Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1907 — GOTHAM BANKER A SUICIDE. [ARTICLE]

GOTHAM BANKER A SUICIDE.

Deposed President of the Knickerbocker Concern Shoots Himself. Charles Tracy Barney deposed president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, millionaire social leader, clubman and one of the best known men in New York City, shot himself in his mansion at 38th street and Park avenue. It is largely to inability to endure the blot upon his business reputation which he feared would result from the suspension of the Knickerbocker Trust Company that Mr. Barney’s closest friends attribute his act. He had been at the head of the trust company for many years and had seen it grow from a comparatively obscure concern to one of the leading financial institutions of the city. Then, almost' without warning, came the crash. The resignation of Mr. Barney as president of the Knickerbocker was accepted by the directors and the next day the great trust company, with obligations to its depositors amounting to nearly $70,000,000, was forced to suspend payment. In the run, which lasted less than a day, the enormous total of $8,000,000 was paid across the counters. Not since the murder of Stanford White by Harry Thaw on the roof of Madison Square Garden has there been a greater sensation than that oAused by the self-destruction of Mr. Barney. In business, social, club and hotel cir-. cles the suicide was the-one absorbing topic of conversation.