MEDFORD, Or., May 18.--(Special.)--Albert C. (Jimmy) Allen Jr., 28, Central Point orchardist, whom the Medford High School prophecy of 1925 predicted would be "a first-class dishwasher" 20 years hence, was today named heir to $5,000,000, and remarked when interviewed, "It is nothing to get excited about."
    Questioned by telephone regarding the fortune, the ex-basketball star appeared more concerned over the toll of the country telephone line than the sum left by his aunt, Margaret Keith, who recently committed suicide in Los Angeles.
    "What will you do with the money?" brought no line of forecasts from young Allen, who simply replied, "I haven't got it yet. It will be many years from now when I do, and I think the sum is greatly exaggerated."
    He has a wife and young son, Albert C. Allen III, 2½ years old, who will probably help him spend it.
    Announcement of the will came as no surprise to Allen today. He recently returned from California, where he attended the funeral of his eccentric aunt. He was informed even before her death that she would name him as heir, the letter coming a short time before news of her suicide, inspired by the approaching loss of her eyesight.
    The money, it is understood here, was left in a trust fund, and the estate will come to young Allen when he is 35 years old. He will, however, receive his income from the money in the meantime.
    Allen, who graduated from the local high school in 1924, is the son of A. C. Allen, orchardist and writer, whose first well-known book was "King of the Wilderness," published a number of years ago. His mother, sister of Margaret Keith, died about two years ago. The women were heirs to the Keith mining fortune in Salt Lake City. Jimmy Allen, as he is known here, has a sister, Mary Allen, in Los Angeles, and said today he did not know whether she would share in the estate.
    In high school Allen played for four years on the basketball team which won the state championship and sought the national title in Chicago. He was also a student body officer and a popular member of the organization.
    Following high school he joined his father in operation of his orchard, "Lafalot on the Rogue," and began writing. He has had a number of stories published in western magazines and uses as his pen name "James Cooper Allen." He is tall--six feet something--of medium complexion, and very quiet in demeanor. His lack of talk today regarding the fortune was characteristic of his general attitude, "little to say, much to do." He is fond of books and the great outdoors.
    A few years ago Allen married Eva Jester of Rocky Point, and they have since made their home on Rogue River, where efforts today to locate him proved they have no telephone communication with the outside world. Allen came to the country store to answer the call.
    LOS ANGELES, Cal., May 18.--(AP)--The $5,000,000 fortune of Miss Margaret Keith, eccentric 49-year-old recluse, who had orchestra music played and flowers placed beside her body for several days after her recent suicide, will go to a 28-year-old nephew, Albert C. Allen Jr., of Central Point, Or., it was disclosed in the 220-word will to be filed probably today.
    The terse document, which names the Security First National Bank of Los Angeles as executor and trustee, bequeaths the entire estate to young Allen, with the exception of a few minor bequests to several other relatives, all of whom are described in the will as "in good financial condition."
    Etta K. Eskridge, Los Angeles, a sister, was bequeathed $50 and the cancellation of a $4000 debt. Ten dollars each was left to David Keith, half brother; David Keith Jr., nephew; D. K. Eskridge, brother-in-law; D. K. Eskridge Jr., nephew; M. A. Towle and Albert C. Allen III.
    Heir to a large Utah mining fortune, Miss Keith hid herself from the world behind the barred gates of her Palos Verdes estate, 23 miles south of here, and finally ended her life in her Beverly Hills mansion a few weeks ago.
    A note directed that her body be held several days before cremation, that an orchestra play classical compositions beside her body, and that fresh flowers be put in the room each day. These wishes were carried out.
Oregonian, Portland, May 19, 1933, page 1

Seattle Daily Times, July 2, 1933, page 32


Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, New York, May 19, 1933, page 20


    LOS ANGELES, June 19.--(AP)--A contest to the will of Miss Margaret Keith, millionaire recluse of Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes, was begun today by a niece, Mrs. Mary Allen Towle.
    She alleged that when Miss Keith, who committed suicide in her palatial Beverly Hills home April 28, made the testament she was of unsound mind and unduly influenced by a nephew, Albert C. Allen, Jr., living near Medford, Ore. to whom most of the estate was left.
    The death of Miss Keith attracted considerable attention because of the unusual instructions she left for her funeral services, including the hiring of an orchestra to play classical music beside her bier for several days.
    Mrs. Towle, a sister of Allen, who is a Central Point, Ore., farmer, was bequeathed $18 by the will, which was dated September 25, 1932. She alleged that Allen and his father brought about execution of the document by influence, "device and stratagem."
    Remarking that she had been on the friendliest of terms with her aunt, Mrs. Towle expressed belief that Miss Keith never had seen Allen, and that he and his father communicated with Miss Keith, advising her that Mrs. Towle had inherited a fortune.
    Mrs. Towle alleged that Allen and his father had represented to Miss Keith that Mrs. Towle's mother had fallen into the hands of vicious persons who had dissipated the fortune and that Mrs. Towle was at the mercy of such persons. She characterized these alleged statements as false and claimed that her brother and his father had obtained and squandered about $10,000 of her money.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 19, 1933, page 1


    LOS ANGELES, July 26.--(AP)--One contest over the will of Margaret Keith, 46-year-old recluse who left the bulk of a million-dollar estate to a nephew in Oregon, Albert C. Allen, a writer, was ended temporarily today when the superior court sustained the demurrer of the trustee. The court gave the contestant, Mary Allen Towle, a niece, two weeks in which to file an amended complaint.
    The trustee claimed the allegations in Miss Towle's complaint were not properly drawn. There was no action on another contest filed by Mrs. Etta Eskridge, a sister of Miss Keith.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 26, 1933, page 6


    James (Jimmy) Allen, local resident, chief beneficiary of the will of his aunt, who died at Los Angeles last spring, expects that the will contest filed against the bequest will be docketed for hearing in a Los Angeles court the last of October. Appraisal of the estate is now in progress.
    According to Allen the first reports of the size of the bequest were exaggerated, and it will total less than a million dollars, instead of five times that amount as first reported. A considerable portion of the estate consists of Utah mining stock, now depreciated in value along with property holdings in Southern California.
    Allen, former high school basketball star, now an orchardist, said yesterday he hopes to procure sufficient income to enable "me to do the things I like to do, and not have to worry all the time." Allen has attained some success as an author.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 21, 1933, page 2

    Los Angeles, Jan. 19--(AP)--A theory that Miss Margaret Keith, wealthy spinster recluse, may have committed suicide last April in abhorrence at the thought of appearing publicly in a court action, was hinted today at trial of relatives' suit to break her will, which leaves most of her million-dollar estate to Albert C. Allen, Jr., Oregon nephew.
    Lawyers for the contesting relatives, who have testified Miss Keith had an abnormal fear of crowds and public places, and hated men, attempted to draw testimony from her lawyer, Myron W. Silverton, that he told her on the day she committed suicide she would either have to appear in court or make a deposition before strangers in a suit against her.
Daily Independent, Helena, Montana, January 20, 1934, page 2


Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 27, 1934, page 3


    The huge, rambling mansion surrounded by a thick garden and a high barbed-wire fence was no mean mystery in the neighborhood. It was among the finest estates in Beverly Hills, near Los Angeles--but the little old lady who lived there alone was seldom seen.
    Strange tales were afloat about her. She always wore a heavy veil, spoke to no one, and had innumerable cats. Stray cats--not a pedigree in a parlorful. Neighbors called her "The Veiled Lady of the Cats."
    Servants found her dead one day--self-chloroformed, lying in an overstuffed chair, with the radio playing a Beethoven symphony and a letter at her side giving explicit instructions about the musical funeral she was to have. She died at 60. She willed her whole estate, $1,000,000 in value, to a young farmer, who was her nephew; other nephews and nieces contested the will, saying she was of unsound mind; and so the facts about Miss Margaret Keith, "The Veiled Lady," came out.
    She was a character straight out of the pages of Dickens.
    According to testimony brought out at the six-weeks' hearing of the will contest--she hadn't lived in that great, richly furnished house alone. There was also a ghost!
    A ghost named "John." A friendly, harmless spook, he was, and very shy. "John" lived in a shadowed corner of the big music-room, where Miss Keith played the piano night after night. As long as he liked the music, all was well, but--
    If "John" didn't like the way Miss Keith was playing, he'd float out of his corner, get up on the huge window pane that faced her as she sat at the grand piano, and do a war dance in sizzling blue flame!
    And when this music-critic ghost did that, it was up to the lonely old lady to change her tune, or stop playing. "John" would then come down off his window pane and retire to his dark corner, satisfied.
    This was but one of the numerous anecdotes brought out at a six-weeks' court hearing in Los Angeles, by the relatives who contested Miss Keith's will. It was Mrs. Mary Allen Towle, her niece, who told about "John," saying Miss Keith had described the ghost to her in great detail.
    Mrs. Towle's 28-year-old farmer-author brother, Albert C. Allen, was out plowing his field for spring planting when a telegram was brought him saying he was heir to his eccentric aunt's entire fortune. Miss Keith had inherited $5,000,000 from her father, the late David Keith, owner of the fabulously rich Silver King mine
in Utah. Joining with Mrs. Towle in the contest were David Keith of Salt Lake City and the socially prominent Mrs. Etta Keith Eskridge of Los Angeles.
    Miss Keith gave large sums to charity. She built two mansions.
    "Everyone may have some eccentricities--there probably isn't a perfectly sane person in the world," acknowledged Dr. Frank Mikels, well-known alienist who testified for the plaintiffs, under cross-examination. And the jury, after long debate, was unable to agree whether Miss Keith's will should be broken or not, on the ground of insanity.
    Here were some of her eccentricities, as revealed by testimony:
    As a girl of about 20, for no known reason she had retired from the world, put on a thick veil, and become a recluse. Her only photo, taken at 19--it is reproduced
on this page--shows her as an attractive, apparently normal girl at this time. If she ever did have a love affair, no one knew of it.
    Besides the veil that hid her features, she always dressed in somber black and, on her rare visits from her Beverly Hills estate to her other magnificent mansion at Palos Verdes. she wore long black gloves and a black hat.
    Her business manager, N. W. Burns, testified he had handled her affairs for six years--and had never seen her.
    "I was employed by telephone," he said, "and always received my instruction
by phone or mail."
    Once, he said, she phoned him that "she hated all human beings, particularly me." But not long afterward she sent Burns' wife, whom also she had never seen, a check for $5,000 as a gift.
    Her imagination, it was evident, peopled the huge lonely house with spirits. Besides "John," the music-critic spook, there were the ghosts who used to chat with her by radio earphone. Servants told how Miss Keith used to put on the earphones, sit at a table and ask questions about her dead father. Bums testified:
    "She phoned me one night and said she was hearing voices at her windows and wanted the windows protected by heavy spikes. She said 'they' might come and get her body "
    She had an inordinate fondness for stray cats--richly furnished as her house was, and beautiful in every detail, dozens of alley cats were all over the place. Once, when the cats needed bathing, she wrote to a night watchman:
    "Will you please ask the doctor if there is any way to dry-clean cats? They are terrified of water and I don't see any use in terrifying them half out of their wits."
    Burns had built Miss Keith a swimming pool--a magnificent glass-enclosed
affair, open to the sky. But, said the servants, she used it only at night, and in
the dark--true to her hatred of being seen.
    Why she had constructed and furnished the two splendid mansions was a mystery in itself. No one, beyond a semi-occasional relative, ever entered them. Once when she visited San Francisco she ran out of stamps. She wrote to a Japanese servant to go to a corner drug store, buy some stamps, and mail them to her.
    There was a touch of pathos in the story of Paul W. Woods, a relative, who came to say goodbye when he and his wife were going to Europe. He unexpectedly kissed the old lady. Instead of becoming angry, as he had anticipated, he said she beamed with joy. She went over to a table and wrote him a check for $300.
    J. W. Crowhurst, a repair man, said he had sung while puttering about his work on her place. She had spoken to him in French, and he understood it to be "tenor la bouche," meaning he had a robust voice--he took it as a compliment. Crowhurst was asked to sing in court, and after he had done so an attorney commented: "She probably said 'Tenez la bouche'--'Shut your mouth!'"
    When Miss Keith decided to end her life, at 60, she wrote out detailed instructions to her undertaker. She demanded a secret funeral, saying:
    "I didn't care to be gaped at when I was alive, and I don't care to be gaped at when I'm dead.''
    She ordered that her body should lie three days in a room kept filled with fresh flowers--and that an orchestra should play a program of 27 pieces which she listed. They included the "Moonlight Sonata," some Beethoven symphonies, "Danny Boy," Schubert's "Ave Maria" and "Still wie die Nacht." She ordered that her body be cremated without religious rites, and her ashes scattered over the sea. All this was
scrupulously done. Miss Keith took her own life, with chloroform, lying in a luxurious day bed.
    The jury couldn't say the "Veiled Lady of the Cats" was insane. The will contest will probably be re-tried.
Decatur Daily, Decatur, Alabama, June 2, 1934, page 5

    LOS ANGELES, Oct. 1 (A.P.)--Superior Judge Robert W. Kenny today approved a settlement effected out of court in the estate of the millionaire recluse Miss Margaret A. Keith, who committed suicide last year in her Beverly Hills mansion. The Beverly Hills mansion of the wealthy spinster will go to a brother and sister, David Keith, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Etta Keith Eskridge of Los Angeles. They also will get 4600 shares of Silver King mining stock. Mary Allen Towle, a niece, receives 4000 shares of the stock. Albert C. Allen Jr., Oregon farmer, who was bequeathed virtually all the estate under Miss Keith's two wills, will receive the remainder of the estate, with the provision he shall provide a trust fund of $50,000 for the benefit of his son, Albert C. Allen III. Kenny was informed by lawyers the inheritance tax on the estate will amount to $31,000.
San Diego Union, October 2, 1934, page 7


Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, Utah, December 5, 1935, page 14