markmar
Silver Member
- Oct 17, 2012
- 4,178
- 6,358
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
No, he wasn't satisfied with only one. Read the book...
No need to read a book to learn about the human nature . Maybe he found few rabbit holes .
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
No, he wasn't satisfied with only one. Read the book...
Everyone may get a good laugh out of what I am fixing to say, but this is experience talking. If you are in or around the Caballo's treasure hunting or prospecting, you will soon learn
that one of your best friends is going to be a 16ft aluminum extension ladder, you will need it for above and below uses, no matter how clever you are , nothing else will work, don't bother taking one
in with you, after you have been in there for awhile you will find were others have already stashed theres, np
I’ve finished Gold House Book 1 and will offer a few comments. First, as Mike (gollum) has stated several times, this is a “must have” book for anyone interested in the Victorio Peak story. I have three others, Curse of the San Andes, by Henry James, 100 Tons of Gold, by David Chandler and Treasure of Victorio Peak, by Phil Koury. All offer different information and different perspectives, but Gold House is the “go to” reference, no doubt. I caution that the book is presented from the Noss family point of view, with all statements and quoted documents clearly interpreted to benefit their vested interests. The objective reader can judge for himself - this material can be interpreted in more than one way. Following are my takes on various aspects.
Douthit/Caballos. Willie Douthit was likely in the middle of a large gold/artifact recovery somewhere in the Caballo Mountains, the details of which are murky and may never be fully revealed. Doc Noss was in some way also a part of it, possibly intimidating Douthit into a partnership and possibly murdering others along the way. I suspect that Noss removed, say, a couple hundred bars of gold and a number of historical artifacts from Willie's cave. It’s my impression that Noss likely relocated the bullion to the Hembrillo Basin vicinity and used the artifacts and some of the gold bars to stage a treasure discovery at Victorio Peak. I think he likely did this to deflect attention away from the Caballo cache to protect the location of the remaining gold bullion there, and also perhaps to keep hidden evidence of murder in the cave that might be traced back to him.
Doc’s gold. There can be little doubt that Noss was in possession of many bars of gold - that which was recovered from the Caballos, in my opinion. Doc always claimed that the bullion was removed from Victorio Peak, but he allowed nobody else into the treasure room, making himself the only witness to its existence. Benny Samaniego and Seraphin Sedillo both claimed to have also been in the Victorio treasure vaults in the early going, but Benny first stated he was in the Caballos, and Sedillo came off as untrustworthy, even from the Noss’s perspective. These two are questionable witnesses, perhaps coached by Noss to help bolster his claims.
The book presents numerous statements from a variety of people in several locations that Doc Noss sold or tried to sell bullion, was seen in the possession of gold bars, was assisted moving gold bars, and even had gold bars stolen from him during the years he was active at Victorio Peak. Even Charley Ryan, the man who would kill Noss, had himself seen 51 gold bars - part of the 110 bars he and Doc were planning to smuggle to a Mexican buyer. When Noss reneged on that deal, Ryan killed him. The point is, maybe a total of a couple hundred gold bars were collectively seen over a ten year period by a substantial number of people, and those bars were seen either in Noss’s possession, or being hidden by him at various locations in the desert surrounding Victorio Peak. None were seen inside Victorio Peak.
The spy. Much is made of the letters and notes written by Merle Horzmann, as well they should be. Horzmann talked herself into the inner workings of the Noss family’s activities when she became secretary of the Noss's mining company that was formed to claim Victorio Peak and attempt to rectify the “accident” that earlier blocked the entrance to the alleged treasure vaults therein. During these years, Horzmann was playing both ends against the middle. On one hand, as a company officer she finagled herself into a share of the treasure itself, if recovered - a share potentially worth millions of dollars to her personally. On the other hand, she admits being a mole for various government and law enforcement agencies, gathering whatever evidence she could in order to be used to prosecute Noss for a variety of crimes, including at first Gold Act violations, and also murder in the Caballo Mountains. It’s clear from Horzmann’s documents that early in the Victorio Peak days, the FBI and the Secret Service (and Horzmann herself) believed Noss’s claims about a treasure trove in the peak - after all, there was growing evidence that Doc had been trying to sell gold bullion to a number of parties, including the US Mint in Denver. The Noss group was always fearful that the government planned to seize the treasure when located, but Horzmann was hopeful that the company would be able to keep a fair share of the treasure for themselves, especially her share. As the years passed, however, belief in the treasure’s existence faded considerably and the government’s focus shifted to prosecuting Noss for a variety of crimes centered on investment fraud. Horzmann too became cynical about the treasure and seemed more interested in calling in favors as a spy rather than collecting here share of the gold. She clearly had doubts there was any treasure.
Doc Noss. Noss's character was constantly defended in the book - his crimes and indiscretions excused due to stress, paranoia and persecution. While those may be explanations of why he did what he did, they aren't excuses and they don't deny that he was guilty of those crimes and indiscretions. Noss was clearly a devious and troubled soul. He was arrested numerous times - maybe dozens - for assault with a deadly weapon, impersonating law officers, assaulting police officers, possession of stolen property, drunk and disorderly conduct, brawling, etc. He deserted his wife and family for another woman. He well could have been involved in multiple murders. He was known to be lie or give misleading information to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. I don't blame him for the things he did, but I do contend that the proof is overwhelming that he was not a person to be trusted. Or believed.
The Victorio Peak years. The book’s writer views this lengthy period of the 1940s decade as a planned conspiracy by the government to seize the treasure at Victorio Peak, which might well have been the case if any treasure had been located. However, the fact remains that after about twelve years of apparent charades orchestrated by Noss, there was no proof that such a hoard actually existed. The only gold seen was that which was hidden in a number of locations outside the mountain in the surrounding hills. These couple hundred gold bars were the logical spoils from Willie Douthit’s cave in the Caballos, moved to the Hembrillo Basin by Noss and used as discovery props at Victorio Peak originally, and then sold off a little at a time to raise money over the years. In 1949, 110 of these bars were to be sold by Ryan for Noss, but Doc thought he was going to be cheated, so he hid the gold in different places, reneged on the deal, and Ryan killed him for it. By this time, Noss had lost control of Victorio Peak and was working as Ryan’s employee. The 110 bars may have been the last of Noss’s bullion.
Ryan allegedly bought off the judge at his murder trial, promising him a quantity of gold bars from the Mexico deal that fell through. Then, after being acquitted, Ryan stiffed the judge by not paying off, ironically because he didn’t know where Noss had relocated the gold - the reason he killed him in the first place. Remember the Jack Nicholson movie line? “Forget it Jake. It’s Chinatown.” Well, in this case, it’s New Mexico. Ryan went home to Texas and never came back.
Books 2 and 3 in the Gold House trilogy deal with military and political intrigues, crimes and dirty tricks centering on alleged gold recovery at Victorio Peak years after Doc Noss’s death. I don’t intend to read these because if the military and government is involved, I don’t believe anything that is available to the public, even through FOIA. Whatever carefully crafted government scams that went down using the Victorio Peak venue is not what I’m interested in. The question of this thread is “Caballos or Victorio Peak?” If proof of a treasure vault in Victorio Peak surfaces, I’ll reconsider, but until then, I say, “Caballos.”
SDCFIA,
I agree with the possibility of your theory. Oh how I wish that someone had gotten a REAL down and dirty interview with Willie before he died. Maybe that happened, and the person is sitting on the information.
Merle Horzman is a joke. She was never REALLY part of any government conspiracy, as much as she wanted to be. What it looks like is that Horzman and her husband were good friends with the Loriuses (that were murdered along with the Heberers). She joined up with the Noss' after that. She wrote many letters to the State Police at the time trying to implicate Doc in the Lorius/Heberer Murders. She absolutely hated Doc. The author interviewed people in the NM State Police that used to get letters from Horzman during the Lorius/Heberer Investigation. She tried tying Doc in with the "Guerrilla Gang" that supposedly included Doc, Willie, and Buster. Turns out, Doc, Willie, nor Buster had anything to do with the murders. Willie's Cave may have played a part though. The state police said they didn't believe her. I believe that when he friends (the Lorius') were murdered, she took it upon herself to play investigator.
Maybe she was a crank,........................... but then again, who knows what she may have overheard while working for the Noss'?
Mike
I have seen zero evidence that masons were involved with Doc, or that he was a "sentinel". Looking for connections to pet theories where none exists seems to be common among many treasure hunter types. But I'm always open to evidence proving me wrong, so if I missed something, please post what you have.
Even if he was, what significance does that hold for us as researchers?
I've seen people claim VP was a deposit left by Atlantians, should we give that some thought? Does that deserve to be seriously considered?
Yes, I postulated, I didn't claim it was a certain way based on some idea I wanted to link to Noss and/or VP. The idea we must invoke the masons due to the large amount of gold claimed to be stored at VP would require you first to prove that the masons were in a position to collect and hoard it there....
I will be happy to link masons, or atlantians, or space aliens, to our topic here as soon as some verifiable evidence is posted to justify doing so...