Murdered Bookie From the 40s: detecting his property

[ToastedWheatie]

The story:
My friend grew up in farmalnd, and an adjacent property had lived Crazy Old Lady "H". Mrs. H had no visable means of suppoort, no children, no visitors, and seldom left the house. The house was a large farmhouse, and was kept up.
She passed away around 1970, and her husband 20+ years before that. He was a bookie for the Mob (we are about an hour outside of NYC), and was murdered in Chicago.
She died with no heirs, and my friend doesn't remember what happened to the property in the house. He does remember going into the house after she died, looking for her "stash" (don't judge now, he was a teenager...). He found lots of old betting slips (confirming bookie stories), but no cash.

Maybe she used banks, maybe not.

but my thought is in the bookie being murdered. What mobbed up guy wouldn't have cash available? And would they wife actually know about it? It's not that he had an opportunity to speak on his death bed.

fast forward a few years and the county took the property for taxes. A few more years and the the local fire dept. burned down the house as it had become unsafe.

My friend heard about my MDing, and jumped at the chance to tell me his long held secret of the property, as he has always wanted to go back and search, but "just never got around to it"'
The property was never developed, and now just sits as woods.

I should be going tomorrow, and would guess that this will take more than one visit.

So my question to you is; Outside of the normal detecting that i would do for old foundations, is there something special i should be looking for? Was there a favorite way/place/? that the mob stashed cash back in that time period?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Big Bad John]

The lady may had paper money that got burn in the house. A big shame. Maybe she spend all the money.

 

[Citiboy289]

You will be looking for ever !!! I was a Vol Fireman in the Hudson Valley , When we used to burn those types of places down , It burned to the ground and then we used to bull doze to dug a hole and push over the remains . You will more that likely get thousands of hit from just the nails and junk alone Think I would pass on this one !

 

[ToastedWheatie]

@Citiboy289: Not worried about that. Goal is to potential hiding places near the house. Not in it.
Found it yesterday (actually found garage), and began to hit the adjacent stone wall, larger trees, etc.

 

[Big Bad John]

You will be looking for ever !!! I was a Vol Fireman in the Hudson Valley , When we used to burn thos types of places down , It burned to the ground and then we used to bull doze over the remains . You will more that likely get thousands of hit from just the nails and junk alone Think I would pass on this one !

I hope that you search the houses before you burn them down.

 

[lastleg]

Think about it, if the bookie owed money to that thing they would have gotten it back before the
deceased kicked the bucket.

 

[Big Bad John]

Sounds right to me, Lastleg.

 

[Bum Luck]

Well, I can think of worse places to look. I've done worse places.

WTH, go for it. HH!

 

[Citiboy289]

I hope that you search the houses before you burn them down.

They were always cleared before a burn, Best we ever did was a 3 story old rail road hotel , It was so bad we were not allowed to enter it, Floors were caved in upon one another ------------------ The Chief had a D 10 bull Dozers Dig a huge pit.------------------------ The wrapped a strip lumbering chain around the building base making a horse shoe , hooked the chains to the d 10 and then they drove off. thing fell into itself ------- they pushed it in the pit and started the burn TOOK 3 days to burn out . There was some good stuff in the pile , Brass beds ect Anyway that was 30 plus years ago

 

[roadrunner]

I would hit big time.
Spend a lot of time there.
Look for stones that might move in the wall.
You already have the trees.Look for hollow spaces,and of course,around them.
Look for shrubs that look out of place,or are not from the immediate landscape,in other words,planted. Check under them.
Of course check the ground.
If you see a pipe stiucking out of the grond,dont bypass it.
Check for an under ground safe place or a old bomb shelter. Or a tornado hide out.
If there are any rocks,or boulders around,turn them up and check underneath.