The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-08-06

they were both friends, joined them at their table.
 Dinner over, Crater and his friends left the restaurant together and parted on the sidewalk in front, the justice entering the taxicab which bore him no one knows where. All his activities in the few days | before his disappearance, some iil- vestigators believe, indicate careful planning by Crater. They believe he 1 intended to disappear and that he probably Is still alive. ! Raised $22,50O Cash Some time before his disappear ance Crater disposed of securities and made other financial arrange ments in order to get $22,500 in. cash equivalent to one years salary as supreme court justice.
 Did he plan to buy the nomina- tion? There are those who believe he did. Joseph G. Miller, special as- sistant to the attorney general in the Ewald investigation, said there were indications that he obtained the $22,5o0 flor powerful Tam many politician"
 The Ewald case had supplied pre- cedent for such conjecture and also 8 possible motive for getting rid of | Crater. In Miller's opinion Crater "could very well have been disposed of because of his knowledge of the Ewald case and its ramifications."
 Mrs. Crater leans to similar be- lief. "Ee knew too much" she said. Wife Began to Worry
 Mrs. Crater became worried when he did not return to Belgrade Lakes for her birthday. When he sent no present she became piqued. Toward the end of the next week she be- came worried. On Aug. IS she tried to reach him in New York by tele- phone. She asked Simon H. Rifkind, Wagner's law partner and Crater's friend, to look for him.
 Four days later she sent the chauffeur, Fred Kahler, to New York to search for the judge.
 On Aug. 27, two days after he was to have taken the bench, Crater still was missing. Mrs. Crater, notified of his failure to appear, drove all night, arriving in New York on the verge of breakdown.
 Rifkind, she said, advised her not to go to police. He believed "Joe" would show up. His political asso- ciates thought perhaps Crater had gone on a bender Mrs. Crater was advised to stay out of the state. She returned to Maine.
 News Broke Sept. 3 On Sept. 3 the news broke in the newspapers. Detectives searched the Fifth Avenue town apartment. They found no clews. Mrs. Crater tried to sec Senator Wagner and engage his assistance in the search. She re- ported later that he refused to see her.
 Mrs. Crater did not return to New York until January, 1881, five months after the disappearance. Then occurred one of the many in- applicable incidents which from time to time have complicated and deep- ened the Crater mystery.
 In the top center drawer of a dresser which detectives had searched thoroughly, she found two things which certainly had not been there in September. They were an envelope and black wallet. In the one she found currency and checks totaling $6,690. In the other she found an undated memorandum ad- dressed to "S. M. w." the initials of | (~a kas. n si
 The memorandum labeled "confi- dential," listed In the judges rapid scrawl the names of persons who owed him money. Two paragraphs of the memorandum disclosed that Crater expected "a large sum" for his work as Libby Hotel receiver and "a very large sum" for services" ln connection with the hotel condem- nation. No one ever found out what the second paragraph meant. It is certain, however, that Crater had no of1icial connection with the condcm- nation proceedings.
 Note Mentioned Weariness
 The memo ended: Am very weary. Love, Joe"
 How the envelope and wallet got into the drawer, months after Cra- ter's disappearance, apparently no one knows. What its tag line" irl- piled, If anything, remains a mys- tery.
 Mrs. Crater years later expressed the feeling that police efforts to find her husband had been inefactent, Detectives who visited her summer camp spent most of their time fish ing, she said. She appealed at the time to John F. Curry, then Tam many leader, and found him kindly but cautious" she said. s,,,
 Subsequently she attempted to re- tract her allusions to murder" ana police "inefdciency,"
 ~ am afraid that the same sim ister something that took Joe away from me might come after me If 1 talk too muc..:," she said. T do not know anyone who would have mur- dered him."
 There was a brief revival of otfi- cial interes. in the Crater mystery following Mrs. Crater's statements to the press last month. Police of- ficials visited her at Belgrade Lakes. Rifkind called on her.
 The attorney and friend of the missing judge agreed that he prob ably had been slain. But politics mad nothing to do with it," he said.
 District, Attorney William c. Dodge said Mrs. Crater's charge that | politics took Joe away was-"pure | bunk" There the Crater mystery rests.