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MEMPHIS BANKER KILLS HIMSELF IN DEFICIT OF $61,000 R. S. Polk Fires Bullet Through Head When Wife Wakes Him Up. By United Press. MEMPHIS, TENN., March 24.—Robert S. Polk, deposed vice president of the Union and Planters' Bank and Trust Company, the biggest bank in this part of the south, shot and killed himself at his home here this morning. The suicide followed Polk's return from El Paso, Tex., where he went following discovery of a shortage in accounts at the bank estimated at $61,000. Mrs. Polk was in a bathroom adjoining the bedroom at 7:25 a. m. and had called to her husband: "It's time to get up, dear." A pistol shot was the answer. She rushed into the bedroom to find her husband on the floor, with a bullet wound in the right temple. He was in his night clothing. Closed After Cashier's Suicide. The Monroe County Savings Bank and Trust Company at Columbia, Ill., twelve miles south of East St. Louis, failed to open today, following the suicide of its cashier, Louis Dehn, 61 years old, who shot and killed himself Saturday afternoon. While the bank's directors insist that the institution is solvent, it is known that there had been a quiet run on the bank for some time, and it is reported that between $35,000 and $40,000 has been withdrawn by depositors. It was announced that the board of directors would issue a statement as to the condition of the bank. Q. A. James, an assistant state bank examiner, who arrived today from Springfield, is making an examination of the books to ascertain the condition of the bank. Many of Dehn's friends attribute his suicide to the financial difficulties of the Columbia Star Milling Company, which closed in December. They say he was worried because he had induced some of his friends to invest in the milling company and they had lost their money. On the other hand, members of Dehn's family attribute his act to a nervous breakdown, from which they say he was suffering. The milling company was operated by E. F. Schoening until his death two years ago. A bakery, which has a store in the same building with the bank, also was operated by Schoening, and at one time Schoening was president of the bank. In a note to his wife, which she found in his clothing, Dehn said: "I can stand it no longer. It is either this or insanity." F. W. Weinel of the Weinel Lumber Company, said he understood that Dehn had put considerable amount of his own money into the milling company. Weinel said the bank originally was organized as a private bank to handle the paper of the milling company, but later was organized as a state bank. He said he understood that the state banking department objected to paper of the milling company, amounting to $20,000, which was held by the bank, and Dehn and the directors took over the paper with their personal funds. Philadelphia Banker a Suicide. PHILADELPHIA, March 24.—(By I. N. S.)—Morris W. Stroud, Jr., president of the banking concern of Stroud & Company, committed suicide today by throwing himself in front of an electric car at Villanova, a suburb. The banker, it was said, suffered a nervous breakdown over a week ago. Stroud & Company have branches in New York and Washington. The affairs of the concern are said to be in excellent shape.
