Incredible Cache Of Stutz Automobiles Found In Barn, Outbuildings

[Hardrock69]

http://www.rense.com/incredible.html

Too many photos to post here. But this is the very definition of a 'barn find', taken to the extreme!



Consider the strange story of Alex and Imogene Miller of East Orange , VT. They eked out an existence on a small farm. Alex would scrounge rusty nails from burnt buildings to repair his roof. He drove a ratty VW Beetle, and when it died, he found another even more ratty, and another...the rusting carcasses littered his yard. Alex died in 1993, and Imogene died in 1996. The local church took up a collection so they could be buried in the churchyard, and the state began the process of taking the farm for taxes. That would have been the end of a sad story, except....

Forget the VW: a '28 Franklin ($4500US) and a '23 HCS($14,500 US) lurk inside. While preparing the estate for auction, the sheriff discovered a cache of bearer bonds taped to the back of a mirror. That triggered a comprehensive search of the house and outbuildings. The estate auction would eventually be handled by Christies, and it would bring out collectors from all over the world..


1913 Stutz Bearcat went for just $105,000US. Must have been the bad tire. It seems that Alex Miller was a Rutgers grad, son of a wealthy financier. He lived in Montclair , NJ , where he founded Miller's Flying Service in 1930. He operated a gyrocopter (look it up, it's too much of a digression) for mail and delivery service through the 30's. But the Millers had a secret, and they moved from Montclair when they needed room for it.


Step behind the wheel of a 1916 Stutz Bearcat ($155,000 US). Choosing to live low profile, and paranoid about tax collectors, Miller moved to the farm in VT, and took his collections with him. Most of his cash had been exchanged for gold and silver bars and coins, which he buried in various locations around the farm. He carefully disassembled his gyrocopter, and stored it in an old one-room schoolhouse on his property. He then built a couple of dozen sheds and barns out of scrap lumber and recycled nails. In the sheds he put his collection.


Have to remember to clean that '20 Bearcat out of the shed ($50,000 US). Alex Miller had an obsession with cars. Not just any cars, but Stutz cars. Blackhawks, Bearcats, Super bearcats, DV16's and 32's. He had been buying them since the 1920's. When Stutz went out of business, he bought a huge pile of spare parts, which was also carefully stored away in his sheds.


A Springfield Rolls Piccadilly Roadster ($115,000 US), made in Illinois . Sometimes, he would stray, and buy other "special cars", including Locomobiles, a Stanley, and a Springfield Rolls Royce. He never drove them. He'd simply move them into his storage sheds in the middle of the night, each car wrapped in burlap to protect it from any prying eyes. Over the years, the farm appeared to grow more and more forlorn, even as the collection was growing.

A snappy car: 1921 Stutz Bearcat ($58,000 US). Occasionally he would sell some parts to raise cash.

Rather than dipping into his cache, he would labor for hours making copies of the original parts by hand.


Stutz factory spares. Cylinders and pistons from a brass era Stutz in foreground.
Collectors knew him as a sharp trader, who had good merchandise but was prone to cheating. His neighbors had no clue at all, they thought Alex and Imogene were paupers, and often helped out with charity.


Wheelbarrow blocks a '28 Stutz Blackhawk Boattail Speedster ($78,000 US).
The auction was a three day circus, billed as the "Opening of King Stutz Tomb". It attracted celebrity collectors, as well as thousands of curiosity seekers. The proceeds were in the millions, some items went for far more than their value in the frenzy. In the end, the IRS took a hefty chunk of the cash for back taxes, which proves the old adage about the only two sure things in life...

Final tally: $2.18 million at auction

$1 million in gold

$75,000 in silver

$400,000 in stocks

[clarathecarrot]

What a find!

I have rehabed a few houses for sale, as I tore into walls I allways wanted to find some depression era, don't trust the banks stash, long forgotten by previous owner..no luck there, but made out alright on the houses.

Yeah, those hoarder people are St'nutz!

I have 5 old Playboys.. I probably should see someone..?:biggrin:

and those bees I have been keeping in a match box I think they are pissed off.

[Hardrock69]

There was an incident some years back where some guy was remodeling a home he owned. He tore into a wall, and discovered a Thompson submachinegun hidden in the wall. Thing is, it was confiscated by the local sheriff, who got sued by the guy because he was not reimbursed for it's value.

Here...from 2005:



By Joe Hosey
STAFF WRITER


LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP A local man rehabbing a house on Reverend Walton Drive made a historical discovery that Geraldo Rivera would have given his right arm for when he plumbed the depths of Al Capone's vault.

But Mr. Fixit says he turned into a loser on a lucky day when police stepped in to keep the mint-condition Tommy gun he found concealed in the walls of the house he had recently purchased.

The man broke down a wall in the home he bought to spruce up and resell and happened upon an immaculate 77-year-old Thompson submachine gun stowed safely in a canvas bag.

The discoverer of this buried treasure, real estate businessman Andrew Mayes, called police, and Deputy Dan Jungles arrived Tuesday afternoon to pick up the "Chicago typewriter," as the gun was sometimes called, and take it into the department.

"It's in pristine condition," Jungles said of the historic weapon, which was stashed with a cleaning kit and about 400 rounds of ammunition. The ammunition was accompanied by a 65-year-old receipt from Barrett Hardware Co. in Joliet. The hundreds of .45-caliber slugs cost $3.33.

Sheriff Paul Kaupas, a Marine, Vietnam veteran and longtime law enforcement officer, is well-versed in the history of firearms and appeared pleased by the recovery of the legendary Tommy gun. He said this particular weapon was manufactured for the Navy, but could be legally purchased by private citizens in the 1920s.

A brief check of the weapon showed that it had been fired before it was hidden away in the wall of the house, Kaupas said, but he does not know if it would be worth the effort to investigate if the machine gun had been stolen or used in a criminal shooting.

Kaupas said this particular model of the Tommy gun, a 1928A1, "shoots real sweet," and that he wants to keep it with the department for posterity's sake.

But Mayes wants it back and has contacted a lawyer about recovering his find.

"They took it, and they're going to do what they want with it," Mayes complained of this turn of events. "What right do they have to keep it?"

One right the sheriff's department does have to seize the weapon is that it would be illegal to possess, said John Birch, president of Concealed Carry Inc.

"In the state of Illinois, there are no fully automatic weapons allowed. Zero," Birch said.

"It's a felony (to possess the weapon)," said Birch, an Oak Brook resident.

Birch did say Mayes could get around the law by making the Tommy gun inoperable. While this might decrease its value as a collector's item, it would allow him to keep it.

"Let's not be a law enforcement officer. Let's be a peace officer and give (Mayes) 15 seconds with a welder's torch," Birch advised police.

Birch also pointed out the weapon could be kept as an artifact without putting the public at risk.

"The Museum of Science and Industry has a submarine, right?" he said. "Are they going to deploy it and sink ships?"

Mayes said he only involved police in the matter to make sure the weapon was not the instrument of foul play.

"Basically the only reason I called them was to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with it," he said, "that it wasn't involved in any incidents."

But then the cops kept it on him. And after speaking with an attorney, Mayes is convinced he can have the gun back without breaking the law.

Mayes also believes he is being deprived of a substantial profit by the sheriff's department taking away the gun he found.

"I've been calling around about it, and it's worth a lot of money," Mayes said. "(A Florida gun dealer) said $10,000 would be the lowest."

[clarathecarrot]

Reminds me of Government agencies taking all, if not the lions share of treasure hunters spanish shipwreck wreck gold.

Dude spends 30 years training and blood $ sweat the hard work and then ends up getting robbed, these things suck ass and are the things I will change when elected....lol

Just kidding there, but I do find that more of a crime than the possesion of the firearm.

Laws that rip us off are getting passed more and more.

Entrapment created by local law enforcement ( city council actually) waiting for us to get lucky somehow so they can profit by from what was only seconds ago unkown .

Dang.

[Hardrock69]

You go check out any treasure hunter's forum, and one of the unwritten rules occasionally mentioned is that if you actually find a treasure of some kind, mum is the motherfucking word.

For instance, a lot of states have laws that say anything found that is over 100 years old is the property of the state or some such bullshit.

The UK has the perfect law.....if you find a stash of some old roman gold coins for example, you mark the location so archaeologists can have a crack at the site, then you go inform the proper government officials. They WILL confiscate what you have found, BUT, a panel of experts at the British Museum in London will figure out a fair market value for the treasure, which will be split between the finder and the land owner. If I am not mistaken, if what you have winds up the subject of a bidding war between various museums, then whatever the final auction price is will be what is given to finder and land owner. And finally, the cool thing is that the treasure will go on display in a museum somewhere.

That is the sensible way to do things.

But in the US, what with the Fourth Reich and all, common sense is trampled under foot by greed and Big Government.

[LoungeMachine]

Reminds me of Government agencies taking all, if not the lions share of treasure hunters spanish shipwreck wreck gold.

Dude spends 30 years training and blood $ sweat the hard work and then ends up getting robbed, these things suck ass and are the things I will change when elected....lol

Just kidding there, but I do find that more of a crime than the possesion of the firearm.

Laws that rip us off are getting passed more and more.

Entrapment created by local law enforcement ( city council actually) waiting for us to get lucky somehow so they can profit by from what was only seconds ago unkown .

Dang.

So what you're saying is you saw the commercials....and traded your bent bike in on a metal detector?

:gulp:

[clarathecarrot]

So what you're saying is you saw the commercials....and traded your bent bike in on a metal detector?

:gulp:

I saw a episode of ghost hunters and realized your concept that ghosts can only be seen in black and white or what we call "infra red" wich is not really infra red, but a editing program done in post production and that fact that in order to once again "not see these ghosts" durring the trek tru the "ghost area" you must also whisper, as to sneak up on said ghosts, is how you percieve life in general.

So, stay on the big ticket items and thanks.

[chefcraig]

I saw a episode of ghost hunters and realized your concept that ghosts can only be seen in black and white or what we call "infra red" wich is not really infra red, but a editing program done in post production and that fact that in order to once again "not see these ghosts" durring the trek tru the "ghost area" you must also whisper, as to sneak up on said ghosts, is how you percieve life in general.



I stopped having much faith in Ghost Hunters when I realized how much "stuff" was added in post-production. For one thing, there is no other way to explain the monumental expansion of Kris Williams' chest in just a few short seasons.



http://img1.imagehousing.com/50/94df11a262734e9ad88c00e03793d36e.jpg (http://www.imagehousing.com/)

[Nitro Express]

They will confiscate indian artifacts even if they are found on your property.

If you want to sell it. Just say it's been in the family for generations. You can sell it then but if you said you just found it, federal agents have been known to pay people a visit.

[Nitro Express]

I know a guy who does lots of traveling to Asia and back. He travels with some gold coins on him. He just tosses them in the bin when he goes through airport security with his change and comes in to countries with a couple thousand dollars of undeclared emergency money that is accepted anywhere. He says nobody at the airport even notices. They think it's change. If you found one of those old Spanish gold chains you could just show up looking like a rapper from the 80's. Yo man, I'm Vanilla Ice! put the chain in the bin. Go through security and off you go with your artifact. Security and customs would think it's some lame costume jewelry.

[Nitro Express]

One of my neighbors has a 31 Oldsmobile limosine he found in a barn in Rock Springs, Wyo along with one of the original Yellowstone Park stage coaches. The coaches were burned to get the metal out of them for WWI so they are rare. Basically the Oldsmobile is all original. The paint is still in relatively good shape. The compression on the engine was good and the crank shaft endplay is good and tight. Nothing loose. I helped him pull the engine and put new gaskets in it and we just dropped it back in and changed some of the wires on the wiring harness and put in a 20 amp fuse and the car runs and drives great. It's a cool in line six engine. the only problem he has had is the water pump packing leaking but it's just lead and grease so that's easy to fix. No seals on the transmission and it's just a simple crash box. You have to use major heavy weight oil that is almost like a grease or it runs out between the shafts and the case. We used straight STP and that worked pretty well but then the 600 weight steam cylendar oil works the best. You just can't get that at the local NAPA store.

If you are running an old car you have to put some oil in the gasoline or you will have a valve stick and ruin the engine. It's the 10% ethanol in the gasoline. I've been running Lucas oil gas treatment in all of mine and no problems. In fact I think they run better on it. You can even use the stuff to clean injectors on your modern car. Marvel Mystery oil works well too. But you have to put some additional lubrication in the gas or you will ruin your engine.

I wanted an original Zenith carburetor for my 1930 Model A. It had a after market one and really didn't run that great. So I got on Ebay and saw one for sale. It was a hunk of rust for $10. I just wanted the cast iron case but when I got it, it had all the jets and everything. It even had a wasp nest in it. The venturi was broken so I replaced that. Anyways after retapping and cleaning the case I used all the original jets and only changed the gaskets. Man. That carburetor runs and idles great! Everything is original except for a few gaskets and it even purrs on slow idle. $10. Winning!

But old cars are fun. I've always had something collectable since I was a teenager. I had to sell a few over the years and wish I could have kept them. The prices on some have come down. The economy is hurting the prices right now on some makes and models but people will always want them. I wish I collected more motorcycles. Less storage space needed and the prices are through the roof on those.

[Nitro Express]

Franklins and Bear Cats are cool cars. The Franklin has a pull out mother in law seat. In the day is was considered inappropriate to have a single woman in a two seat car because he could take her anywhere and do anything. So there is a pull out seat for mom to come along and make sure no fucking took place in the car.:biggrin:

[Hardrock69]

Saw a show on TV where Jay Leno discovered a Bearcat in a garage only a couple of miles from his warehouse where he keeps his collection in Burbank.

[clarathecarrot]

Saw a show on TV where Jay Leno discovered a Bearcat in a garage only a couple of miles from his warehouse where he keeps his collection in Burbank.

eeet wuz a dooo .. zen'birg..It'z a dooozie....Duesenberg..

excellent show none-the less if I may correct you sir...I could be wrong due to my innability to rem..re- remmbberrr.... what was the question...?

[hideyoursheep]

eeet wuz a dooo .. zen'birg..It'z a dooozie....Duesenberg..

excellent show none-the less if I may correct you sir...I could be wrong due to my innability to rem..re- remmbberrr.... what was the question...?


WTF happened?

Did thome jerk off in a vegetable garden?



<a href="http://4gifs.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://4gifs.com/gallery/d/32353-1/titsorgtfoarabs.jpg?" alt="4gifs.com" /></a>

[chefcraig]

WTF happened?

Did thome jerk off in a vegetable garden?

Close. His dad squeezed one off into a flower pot, which in turn gave birth to a bloomin' idiot.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

for rubbin' one out into a flora holder, he's gotta be proud to have fathered a presidential hopeful :baaa:

[Hardrock69]

LMAO! But it is correct. It WAS a Deusenberg. My bad.