John Maslach

TONOPAH TIMES-BONANZA

Dec. 23, 1966

SHERIFF BARRA, DEPUTY MASLACH, THREE GABBS RESIDENTS DIE IN PRE-HOLIDAY AUTOMOBILE COLLISON

A tragedy of the Nevada highways Tuesday evening cast a pall over the Christmas season of 1966 in the town of Tonopah, the City of Gabbs and throughout Nye County. Five persons, including two highly respected law enforcement officers and three members of a Gabbs family, came to their deaths in a two car collision on U.S. 95 eight miles north of Beatty. Injured were four additional members of the Gabbs family.

Sheriff George Barra, 63, and Undersheriff John Maslach, 26, died in their police car at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday evening when it collided with a vehicle containing the seven member Fred Espinosa family…

Police report of the accident as released from… the Nevada Highway Patrol… said the 1961 station wagon driven by Espinosa was southbound in the wrong lane just prior to the crash.

Sheriff Barra, elected to the law enforcement post following the resignation of the late Bill Thomas in 1958… A native of Reno where he was born in 1902, Barra was the son of late Marguerite and Joe Barra…

Surviving are his wife, Mae; daughter, Mrs. Evelyn Speed of Azusa, Calif., two grandsons Robert Oaks and Carl Oaks , the latter in Vietnam; two great grandchildren: three sisters, Mrs. Minnie Davis of Van Nuys, Calif., and Mrs. Lucy Zinetti of San Pedro, Calif.; and a brother, Joe Savant of Indio Calif., and several nieces and nephews.

John Maslach was born in Ely, the son of Mildred Maslach and the late Andrew Maslach, on Nov. 17, 1940… Surviving are his mother, Mrs. Mildred Maslach; brothers George Pavlich and Joe Maslach; sister Sylvia Maslach; aunts and uncles, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Jeffrey of Tonopah, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Lasick of Roseville, Calif., and Mrs. Joe Auer of Coos Bay Oregon.

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