New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1923-08-09
MISSING, SO
ARE LIFE Savings
$4,000 Cone Bucketshops Are
Blamed by Girls Sister

New York, Aug. 9.-kathleen Bar
rett, 2S, with merry blue eyes and
bobbed auburn hair, is missing from
her home, 557 West Hath street
She went to her work as a stenogra.
pher at the office of magazine in
West 40th street, Tuesday, July 81,
and failed to return. Her sister,
Peggy, with whom she lived, and her
brother, Tom, were frantic. 1t was
the first time she had spent q night
away from her sister in her life. The
next day, after sleepless night, Peg
gy and her brother reported the dis
appearance to the police.
In day or two they learned that
joint savings account of more than
$4,000, against which either OF the
sisters could draw, had dwindled to
$15.75. The money was kept in two
banks in New Haven, Conn, where
the girls previously had lived. All
the money in one bank had been
withdrawn by Kathleen, the banker
told Peggy, and all but $15.75 from
the other.
That must have been why Kath-
leen ran away" Peggy told re-
porter for The World yesterday, be-
tween sobs. Il knew she had been
dragged into trying to get rich quick
by another stenographer in the big
bank down town where she worked
two years ago. She started invest
ing as she called it, when she was
induced by a man also working in the
hank IN hl1u SSTS of
Motor Car stock.
How much other stock she bought
/ don't know, but the New Haven
bankers told me they had been tele-
graphing money to her here, a few
hundred dollars at time, for three
years.
Kathleen didn't steal the money.
She had a perfect right to draw it
and spend it. But she must have
thought I wouldn't forgive her for
losing our little fortune. Forgive her!
OF course 1 would forgive her-that
is, If there were anything to forgive.
She is my little sister and l love her.
and | don't care anything about the
money-but oh, how l do want my
little sister back, especially if she is
in trouble.
Il feel sure she must have lost all
the money, because her work was not
steady. The New York Telephone
company had accepted an application
she made for work and the Chase
National Bank had accepted an ap-
plication she made July 25, just few
days before she went away. Sh<
couldn't have meant to stay long be-
cause she. only took few things in
a handbag. She had pretty clothes
but not expensive clothes-Kathleen
was SO pretty she looked lovely in
even the simplest things.
The World was Kathleen's favor
lite paper and ! think she is reading
it every day even now. So / want
you to say in your paper, SO she will
be sure to see it, that my heart will
break if she doesn't let me hear from
her. don't want the money back
won't even ask her what became of
it, And pom feels the same way"
Miss Barrett was employed as
typist at the National City Bank from
Aug. II, 1919, to Aug. Is, 1921. Her
record there was said TO be good. An
other employer has a letter from
Mayor David E. Fitzgerald of New
Haven, speaking highly of the repu-
tation of the Barrett sisters.
The bulk of the $4,000 account
was said by Miss Peggy Barrett to
have been legacy left her ten years
ago by woman she befriended in
New Haven.
THE bucketeers of Wall street got
Kathleen's money-that's what l
think" said her brother. she told me
several times, when she was working
for the big banks in Wall Street, that
many of the girl stenographers and
young men clerks in the big banks
speculated in stocks through runners
for the smaller brokers'"
Kathleen was born in Cork, ireland,
where her father is fireman, and a
brother is a Catholic priest. She has
two brothers in New Haven,