GOLD RUSH DRAMA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 11

GOLD RUSH DRAMA

FOUR PARTNERS IN MINE MEET TRAGIC DEATHS ——- The little town o£ Taos, Kew Mexico, Is thrilled by a murder mystery of real life that rivals Edgar Wallace, according to a message from Reuter s correspondent in Santa Fe to the London “Daily Chronicle." The decapitated body of A. R. Manby, an aged and wealthy Englishman, who lived alone in a big house in Taos, was found on July 3 in the library of his home, clad only in a nightgown. The head lay in a room nearby. For many years Manby had lived alone in the house, which was 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. He was last seen alive on June 30, but entries in his diary indicated that he was still alive the following day. When a police officer entered the house, after killing the dog at the front door, the tragedy was disclosed. A coroner’s jury decided Tha: Manby had met his death from natural causes, and that one of the dogs had mauled his master, carrying the head into the other room. Rumours persisted- that Manby had been killed, and State officials placed the investigation in the hands of Henri Martin, a French detective living in the West. Martin not only discovered that Manby had bepn murdered, hut has now cleared up another murder i mystery of 13 years’ duration, and possibly a third that was given up nearly 47 years ago. The body of Manby was exhumed, and it was found that he had been murdered with a sawed-off shotgun. Behind this murder lies an extraordinary story of the days of the gold rush in New Mexico. In 1865 a man named Stone discovered a mine in Colfax County, which lie named the Mystic Mine Two he met a man named Ferguson, with whom he formed a partnership, and soine ore was taken from the claim. In 1879 another claim was staked five miles away, which became the world-famous Aztec Mine, one of the richest gold claims in the world. Xu ISB2 Stone disappeared, and it was suggested at the time, but never proved, that he had been murdered. In 1895 Manby appeared in the picture. He was a promoter, interested in gold properties throughout the West and in Mexico. He entered into partnership with Ferguson and one Wilkinson, and the firm became more and more prosperous. It is now claimed that for years they had been systematically working the Aztec property through a secret tunnel. Wilkinson disappeared in 1921. Henri Martin, during his investigations, heard a story that Wilkinson had been murdered by his partners. He found a woman who had been a servant in Wilkinson’s home, and who told him that Wilkinson had been killed, and his body placed in her room. She awoke in the morning to find it with several bullet holes in the chest. The head was severed, and the body buried in the mountains. Martin found a skeleton and a skull In' the places indicated. Ferguson went mad from drugs, and recently died in a Las Vegas asylum. Now Manby has met his death in the same manner as two of the men interested in the ystie Mine, while the third partner, Ferguson, was destroyed by more subtle but just as certain means. Between the time that Manby was buried and the investigations started, his beautiful home was stripped of its treasures, rugs, furniture, and £6,000 in gold dust which he was known to have concealed around the building.