MURDER FOR GOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1929, Page 10

MURDER FOR GOLD

■ p? .-„’c • REAL Life “THRILLER.”. , t '• •" - '' ! •; / ■-■/-•’: ' The little town of Taos, New Mexico, is thrilled by a murder mystery that’ rivals the tales of Edgar Wallace, according’ toz-aU message from Reuter’s correspondent in. Santa. Fe. c: The decapitated body of. A. R:.' Manby, an -aged And- wealthy Englishman, who'.lived-alonfe in a big. house'-’ pi'iTaos] was found iri' the library- STad inly in'a nightgown. ' The severed head lay in a room nearby..- For many Manby had lived Jhldne in. this big>" house, richly, furnished and filled with ,’ Valuable Persian rugs. , and art treasures. . . -■ -■ - ■ - He lived, it is believed, in constant fear for his life, and his only companions were two ferocious police dogs. An officer entered the house, after kill- - ing the dog at the front door, only to (ind the gruesome remains. A coroner’s jury found,.-that .Manby :had met-r-his death * from? riatpral causes, and/that tpke second dog had mauled his master, and bitten through his spinO, carrying nhead into the other room. umours- persistecl-'-that -A'laqby had been killed, and State offiSihls began

, an, investigation, placjng/thd' actual refie|rch /n the hands oi : ?Hpnri 4iriemifient French.idetecti/e, who lives/ iiv’the Wbst. . • < ? Martin has no/only conclusive evidence that Maribyhwas murdered, but has. now cleares£hp another murder mystery of 12 years’ duration, qnd possibly a third, that'was'given up nearly 47 ; -years ago.~ ! Acting on the* evidence, /Martin obtained, the .body of Manby,- was exHuined, and it was found /that he had been murdered with shot gun, which Had blown away his, right jaw. The., murderer or.. murdere“ tllqiii severed" the head and place'd"it in* the, room \4liere it was found. I Behind this murder lies an qihary story 6f the days of the “gold;.; in NewsMdxicb.'-In 1865 a maifpained Sitone discovered a mine in Colfax County, which he named : ’the MysticMine;‘Two years later he met a man named Ferguson, with whom he formed a; partnership, and some ore was taken f - om the claim. In, 1879 another claim was staked - five miles away, which became the world-famous Aztec Mine, one of the in the world. Tr| 1882 St'dne disappeared, and it was sh-idf : at-'tlfe time, but- never proved,.,, that’, ih&Aiad been: ’ murdered. In 1895 h'lariHyjappeared in the picture. He was a; p'fbmotej’, “interested/in "ol“ , pro-_ peiTiel throughput, 'the West and in’* Mexico. He entered into partnership

with .‘Ferguson and pne -Wilkinson, and the s firm became more and more prosperous. It; is now. claimed “that. for

they had- been systematically “orking the Aztec property through a secret tunnel; Wilkinson . disappeared in 1921. Henri Martin, during his investigation of the Manby death, heard a story that Wilkinson had been murdered by his partners. He found a woman who had bpen a servant in Wilkinson’s ' home who told him that Wilkinson had been killed and his body placed in her room. •The head..-was severed and the body buried in the mountains. Martin fdund a skeleton and a skull in. the places indicated. , - ' * v . i Ferguson went mad from' dimgs and; recently died in a Las,, Vegas : asy Ipm. jNOw Manby has met his death tri the srime manner as iwb of I 'the meh interested in the'Mystic‘Mine/• K ’Between the'time that,.Manby was.bpried and th'e investigation started. ' his beautiful.home was stripped- of-its-treasures, rugs, furniture and £3OOO in gqldj dust, which he was known tq. have concealed around the building. i C