Ace Mitchell: Ashtrays, a Dead Saint, and Bavarian Bullion

by Michael Berman

The whole adventure started with a Firestone Tire replica ashtray, created for the New York Worldâ??s Fair in 1939. Pat Mitchell (who really exists) bought the ashtray at a yard sale. According to Mitchell, engraved into the ashtrayâ??s lip was a code pertaining to a fortune in gold bullion. Intrigued, he began to collect these ashtrays and found more codes. He became obsessed. Was Pat crazy, seeing things? He enlists his reluctant grandson, an investigative reporter, to help. Ace Mitchell, Patâ??s grandson, begins a grand quest for the truth, which takes him from Philadelphia to Clarksburg, West Virginia to Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. During his investigation, he encounters members of U.S. Intelligence, Der Spinne, a Nazi organization based in South America, and one of Germanyâ??s richest men. What will he a fortune in gold bullion, hidden by the Jews of Bavaria before the war, or a verification of the delusional obsession of an old man? Ace Mitchell is a story that jumps between pre- and post-war Bavaria and current times. It is a story of greed, murder and hypocrisy. Pat Mitchellâ??s notes are very thorough and reproduced in the book. Could it all be true?

452 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2011