Fwd: FW: Alex and Imogene Miller

[BJDESIGNER at aol.com]

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I  wonder who got all the money
 

 
 
Subj:  Alex and Imogene Miller

 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
        
         
 
 
 


 
 
     
 
September 7 and 8,  1996 

AK Miller's Front  Yard 
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($14,500US)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,  Superbearcats, 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  Picadilly Roadster ($115,000US). 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  
forground. 
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... 

A vanilla '31 SV16 Stutz  Sedan ($10,000) 

Bargain of the show: a  '29  Stutz Blackhawk sedan for $7000  US 

A beautiful Stutz DV32  Sedan ($27,500) 

Anyone need a new Stutz  engine? Still factory fresh. 

A'23 HCS ($12,000 US)  lurks in the darkness of the barn 

A Lebaron dual-cowl Stutz  from 1929 ($68,000US) 

A '27 Stutz AA Sedan for  $6500US 

1925 Stutz Speedway Six  ($9000 US) 

T-Head engine in a '21  Bearcat 

Build a '22 Stutz toruing  car from this pile of parts for just  $10,000US