Harry Manon

Reno Gazette-Journal

June 14, 1987

Killer of Nye County Lawman Never Captured

By Phillip Earl

Nevada’s 20th century mining boom fostered dozens of new communities and along with them problems for law enforcement officials.

Harry Manon was put on the Nye County payroll to help stem the tide of lawlessness.

The young Californian had arrived in Tonopah in 1903 to take up a lease on the Valley View Mine. Following a stint as an employee of the Goldfield Bottling Works, he moved to Bullfrog in January 1905, where he became the agent for the Bullfrog Townsite Co. He soon went into law enforcement, however, being appointed a deputy sheriff for southern Nye County by Sheriff Tom Logan.

On March 19, about 10 days after he assumed his new position, five men pulled a raid on some Italians at a wood camp near the mining site of Montezuma. Holding the woodchopper at bay, the desperados ransacked the cabins and took $400 in cash.

As the bandits rode out, the Italians got to their guns and a lively skirmish ensued. The raiders lost two horses, but doubled up to make their getaway. The Italians followed tracks through the soft dirt for some distance, but lost the trail when they reached the harder surfaced road to Goldfield.

Deputies Manon and J.R. McDonald learned of the raid the next day, but a search of the nearby hills was fruitless. On March 23, Manon was in Rhyolite when he learned of two suspicious characters who had been seen near Gold Center. Manon and Lem McGarry rode over in a buggy to investigate.

They found the men camped north of Gold Center. Although Manon talked to them briefly, he decided to go on to Beatty to get McDonald before he confronted them. When they arrived back at the camp, Manon learned that his quarry had departed for Gold Center. Continuing south, the deputies found their quarry just on the edge of town.

When the deputies approached, the suspects got to their feet. One of them pulled a gun, and before Manon and McDonald could draw their weapons, the man fired three times, first hitting Manon in the left arm, then putting bullets in his right side and lower abdomen. Manon got off a couple of shots, however, wounding one of his assailants. But McDonald’s aim was wide and the pair fled into the darkness. McDonald managed to chase one of the culprits down. He then loaded his partner in the buggy and took him to Beatty for medical care.

An informal posse was out scouring the hills within the hour, but there was no sign of Manon’s assailant. Esmeralda County Sheriff J.F. Bradley, in whose jurisdiction the shooting took place, had no better luck, but a prospector in from the Bullfrog Hills three days later reported meeting a man on foot who had offered him $25 for some food.

That was the last clue anyone had. Bradley had learned the man’s name, Frank Crouch, from his jailed partner, Clarence Madding. Manon appeared to be doing well and was moved to the Miner’s Hospital in Goldfield on March 30, but his condition worsened after the trip. The physicians decided that only surgery on his abdominal wound would save his life.

But he was very weak afterwards and died on April 5, with his wife and his brother, John, at bedside. ..Some three weeks later, May 4, 1905, Gov. John Sparks announced the state would offer a $400 reward for the capture and conviction of Manon’s killer. …But Frank Crouch was never…seen in Nevada.

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