The Mysterious Disappearance of Banker Linus E. Post
After leaving his wife and daughter in Tacoma, a prominent banker vanishes to Europe under a cloud of financial mismanagement.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Banker Linus E. Post of Tacoma has been cleared up. He was not murdered or a suicide; he was seen in Hoboken boarding a steamer for Europe under an assumed name. Post had recently resigned from a bank controlled by George W. Vanderbilt. Though his accounts were said to be straight, he left his family in destitute conditions. His flight was marked by clumsy attempts at deception, including registered hotel names and circuitous travel, leaving his friends and family confused as to his ultimate motive for abandoning his life in the Pacific Northwest.
“I don't care to have anybody know I'm here, for I've come down this time on very particular business.”
This story highlights the instability of the late 19th-century banking sector and the social stigma of financial failure, echoing how modern white-collar scandals still often end in flight to avoid accountability.
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