The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-21

chasing agent for McKesson and Robbins.
 William J. Murray, Jr., of Colum- bia, s. O., first vice president of the firm, testified that the crude drugs department was actually $2l ,0O0,- 900 hoax. It had been reported pre- viously that the department was charged on the books with only $18,- 100000 of the company's assets. Mur- ray, like most other officials, joined the corporation in 1928, when Cos ter-Musica borrowed the $2O,OO0, 900, chartered his holding company and traded stock in it for stock in other drug firms throughout the country, acquiring for McKesson and Robbins a nationwide chain.
 It was known now that the secret of CoSter- Musicals money making which SO impressed Wall Street be- tween 1925 and 1928, was bootlegging, which he conducted through his lit tie hair tonic factory, Girard and company.
 Involved in His Schemes
 His three brothers, charged by the state with fraud and forgery, and by the federal government with having filed false information to the SEC, had frequently been involved in his schemes since his cheese smuggling enterprise of 1909 brought the Ital- ian immigrant family into its first trouble with the law. The brothers were reported to be telling federal investigators all they know of the McKesson and Robbins swindle. Samuel Reich, Coster- Musicals att torney, who is also the United States commissioner at Bridgeport, Conn, announced last night that his client had written a note before he blew out his brains, but that he was with holding the contents for more pro- pitious time.
 He made spirited defense of the master swindler, however, protesting that he had been "crucified," and that all the talk about munitions dealing and bootlegging was "pre- posterous." He said Coster-M -Musica was really "poor, tragic man" :" whose only fault was to foolishly in- fate his firms assets in the interests of the stockholders.
 All Grimes Laid to Him
 'Rumors of the weirdest nature are treated with the solemnity of an oath" he said. '"Then they vanish completely and are followed by an avalanche of fresh and equally gro- tesque ones. Hardly a crime of recent years, regardless of it's remoteness, has not been laid at the door of Don- aid Coster.
 "There have appeared charges in the press that $10,O0O, 900 to $18,OO0,- 100000 is missing and has been re- moved from the company. Nothing is further from the truth. What the investigations have in fact disclosed is that financial statements were in- Hated in 8 foolish and unlawful at tempt to make it appear thEt the company was in a better financial condition than it was.
 Through a period of eight years, because of the desire to keep the company from collapsing, thousands of men and women were given en- ployment. And during that eight years economic conditions, with only brief respite, were distressingly bad. He (Coster- Musical died because of a consuming, unrealized ambition to make his company great. He died not only broken, saddened man but as far as I know, comparatively poor man. He was the victim of a vicious financial system with which he: from his humble beginning, was totally unable to cope. Countless thousands of others in recent years have met with the same fate"