Drifter Who Died in ’84 Left $1 Million to American Legion

An eccentric drifter who died nearly a decade ago left more than $1 million in abandoned bank accounts to an American Legion post, the state controller’s office said Thursday.

With interest, the three accounts total $1,013,843, Controller Gray Davis said. He said the money came from the bank accounts of Max Taylor, who died in 1984 at the age of 68.

Little is known about Taylor, who died in Long Beach. He reportedly never married, worked sporadically as a house painter and traveled the country. It was not known how he acquired the money.

The controller said the Taylor case was resolved after the “Unsolved Mysteries” television show sought information about the state’s largest unclaimed accounts.

Under California law, dormant or abandoned bank accounts are turned over to the state after three years for safekeeping.

The beneficiary of Taylor’s accounts is the 132-member American Legion Post in Bedford, Iowa, a community of about 1,500 people near the Missouri line. Taylor was a member of the post in the 1940s and 1950s.