San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-22
A JEYKLL HYDE CASE
BANKER RAMBUSH LED A DOUBLE
LIFE FOR YEARS.
His Suicide in Virginia Develops an
Astounding Career of Duplicity
And Crime.

Juneau, Wis, Oct. 22.-The news of
the suicide of Banker Rambush in
Virginia, created a profound sensa-
| ton here. The small amount of mon
ey found on his person, with no evil
dence of funds on deposit, has set
great deal of speculation afioat.
Juneau, Wis, Oct. 22.-Twenty
| years ago Rambush was engaged in
the real estate business in partnership
with Richard Morse. They purchased
| the abstract office of Judge Lewis,
and he was pushing them hard for
payment. In October 1877, small
| brick building in which were the
county offices and all of the real es-
| tate records was burned. 1t was
| charged at the time that the fire was
| started to destroy the evidence against
started to destroy the evidence a
gainst Ode Traynor, who was county
| treasurer, and who was alleged to be
short in his accounts. TraynOr was
tried and acquitted. At the time the
district attorney suspected Rambush
of being the incendiary and had col
| lected some evidence against him, but
not enough to warrant prosecution.
| The next morning after the fire Ram
| bush borrowed enough money to pay
| Judge Lewis and to secure the alb
stracts. The fire which destroyed the
county records made Rambush. The
records which he bought for $4,000
were then valued at about $4,000.
| Dodge county could not then afford to
| have new records written. Rambush
was the only one who could furnish
| a complete abstract of title to its
| land and he secured from the county
| a contract by which he was to fur
nish it for twenty years all of its alb
stracts. This contract still has two
| years to run. 1t placed every inves-
tor who put money into Dodge county
lands absolutely at the mercy of one
man. 1t is thought he began his
| fraudulent work in 1876. All the time
| he was a good church member. An
/ Episcopalian, he went to the Phesby-
terrain church, because his denomina-
| ton had no church here. He cared
| for the collections of the church.
The defalcations already brought to
light reach the sum of S250,000 and
those engaged in the work of straight
ening out the books claim the end is
not vet. The only assets thus far dis
covered amount to $4,000 and con-
| sist of records in Mr.. Rambush's
office. worth about $4,000; stock in
the Citizens Bank to the extent Of
| a. Of InnINtfnl Ua1nn
and a piece of mortgaged real estate.
The principal losses are sustained by
the following: George Hawkins,
Watertown $4,000: Mrs. NJ. L. Win
field. Fon du Lac, $4,000; Nelson Els
| tate, $4,000; Mrs. Jeanette Howell,
Milwaukee, $4,000; Jas, Coleman, Fon
du Lac. $1,000; ]. J. Williams, Beaver
Dam, $1,000; w. A. Horizon, $4,000;
mortgages of small amounts given to
the register of deeds, to examine,
most of which are fraudulent, $50
900.
| Rambush's operations extended over
a period of 20 years. He must, in that
| time, have handled between S2,OOO,OOO
| and 100000 in the work of buying
and exchanging mortgages. How
| much he received from his clients or
how much he paid them cannot be de-
| termined. He left no account book
worthy of the name. What he did
leave does not extend over the whole
period that he has been in business
and does not show more than a few
instances of his having received
money for mortgages.
He handled thousands of mortgages
| as he has been the trusted financial
agent of a number of wealthy inves-
| tors.
The confession of Rambush which
came in the form of a letter to his
wife. is far from complete. The fam
ily refused to make the letter public,
although the authorities have been
allowed to read it. 1t tells nothing OF
what he did with the money. He
saws that for twenty years his life
has been a lie. He had lead a dual
existence and that life had at last be-
come unbearable, and when his wife
received the letter he would be dead.
He claimed his income from tn office
was not sufficient to keep up his
house in the way in which he wanted
it run. He said that he had not used
any of the money in gambling or
speculation, or had not, as might be
charged, spent it for pleasure or de-
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