AMERICAN DOLLARS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1929, Page 3

AMERICAN DOLLARS

AND BRITISH JUSTICE

WHAT HAPPENED TO A MILLIONAIRE.

Four months in the second division lor the manslaughter of a motorcyclist on the Bath Hoad, near Slough means a new .chapter in the career of JLMc'hard Joshua Reynolds, the 24-year-old son of an American millionaire. Reynolds and a friend were driving hack to London at night in a green saloon car, when, the unfortunate .motor-cyclist was run over and so seriously hurt. that lie died a week later. Reynolds did not stop, but his car was held lip in Chiswick. He then protested tnat he was not drunk, and later declared that he had no suspicion that anyone had been knocked down. He thought he had merely mounted a bank' and turned off again. In manner and speech Richard Joshua Reynolds is uii- . mistakehnbly American,: His riches are reputed to be so great that money means nothing to him. Every business man in the United States has heard of young Reynolds, and his father’s name was a household word when tlie Reynolds Tobacco Company was approaching .pre-eminence among the great commeYmal' Enterprises of America, gi > f,^ ..dleynolds senior, amassed la fortune df>£IO;OOOJ>QO. When he is 27 veafs of age tlie son will inherit a goodly portion of that sum. But even to-day he has am.rtnnuiil inepme of £25,000 of his awn,. ..partly inherited and partly', the esult of - lucky. speculation. - ' Aftbricol>ege days he, entered His father%';!factories, and then on his own account organised a number of successful nesses. His most spectacular deal was the purchase of the Curtic Aviation Field, which he is reported to have’sold at more than half a million profit. This was before he was 21. Then the desire for adventure seized him, and he went to New York to find it. Soon he was called “Broadway’s Boy Millionaire” and his lavish expenditure was the talk off the Great White Way Young Reynolds, always wanted to be an aviator, and at this hazardous game he 1 won the admiration of the experts. Suddenly one day;he disappeared. His car was found damaged and abandoned on the seashore and grave; fears for his personal safety existed. Detectives employed by. the trustees of the Reynolds estate, found him 11 days later in St. Louis. He had fled; from New York, he told them because “he didn’t w r ant to be bothered.” j His whereabouts were disclosed by a man who received £6OO for the information. Then in California Reynolds incurred the ‘anger of the Ku-Klux-Klan by finding a way in disguise into one of their secret assemblies. He went back to New York laughing at his own audacity, while the members of his old Virginian family wondered what would happen next. He answered the question by coming to Europe and —London. Inside a week he had bought a yacht, a motor-car, and a. speed boat. In the yacht Re made a number of trips alone, and more than once did the crossing to'France.’ He was “the good fellow” among scores of fashionable young men about, town, and his hospitality at a luxury fiat in St. John’s Wood was unbounded. |’rqm a certain section of the people who followed young Reynolds, he got an insight into what is called the ‘ ‘underworld” of London. Film people attracted him strangely and especially those who did “crowd” work for bare existence. To these—men and women alike—he was a fairy godfather indeed. Their calling fascinated ...Him, and twice he actually became one of the crowd” himself, just, to discover what making a picture was like. The vicissitudes of : the average film aotor and actress turned his thoughts to the dressed for the part, he would go downto the Embankment at night and talk with the unfortunate beings who had no shelter or a penny for food. He gave freely of his money to aI.L of them. For nearly a week lie hung about Chinatown, • and slept in the lodginghouses of Limehouse solely to discover how . sailors spent their time ashore. On occasions like this he shunned the society of liis smart friends" in the West, bujt invariably returned to them when the spell of charitable investigation was oyer. That he.has made adequate provision for the.; widow of the man killed on the Bath Road is characteristic of this remarkable young American'. The sum invested for her benefit.is believed to be £SOOO. Remembering the eminent counsel engaged in the Police Court proceedings and at the subsequent trials, the distinguished medical men called as witnesses at the Old Bailey, and remembering also that the expenses of the prosecution have to he borne by Reynolds, it will be readily appreciated that the consequences of that disastrous night canoof, have cost him less than £15,000. Probably it is very much more.

Press and public in New York have been most favourably impressed with the speed and impartiality of Reynolds’ trial. Comment is made on the dig-’ nitv and fairness of Mr Justice Huhi-h'-pVs’ summing-un and the mildness of the sentence. Says the “New York World ’? •

Here in a single case We have the "arions things which have made EnqUsh justice what it is—its celeritv. impersonality, certainty, integrity', and common-sense.

A Tost of the papers are of opinion that an American would have ac"uittefl: Reynolds. Tire “New York Times.” for exomnle. says: “A. jurv over Here would have said to them- - .fives, ‘He’s a <?ood fellow, after all. 'Hip nolice always say that a man is drunk if there is any smell of liquor

on him. Sentencing him to gaol will not bring back the dead. Let him go.!’ The jury would have shaken him warmly by the hand after his acquittal, and a serious. crime would have ,been lost sight of in a gush of fraternity and sentimentality.” ......