Jay Yates, Gambler, One of the Heroes

Goes to His Death With Sinking Titanic After Helping Women and Children to Safety—Sends Good-By to Mother

Special Dispatch to The Inter Ocean

New York, April 20—That Jay Yates, gambler, confidence man and fugitive from justice, known to the police and in sporting circles as J. M. Rogers, went down with the Titanic after assisting m any women aboard lifeboats, became known today when the following note, written on a blank page torn from a diary, was sent to the New York World:
“If saved, inform my sister, Mrs. J. F. Adams of Findlay, Ohio. Lost
[Signed] J. H. Rogers.”

Helped Women to Safety

This note was given by Rogers to a woman he was helping into a lifeboat. The woman, who signed herself “Survivor,” enclosed the note with the following letter addressed to the editor of the World:

“You will find note that was handed to me as I was leaving the Titanic.
Am stranger to this man, but think he was a card player. He helped me
Aboard a lifeboat and I saw him help others. Before we were lowered I saw
Him jump into the sea. If picked up, I did not recognize him on the Carpathia.
I do not think he was registered on the ship under his right name.”

News Broken to Mother.

The World’s correspondent at Findlay today found Rogers’ mother, Mrs. Mary A. Yates, an old woman. She broke down when told her son had perished.

“Thank God, I know where he is now,” she sobbed. “I have not heard from him for two years. The last news I had from him he was in London. I spent nearly a fortune getting him out of trouble some years ago. Then he was charged with forgery.”

While living in Findlay, Rogers borrowed $1,900 on his property by having another woman forge the name of his wife to a mortgage.

Chicago Inter Ocean, Sunday, April 21, 1912, p. 1, c. 4: