Last week we published an excerpt from a Paper Money article by Terry Bryan relating to a book about a bank robbery of the Jackson, Tennessee branch of the Union Bank in 1859. Terry put me in touch with author Tom Aud, who writes:

Gold is the Key:Murder, Robbery, and the Gold Rush in Jackson, Tennessee
Author: Thomas L. Aud
ISBN-13: 978-0-9671251-3-8
Format: 6 x 9 Trade Paperback
Pages: 282
Price: $25.00

BrayBree Publishing Company LLC announces the release of Gold is the Key: Murder, Robbery, andthe Gold Rush in Jackson, Tennessee, a new book by Madison County Archivist Thomas L. Aud.

In 1985, the discovery of a mysterious cache of gold coins led to gold fever in Jackson, Tennessee.City workers who had unearthed the 300 nearly-mint coins quickly cashed them in at local banks orexchanged them for jewelry. One person even traded them for a used car. There was an investigationby the Jackson Police Department to determine the rightful owners and a lawsuit by the City ofJackson against those who had obtained the coins. But in the end, the mystery still remained: whoactually buried the gold coins and why?

At the time, Aud worked for the Jackson-Madison County Library. With the question of ownership ofthe gold coins prevalent, he researched property records and discovered past owners of the place thecoins were found, but found no answers. The mystery led him to dig deeper over the next 25 years andexplore the possibility that they were linked to an unsolved robbery of the Jackson branch of the UnionBank of Tennessee and the murder of its clerk, George E. Miller, in February 1859. The results of hisresearch are presented in Gold is the Key: Murder, Robbery, and the Gold Rush in Jackson, Tennessee.

The 28-year-old Miller lived in the bank building located on East Baltimore Street where the NewSouthern Building stands today. There his body was discovered on the morning of February 4, 1859,having been hit over the head with a canceling hammer he had used in banking business. Missing from the vault were $17,300 in paper notes and $5,700 in gold coins. Over the years, there were suspectswhose guilt could never be proven and individuals claiming to know the whereabouts of the gold coinswho offered their knowledge in exchange for a reward. But the murderer (or murderers) was neverfound and the coins were never recovered.

Aud is confident the buried coins are linked to the robbery of the Union Bank and the murder ofGeorge Miller. "All the coins found in 1985 predated the bank robbery and murder in 1859 andmany were in good or better condition, which indicated to coin collectors that they could have beentaken from a bank," he said. "If the coins had been stashed away by a land owner in advance of or inreaction to the occupation by Union soldiers during the Civil War or a national depression, logicallythere would have been coins more recent than 1858 included."

Gold is the Key: Murder, Robbery, and the Gold Rush in Jackson, Tennessee is available on BrayBreePublishing's website: braybreepublishing.com

For more information, or to order, see:Gold is the Key:Murder, Robbery, and the Gold Rush in Jackson, Tennessee(braybreepublishing.com/books/goldisthekey/)