The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-11-21
BARNEY IS A SUICIDE
LATE HEAD OF KNIcKERBocKER
TRUST COMPANY KILLS SELF.
PUTS BULLET IN BODY
Deed of New York Financier Attribut.
ed to Distress of Mind Over
Loss of Fortune and
Standing.

New York.-Charles Tracy Barney,
the deposed president of the Knicker.
booker Trust company, and until re-
Gently power in the financial world,
shot and killed himself Thursday in
his home. His loans with the bank, it
is said, are amply secured, and when
he was forced from its presidency he
was, to all intents and purposes,
eliminated as a factor in banking
circles.
What i'll effects his unexpected TAX.
ing off might have had on the finan-
cial situation generally had long since
been discounted. In distress of mind
over the dissipation of his private for
among business associates, intimate
acqCaintances find the hidden drift
that broke his health and reason.
Much of his personal wealth might
have been saved. At the time that
Barney was dying at his home at
East Thirty-eighth street and Park
avenue, and surgeons probed for a
bullet that, misdirected by nerve
less hand, had entered the body below
the heart, handful Of friends at a
downtown office were concluding an
arrangement by which the loose ends
of the bankers many enterprises
were to be gathered up and financed
BY stock company which, if not
wholly successful, would at least res
cue from the wreckage sufficient to in
sure the promoters future financially.
The conference broke up at the an
nouncement that Mr.. Barney was
dead.
Mr.. Barney, who was in his fifty
seventh year, shot himself early in
the day, while alone in his chamber
at the rear OF the second floor of his
home The bullet entered below the
heart and lodged under the left shOul-
der blade. He died about 2:30 o'clock
after suffering intensely.
Bank Cashier a Suicide.
Kansas City, Mo-. b. Thomas,
cashier of the Bank of Albany of Al
bany, Mo-, prominent Democratic
politician and former grand master of
the Masonic Order of Missouri, com
mitted suicide at the Midland hotel in
this city Friday, leaving no message
to explain his action.
There is no evidence that the affairs
of the Bank of Albany are involved
in the tragedy, the surviving officers
having asserted emphaticplly that
they knew of no reason for the sui
eide of Cashier Thomas.
Thomas registered at the hotel at
1880 o'clock Thursday night and went
to his room, and was not seen
alive again by the employees of the
hotel. When no response was given
tG repeated knockings on the door, a
forced an entrance. Thomas
was found dead in the bathroom, fully
dressed, with a bullet hole in his right
temple and clutching pistol in his
hand. The coroner decided that he
had been dead several hours.
Thomas was so years old and had
been cashier of the Bank of Albany
since 1880. Before that time he had
1eld several important political Of
fees and he had continued to take an
active part in politics. His son, Claude
Thomas, is cashier of bank at GRAY
ty, Ia, and daughter, Mrs. DR.. Sta
)leton, lives at La Harpe, Kan. His
widow is living.
The other officers of the Bank of AL
lany are: C. H. Kent, president; ]. L.
vice president, and NJ. o.
assistant cashier. The
,ank has a capital stock of $4,000,
Ind a surplus and undivided profits
amounting to $4,000, according to its
asst statement.
Friends of the dead banker at AL.
,any stated that he had suffered much
mental anguish of late because of un-
ortunate personal business ventures.