Documents / FOIA release
This FBI Freedom of Information release is part of the Bureau's file on Silas M. Newton. It holds 1941 reports from the Kansas City and Los Angeles field offices in an espionage case that began in New York City. Agents looked at Newton's oil businesses, including the Kansas Western Pipeline Company and the Newton Development Company, along with his bank accounts in McCracken and Wichita, his hotel residences and his marital status. Informants described him as an oil promoter and a loyal American. The case was left pending with undeveloped leads.
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that it was about six weeks prior to May 16, 1941, that a withdrawal or deposit appeared in this account. stated that the Newton Development Company, of which Mr. NEWTON is president, has banking connections in Wichita, Kansas, but he was unable to recall the name of the bank that these con- noctions were with. ## At Wichita, Kansas Cashier of the Kansas State Bank; Assistant Cashier of the Southwest National Bank; Vice President of the First National Bank; and Assistant Cashier of the Fourth National Bank, all in Wichita, Kansas, were contacted in an effort to locate the bank account of the Newton Development Company, with negative results. Assistant Cashier of the Union National Bank, Wichita, Kansas, upon interview advised that the Newton Development Company maintains an account at that bank. displayed to Agent the records and account of this company at that bank, which reflected that the account was in the name of the Newton Development Company, and that S. M. NEWTON was the only individual authorized to draw on this account. The address of the Newton Development Company was given as Box 433, Ness City, Kansas, and later changed to the Broadview Hotel, Wichita, Kansas, and later to Box 3, Dodge City, Kansas, on May 12, 1936. It was subsequently changed to 908 Equitable Building, Denver, Colorado, which according to these records is the present address of this company. stated that although the records did not reflect it, he was of the opinion that S. M. NEWTON had formerly been associated with the Moody Interests, of considerable wealth and backing at Galveston, Texas. An inspection of the records concerning this account of the Newton Development Company reflected that there were no cancelled checks which had not been sent to the company at the Union Station Bank. The records reflected that the balance in this account at the time it was inspected on June 18, 1941, was $115.97. A further inspection of this account reflected that the average balance from March 21, 1941, to May 27, 1941, was about $300. The deposits during that period were $1,675, and the largest withdrawal during this period was $350. This bank does not have a Recordack System, and it was
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FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 18 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.