FORTUNE AT STAKE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1933, Page 6

FORTUNE AT STAKE

WELL OVER i A MILLION ; POUNDS

MURDERED YOB'KSHIREMAIN

Claim to the estate of the late Mr Edniird. A. Ridley, an 88-year-old millionaire, who \va« murdered in New York, has been laid -by a Yorkshire widow.

Mr Ridley was 'reputed, to be worth well over £1.,000,000. The clamant to this huge fortune is Mrs Florence Moore. 'She -bases her right to the estate on the- fact that M|- Ridley died intestate, and that she, a s his ; first cousin, his nearest living relative. , There are both romance and tragedy hidden (behind, the widow’s claim. Her father, Alfred Ridley, was one of five ■brothers, the children of. a schoolmaster at Newark, Nottinghamshire.,. One of the brothers, Edward Ridley, went to America in 1894, and from such a humble beginning as that of a, street hawker, finally became the proprietor of three ; big stipes in New York.

This brother the father of Edward A. 'Ridley, the murdered man, i a nd at hi 6 .death, h© .bequeathed a considerable fortune to his .son. The latter,, however, added wealth to wealth 'by various financial dealings rekiting to mortgages and . money!ending transactions. He is said to have lived, u,,curious life, being miserly i,n his o-wn. personal habits, a subscriber .to. various charities, in an unostentatious way, and yet. very, exacting in his. .financial- dealings. Tile mysterious, murder i$ believed by the New. York police to. have, be©u the work of .some of Mr Ridley’s former clients. Whoever the murderers were, they not only killed th© moneylender, but also his secretary, Leo Weinstein, who was said to possess Ml his master’s; secrets. Curiously enough, a previous. secretary to Air Ridley, Herman; Moeneh, was ■ 4-lso murdered. A will which was found bequeathing 1 £50,000 to Weinstein was subsequently discovered .to be a forgery, in connection with which ,two New York accountants have been arrested. . Mrs Moore 'ba s placed her case i, n the hands of a Leeds firm of solicitors/ and they have instructed their New York agents to lodge , a d a im on her 'behalf and to investigate her position. with regard to the estate and to the intestacy under American ]aw.' .Mrs Moore met her cousin once when his. father brought him on a visit to Newark, but she . was a, child at the time and has only a slight recollection of the occasion. .She tes ..since lost touch 'with him. .She is th.e . widow ■of .Mr , John James'Moore, a Leeds, foreman ] tailor, 1 and she keeps house for her | two us married daughters, who are j both, employed, bv a firm pf wholesale, clothiers an" Leeds.