Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-02-03
"A Mystery of the DefunCt Nye
and OrmSby County Bank.
Why Has No Adequate Effort Been Made
to Probe the Notorious Case
TO the Bottom.

Last summer, when the grand
jury was in session probing into
county affairs and making sugges-
tions as to where county expenses
could be pruned and reduced, a let
ter was written to the foreman
from Reno by a leading citizen
of that place, then resident there,
stating that two important witnesses
in the Nye & Ormsby County Bank
case were in that city, and would
come to Tonopah at their own
expense even and testify if a prop
er subpoena were issued for them.
A letter about the same purport
was also written to the then dis
trict attorney, Cleve H. Baker.
This prominent citizen received
replies to both letters Both were
of about the same tenor. Salts
faction was expressed that such com
petent witnesses were at hand and
the recipient of the letter was asked
to request the attendance of the
two witnesses in question. But not
word was said about a subpoena,
nor was any effort made to issue
one, nor to secure the issuance of
one
Who the Witnesses Were.
The two witnesses in question
were former Receiver Hall of the
defunct bank and Senator Boyd,
the attorney for the receiver.
The evidence that these two
men stood ready to give was so
sensational and startling-so vital
to the successful prosecution of the
thieves who robbed the bank, and
got away with thousands of the
peoples money-that the failure to
summon them looks suspicious Was
there too much politics at stake
or was it something else?
To satisfy public sentiment few
cases against the bank and against
bondsmen OF county officials were
permitted to hang fire in the district
court, in which showing was
made once in while by the argu-
ing of demurrer or the making
of a motion of no particular con-
sequence, but everyone was too busy
to bother with subpoena.
Was it because some people did
not want too much of the truth
to come out
The COunty's Interest.
The county had 100000 in the
Nye & Ormsby County bank at the
time it closed it's doors. Not only
this, it had in the bank three notes
one for $4,000 and two for $1O.-
900 each-given by the county for
moneys it had been compelled to
borrow. When the bank closed it
was found these three notes had
been peddled over in San Francisco
placed in the hands of innocent
holders the result that not
only does the county stand to lose
its 100000 deposit, but it may have
to pay these notes as well, although
the bank to which they We're given
was creditor of the county.
That is only another feature of
the funny business which has char
acterized this peculiar affair all
through.
With this much at stake-and
with an empty treasury confronting
the county-the county's interest
in the bank is pretty well estab-
lished. Evidence of important wit
nesses should be secured, If it was
vital to the recovery of the money.
Some of the Evidence.
After the bank closed its doors
its first receiver was Hail. He
made a thorough investigation of
the books of the institution. He
discovered that just before the Nye
& Ormsby closed its doors six hun
dred thousand dollars-just think
of it, over half a million!-in Sc
curities and collateral were trans
ferred to its branch in Goldfield.