL. 1916. His first transaction
iW shares Sinclair Oil. buy. =
-. ne pnJ up as collateral $1,000
sceSant from tins S,ey to OT"S'' J"iy ,si7' 3s
svsfased mo,t than $50 900.
margins ark he put up a number of
eign- sradf bonds and then had the
eont Transferred to the name of his
1T: Ae continued to plunge fire.
uy in oils. industrial and motor
olecks Elntil May I. 1921. when he had
0fe than S100,OO0 tied up,
49, Balance Dwindles to $500
4, An November Of last year he, was
Alled upon to put up margin, being
feort many thousands Of dollars. and
~Aen he failed to do 50 his accnint
yas closed out on December .. At
lat time he had securities and stocks
Nd as collateral valued at S76,443 on
book value. but n natural valuc,of more
/ than S1O0, 900. Against that he owed
$76,501. When sold ont he ,t,d bal
ance of little more than $500.
During 1918 and 1919 1ngcr had
considerable success as a rlungcr and
took down quite lark amount OF
money In profits which. It is said. he
put back in the markcL. ia oil stocks.
essh Of his " own S' WITH +Re exception %p peS o Of
during the first year, when he put up
y4tO. All OF his trarsactions. amount.
iAg to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
were covered with securities.
His sister never was in the Office Of
the brokers and is unknown to the
Unger fight revealed sensa-
tional career. unsuspectcd by his en-
pIoyers. in '~the street as one Of the
city's most reckless and extravagant
"plungers.
For months. or perhaps years. he
went into the stock market with the
utmost recklessness. buying right and
left. and hinging money about on every
sort of stock proposition that the DER
hrm offered him.
obviously no one seemed to have any
suspicion that the bank clerk. whose in
come was not large in spite Of the. fact
that he received pay from the bank
and from the Evans fund as wsdl. was
making sensation among the margin
gamblers.
Known as Boy SpeculAtor'
1t was revealed that Ungfr had been
known in the brokerage houses as the
Boy Speculator, He Lecame a eli
transacted most of his business when
rsmsining after the Arm name wa was
changed to E. D. Dief & Co.
so royal spendes was young Unger
IN the stock markes that the DER firm
Is said to have assigned its best sales.
man to him exclrEively.
Unger. unlike. most others who dab
bled in the stock market and lost. had
no "spccialty.~ He was willing to take
a chance on anything and spread the
money of tfF. Evans Institute over a
multitude og stocks. buying on margin.
A culierity of his practice in the
market; popularity easily explained
in the II ct of present facts-was that
ne always put up securities TO cover
his ma q gins. The securities. the au-
thoritiss aver, were filchcd from the
Evana strong box. They were all of
them. gilt edged. many Liberty Bonds
amoEg them.
Reached End of String
1T is the talk of the street today that
fingers account was thousands Of dol
Aars short not long before DER & Co.
collapsed. But q few weeks before the
smash rnger was told TO put up addi-
tional margins or he would be sold out
He had come TO the end of his string,
or the end of the readily negotiable Sc
curities in the Evans funds strong
box, and he was forced to let every.
thing 60. He smashed. though neither
his employers at the bank nor the
Evans Institute authorities guessed it
then.
Unger's account is said to have been
the largest in the Dier failure. His de-
falcation is the first to be revealed along
with a brokerage house failure. The
authorities do not lay the failure of
Dier & Co. to tnger's defalcations.
1t is said Unger carried his big mar.
gin account at Dier & Co. in the name
Of Miss Anna Unger, his sister, who is
grace and fight. The girl knew moth
ing of the vast financial operations her
brother was carrying on in her name.
Because Unger's employment at the
hank made it impossible to go to DER
1 Co.. during the hours when the
brokerage house was open. he trans
acted most of his business over the
telephone. How he managed 10 do this
without arousing the suspicion of his
fellow clerks is a feature Of the story
which remains to be explained. At all
events, 1t Is said that he caused his
holdings to be put in his sisters name,
and directed that all communications
concerning them be sent to her at the
hank in his care.
School in Bad Straits
Though Uuger cleaned out the safe
deposit box Of the Evans fund. so far as
negotiable securities went. he did no,
steal three mortgages reposing there
They would not have been 50 readily
negotiable as the securities. and could
not have been put up to cover his mar
gins at the brokerage house.
The defalcation of Unger. however
puts the fund, and the Evans Institute
which it maintains. in a delicate posi-
ton. The institute. which is consid
cred the greatest dental school in ths
world, Is under heavy expense. II coult
not do its work without the Evans en-
dowment The income from the securi
ties went far toward paying the m.in
tenance expenses of the school. 1t il
feared that it may be necessary to dis
pose OF some of the mortgages to NEE
pressing needs.
6l Responsibility remains to be placed
Z. for the loss of the money. There is nc
way the fund can recover from Ungel
unless the securities themselves are OBJ
tained. He was not bonded to the
fund. though bonded in his position a
the bank. The bank cannot be held re
7 sponsible, however. according to tn,
epinion of many. because the banl
merely rented the safe deposit box t,
the fund. The bank did not handle tn
securities as the fund $ representative
1t merely happened that Mr.. Reeve
was both an officer of the bank and th