THE GREER CASE

by David W. Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Based on the records- Judge Peck presided over this case when it was heard on appeal- this drama of the disposition of the fortune left by Mabel Greer is a fascinating fretwork of supposition and speculation and occasioned a painstaking paper chase through old files. For Mabel Greer, who had married a man of wealth and social prominence in 1908, left behind her in the obscurity of a deliberately closed past an illegitimate son who if identified would be the heir to at least half the million dollars now deeded to Harvard University. On her own admission, in the later years, Harold Segur- the adopted son of a Massachusetts doctor- was brought up as the claimant, and through the testimony of a maid, a doctor, an old friend, a lawyer, a chauffeur, there was an attempt to prove that Segur was her son. But if so, the question of her age presented a poser- as did the search of the records of the Boston Lying-In which showed that Segur was the child of Addie Weston, whether a real person or an alias. The identity of Addie Weston finally established, the case was dismissed for lack of burden of proof, and a week later, ironically, the death of a Willard Seymour in an alcoholic ward, a charity child of no known parentage, supplied the missing heir in the Greer case... Requiring as it did the ""combined talents of Hercule Polrot, Clarence Darrow and Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes"" for its solution, this trial holds many perplexing points of interest, and should find an audience.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955

Categories: NONFICTION