Will Maupin's Weekly

In the Public Eye
"SCOTTY'S" MINE IS A MYTH
"Death Valley Scotty" told a Los Angeles grand jury the other day that the president of a life insurance company had grubstaked him for years, and that a New York mining engineer put up the $10,000 which Scotty paid for the special train in which the Death Valley man made his spectacular trip across the continent several years ago.
Scotty also testified that he had tried to persuade the officers of the Death Valley Scotty Gold Mining and Developing company to locate a few mining claims in Death Valley, in order to give the mining scheme the appearance of genuineness, but alleged that they refused to do so, saying it was unnecessary.
Scotty told the grand jury that his "hole in the ground down in Death Valley" is a myth, which has been used for years to fill the pockets of the promoters.
With the exception of F. C. Goodwin, the secretary of the company, and its treasurer, Goldworthy, the officers of the mining concern, have apparently dropped from sight.
Scotty's confession contained this other bit of interesting history:
He never located a mine, either in the Panamint range, the Funeral mountains, or anywhere else; he never owned a mine, was not a miner, his only role was to make a big splurge, to advertise himself as the spectacular and unbridled spendthrift while all the time cunning schemers were formulating plans upon which they should profit by this show.
And all Scotty got, he says, was an amount of money that could not be dignified by a loftier title than a "hand out."
Scotty said the most he ever had at one time was $3,000, and that the yellow complexioned roll he carried was upholstered with one-dollar bills.