The man who faked his death on the Titanic (Pt. 3)
Mischief on the ocean liners Pt. 4
The Titanic experts have determined that Jay Yates was not a passenger on the Titanic. It seems that he was able to get a female accomplice to hand a note to a newspaper after the sinking that falsely claimed his death on the Titanic in the hopes that he would no longer have to deal with the federal authorities on his trail. From the records I have been able to find, it seems that Yates did succeed in staying off the radar. I will discuss a few things that I hope could eventually help in determining where Jay Yates ended up.
The Bly and Yates Saloon
My sister was able to find a city directory of Findlay, Ohio, in 1904 that listed a man named Jacob Yates, who owned a saloon with a man named Carl D. Bly. Though the name in the directory is Jacob Yates, which was the name of Jay’s father who passed away in 1896, the address that is listed for Jacob Yates matches other records of Jay Yates and the name of his wife, Hannah, indicates that this was actually Jay Yates himself.
I did a little further research on Carl D. Bly, and I found it interesting that he, like Yates, seemed to fall off of the historical record in the 1910 census. Bly did however show up at later dates.
Cincinnati Residence
Some additional information is given in The Cincinnati Post dated June 11, 1912 regarding Yates' possible residence around the time of the Titanic sinking in 1912 along with some additional descriptive information. Here are some excerpts:
“Jay Yates, alleged swindler, arrested in Baltimore because of failure of his efforts to make Federal detectives believe he had perished on the Titanic, was in Cincinnati for several months recently…
Post Office Inspector Morgan Griswold was assigned the case of running Yates down in Cincinnati. ‘He is the boldest and slickest fellow I ever went after,’ said Griswold Tuesday.
Yates got mail at the general delivery windows of the Cincinnati Post Office under the name of J. H. Rogers, and sometimes Yates, but escaped arrest despite this boldness…
Post Office Inspector-in-Charge Birdseye believes Yates is the head of a band of money-order thieves who have been working throughout the United States.
When he first appeared in Cincinnati, and before his presence became known to his pursuers, Yates, who liked to be conspicuous, wore a gray derby hat. He would stand in front of the Havlin or Sinton Hotels, and thus by boldness seemed to defy the detectives.”
Jay Yates also had a brother who lived in Cincinnati named Charles Jacob Yates who passed away in 1910.
World War I
At the time that Yates faked his death, World War I was on the horizon. Yates would be above the age range of the draft, so this did not necessarily lead to any additional opportunity to pinpoint a record. However, in his book discussing Yates, George Behe does mention that it is believed that he was still in operation during this time and may have been overseas. In my thoughts, this means it is likely he was still gambling on the ocean liners.
Passenger travel on the ocean liners significantly decreased after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915.
An article dated April 8, 1915, in the Morning Sun of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, speaks to how this impacted the ocean gamblers at the time:
“As a result of the appearance in Excelsior Springs of the advance guard of ‘evening clothes’ gamblers, who usually ‘work’ the ocean liners in the summer, Mayor James R. Holman has issued orders for a special police service to protect tourists here. Special policing of hotels is provided for. The first gamblers driven to summer and health resorts because of cessation of travel to Europe who came here were advised to ‘move on’. There are usually both men and women among these gamblers. Bridge easily leads to a quiet hand at poker. It is likely that resort hotels throughout the country will have many of these gamblers to deal with during the summer.”
Every rat returns to his hole
After reading the Silent Sod post about Jay Yates, my father sent me a great quote, “every rat returns to his hole,” essentially meaning that Yates most likely would return to those he is closest to. For Yates, this seemed to be his sister, his mother, or his wife. Here is some information I was able to find about these women.
In January 1913, several newspapers printed a story that Hannah Yates filed for divorce from her husband, Jay T. Yates, as he had never again made contact with her after both forging her name to a mortgage for $1000 and faking his death on the Titanic. Hannah never remarried and died in 1948 in Carbon, Indiana.
Jay Yates’ sister, Frances ‘Fanny’ Adams, whom he had the false death note written out to, died in 1923 in Findlay, Ohio. Her obituary listed her as having two brothers surviving her, G. A. Yates and B. B. Yates, which would appear to be her brothers George Yates and Barnes Yates.
Yates' mother, Mary Yates, died in Findlay, Ohio in 1919. In her will, Yates’ name is listed. Under his address it states “unknown, not a resident of Ohio.” Nothing was left to Yates, but each of his siblings are listed as receiving an inheritance.
It is notable that the obituary of his sister in 1923 seems to indicate that Yates is no longer living, but in 1919, his mother’s will suggested that he may still have been alive.
Conclusion
If you are interested in reading more on the Yates’ family account of what contact they had with Yates over the years, I would suggest reading George Behe’s Fate Deals A Hand. Behe did an outstanding job researching information on Yates and was able to interview a family member of his.
I hope perhaps one day, with information from both Behe’s research and some of the genealogical records, I may be able to write a part four of this series where I can share the conclusion of the whereabouts of Yates’ life. It seems likely that he at some point started to go by another alias and most likely continued to live as a fugitive. Perhaps he eventually was arrested.
Behe states he reached out to the Post Office to determine if he ever was arrested and so far has not gotten an answer. I would love anyone’s feedback for further ideas of where to look to solve this mystery.
I don't think I realized before this post that he had a Cincinnati connection.
Fun to write. I think I will look more into his wife's story. She ended up moving to Illinois for awhile, it wouldn't surprise me if she still had contact with him at some point, but of course no way to know for sure. We will solve this! ;)