A New York woman was stunned to find nine cases of 100-year-old whiskey worth $100,000 hidden in the walls of her mansion. Then, it mysteriously disappeared... and she thinks she knows who to blame. Jon Swaine reports.![]()
The caretaker is due to appear in court in Pennsylvania charged with stealing and drinking 52 of the bottles of Old Farm Pure Rye
When Patricia Hill discovered a batch of 100-year-old whiskey hidden in the walls of the house she was renovating in Pennsylvania, the haul was so large that she needed help to remove it.
Fortunately John Saunders, the live-in caretaker of the mansion Ms Hill was transforming into a bed-and-breakfast, was on hand to assist in transporting and cleaning the nine cases of pre-Prohibition tipple.
Yet after dusting the bottles down, Mr Saunders, 62, allegedly returned on his own to polish half of them off.
The caretaker is due to appear in court today in Pennsylvania, charged with stealing and drinking 52 of the bottles of Old Farm Pure Rye, which were valued by Bonhams, the auctioneers, at about $102,000 (£67,000) - almost $2,000 per bottle.
Returning last year to inspect the whisky, which was produced in 1912 at a nearby distillery owned by the industrialists Henry Frick and Andrew Mellon, Ms Hill says that she found about half the boxes contained empty bottles.
“I thought I was going to faint,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “I was in shock.”
“The corks were removed or a hole punched through the bottom half to get the whisky out,” Barry Pritts, the local police chief, later said in his report. “The labels were pulled off.”
Mr Saunders, sitting quietly in a nearby recliner, humbly offered an explanation. “The whisky probably evaporated,” he told police. And besides, “being that it was old”, it “was probably no good”.
Yet Ms Hill, 57, was immediately suspicious. “I picked him up out of his chair and said ‘Tell me the truth!’” she said. “But he stuck to his story.”
However it is alleged that the caretaker, apparently no fan of CSI, did not count on police recovering a sample of his DNA from his home, after he failed to turn up to an appointment for a cheek swab.
“The DNA profile obtained from John William Saunders matched the DNA profile obtained from the mouth of three of the whisky bottles,” said Chief Pritts.
“What a nerve,” said Ms Hill, who had planned to display the whisky in a nearby museum. “To me it is just unfathomable. But, I suppose, it must have been delicious.”
Mr Saunders was fired by Ms Hill and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing at a district court in Scottdale today. He faces up to seven years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000 if convicted. Mr Saunders denies the charges.
Ms Hill’s renovation of the mansion, which once belonged to JP Brennen, a local coal and coke tycoon, was completed. After opening her bed and breakfast last year, she remains “an optimist”, she said.
However she deeply regrets the loss of the vintage whisky, which Brennen is believed to have kept for sharing with renowned local industrialists Frick, Mellon and Andrew Carnegie. “Saunders literally pissed it away,” she claimed. “All that history — down the toilet.”
When Patricia Hill discovered a batch of 100-year-old whiskey hidden in the walls of the house she was renovating in Pennsylvania, the haul was so large that she needed help to remove it.
Fortunately John Saunders, the live-in caretaker of the mansion Ms Hill was transforming into a bed-and-breakfast, was on hand to assist in transporting and cleaning the nine cases of pre-Prohibition tipple.
Yet after dusting the bottles down, Mr Saunders, 62, allegedly returned on his own to polish half of them off.
The caretaker is due to appear in court today in Pennsylvania, charged with stealing and drinking 52 of the bottles of Old Farm Pure Rye, which were valued by Bonhams, the auctioneers, at about $102,000 (£67,000) - almost $2,000 per bottle.
Returning last year to inspect the whisky, which was produced in 1912 at a nearby distillery owned by the industrialists Henry Frick and Andrew Mellon, Ms Hill says that she found about half the boxes contained empty bottles.
“I thought I was going to faint,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “I was in shock.”
“The corks were removed or a hole punched through the bottom half to get the whisky out,” Barry Pritts, the local police chief, later said in his report. “The labels were pulled off.”
Mr Saunders, sitting quietly in a nearby recliner, humbly offered an explanation. “The whisky probably evaporated,” he told police. And besides, “being that it was old”, it “was probably no good”.
Yet Ms Hill, 57, was immediately suspicious. “I picked him up out of his chair and said ‘Tell me the truth!’” she said. “But he stuck to his story.”
However it is alleged that the caretaker, apparently no fan of CSI, did not count on police recovering a sample of his DNA from his home, after he failed to turn up to an appointment for a cheek swab.
“The DNA profile obtained from John William Saunders matched the DNA profile obtained from the mouth of three of the whisky bottles,” said Chief Pritts.
“What a nerve,” said Ms Hill, who had planned to display the whisky in a nearby museum. “To me it is just unfathomable. But, I suppose, it must have been delicious.”
Mr Saunders was fired by Ms Hill and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing at a district court in Scottdale today. He faces up to seven years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000 if convicted. Mr Saunders denies the charges.
Ms Hill’s renovation of the mansion, which once belonged to JP Brennen, a local coal and coke tycoon, was completed. After opening her bed and breakfast last year, she remains “an optimist”, she said.
However she deeply regrets the loss of the vintage whisky, which Brennen is believed to have kept for sharing with renowned local industrialists Frick, Mellon and Andrew Carnegie. “Saunders literally pissed it away,” she claimed. “All that history — down the toilet.”