Embezzling banker flees to parts unknown

Thomas S. Beals, Jr., late cashier of the defunct Island County bank, who is accused by an information on file in the superior court of embezzling $14,834.28, is a fugitive from justice. Beals returned to Tacoma and lived with Gertie Willis, an inmate of Opera alley, Tacoma. He drank considerable and was on a protracted debauch. Last Thursday evening he notified the police at Tacoma that if the authorities of Jefferson county ordered his arrest he could be found in the Pullman house. In the meanwhile Beals' attorney, C. F. Repath, of Seattle, notified the special prosecuting attorney, John Fairfield, that he had withdrawn from the case for the reason that Beals evinced no disposition to raise the necessary money incidental for the defense. Subsequently F. R. Smith, an employe in the Northern Pacific express office at Tacoma, received a note from Beals, dated last Saturday, that his lawyer had used up all his money and wanted another $100 before going to trial. Beals wrote that he was financially embarrassed, and rather than take chances of going to the penitentiary he fled the country. The court today ordered Beals' bond of $1,000 forfeited, and instructed the sheriff to use every endeavor to apprehend the accused.