tallulah jane's bucket list: THE BANKS THEY HAD ROBBED or reputed to have robbed

Sunday, July 19, 2015

THE BANKS THEY HAD ROBBED or reputed to have robbed

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF LAWRENCE, KANSAS Robbed March 1932

In March of 1932, Clyde, Ralph Fults and Raymond Hamilton robbed the First National Bank at 746 Massachusetts Street. Below is the view from the window at the Hotel Eldridge where bandits were staying while casing out the turf. The bank could be seen from their window. The bank building is now a fancy restaurant named "Teller's", complete with the original walk-in vault that serves as the entrance to the restaurant's bathrooms. How cool is that!?

FIRST STATE BANK - CEDAR HILL, TEXAS Robbed October 8, 1932 Raymond Hamilton equipped with a gun and a freshly stolen car, walked into this bank on October 8, 1932 and left with $1,400, and again on November 25th the following month. This time, he hit them up for $1,800 with the help of Les Stewart.

R.P. HENRY & SONS BANK LANCASTER, TEXAS February 27, 1934 On February 27, 1934, while Bonnie Parker waited in the getaway car, Clyde and Raymond Hamilton walked into this Lancaster Texas bank and walked out with over $6,000, after forcing L.L. Henry and several customers to lie on the cold tile floor.

HOME BANK OF GRAPEVINE TEXAS Robbed January 6, 1933 Robbed by Barrow associates Odell Chambliss and Les Stewart, the Home Bank was founded in 1900 by local banker R.E. Morrow. The bank had closed it's doors in 1933. An investigation into this robbery had led police to the home of Raymond Hamilton's sister, Lillie McBride. This resulted in the killing of Malcolm Davis by Clyde Barrow, who showed up at the McBride home.

FIRST STATE BANK OF OKABENA, MINNESOTA Who really robbed this bank? In an effort to modernize, a new facade was placed over the original structure

Many books and online sources have attributed the May 19, 1933 robbery of this bank to the Barrow gang. Two men and two women secreting themselves in the bank and robbing it with submachine guns were shortly after identified as being Tony Strain 32 and his wife Mildred, his brother Floyd Strain 28 and Alice "Stormy" Martin 25 all of whom were tried and convicted of the crime. Tony Strain sentenced to 80 years and his wife Mildred sentenced to 40 years. Question is, did the Strain gang take the fall for a Barrow gang job? Tony Strain and companions were all positively identified by the victims in a line up In Cumie's unpublished memoirs she claimed to have seen all the silver dollars from the Okabena bank heist. Could these silver dollars Clyde had brought home have been the ones he had gotten from the Lucerne bank on May 12th? Clyde Wanted Report in connection of the Lucerne, Ind. bank heist

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF REMBRANDT, IOWA Robbed January 23, 1934

NATIONAL BANK OF POTEAU, OKLAHOMA Robbed January 26, 1934

FIRST NATIONAL BANK - STUART, IOWA Robbed by Barrow & Co. on April 16, 1934

While Bonnie waited in the car, Clyde and Henry Methvin walked into the white building on the left, which was a Drug Store in 1934 and bought themselves a Coca~Cola. They then walked a short distance to the bank, robbed it and locked everybody in the vault before leaving.

COMMERCIAL BANK - ARKANSAS This view is from the sidewalk in front of the building looking northeast toward the old Commercial Bank building- The one with the single green pillar in front. You will notice a small space between it and the next building to the right. This is the alley down which Marshall Humphrey was lured and captured.

PONDER STATE BANK TEXAS The bank is now home to the Ponder Boot Company. Scenes from the Warner Bros. movie were filmed here. The movie showed Bonnie and Clyde as attempting to rob this bank. It was actually Raymond Hamilton who had attempted to rob this bank, and found that it had failed a week earlier. Hamilton was mad at the time, but later, in telling the story to Clyde, they both had a big laugh over it.