John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the youngest of John Wilson, a hard-working grocer, and Mary Ellen "Mollie" (Lancaster) Dillinger. Mollie died just prior to Dillinger's fourth birthday. That year Dillinger's older sister Audrey had married Emmett "Fred" Hancock, and Dillinger went to live with them for several years. In 1912 John Sr. remarried to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fields. John Sr. and Lizzie had three children. In the beginning, Dillinger disliked his stepmother, Lizzie, but eventually came to love her.

Dillinger was constantly in trouble with the law due to fighting and petty theft. He bullied smaller children and enjoyed staying out all night to party. Thinking that city life was corrupting his son, around the year 1920 John Sr. moved the family to Mooresville, Indiana. Dillinger's relationship with his father continued to deteriorate despite the move to a more rural setting. In 1922, Dillinger was arrested for auto theft.

Perhaps he was encouraged, it isn't known for sure, but Dillinger enlisted in the US Navy. As a Fireman 3rd Class, he served aboard the USS Utah, a battleship. When his ship docked in Boston, Dillinger abandoned ship and deserted. Consequently, he was dishonorably discharged.

Upon returning to Mooresville, Dillinger met Beryl Ethel "Berlie" Hovious (1906-1993), a waitress, at a party in Mooresville in December of 1923. They were married on April 12, 1924 at the Morgan County [Indiana] Courthouse by the Rev. V. W. Tevis. Beryl, aged seventeen, claimed that she was eighteen to get around parental consent laws.

Dillinger's problems, however, continued to haunt him. Although Beryl later stated that she experienced a happy, quiet and domestic life with Dillinger, by the summer after their marriage he was frequenting the local pool halls and hung around with some very unsavory and questionable characters.

Dillinger and his friend, Ed Singleton, robbed a local grocery store, West End Grocery which was owned by 65-year-old Frank Morgan. The robbery went down on September 6th, 1924 shortly after 10 p.m. Morgan was struck over the head with a heavy bolt wrapped up in a handkerchief. Morgan struggled with Dillinger which caused Dillinger's gun to hit the ground and discharge without injuring anyone in the process. The robbery netted the pair $50. A minister recognized the two men fleeing the scene and reported this to the police. Dillinger and Singleton were arrested the following day.

Singleton entered a not guilty plea.

John Sr., who by this time was the Mooresville Quaker deacon, convinced his son to confess and plead guilty. Without an attorney by his side, Dillinger was convicted of assault and battery with intent to rob and conspiracy to commit a felony. Dillinger, believing that his father's influence would result in a lenient sentence of probation, was sentenced to serve from 10 to 20 years in prison.

Beryl visited Dillinger once a month at the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton. By 1927, she stopped visiting Dillinger. Beryl filed for a divorce on April 25, 1929, which was granted on June 20, 1929.

NOTE: Beryl married two more times. Once to mechanic Harold C. McGowen in 1929, divorced in July of 1931. And again in 1932 to Charles Byrum. The couple had one child. Singleton fell asleep on the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks on August 31, 1937. Pieces of his body were found 80 feet from where he was run over by a train.

Already prone to easily finding trouble, Dillinger began his life behind bars at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Dillinger honed his criminal abilities, listening and learning from the real pros. He studied Herman Lamm's meticulous bank-robbing plans and used them extensively throughout his criminal career.

On the outside, John Sr. was able to get 188 signatures on a petition for his son's release. Dillinger was paroled on May 10, 1933 after serving nine and a half years. But life was different when Dillinger walked away from his prison cell. The country was gripped in the height of the Great Depression.

With little to no prospects of finding a job, Dillinger put to use what he had learned.

On June 21, 1933, Dillinger robbed the New Carlisle National Bank of Carlisle, Ohio, of $10,000.

On August 14th, Dillinger robbed a Bluffton, Ohio bank. He was tracked by police and arrested. On his person he carried a document which appeared to be a prison escape plan.

Four days after his arrest, what became known as the "First Dillinger Gang" escaped from prison. These men were Harry "Pete" Pierpont, Russell Lee "Boobie" Clark, Charles Makley, Ed Shouse, Harry Copeland and John "Red" Hamilton.

Pierpont, Clark and Makley, impersonating Indiana State Police officers, arrived in Lima on October 12th. When Allen County Sheriff Jess Sarber asked to see their credentials, he was shot dead on the spot. The men released Dillinger from his cell and fled to Indiana, joining up with the remainder of the gang.

Sheriff Sarber was the first of an estimated 13 lawmen that was cut down by Dillinger gang members.

It should be noted that bank robbery was not a federal crime at this time. Investigations were handled by local police and the county sheriff offices.

Meanwhile, Dillinger and his gang robbed dozens of banks and accumulted a total of more than $300,000. There are some confirmed robberies by Dillinger and his gang; some alleged robberies; and quite a few that are more legend than anything else.

Although there were more violent criminals sweeping through the country, Dillinger was the most notorious of them all. The media spiced up their reports with exaggerations of what Dillinger and his gang really accomplished. Consequently, Dillinger was viewed by the general public as being daring and colorful with a dash of bravery.

Dillinger evaded capture for almost a year as he and his gang went through four states. Meanwhile, the government demanded federal intervention. Consequently, J. Edgar Hoover developed a more sophisticated Federal Bureau of Investigation with a goal to capture Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1.

In January of 1934, Dillinger and his gang were on the run. They were captured in Tucson, Arizona where they were in possession of over $25,000 in cash and several automatic weapons. After extradition to the Midwest, Pierpont and Makley were sentenced to death; Clark was sentenced to life. Clark was paroled for health reasons and died of cancer a few months later on December 24, 1968. Pierpont, wounded during an attempted prison escape, lived to be led to the electric chair On October 17, 1934 at the Ohio Penitentiary. Makley was shot dead during the same attempted prison escape with Pierpont on September 22, 1934. Ed Shouse died of a heart attack on September 19, 1959.

It is still being debated to this day as to whether Dillinger had a real pistol or a fake one he had carved out of wood. But escape he did, fleeing in Sheriff Lillian Holley's new Ford car on March 3, 1934.

Regrouping, Dillinger and his gang went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where Hamilton was recovering from gunshot wounds he had received during the East Chicago, Indiana robbery on January 15th.

The gang held up the Security National Bank and Trust Company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, taking $49,500. During the commission of this crime, traffic policeman Hale Keith was severely injured when Baby Face Nelson, who had joined up with Dillinger, spotted Keith. Nelson jumped onto a teller's desk and gunned Keith down through a plate glass window.

From Sioux Falls, the gang traveled back to St. Paul, Minnesota, where they laid plans to make a visit to Mason City, Iowa.

Mason City

The First National bank was designed by architects Liebee, Nourse and Rasmussen. In 1934 it was owned by Charles H. MacNider, U.M.C.A. chairman.

Eugene "Eddie" Green and Homer Van Meter arrived in Mason City. They stayed at the Y.M.C.A. while checking things out over at the First National Bank.

It is believed that the other five gang members spent the night of March 12th at the Manly Hotel in Manly, Iowa, nine miles north of Mason City.

On March 13, 1934, a dark blue Buick sedan made its way to the First National Bank. Seven men were in the sedan: John "Red" Hamilton (the actual leader), George "Baby Face" Nelson, Eugene "Eddie" Green, Tommy Carroll, Homer Van Meter, either Joseph Burns or Red Forsythe, and Dillinger. The fact that the seventh identification caused a problem is interesting because in one account, as reported by the Des Moines Tribune on March 14, 1934, there were six men and one woman. Other later accounts identify the seventh man as John Paul Chase.

Although it was cold and windy on March 13th of 1934, Mason City was bustling as people went about their day. Cameraman H. C. Kunkleman was fulfilling his assignment of filming newsreel footage in front of the First National Bank. Curious, several people stopped to watch him work.

At 2:40 p.m., the men parked the Buick on State Street near an alley that ran behind the bank building. Two remained in the vehicle while Nelson positioned himself across the street. Tommy Carroll stationed himself in the doorway of what was then Mulcahy's Prescription Shop. It is assumed that Dillinger stood guard at the front of the bank while the others went inside.

Bank guard Tom Walters was in his elevated bulletproof observation booth which was built into the wall near the front entrance. The gang members entered the bank, shooting into the walls and ceilings while shouting out orders. As per procedure, guard Walters fired an eight-inch tear gas canister, hitting Green directly in the back. The tear gas gun jammed. Angered, Green grabbed bank executive R. L. Stephenson, using him as a shield while peppering guard Walters' observation booth with gunfire. Walters was struck by a ricocheting bullet cutting a groove from his chin to this right ear.

Bank president Willis Bagley bolted into the nearest office and locked the door behind him. Van Meter fired shots through the wooden door but missed the bank president.

As one or two gang members cleaned out the teller cash drawers, Hamilton escorted assistant bank cashier Harry Fisher to the vault. Bank auditor Tom Barclay retrieved a tear gas bomb from a bank office and threw it across the floor.

At the vault, Fisher dropped a bag of pennies. Hamilton greedily bent down to retrieve the bag of pennies which allowed a steel gate to close and lock between him and Fisher. Fisher attempted to hand small denominaton bills through the bars to Hamilton.

Switchboard operator Margaret (Johnson) Giesen crawled from her office on a balcony above the vault. She shouted for help out of a south window. Upon hearing Johnson, Baby Face Nelson who was standing below the window replied back, "You're telling me, lady?"

The gang used bank employees, people on the street and customers from the nearby Nichols and Green shoe store as shields.

Hamilton muttered, "It's hell to leave all that money back there."

Officer James Buchannan, realizing that a robbery was in progress, grabbed a shotgun and took cover behind the GAR monument in Central Park. He was involved in a brief exchange of gunfire with Dillinger but was hindered in his actions by the human shields around the gangsters.

Police Chief Patton watched, unable to do much from his position at the C.L. Pine Co. across the street.

By a miracle only one civilian was injured during the heist. Raymond L. James, secretary of the school board, was walking up to the corner of State and Federal with the intent of conducting business at the bank. He fled when gunfire erupted. Nelson ordered him to stop. When he didn't comply, Nelson shot him in the leg and James fell to the ground.

Dorothy (Ransom) Crumb and her mother [Daisy (Van Note)] Ransom happened to be pulling out of the alley behind the bank and on to State Street. They pulled up to the gang's car. Nelson ordered them to vacate their car and enter the gangster's car. Dorothy argued with him. She and her mother remained in their own vehicle to watch hostages being taken aboard the gangster's car.

It isn't know how many hostages were forced onto the getaway car. Some estimates run as high as 20 to 26 people. Francis DeSart, a bank teller, was forced to take a position on the rear bumper of the car. A bullet hole in the tail of his coat stands in testimony of the robbers shooting out of the rear window during their escape. (The coat is now housed in the Kinney Pioneer Museum.)

The gang used their hostages as human shields, ordering them to stand on the running boards of the car. The vehicle was so loaded down with human cargo it could only proceed up Federal Avenue at 15 miles per hour.

Miss Minnie Piehm, an older woman who had been taken hostage, suddenly cried, "Let me out! This is where I live!" Dillinger and his gang let her out and then proceeded on like a city bus.

Deputy Sheriff John P. Wallace, using the civil war monument as a shield, fired several shots at the fleeing gang but didn't hit anything.

A policeman pulled R. J. James into the Ransom car. Mrs. Ransom was ordered to hit the horn, stop for nothing, and drive as fast as possible to the nearest hospital.

Chief of Police Patton, Detective Leo Risacher and record superintendent Ray Oulman pursued the fleeing gang and their hostages as far as a road house known as "The Farm," present-day 2053 4th SW, west of Mason City. Hostages were allowed to jump off the car throughout the following hour. The getaway car was found later that night in a quarry near Hanford, four miles south of Mason City.

Cameraman H. C. Kunkleman, pulled out his camera and proceded to take newsreel pictures, capturing the aftermath on film.

The gang made off with $52,000. They were sorely disappointed because they had anticipated that the take would be around $250,000. Legend is that Dillinger had planned to use the money to leave the country.

Dillinger and Hamilton were both wounded in their right shoulders. Judge John C. Shipley, who was elderly at this time, leaned out of the window of his office, took aim with an old six-shot revolver and hit Dillinger, ducked for cover, then later leaned out to shoot Hamilton.

Following are transcriptions from the March 14th and 15th, 1934 issues of the Globe Gazette and a March 15th, 1935 article from The Des Moines Register:

~ ~ ~ ~

Mason City Globe Gazette
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 14, 1934, Page One

ASK HELP OF TWIN CITY POLICE

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ST. PAUL MOB OR DILLINGER GANG BLAMED IN RAID

_______________

Search of Bank Bandit car Reveals No Fingerprints;
Gun Left by Robber Found in First National
Other Stories on Pages 2, 11 and 16.

Search for the seven machine gun bandits who Tuesday robbed the First national bank here of $52,000 and wounded two persons started afresh Wednesday when Sheriff J. M. Robertson asked Twin City police to locate Frank Carpenter.

Carpenter is said to resemble John Dillinger, Indiana prison fugitive, whom several persons have identified as leader of the bandit gang here.

Police here said they had received fingerprints of Dillinger but had located no good prints of the bandit gang here. A search of the bandit automobile found wrecked in a ditch failed to reveal any fingerprints, they said.

A 45 Colt automatic revolver, which belonged to one of the bandits was found in the bank following the robbery. The gun is being help by the police for fingerprints.

May Be St. Paul Mob.

Authorities here believe that the robbers were either members of the Dillinger gang or a St. Paul with whom Carpenters is alleged to be affiliated and which is believed to be operating in this territory.

The Buick sedan abandoned by the bandits after it struck a tree four miles southeast of Mason City bore the motor numbers, 988-844 of Indiana, thus bearing out the contention made by several that the bandits were the Dillinger gang of bank-robbers from Indiana. A check of the number revealed [illegible]. [illegible] of the bank vault Wednesday revealed that the bandits left behind $157,000 in currency in their hurry to escape from the tear gas laden bank room.

Hunt in Two States. While two states were being combed for clews of the mobsters, with bridges guarded across the Mississippi, Sheriff Robertson was continuing his work of getting a complete description of the seven men who in the midst of a machine gun barrage robbed the bank and carried away the money surrounded by a wall of human beings.

The loot of the raid marked a new high in a recent series of assaults on midwest banks.

Tactics employed by the gunmen were similar to those used by the bandits who stole between $10,000 and $20,000 March 6, from a bank at Sioux Falls. They were also like the methods of robbers who made away with $21,000 at Atchison, Kans., last Monday.

In each instance they took hostages with them as shields.

Arriving at the Mason City bank, the bandits scattered a rain of machine gun bullets, injured two persons, scooped up the cash and escaped under the protection of a dozen hostages.

The two who were injured, R. L. James, secretary of the Mason City school board, shot in the leg, and Clarence McGowen, who was attempting to pursue the bandit car, hit in both knees and the abdomen, were apparently recovering in local hospitals.

Vigilantes and police withheld their fire as the robbers' car, its running boards lined with bystanders and bank employees, drove out of town. The hostages were released unharmed a short time later.

Called Him Dillinger.

James Buchanan, city policeman, was the first to connect Dillinger with the raid when he said, after viewing photos:

"I'd stand on a statement that the latter of the bank bandits had the appearance of Dillinger."

At least four persons identified the guard who stood in front of the bank door as being John Dillinger.

Overlooked in the investigation of the bank robbery until late Wednesday afternoon when she was interviewed by a deputy sheriff, Mrs. Jake Leu, 116 Thirteenth street northeast, gave what was considered as the most accurate identification of one of the machine-gunners yet to be discovered.

Examines Pictures.

After examining several photographs from the rouge's gallery, Mrs. Leu said that she was positive that the man with whom she talked while being held in the bandit car as a hostage was John Dillinger, desperado.

Mrs. Leu was picked up by the same bandit that held C. D. Mulcahy and forced to stand on the side of the escaping car.

After a short distance her hat blew off and she thrust her head inside the automobile in order to escape the cold wind.

The robber who was holding the machine gun at the back window of the sedan remarked to her, she said.

"This is a fine police force you got here. They had better quit following [Page 2] or we'll kill some of you people. They ought to know that I kill on sight."

Boyd H. Walter, chemist at the Lehigh Portland Cement company, was in the bank at the time of the holdup. He said that he saw two of the bandits in the bank and believed he could recognize them if he saw them again.

When the bandits left the bank one of the machine gunners walked at the side of Mr. Walter. As they came out of the door, Mr. Walter said he saw another man in the doorway who looked like Dillinger. He was within a few feet of this man.

Dr. Charles V. Dietz, whose office window opens on to Federal Avenue but a short distance to the north of the bank entrance, said that he stood in the window and saw the bandit guard whom he was satisfied was Dillinger. He said that the saw the guard shoot at Jim Buchanan, police officer, who was behind the monument in the park directly across the street.

Wore Gray Suit.

The man believed Dillinger was of medium build, wore a light gray suit and dark overcoat and dark hat, according to Dr. Dietz. He had the bullets pinned on his vest and reloaded his automatic while he was in front of the bank. Dr. Dietz said that the man told Officer Buchanan to come out in the open and Officer Buchanan called back for him to get away from the crowd and he would fight it out with him.

William Philo, 312 North Federal avenue, was in the doctor's office at the same time and saw the holdup. Other patients were in the doctor's office.

Officer Buchanan also identified the bandit with whom he was shooting it out as being Dillinger.

Sheriff J. M. Robertson received word from Waterloo about 9 o'clock Tuesday evening that a car with five men and machine guns drove up to an apartment in Waterloo shortly before 7 o'clock. Police officers hurried to the apartment but the car was gone when they arrived there.

From Centerville.

Another telegram was received from Centerville, stating that four men and a woman registered at a hotel there late Tuesday night. They were driving a Michigan car. Two of the men left immediately afterward and the man and woman stayed until morning.

Sheriff Robertson said that he believed the gang was probably splitting up and heading back for Chicago.

"It was lucky no one started shooting," said Sheriff Robertson, "or probably from 15 to 20 persons would have been killed. Officers were helpless with the organization the gang seemed to have."

It was believed by the sheriff that the blond bandit might have been Blondie Nelson, who held up the Brainerd bank about a year ago.

Sheriff Robertson said that he believed all three cars were used in the holdup, the two cars remaining on the side streets in case they were needed. The holdup evidently was planned in every detail. The bandit car drove up State street from the east, stopping at a filling station, where one of the bandits inquired who lived in the first house two blocks east of the bank. The car came up the street and stopped at the bank.

Was "Hot Car."

The car in which the bandits left town was a "hot" car having been stolen in Indiana, Oct. 13, 1933, and used the next day in a robbery at Chicago. The car had not been seen since that time. It was the property of Charles Williams, 5201 Congress street, Chicago, Ill.

Ed Wybourney, Jr., son of a farmer residing a mile east of the Renshaw corner, [illegible] Grove, saw the bandits drive into a gravel pit near the side of the road and switch numbers on their cars. The bandits escaped with two other cars, one a large blue one, and deliberately ran ran the one in which they left town into the ditch, the car striking a tree as it plunged over the edge of the road.

Seen Near Parkersburg.

Later a blue car, similar in description to the one seen by Wybourney was seen near Parkersburg some time later. The exchange of numbers and loot took place at approximately 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The first man to phone police of the exchange was E. E. Holloway, a neighbor of the Wyboruneys, who lives on Route No. 3. It is believed the blue car is a Plymouth coach bearing a Wisconsin license number.

Late in the afternoon, Lloyd Barrett and Stanley MacPeak, took to the air in an attempt to locate the bandits. They circled west and south over Thornton but found no trace of the car. Later the two men went up again and circles east of town. At this time they saw a blue car heading east but did not know at the time this might have been the exchange car. The car was moving slowly and had no appearance of being other than an ordinary passenger car.

After the robbery the bandits disappeared east of Mason City, sheriffs and police of surrounding territory mobilized to spread a cordon on all roads and bridges.

Iowa and Wisconsin officers guarded all bridges over the Mississippi river and authorities as far as north as St. Paul detailed men on highways.

Hostages Released.

The hostages were released at three different points along the road out of the city, a course which first led west, then south and finally back east to a point two miles east of the paved highway No. 65.

The bandits took with the as hostages:

Emmet Ryan paying teller.	Ralph E. Wiley    assistant cashier.	Lydia Crosby    clerk investment dept.
Ann Stephens American Optical co. employe.	Francis DeSart    teller.	Mrs. Jake Leu    bystander
Mrs. Howard Kreiger customer.	Fred Avery    customer.	Carroll D. Mulcahy    Prescription shop owner.
Bob Leewright wrestler	Bill Schmidt    Killmer Drug employe.	Mrs. William Clark    bystander.
	Mrs. Frank Graham    bystander.

2 MEN DID MOST OF THE WORK INSIDE DURING HOLDUP
Scenes Reconstructed by Officers;
Dozens Interviewed.

Sheriff J. M. Robertson and his staff worked with hast Tuesday night and Wednesday on obtaining descriptions of the seven men who robbed the First National bank Tuesday afternoon in an effort to get the identity of the gang established.

The scenes connected with the daring holdup of the bank shortly before closing time were reconstructed by the officers as they interviewed dozens of men and women who were inside and outside the bank at the time.

Two Were Inside.

While there were conflicting ideas at first as to how many men were engaged in various phases of the holdup, employes (sic) of the bank in general were agreed that two men did most of the work inside the bank while a third stood in the front doorway and a fourth, believed to be John Dillinger, walked back and forth in front of the bank. Three others guarded the rear.

Among those at the rear, one stood at the entrance of Mulcahy's Prescription Shop, the second was in the street while a third was at the driver's seat in the car. While his associates were armed with sub-machine guns, the occupant of the car had a larger weapon which he held poised for action but which he had no occasion to use.

Descriptions Given.

The following descriptions of the men were compiled in the sheriff's office:

No. 1 -- Weight about 200 pounds; about 40 or 45 years of age; scar on right cheek which starts from the cheek bone, would say about two inches long, and goes from the cheek bone to the lower part of the jaw, a good sized scar; wore black high top boots, 10 1/2 size; black or dark blue suit and gray overcoat; height about 5 feet and 11 inches; very stocky build; thick dark eyebrows and about two days growth of beard. This information given by Donald Pierce.

No. 2 -- Man on outside of building; short and stocky; wore a coat which was of the color of an army coat; wore a dark gray cap. This was the man who shot R. L. James.

No. 3 -- Dark complexion; medium height; about 30 years of age; gray hat; light overcoat; dark suit; weight about 185 pounds.

No. 4 -- Fairly good looking man; dark hair; short and stocky build; about 5 feet 5 inches in height; 30 or 35 years of age.

No. 5 -- The man in front of bank holding machine gun wore gray overcoat with striped muffler; dark gray fedora hat. Said to resemble John Dillinger.

No. 6 -- This man who ordered Mr. Bagley into his private office was short, had a light complexion and wore a cap.

No. 7 -- Another man was described as being about 6 feet tall; weight of 185 pounds; wore black hat; light top coat and had a dark complexion.

Acted as Witnesses.

Among persons listed as witnesses by officers were Mrs. Emil Smith and Miss Marjorie Smith, both of Charles City; John Kathan, who picked up a bullet from a machine gun; Edward Roggermann of Rockwell; Arleigh Towne of Eagle Grove; Earl Smith, Arthur Feeney, Donald E. Pierce, C. P. Swardford, F. A. Stephenson, Mrs. William Clark and Mrs. Frank Graham.

Most of the interior work connected with the robbery was done by two men with a third looking in from time to time at the entrance, acting as the liaison between the leader outside and the operators inside.

While one of the two interior operators devoted his time to getting the money through the assistance of H. C. Fisher, assistant cashier, the other held the bank employes (sic) and customers at bay in the front part of the bank.

As soon as the money was packed in bags, the men walked out surrounded by their hostages.

The fact that one of the bandits jerked around when he fired the second time led Judge John C. Shipley to believe that the might had wounded one of the bandits during the robbery of the First National Bank. Mr. Shipley fired from his office on the third floor of the bank building.

"The bandit jumped quickly and turned around," Judge Shipley said. "I think I may have hit him. He did not return fire at that time. Of course, he might have had a bullet proof vest on."

Judge Shipley told how he had heard the shooting from his office and had gone to the window. He saw a crowd in the street below and many persons standing with their hands in the air. He got an old gun he had in the office.

When one of the bandits was clear of the crowd, he fired. The bandit immediately trained a gun on him and fired, the bullets striking the other offices in the First National building. Mr. Shipley ducked but got another shot as the bandits were going down the street.

A bystander overheard one of the fleeing bandits state that he was wounded and this seemed to give further credence to the belief that Judge Shipley's second shot had taken effect.

Clarence McGowan, 1403 Plymouth road, carries three wounds on his body as a souvenir of Tuesday's sensational holdup of the First National Bank.

It was not until late in the evening that he was revealed as one of the casualties of the bandits' visit here, when he was taken to Story hospital for removal of the lead from his two knees and his outer abdominal flesh.

Although an anesthetic was required for the removal operation, it was said at the hospital that his condition was in no sense serious and that his stay in bed would be brief.

Mr. McGowen's injuries occurred when on leaving Mason City, the bandits in the over-filled car, opened fire on his automobile when he was thought to be coming too close. The shooting occurred on Fourth street in the vicinity of the Denison clubhouse.

Accompanying Mr. McGowan were Mrs. McGowen and one of their two daughters, Denise, 5 years old. Both of them escaped injury, however.

The McGowans were attracted by the great number of passengers on the bandit car -- variously estimated at from 17 to 21. It looked like a merry party of some sort. Curiosity beckoned Mr. McGowan on to a closer inspection but the machine gun fire discouraged it.

It is believed that a single bullet, splitting on a piece of metal of glass in his car, caused all three of Mr. McGowan's injuries. This was indicated by the size and shape of the metal removed from his legs and his body.

First aid was administered but when it was discovered that some lead had penetrated beneath the skin, a decision was reached to remove Mr. McGowan to the hospital.

At the hospital Wednesday the injured man's condition was reported as showing improvement.

Page Two

"Wait till they come over the hill and then I'll pop them off."

That was the answer of the First National bank bandits to efforts on the part of Mason City officers to pursue them as they took a zigzag course out of Mason City.

Twelve hostages, taken by the bandits for protection, told the story upon their return to the city of the drive out of the city and of a wild ride in the open country, which included a volley of shots fired at the police as Detective Leo Risacher, Chief E. J. Patton and other officers followed.

Leaving the bank the car was driven north on Federal avenue to Second street, then west to Adams avenue and south on Adams to First street southwest, where it turned east following the regular route out to Fourth street southwest. The bandits took the Clear Lake road westward to beyond the Country club then turned south across the south Clear Lake pavement.

A half mile south of the pavement another car appeared to be following them, but apparently ran into the tacks and stopped.

"If the cars don't stop following us we'll kill all of you," one of the bandits stated. The car turned east at the next corner, then south at the next gravel road and then east along the gravel road, crossing No. 65 about four miles south of Mason City.

Ralph E. Wiley, assistant cashier at the bank, stated that the first he knew something was wrong was when he heard a commotion at the door of the bank. He stepped out of the cage in time to see the men at the front of the building and he dropped to the floor with Harry C. Fisher, assistant cashier.

"We remained here until one of the men came around in back of the cage and ordered us out of the cage. Mr. Fisher was taken to the rear of the bank and I was lined up with the others in the front of the bank.

"The man who ordered us out was short, weighed approximately 160 pounds, was blond and talked tougher than anyone I've ever seen. He was extremely nervous. 'Get out there with the rest of them!' he ordered.

"As we left the bank the bandit's eyes were filling with water from the effects of tear gas. 'We never would have come in here if [illegible]. [Illegible] gun toward the floor most of the time.

"I held back when they ordered me to get on the car and the bandit said, 'Get on there, you bald-headed _____, or I'll drop you.'

"The bandits drove slowing at first, not moving more than 25 miles an hour through the city. When we reached the country and got on level road they speeded the car up to 40 miles an hour or more. It was difficult to hang on and I got extremely cold. We could hear the bandits talking, for the rear window was out of the car and one of the bandits trained his gun on the pursuing car. I was standing on the rear bumper of the car through all this.

"As we reached the city limits, we turned south and the police were trailing us. I knew they would not shoot with us on the car but I was afraid the bandits would shoot at the police. They did open fire shortly after this and the shot pierced the police car.

"When the police stopped following us the car turned east and we crossed the paving four miles south of town where the schoolhouse stands and continued east on this road until we were about up to the tracks near Hanford. We were released there."

"Circle round the car and stand back!" that was the parting remarks of the bandits as the allowed hostages to get off the car. They scattered tacks in the road and went on.

Bill Schmidt, 29, apartment 2, K of C Building, employe (sic) at Killmer drug store, was on his way to the bank building to make a delivery on the fourth floor when the bandits approached. He went into Nichols and Green shoe store but he and the others were ordered out by the bandits.

"The bandits stood us up," Mr. Schmidt said. "I happened to be near the bandits and was selected as a hostage. After the bandits had completed their work they told us to get on a car anywhere we could and hang on. The car was on State Street.

"The bandits drove fairly fast on the straight away," Mr. Schmidt said, "but slowed down for the bumps. I didn't look at them and couldn't describe them -- I didn't think it was wise to look at them as they were going along. They didn't say anything."

Mrs. William Clark, 1227 Tenth street northwest, and Mrs. Frank Graham, 1022 Polk avenue northwest, the last two hostages to be released by the bandits, were left at a point about three and a half miles south and a mile and a half east of Mason City, and the dark blue sedan continued eastward on the gravel road.

The two women related the story of the hectic end of an afternoon's shopping after they were safely returned.

At the point where the last of the men were released the robbers forced the young women into the car with them and drove east for approximately a mile before they decided to let them go.

Asked if she would be able to recognize any of the men, Mrs. Clark replied, "I sure would, especially the one that winked at me."

One of the men referred constantly to a long strip of paper upon which was evidently a detailed description of Mason City and vicinity, according to Mrs. Clark.

He directed the driver and cautioned him from time to time, once telling him, "They have been working on the road here. Watch out for loose sand," and on another occasion saying, "Yep, there's the railroad track."

Another of the party voiced a hope that they could find another automobile, according to Mrs. Clark, evidently intending to commandeer a larger car.

Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Graham had just come out of a meat shop where the former had made a purchase and were at the intersection of State street and the alley right east of the bank building when the bandit described as a "little fellow" [illegible] outside.

Before they reached the car the gunmen snatched the package of meat from Mrs. Clark's hands, threw it to the ground and tramped upon it, silencing her protests with, "You'll get paid plenty for it."

"One called me twice for looking around," declared one of the hostages. "There were six men and one woman among the bandits, as nearly as I could tell. Three were in the back seat. Several times they said, 'Turn around or I'll shoot you.' if we so much as seemed to look in their direction."

To make more graphic the action in Mason City's sensational bank holdup Tuesday afternoon, the Globe-Gazette's artist, Clarence Mallang, has prepared here a sketch of the First National bank and its environs. A key to the letters in the sketch follows below and will be most helpful if referred to after reading the running story of the robbery under the banner line on this page.

A - W. G. C. Bagley's office through a door of which a bullet grazed the bank president's body.

B - Bullet proof cage of Tom Walters, bank guard, from which tear gas was released to confuse bandits.

C - Front entrance to the bank where bandits made both entry and exit, taking a number of bank employees as hostages to protect them on their flight from town.

D - Vault where Cashier Harry Fisher was forced at the point of a gun to hand out packets of currency, mostly in $5 denominations.

E - Rear door of bank leading out from part of the building used by bookkeeping department.

F - Bandit car which awaited robbers as they fled from the bank.

G - Cross indicates where R. L. James, school board secretary, fell a victim of machine gun bullet fired from across the street.

H - Station of machine gunner in front of Prescription shop managed by Carroll D. Mulcahy, who was used as a shield during the robbery and as a hostage afterwards.

I - Station of machine gunner in front of bank, fired at by Judge John C. Shipley from his office in bank building above.

"Good old stone - I've passed you a thousand times but never before have I fully appreciated you."

This was the tenor of a little dialog between James Buchanan, city patrolman, and the Central park boulder which stood between him and the bandit guard in front of the First National bank during the holdup Tuesday afternoon.

Spotting Mr. Buchanan, wearing plain clothes, this bandit, claimed by many to resemble the notorious John Dillinger, drew a gun from an inside pocket and with his left hand sent a bullet sizzling in the local officer's direction. It chipped a corner of the boulder. Mr. Buchanan emerged unscathed. Thus his gratitude to the boulder which for many years had borne a memorial tablet to the G.A.R.

"I'm not saying that this bandit was John Dillinger," said Mr. Buchanan. "I do say, however, that there was a striking resemblance, the more remarkable as I study the pictures of Dillinger.

The principal facial identification was an upper lip that turned up in a snarl as he talked. And he did talk, both to Mr. Buchanan and to those he herded about him for his protection. One of these was Douglas Swale, in charge of the bank's investment department.

A time or two Mr. Buchanan took aim at the bandit but it was evident that the spread of the shot from his sawed-off shotgun -- the only weapon available when hurriedly he left the courthouse where he had gone as a court witness -- would likely bring death or injury to others in the vicinity.

It was on one of these occasions that the bandit caught sight of Buchanan out of the tail of his eye and quick as a wing fired at him with the pistol drawn from his inside pocket.

"Come out from behind there, you so and so," the bandit barked out.

Mr. Buchanan talked back in language understandable to a yeggman.

"There isn't any question but what that bird was an artist with the revolver," Buchanan observed Tuesday night as he described the experience.

Both at the courthouse and at the police station, the rogue's gallery was a much frequented spot, a number at both places insisting that one bandit bore an amazing resemblance to Indiana's John Dillinger.

Those who watched the outward manifestations of the holdup from Federal avenue were impressed by the utter coolness of the man in front of the bank, who marched back and forth with his sub-machine gun, halting cars and pedestrians alike.

When Judge John C. Shipley fired down at him, he made a quick reply with a bullet which pierced a window in the Dr. B. Raymond Weston office. His calmness was unperturbed.

"You'd almost think," one witness suggested, "that that bozo believed he had the only gun in the world."

The bandit guard on the south side of the building was described by members of the bookkeeping staff as "wearing a fiendish grin" as he combed State street with his machine gun, raking the upper floors of the First National bank building occasionally as a possible warning to snipers.

"I thought you were a cop you _____ _____ _____."

That was the bandit's explanation for firing several shots from a sub-machine gun at R. L. James, secretary of the Mason City school board when the First National bank was held up Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. James with a portfolios under his arm was about to enter the bank through the rear door when he heard the firing of a machine gun.

Hearing the machine gun he stepped back. The gunman holding all of State street at bay ordered him to stop and immediately fired at him.

Jerking the portfolio from under his arm the bandit hastily ransacked it apparently searching for a gun. Finding none he threw it back.

"I thought you were a cop you _____."

"I'm not a cop," was Mr. James' answer.

Then Mr. James, who fell along the south wall of the bank, heard the bandit across the street yell:

"What's the matter with that fellow?"

"I thought he was a cop," answered the other bandit.

An x-ray of the leg at the Mercy hospital where Mr. James was taken showed two bullets had penetrated his right leg while a third went through his trousers. The lower bullet splintered some of the bone.

Physicians and hospital attendants were confident recovery would take place if no complications set in. The fact that Mr. James was forced to wait almost a half hour before given attention increased the seriousness of the situation. He lost considerable blood.

The bandit who held the central position in guarding the State street while one associate stood in the prescription shop door and another sat in the seat of the car "acted crazy" according to many spectators of the event.

He interspersed his sprays of shot with outbursts of laughter, keeping, however, a sharp lookout in all directions. He sent shots straight down East State street, puncturing tires and cutting holes in other parts of automobiles. A large new Hudson came down the street toward him.

"Get back!" shouted the bandit and "prrrrrrrrrr" went the gun [illegible].

Tom James, son of the school board secretary, was among those who came hurrying down the street. Seeing his father lying on the walk, he made an attempt to cross the street and was fired at by one of the bandits. One of the bullets hit the car in front of him.

John Kelroy of the Kelroy Fuel and Furnace company was among the group that stood watching the holdup in the Yelland and Hanes store.

"A lot of the fellows kept thinking it was a movie but I told them movie men don't act like that," he said.

Curtis Yelland also had the movie idea but when he saw the bandit laughing and joking in the street, he knew that was not the way movies would have portrayed a bank robbing scene. He was convinced from that that this must be a real robbery.

A wild ride, clinging to the back of a speeding bandit car -- machine guns poking out of a rear window beside him -- his think pharmacist's coat the only protection against a bitter north Iowa wind that brought sleet with it shortly after the mad dash -- was the experience of C. D. Mulcahy, Mason City druggist, as armed bandits robbed the First National bank Tuesday afternoon and escaped, taking 12 onlookers as hostages to insure protection against police fire.

The who action, from the time that a burly stickup man armed with a machine gun pushed the Mason Cityan to the car until his return to his little Pharmacy Shop that faces the bank, took less than one hour.

"The big fellow wasn't so bad," said Mulcahy. "The one that used me and the girl from the bank (Miss Lydia Crosby) for a shield, but the little bid that stood at the bank was the mean one.

"I was on the back of the car, my coat blowing and [illegible] back. One of them told me to button my coat, but I couldn't let go. 'I'll have to shoot through there,' he said.

"They let us off in relays. There was still some of the girls in the car when they put me off. I forgot the name of the farm where they let us off, it's about three and one-half miles south of town. The folks were awfully nice to us."

It was suggested that the bandits might by the Dillinger gang -- "Oh , Gosh, I don't know!" said the Pharmacist. "But they weren't amateurs. It was one of the Keeler farms where they let us off."

"They scattered long roofing tacks - sacks full of them - two or three times," Mulcahy said. "They had four long distance rifles. Must have been about 17 of us in the car and outside. The police cars came out and brought us back."

A bagful of the tacks was scattered near a roadhouse west of Mason City and several shots were fired as the bandit car slowed before turning in its twisting path, it was reported by the roadhouse operator.

Willis G. C. Bagley, president of the First National bank, never dreamed of a bank robbery when he saw the first bandit entering the lobby flourishing a gun Tuesday afternoon.

"I was sitting at my desk talking with Mr. Perry of Lake Mills Canning company when a man entered yelling like a Comanche Indian and brandishing a gun," said Mr. Bagley.

"It is strange the idea of a bank robbery never entered my mind. I thought he was a raving maniac, a crazy man turned loose with a gun.

"I started to run into my office and he followed me and I shut the door on him catching the barrel of his gun in the door jamb. I knew as long as I kept the gun there he couldn't do anything but he managed to pull it out and the next thing I knew the gun went off and a bullet came through the door grazing my vest here.

"The gun clicked again. I don't know whether this was to cock it or whether it was jammed. I thought he exchanged guns with one of the other fellows, but don't know. He had to watch the other fellows outside and soon left the door.

"My plan was to go into the office and telephone the sheriff, but as soon as I got to the telephone they had the telephone girl on the floor and I couldn't get connections.

"I didn't know exactly what was taking place until afterwards when I saw people outside lined up with their hands in the air. Then I ducked down and stayed there until it was over."

The bandit who fired at Mr. Bagley was the one who later forced Harry C. Fisher, cashier, to open the vault and hand out the packets of currancy.

The first patron in the First National bank Tuesday afternoon to come under the command of bandits who made away with some $50,000 was F. A. Stephenson, 87 River Heights drive.

"I was standing at the first customer's counter writing a check," he recalled Tuesday night. "I had just set down the F.A. in my name when I heard a volley of shots behind me. I turned around to find the leader of the gang holding a gun on me and ordering me to put my hands up.

"This fellow, about 35 years old, weighing about 165 pounds and of bad complexion, directed the whole job. When he was attracted by the bank guard in his cage he began asking me questions.

"First he wanted to know how many there were in the cage. Then he wanted to know how to get up there. I told him there was a ladder which was moved after the guard was in place. Then he directed fire on the cage.

"All the time he was using me as a shield, keeping me between him and the guard's cage. The tear gas began to get in its work and I as nearly blinded. So was my captor, for that matter.

"Finally, when the job was over, he marched me toward the street and toward the car which was pointed west on State street. I thought he was going to take me along and protested that I couldn't see. I dropped my hands to reach for my handkerchief.

"'O.K., he said, 'you've done your stuff. Good bye.'"

Page Three

THE extent to which law-abiding people and institutions are at the mercy of the modern criminal -- insecure in their normal pursuits -- was brought home to the Mason City community Tuesday in a never to be forgotten way.

Now that the holdup is history, theorizing on how it could have been balked is popular pastime. The fact is, however, that so long as law enforcement methods lag behind criminal methods as they so obviously do, the thing that happened here can happen again, here or in almost any other American community.

From this point on, so far as Mason City is concerned, the urgency of vigorous and earnest warfare against the bandit and the gangster is past academic discussion. Those who witnessed this terrorizing of our townspeople and the escape, unscathed, of a gang of brazen mobsters will not have to be argued into conceding the seriousness of the situation.

What's to be done about it?

The whole problem involved in combating modern bank robbery was laid out before us in Tuesday's experience here.

First of all, it is obvious that the machine gun gives to the murderous bandit an advantage which can't be off-set by law enforcers, and particularly when used in a crowd of defenseless citizens. In the clear police could fight it out, and perhaps win, but in a crowd, a transcendent duty upon police is to protect life. The bandit is not under such inhibition. The taking of life, even of innocents, is but an incident in his work.

Cowardly though it is, the bandit thrives on this protection. Use of patrons in the bank lobby as shields and slinking out of the city with the threat of death to their hostages were manifestations of this strategy.

Something drastic should be done about disarming the underworld. The federal government should make a point of ferreting out and seizing every machine gun in the country no in the hands of a properly licensed owner. Unexplained possession of such an instrument [illegible] ought to constitute a prima facie basis for [illegible]. This would be on way to effect an equality between the criminal and the law enforcer.

Another, and perhaps more important, steps would be to establish in every state an adequate constabulary, trained to combat bank robbers as well as to promote safety on the highways. This suggestion calls to mind the recent killing by Iowa's special session of a bill to inaugurate a highway patrol, a project more indisputably worthy than any legislation turned out by the assembly.

It's still our opinion that crime doesn't pay the criminal. We feel certain that in time every one of the seven bandits who participated in the local haul will find himself in the hands of the law. The all too frequent cases, however, in which the rewards appear to outweigh the hazards and the penalties serve to befog the issue for those who refuse to take the long look at the matter.

As much to discourage youngsters from entering a life of crime as to provide a constitution-promised protection for law-abiding citizens, America should concern itself passionately with making more certain and more severe the penalties attaching to lawlessness. The Mason City community today is in a mood to subscribe whole-heartedly to such a preachment and program.

Page Five

Newsreel pictures of the Mason City bank robbery of Tuesday were to be shown on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the Cecil theater, according to an announcement by the management.

   

Page Six

Mason City tried to make things as home-like as possible for Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of Chicago university, by having a bank holdup on the day of his appearance here. Members of the Women's club board and their husbands gathered at dinner Tuesday evening at the Hotel Hanford to honor the visitor and glean what bits of wisdom might fall from his lips at an informal gathering. So far were the minds of Mason Cityans from professorial knowledge, that the conversation shifted wildly from one angle of the hold-up to another. Doctor Hutchins seems as interested in the event as the Mason Cityans.

Page Seven

How to deal with the ravaging effects of tear gas without a handkerchief presented more of a problem to one woman employe (sic) of the First National bank, than the holdup. Miss Bess Mudgett, teller of the bank, found herself in such a predicament during the robbery.

Miss Mudgett was waiting on a customer when she saw one of the bandits enter the bank. She stepped back from the window and obeyed the command to lie down when it was given. There was great confusion of orders, according to Miss Mudgett, no one being sure which were meant when the directions were given.

After the robbery had been effected, Miss Mudgett was ordered out of the bank with the rest of the employes (sic). They were lined up on the south side of the building near the bandit car. Fortunately there was no room left on the car for Miss Mudgett and she was not taken for a ride. She said that she was not especially frightened by the procedure.

Neither was Miss Lydia Crosby, a stenographer in the investment department of the bank, who was taken on the car and released a few miles from Mason City. Miss Crosby was ordered out of the building as soon as the hold-up started. Her position in the line-up made it necessary for her to get on the car, although she said she thought the intention of the bandits was to take the tellers and cashiers of the bank.

"I wasn't frightened," Miss Crosby said. "I felt that if we obeyed orders, no harm would come to us. It was cold riding, but not difficult to hang on to the car."

Miss Crosby was one of those standing on the rear bumper. She clung to the back window from which the glass had been removed.

All of the women concerned in the hold-up acted calmly and none of the fainting and hysterics attributed to the sex were evident during the exciting moments.

The holdup of the First National bank has many far reaching effects, among them the necessity for W. G. C. Bagley to withdraw from the cast of "Ten Minutes by the Clock," one act play which is to be entered by the Woman's club in the Iowa City Play production contest March 23.

Rehearsals are being held under the direction of Mrs. E. E. Hunter and the play will be presented for Woman's club members Thursday, March 22, at 3 o'clock in the high school auditorium.

The cast includes Dr. H. E. Jones, Mrs. R. E. Romey, Mrs. Charles Grippen, Mrs. Douglas Swale, Mrs. Draper Long, Edwin Helbling, Don Helbling and Miss Gretchen Bickel.

Page Ten

"I am glad that I saw the bandits operating for otherwise I might have felt that some criticism of the police department would be justified," stated Mayor J. T. laid, whose shoe store was struck by bandit bullets which broke the glass in the display window during the First National bank robbery.

"Not because I am mayor but because I saw how the holdup was staged," Mayor Laird continued, "I believe that the police acted very wisely. While it is true that that bandits got more than $50,000, still no local lives were lost by reckless shooting, such as would have been inevitable if our officers had fired.

"We have one machine gun in the local police department. Even if we had seven policemen each with a machine gun and tried to halt the desperate criminals who held up the bank, the officers would have been unable to do anything, because of the way the bandits shielded themselves with local citizens."

Mayor Laird described the events which took place in front of his store on State street. He was waiting on a customer when he first heard shots. Believing them to be backfires from an auto muffler, he paid no attention to them at once. Soon he heard other shots and someone said that the bank was being robbed.

"I went up to the front of the store," Mayor Laird continued, "and could see an armed bandit in front of the Prescription shop, using C. D. Mulcahy as a shield. This bandit was laughing and just seemed tickled with delight the way he ordered people around. If any questioned him, he shot near them. He seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

"Another bandit was posted at the east end of the front of the store. I could just barely see him as he worked back and forth. Three women came along and he pushed them along in front of my store. He was short and his machine gun nearly touched the ground. Then he returned to the corner of the store.

"The bandit in front of the Prescription shop then fired at the awning of my store. I suppose there were some persons upstairs and the desperado wanted to throw fear into them. I started to go out the back door to get some guns from Currie-Van Neas, but one of the bandits was guarding the alley."

Mayor Laird attempted to call the telephone office so that nearby officers could be notified. Unable to do this and knowing that the work would probably duplicate the officers' work, he remained in his store.

"Even if I would have had a machine gun, I would have been unable to do anything without threatening the lives of local citizens," he said.

Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Barr, 623 Georgia avenue southeast, saw the bandits drive up to the scene of the robbery. They were driving up town on Pennsylvania avenue southeast. They first saw the bandits at the Pennsylvania bridge when the car turned on to Pennsylvania from Fifth street southeast. The car had evidently come from Federal avenue, according to Mr. Barr.

"Isn't that peculiar, they have the rear window out?" said Mrs. Barr.

"It's probably hot," said Mr. Barr. "There's an awful load of them. It looks like a car full of pallbearers."

Mr. Barr followed the auto north to State street. The bandits turned west on State street at the corner of the Baptist church and Mr. Barr said he also turned there and followed the car. He stopped his car at the I.O.F. building to allow his wife to enter the drug store there. He drove his car north on Delaware at that time he said while the bandits continued on west.

Crossing over to Federal avenue, Mr. Barr drove his car down Federal avenue intending to turn east again on State street. The crowd was so dense there, Mr. Barr said he was forced to drive on down Federal to First street south. He drove east and up the alley by the Yelland-Hanes book store and was stopped there by Ole Gregerson, 1210 Fourth street southwest, who told him a bank robbery was in progress.

Chief of Police E. J. Patton, who with Leo Risacher, detective, and Ray Oulman, superintendent of records at the police station, followed the bandit car out of town, said there was no chance to shoot without killing innocent persons.

Near the roadhouse known as the Farm, Detective Risacher drove his car into a driveway as the bandit car stopped and one of the bandits got out of the car and took aim at the pursuers. He fired under the car once, then shot past the car and the third shot pierced the rear corner of the car, barely missing Officer Oulman who sat in the rear seat.

"I have no excuses to offer, said Detective Risacher. "They were well organized and we were helpless. If anyone had opened fire, there probably would have been a massacre. The men were desperate."

Chief Patton said that in order to protect the lives of the hostages there was nothing to do but allow the bandits escape. The police and county officials maintained throughout that the life of innocent bystanders was worth more than the capture of the bandits. Both Sheriff J. M. Robertson and Chief Patton said they believed it was lucky the holdup was staged without the loss of life.

"Had one of the bandits been shot," said Sheriff Robertson, "the others would probably have turned on the crowd."

One of the bank bandits, perhaps an advance worker who conducted a quiet survey long before the robbery was carried out, had been a customer at the Prescription shop, operated by C. D. Mulcahy, who was seized as a hostage. The man had come into the shop several times in the past two weeks, the local pharmacist said. "Even though he was a stranger, I knew that I'd seen him before," he explained.

Shots which were fired at Mr. Shipley hit and broke windows in the offices of Dr. B. Raymond Weston on the second floor of the First National Bank building and Dr. H. W. Barbour on the third floor. No one was in the Weston office at the time but several, including Dr. Barbour, were in his office. The bullet, or stray portion of a bullet, which broke the glass in the Barbour office was not believed to have entered the office, however.

"When we had been ordered to lie down on the floor," said F. C. Heneman, assistant vice president of the First National Bank, "we didn't know whether the others were wounded or were just on the floor according to orders." Mr. Heneman remarked about the roar that seemed to pervade the bank soon after the bandits entered.

It was through the action of the First National Bank's branch exchange telephone operator that an early alarm was turned in to Mason City police headquarters. The operator connected their transmiter with a central office circuit, leaving it so that the noise of the crowd inside the bank was "broadcast" to the local exchange. The police call was relayed from there as operators guess the cause of the disturbance.

Emmet Ryan, who was one of the hostages taken for a ride by the bandits, had looked a couple of times at one of the bandits who was believed to resemble Dillinger, and had been warned by the bandit to look the other way. Once more when Ryan looked at the bandit, the bandit said, "You _____ _____ _____ _____, quit gawking at me or I'll bore you through with holes."

Mr. Ryan could only see the bandit's face above the mouth because of the machine gun but he believed from pictures he had see of Dillinger, that this was Dillinger.

When Francis DeSart returned after being taken for a ride by the bandits as a hostage, some one called attention to a large tear in his coat. Whether or not his coat had been pierced by bullets or merely torn was unknown by him. He was riding on the rear of the bandit car and bandits were shooting out of the auto between him and C. D. Mulcahy. His coat and that of Mr. Mulcahy kept fluttering into the bandit's line of vision and they were warned to keep them back. Mr. Mulcahy was told to button up his coat.

A peak load was placed on central office operators as hundreds of calls were made by excited Mason Cityans who wanted to know what had taken place. Test board men from Northwestern Bell and American Telephone and Telegraph staffs were pressed into service, to remove plugs from the switchboard as fast as calls were completed, while operators set up new circuits for incoming calls.

The bandit car moved into its position at the side of the bank through the north alley that intersects with State street midway between Federal and Delaware, attracting little attention as it passed. Employes (sic) standing in the rear entrance of the Sterling grocery and Ford-Hopkins drug company remarked on its sleek appearance as it cruised slowly through the alley.

"The funniest feeling in the world," was that which Mrs. Francis DeSart experiences as she saw her husband, savings teller who was taken as hostage, pushed out of the bank ahead of the mob. Mrs. DeSart told Wednesday of watching the robbery from across State street. It's something to laugh about a day later. At the time, it was no laughing matter.

Dr. Draper Long found a hole in the tire of his automobile which was parked near the I.O.F. building during the holdup. Other car owners discovered that their radiators, windshields and fenders had been pierce by the spray of bullets from the bandit gunners.

The bandits evidently wanted to keep all avenues of escape open as they "worked" inside of the First National building. About five minutes before they made their dash to their waiting car, a group came into the Nichols and Green shoe store, ordered customers near the front entrance to get outside and crowded others into the rear of the building.

Page Eleven

  With the echoes of machine gun fire still thumping in their ears officers and employes (sic) resumed banking operations at the First National bank Wednesday following the robbery of $52,000 Tuesday afternoon.

That loss suffered by the bank was completely covered by insurance was announced by Col. Hanford MacNider, chairman of the board of directors of the institution. Colonel MacNider, who did not learn of the robbery until the bandits were almost ready to pull out, stated Wednesday he thought all employes (sic) acquitted themselves "magnificently."

The announcement also was made that securities held for other banks and for individuals were intact and could not have been reached by the desperado gang.

"There is no question but what the gas bombs saved us from having more money taken," said Colonel MacNider.

"There was nothing more that could have been done," he added. "The crowd that inevitably gathers where there is any excitement made it impossible to do any shooting at the bandits."

At the bank, the small retiring assistant cashier, H. C. Fisher, was credited by his associates with playing an important part in holding down the amount of loot taken by the mobsters.

Mr. Fisher had apparently been singled out as the man who knew the combination of the safe and was taken to the vault by one of the bandits. He allowed the gate to swing shut on him, locking itself, making it impossible for him to open it from the inside.

"I can't open it," he told the bandit, who saw immediately the locking of the gate was going to slow up the process. Mr. Fisher had to break the bands on the currency and hand it out in smaller amounts between the bars which are about an inch apart.

Mr. Fisher connects his identification by the robbers with a visit to his home a week or two ago by a man who asked where 1302 North President was.

Mr. Fisher who lives at 1212 North Federal avenue, attempted to tell his caller that 1302 was just a few houses up the street. The visitor answered incoherently, asked whether it was over on another street, but all the time kept eyeing Mr. Fisher as if he wanted to be sure that he would recognize him next time.

The First National bank and other institutions affiliated with the Northeast Bancorporation were warned by the parent company to reduce their cash reserves and to be on the lookout for robbers. This warning was received here immediately after th Sioux Falls, S. Dak., robbery a week ago.

"We were informed that the Bancorporation officials expected other bank robberies would be committed in the middle west and wanted to do what they could to reduce losses," one of the officers of the bank stated.

Four eye witness account of the First National bank holdup provided entertainment of the Lions club at its weekly luncheon Wednesday. Chief E. J. Patton, Willis G. C. Bagley, Judge John C. Shipley were called upon by President W. L. Nichols and he concluded the assignment himself by presenting the spectacle as viewed from his establishment next door.

Chief Patton told of being attracted by the noise of machine gun fire as he drew up in the front of the station following a trip to an outlying part of town. He proceeded at once to the Wier building but found it utterly impossible to fire upon the outside bandit guards because of the crowd about them. Then followed a description of the pursuit, presented elsewhere in this edition.

That he was being accosted by a "crazy man" rather than by a bandit was Mr. Bagley's impression when he darted from his outside desk to his private office. Mr. Bagley's version of the experience appears elsewhere in this paper too.

Mr. Shipley was the one most reluctant to talk about the incident. He told of hearing the commotion of the machine gun fire below, which he said "sounded like someone beating on sheet iron."

"Then," he added, "I leaned out my window and extended an invitation to Mr. Dillinger to com up and see me some time."

Mr. Nichols told how one of the bandits came into the Nichols and Green store and gruffly commanded everybody to follow him out on to Federal avenue. About a dozen complied. Others retreated to the back of the store, some to the basement of the store. Those who obeyed were lined up along the bank as protection for the bandits against the possibility of a barrage from across the street.

W. J. Colford of Chicago, a representative of Lloyd's Insurance company, here in connection with Tuesday's bank robbery, was a guest of Mr. Bagley.

Mrs. Tod Ransom, 234 Sixth street northwest, and her daughter, Dorothy, were saved from taking a wild ride as hostages with the First National bank robbers by the quick thinking and effective talking by Dorothy.

Just after Mrs. Ransom and her daughter drove out of the alley near Laird's shoe store and turned west, the robbers car drove up. The robbers jumped out and told Mrs. Ransom and her daughter to get out.

Mrs. Ransom did get out and climbed on the running board of the bandit car. Dorothy, however, said, "I can't get out. I'm lame."

The bandit again demanded that she get out and she repeated what she had previously said. As the bandit seemed to hesitate, she tried to think of a reason to save her mother from some fate of which she did not know.

Then she got out of the car but walked with exaggerated lameness. She also told the bandit, "don't take my mother. I need her to take care of me."

The bandit told both of them to get into their own car but to stay there. They then watched the whole State street proceedings. They saw Mr. James lying wounded on the street. The bandits fired when anyone threatened to disobey their orders.

Both commented on the desperate appearance of the bandit who stood in the Prescription shop doorway. That bandit laughed as he fired his gun in various directions.

NOTE: Dorothy was a polio victim.

Who should pay for the sandwiches on which the bank robbers munched as they departed from Mason City Tuesday afternoon?

Ralph Willis, to whom they were being consigned, insists that he doesn't owe for them. And Al Killmer, from whose store they were purchased, stands on the claim that the sandwiches were in good condition when they left his establishment.

Bill Schmidt, Killmer clerk, was one of the Federal avenue pedestrians who found a temporary haven in the Nichols and Green shoe store.

When he was routed out by the bandit believed to be John Dillinger, he still had the sack of sandwiches under his arm. And he retained possession of them when he was forced into the bandit car. It was during the ride that he was relieved of them by one of the robbers.

Before the last of the captives had been released, the lunch on the sandwiches prepared for Mr. Willis, who offices in the First National bank building, was under way.

Late Wednesday negotiations were under way looking to a compromise under which Mr. Killmer and Mr. Willis could share the cost of the bandits' lunch.

A large number watched the First National bank robbery from the offices of the C. L. Pine company. Police Chief E. J. Patton, as soon as police were called, came to the Pine establishment to look over the situation.

"The street was pretty well jammed before the robbers started their operations," said G. E. Allbee of the Pine company, who turned in the alarm to the police. "People were watching a movie man taking pictures.

"Officer Dunton cleared the traffic temporarily but by the time things began happening at the bank, the crowd was back jamming the streets.

"Then the first thing we knew someone started shooting off a gun at the entrance of the First National bank. He was using what looked to me like a cap pistol in his right hand and then he took out a revolver from his vest pocket and shot with his right hand."

Mr. Allbee and others in the building also watched the bandit leader reload his machine gun. Holding his automatic pistol with his left hand ready for action, he reloaded the machine gun with his right hand.

"While this one man was walking back and fourth in front of the bank another was in the doorway," said Mr. Allbee. "They got a bunch lined up in front of them for protection and later brought out the money, using bank employes (sic) and customers as guards.

"The men carried the two sacks of money surrounded by a protecting cordon of men and women. They walked to the corner and started down toward the rear of the bank. The parked car there then pulled up and met them about half way. We saw them load the car and pull out."

Page Sixteen

"If that gun hadn't jammed I'm sure they would not have got away with any money."

That was the opinion of Tom Walters, guard at the First National bank, the man who fired the tear gun at the bandits robbing the First National bank Tuesday afternoon.

"The first intimidation I had of the robbery was the firing of guns and I saw this fellow down front shooting," said Walters. "I immediately fired my tear gun and hit him in the back. He jumped up like he was shot and yelled: 'Where's the _____ ______ that shot me? Get that guy with the gas."

"I then tried to shoot off my tear gun again and found the gun jammed. I then grabbed my Winchester automatic and was just ready to pop him when he grabbed F. A. Stephenson and put him up in front of him.

"He started shooting at me and shattered the glass in this cage. 'I'll get that _____ _____,' he said and asked Stephenson hot to get up."

Walters had four charges of the tear gas in his cage, each with 1,800 cubit feet of the gas.

"If I could have got 3,600 feet more shot off there would have been no question about it for they would not have been able to stand it," he added.

Tom Barclay, who occupied a desk to the rear of the elevator on the balcony, hurled one tear bomb on the floor, adding another 1,800 feet.

"The first I heard was voices in the entrance," said Mr. Barclay. "While the one man was chasing Mr. Bagley I ran into the director's room, got a bomb, set it off and hurled it to the lobby, jerking the pin off in the throw."

Mr. Barclay then ran back into the director's room.

The Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
March 14, 1934

MASON CITY, Ia., March 14 (UP) - John Dillinger, notorious outlaw, today was believed to be the machine gunner who shot down a bystander during a $52,000 holdup of the First National Bank.

Eye-witnesses of the holdup yesterday selected pictures of the desperado as one of two machine gunners who acted as outside guards.

J. W. Wallace of the sheriff's office asked Chicago police for Dillinger's fingerprints. He would not reveal how the prints could be used.

Police guarded the names of persons making identifications of the arch-outlaw. J. H. Buchanan, a police officer, said that he believed one machine gunner was Dillinger.

Buchanan was among a group of police and vigilantes which was prevented from firing upon the raiders because they had placed hostages in a position to cover their retreat.

The wounding of R. H. James, secretary of the Mason City school board, occurred during the firing of a burst from Dillinger's machine gun, Buchanan believed.

The gunfire started when the bandits inside the bank discovered Tom Walters, bank guard, perched in a bullet-proof cage above the heads of the 50 employees and customers. Walters released tear gas into the bank.

Despite the tear gas and alarms, the bandits succeeded in obtaining loot estimated at $52,000. They forced employees and patrons of the bank to surround them and took several on the running-board of their automobile as hostages. These persons were released a few miles from the city.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Thursday, March 15, 1934, Page One

Further progress in the identification of the seven machine gun bandits who Tuesday afternoon held up and robbed the Fist National bank of Mason City and escaped with $52,000 in currency was announced by local enforcement officers Thursday.

Meanwhile steps were being taken at the First National bank to install more efficient tear gas equipment. Officers of the institution were convinced of the efficacy of the gas as a deterrent to bandit operations in Tuesday afternoon's experience, pointing out the only flaw in the situation was that there was not enough of the gas.

The tear gas system contemplated and even discussed before the robbery was one with tear guns stationed at intervals about the bank, which could be released by buttons and foot levers.

E. J. Patton, chief of police, Thursday morning received a consignment of pictures from the rogue's gallery of the St. Paul police. Of these bank employees positively identified one and point to another as a possible one.

Wednesday night hostages identified George "Baby Face" Nelson, wanted for bank robbery, and Joseph Burns, one of Dillinger's old associates, as occupants of the bandits' car.

A picture of Frank Carpenter, sought by Sheriff J. M. Robertson, on the grounds he resembled John Dillinger, Indiana desperado, believed by some to have been the leader of the gang, was also included in the St. Paul allotment. But in this picture Carpenter had a moustache, adding difficulty to attempts to identify him as the bold bandit who superintended the operations from a place in front of the bank.

Identifications were made by bank employes (sic), Carroll D. Mulcahy, druggist, and others taken as hostages.

Photos identified by witnesses will be returned to the chief of detectives of the Minneapolis police and full information will be received.

Fingerprints of John Dillinger were received Thursday by Sheriff J. M. Robertson but the comparison with the local prints taken from the steering wheel of the car Wednesday by Ray Oulman, superintendent of records at the Mason city police department, and John Wallace, deputy sherrif, could not be made.

"There is the possibility that there are enough characters in the [Page 4] prints we took from the car here Wednesday to make a check with the prints of Dillinger," said Officer Oulman. "The characteristics form a fairly good pattern; the core is shown but the delta is not evident. It was a difficult proposition to get good prints from the car but with special equipment to step up the prints, there may be a rare possibility that an identification may be made."

Officer Oulman said that it would probably be two or three days before word would be received from Washington, D.C., where the prints were sent for comparison.

The revolver left in the bank by the fleeing bandits was found to be an army gun of the 1911 model, with the number 91620. It is being traced by army officers. Another gun, said to have been dropped in the gutter, when R. L. James was shot, was not located.

R. L. James and Clarence McGowan, injured by machine gun fire, were apparently making a successful recovery in a local hospital.

Identifications of the leader of the gang as John Dillinger, Indiana bandit, continued to mount in the sheriff's office.

Frank Hayes, local attorney, when shown the pictures Thursday stated he as confident he saw Dillinger and a Negro standing on State street looking about Saturday afternoon.

"There was something about him that caused me to look at him," said Mr. Hayes. "He had a sallow skin and had all the appearances of a gangster."

Mr. Hayes looked over several views of Dillinger in the sheriff's office and selected one that he thought was the best picture.

"This man looked exactly like that," he said.

The possibility is that this was Dillinger and the Negro, his man Friday [Henry Youngblood], who escaped with him from the Crown Point, Ind. jail.

The division of investigation of the United States department of county officials to forward all justice has asked local police and material such as bullets, shells, guns, etc., picked up at the scene of the robbery. Chief of Police E. J. Patton asks that anyone possessing a shell or a bullet left by the bank robbers bring them to the police station. These shells are the only evidence to work on, according to police.

The gun which was dropped by one of the bandits outside has not been located, according to Chief Patton and Sheriff J. M. Robertson. Whoever picked up this gun is requested to turn it in at the station.

Frank Brady, special agent of the justice department of Des Moines, who is working under the direction of Park Finley of the Iowa department of justice, was in Mason City Thursday with approximately 1,000 photographs of bank robbers and gangsters, to aid in the investigation.

He interviewed several of the witnesses and compared descriptions of members of the gang with photographs of criminals listed in the bureaus records in Des Moines, but did not commit himself as to the identity of any of the men.

Chief Patton is convinced of the utter futility of outward force in dealing with the bank bandits.

"The fact that Jim Buchanan behind the stone and John Wallace, deputy sheriff, behind the monuments with a machine gun, could do nothing shows that we would have been unable to cope with the situation no matter how much equipment we would have had," he said.

That the situation must be met by equipment inside the bank was the opinion of the chief.

Members of the police force are convinced the practice discontinued two years ago of having an armed police car standing ready for attacks mornings and evenings across the street from the bank would have been of no avail.

"The practice was positively dangerous," said Frank Sanford, chief of police at the time the system was used. "The first thing the bandits would have done is to come up unawares, got the drop on us and take the guns away. Or they might not have paid any attention to us. There was nothing that could have been done."

After the Sioux Falls [South Dakota] robbery [on March 6, 1934 with a take of $49,500] when the warning was sounded by the Northwest Bancorporation, parent company, to its banks, local bank officers discussed the matter of protection with the police chief.

Negotiations had not been completed when the robbery had occurred. The police chief stated there were not sufficient men on the force to put extra officers on such special duty. The bank offered to pay for putting on extra men, and plans were under way for arrangement of the matter when the robbery occurred.

A study of the situation, however, has convinced the police chief that men on guard at the corner would have been of no use and might have complicated matters.

"If anyone had killed one of the bandits the possibilities are they would have opened up on that crowd," Chief Patton stated. "Furthermore there would have been no use in following them. Risacher and I got within range of them, but did not dare to shoot. They did shoot. What could we do? Nothing." There is no doubt the problem lies within the four walls of the bank. If there had been sufficient tear gas to have completely blinded everybody the bandits would not have proceded far.

Included Others.

That the holdup gang included a number of persons in addition to those who appeared on the scene of the robbery and the drivers of the reserve cars is the belief of Sheriff Robertson on reports from various sections of the county.

The sheriff is convinced there were men circulating through the crowd without visible weapons ready to take the state at a moment's notice.

Page Sixteen

TWO MEN RECOVERING FROM MACHINE GUN WOUNDS
Their Condition Still Watched Anxiously Here
R. L. James and Clarence McGowan Tell How they Were Hurt.

Two victims of bandit machine gun bullets were still in the hospital Thursday, apparently make a recovery from the deadly traces left by the gang which escaped with $52,000 Tuesday afternoon.

While business at the bank has returned to normal, with losses covered by insurance and other damages being repaired, the condition of the gun victims was still of some concern to the physicians in charge.

R. L. James, secretary of the school board, who was shot down while walking eastward on the south side of the bank, is at the Mercy hospital with two large bullet holes in his right leg.

Shot While Driving.

Clarence McGowan, shot while he was driving up toward the bandit car to see what the heavy load of people was, was at the Story hospital recovering from wounds inflicted by a splintered bullet. Unless infection sets in here is no danger about recovery on the part of both victims.

Mr. James had just reached the southwest corner of the First National bank building on his way to the front entrance when he heard the machine gun firing and started back east on State street.

By that time the shooting in the bank sounded like a cannonade.

Kept Below Window.

"I thought they were killing every one in the bank," he said. "I crouched down to keep below the level of the windows, hiding my portfolio under my arm."

Mr. James said he heard no one yelling "stop" but that when he got about half way back a bandit standing in front of the Laird shoe store shot him. It was some time after that the bandit came over, grabbed the portfolio and said:

"You're a cop you ________."

"It never occurred to me that there would be a bandit at the back," said Mr. James. "I thought they were just guarding the front door."

Looks Like Demonstration.

"It's a dynamite cap!" that was Clarence McGowan's first thought when shot by the escaping bank robbers, following the holdup of the First National bank Tuesday afternoon.

As he reclined on his hospital bed Thursday he recounted the story of the shooting, which took place when he followed the bad bandit car, with his wife and 5 year old daughter.

"I had turned on to Fourth street near the Mason City Millworks and was easing along to the west. We saw the car turn on to Fourth street and my wife said, "That appears like a car demonstration of some kind." The car was heavily loaded and one of the men standing on the bumper, crouched down low when the car went around the corner he almost touched the paving.

Stepped On It.

"I said that I would step on it and see what was going on. I never thought of a holdup and did not until some time after I was shot. I believed a dynamite cap had got into the car some way. We use them often anyway.

"My wife thought something had exploded in the car, but I knew this was practically impossible. I stopped the car and then I saw a man standing at the side of the side of the street with a rifle. The bandit car was moving on and then it occurred to me that there had probably been a stick-up around there somewhere. I thought at first the man with the rifle might have shot me but a checkup proved this was impossible."

The bullet fired at Mr. McGowan pierced the car in the rear of the hood. The bullet splintered, part of it entering his one knee and part the other. Another section of the bullet entered the flesh of his abdomen. A large part of the bullet was still imbedded in the car.

Mr. McGowan stated that he went to the police station for first aid and then went to his office. After he had been there for some time he decided to go downtown again to have a physician examine him. It was late in the evening when he went to the hospital where he was resting easily Thursday.

Taken on Bandit Ride
* * * *
Bank Robbers Master at Profanity
Number of Hostages Brought to 15
One Man Used Water Pitcher for Gun.

Brand new shoes for a ride with bandits - that was the experience of Marjorie Smith, 13, Charles City, taken on the hostage car with the robbers who held up the First National bank Tuesday.

Mrs. Emil Smith and her daughter, Marjorie, were in Nichols and Green shoe store when the bandits entered and ordered them out. John Russell Wishard, salesman, had been waiting on them. They had just decided to take a certain pair of shoes for Marjorie when they were told by the bandits to get out of the shoe store.

Mrs. Smith and her daughter stood for a short time outside the store, with the bandit brandishing his gun at them and others, and then were ordered on to the hostage car. Then came the wild ride. After they had returned to Mason City from this expedition, they paid for the shoes.

Hostages Now Number 15.

Identifications of Mrs. Smith and her daughter as among the hostages, together with the information that Mrs. Jake Leu, 116 Thirteenth street northeast, was a hostage, brought the number of hostages up to 15. Counting seven bandits in the car, according to most of the testimony that was presented to officials, that made a total of 22 in the car - a real carload.

Mrs. Smith was forced to sit on the lap of her daughter in the bandit car, as four other bandits were in the rear seat. Still another bandit entered the car and sat on Mrs. Smith's lap -- that made it three deep.

From hostages and witnesses who heard words from the bandits three seemed to be one thing in agreement. That was that the bandits had complete and instantaneous control of the English vocabulary as far as cursing goes. Consequently, the emphasis on orders provided by cuss words, guns and shooting, as well as stern shouts, was sufficient to make those nearby quickly and humbly obey.

Escaped Bandit Ride.

Mrs. Nellie Tobin, 635 Georgia avenue southeast, by her reluctance to get on the car designated by the bandits as a hostage car, escaped going on a wild ride with the other bandits. When Mrs. Tobin, who was walking down the street with Mrs. William Clark and Mrs. Frank Graham, was told to get on the bandit car, she saw the other two women climb on the auto but hesitated. At that moment, apparently, the bandit's attention was directed elsewhere. She escaped.

* * * *

C. A. Parker, vice president of the First National bank, suffered a temporary attack of amnesia immediately after the machine gun attack on the bank. He had just taken down the receiver of the telephone to talk to W. A. Westfall when the bombardment started and he and others in the bank were ordered to "stick 'em up."

Later when the telephone conversation was called to his attention he did not recall it. The next day, however, the details of the situation came back to mind.

* * * *

Roy B. Johnson, local Legion post commander and assistant cashier of the bank, started for the back door when the holdup gang entered. When the shooting started he dropped to the floor. He and Miss Alice F. Kolar, stenographer, who ran back from her desk, were huddled behind the door leading to the bank room during the entire episode.

Hampton Bank Officers Here.

Officers of the First National bank of Hampton were in Mason City at the time of the local robbery. They did not stay to watch the entire event, however, but hurried home to instruct their employes (sic) on what to do in event the bandits moved on to the Hampton institution next.

* * * *

Mrs. E. M. Ferleman and her daughter, Dora, 7, Louisiana avenue southeast, stated that they believed the man in the front of the bank was Dillinger. They were coming down Federal avenue at the time of the holdup and saw the man crouched behind two hostages. They said he had a high forehead, wore a dark overcoat, and appeared to be of smooth face.

* * * *

The mysterious piece of glass held by a man who stood in the alley in back of the bank during the holdup was not part of an intricate system of signals, but a water pitcher from the Olympia cafe.

At the beginning of the holdup, an excited young man rushed into the cafe and asked J. J. Manuson, proprietor, if he had a gun. Mr. Manuson said "No" and the young many rushed back through the cafe, picking up a water pitcher enroute.

He stood in the alley with his intended weapon for a short time, realized that any effort at attack would be futile, if not fatal, and returned the pitcher to the cafe.

They Didn't Have Security.

"It's a funny proposition," said Dad A. J. Parsons shortly after the bank holdup, "but I couldn't borrow $100 without security, and seven strangers walk in there and borrow $52,000 with no security whatsoever. It kind of looks as though I'm not very persuasive any more."

_____

NOTE: As with any sensational event, sometimes the reports come in a little skewed and or exaggerated, such as the following report in the Globe Gazette, page sixteen, Thursday, March 15, 1934:

The Globe-Gazette Wednesday night ws called upon to refute radio reports that several or all of the bandits in the Mason City bank holdup were killed in an automobile accident.

~ ~ ~ ~

The Rest of the Story

The gang, after splitting into two cars, was in St. Paul, Minnesota, by the evening of March 13th. Hamilton and Dillinger received treatments for their shoulder wounds by a St. Paul doctor, Dr. Mortensen.

Their landlord became somewhat suspicious and reported the men to a federal agent.

The federal agents placed the building under surveillance. When they attempted to capture the men, gunfire broke out. Eddie Green was shot in the head during his capture and died a week later. Dillinger was hit in the leg from a ricochet bullet coming from his own gun.

Dillinger and Billie Frechette went to Mooresville where Dillinger healed from his wounds. Frenchette was later arrested in Chicago but she refused to tell authorities where Dillinger was located. He happened to be outside of the bar where she was arrested and drove off into the night.

The Dillinger gang eventually settled into a lodge known as Little Bohemia located near Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. It wasn't long before federal agents led by Hugh Clegg and Melvin Purvis arrived on the scene. During an ensuing gun battle, a local resident, two innocent Civilian Conservation Corps workers and Agent Carter Baum was killed. Dillinger and his men had escaped.

The following day, the gang engaged in a gunfight at Hastings, Minnesota where Hamilton was mortally wounded on April 23, dying on April 30, 1934.

The gang robbed the First National Bank of Fostoria, Ohio. Tommy Carroll was shot and killed by police in Waterloo, Iowa on June 7. Dillinger, Van Meter and Nelson resided in a red panel truck equipped with a mattress in the back.

The gang robbed the Merchants National Bank, South Bend, Indiana, on June 30. Then Dillinger dropped out of sight.

Dillinger drifted back to Chicago and assumed the alias of Jimmy Lawrence. A loyal Chicago Cubs fan, he attended games at Wrigley Field during June and July of 1934.

On July 21st, Ana Cumpanas, a.k.a. Anna Sage, a woman of low and questionable moral character, contacted the police. She offered information on Dillinger in exchange of not being deported. She told them that she, Dillinger and Polly Hamilton, another prostitute, would be going to the movies. She agreed to wear an orange dress so the agents could identify the threesome. [Under the marquee lights, Anna's dress appeared to be red.] However, Anna didn't know if they were going to the Biograph or the Marbro theater.

Not taking any chances, one team of agents went to the Marbro Theater in Chicago's west side on the evening of July 22nd. A second team positioned themselves at the Biograph Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue on the north side. The manager of the Biograph, fearing that the agents were criminals preparing to rob him, called the Chicago police. The police responded readily but were waved off by the federal agents.

Hamilton, Cumpanas and Dillinger left the theater when the movie Manhattan Melodrama (starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy) was over. Purvis, standing by the front door, alerted the other agents of Dillinger's exit by lighting a cigar.

What happened next has been debated to the present day. One account is that Dillinger ran into a nearby alley upon seeing Agent Purvis without drawing his gun. Other accounts are that Dillinger ignored the order to surrender, pulled out his gun and then ran for the alley. All accounts agree, however, that the agents had sealed the alley and Dillinger was determined to shoot it out.

Three men fired the fatal shots. Clarence Hurt fired twice; Charles Winstead fired three times; and, Herman Hollis fired one shot. Dillinger was hit from behind and he fell face first to the ground. Winstead was recognized as the agent firing the fatal shot and received a personal letter of commendation from J. Edgar Hoover for the deed.

Although Dillinger was probably dead before he hit the ground, his body was transported to Alexian Brothers Hospital where he was officially pronounced dead on arrival at 10:50 p.m., July 22, 1934.

Legend is that several people dipped their handkerchiefs and skirts into the pool of blood in the alley by the Biograph Theater.

Dillenger's body was displayed to the public at the Cook County morgue. He was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. His gravestone has been replaced several times because of vandalism by people chipping off souvenirs from it.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, July 23, 1934, Page One

DILLINGER "PUT ON SPOT" BY WOMAN
COMPANIONS OF SLAIN GANGSTER AT MOVIE HELD
Name of Person Who Gave Tip Never to Be Made Known.
U.S. OUT TO GET 'BABY FACE' NOW
George Nelson Moves Into No. 1 Position Among Nation's Badmen.

In concluding their article, the Globe Gazette noted, "John Dillinger was 32. . . .In the 14 blazing months since his parole from the Indiana penitentiary, he became one of the most widely known of all the world's outlaws."

* * * * Homer Van Meter was shot and killed in St. Paul a few weeks after Dillinger was killed. Baby Face Nelson was wounded by two F.B.I. agents on November 27, 1934. He escaped, however his body as found twenty miles away the following day.

Dillinger's reign of terror through the Midwest ran from September of 1933 until July of 1934. During this time, Dillinger and his gang killed 10 men, wounded 7 others, robbed banks and police arsenals, and staged 3 jail breaks — killing a sheriff during one and wounding 2 guards in another.

KCRG.com
May 01, 2007

Witness to Dillinger Bank Robbery Wants Festival

 

  MASON CITY (AP) - Don Schaffer wants Mason City to have a Dillinger Days festival.

Schaffer witnessed a bank robbery by John Dillinger and his gang in Mason City in 1934.

Schaffer, who's now 91, says a Dillinger Days would honor the city's history. But some residents think it's in bad taste.

When the bank was robbed on March 13, Schaffer says he thought they were making a movie because there was a guy with a movie camera. That man, H.C. Kunkleman, was a free-lance photographer who just happened to be taking motion pictures of the bank when the robbery happened.

Schaffer hid under a bush behind a rock.

According to published accounts at the time, two people were shot and wounded in the robbery. A bank teller was taken hostage. A bullet ripped through his jacket, but he wasn't hurt.

USA Today
June 07, 2007, by Judy Keen USA Today

If you're going to fete Dillinger, call this man first

John Dillinger and his legendary gang made history in Mason City, Iowa, on March 13, 1934. They stole $52,000 from the First National Bank, shot bystander R.L. James in the leg and raced out of town with hostages perched on the running boards of the getaway car. Mason City leaders decided in March to organize a festival marking that unforgettable day. They envisioned a re-enactment of the bank heist, an exhibit of vintage cars and other activities. They thought they might call it Dillinger Days.

They didn't know then that a Dillinger descendant is on the lookout for such events across the USA, ensuring that anyone who uses Dillinger's name sticks to the facts and pays licensing fees. If they don't, they face the prospect of a lawsuit.

After getting a call from Jeff Scalf, whose grandmother was Dillinger's half-sister Doris, Mason City officials are now working with him on the Sept. 15 event. Scalf, 49, a marketing director in Indianapolis, says he wants Mason City and anyone else who uses Dillinger's name to tell the true story.

"They all have to sign a clause stating that they won't present him as a murderer, cop killer or vicious or mean-spirited," he says. "It's fair to say that he was accused of one killing but was never convicted."

'Kind of a happy villain'

Under a 1994 Indiana law, Scalf and other family members control rights to Dillinger's name and portrayal for 100 years after his death, says Jonathan Polak, an Indianapolis lawyer representing Scalf. Just because Dillinger — and Marilyn Monroe and Rosa Parks, whom he also has represented — are dead, Polak says, "doesn't mean they are suddenly thrown into the public domain. … You're stealing a piece of property."

That rankles some who have tangled with Scalf. Richard Oseran, owner of the Hotel Congress in Tucson, has been holding Dillinger Days for about 15 years and is being sued by Scalf.

"We're not going to let somebody own our history," says Oseran, who plans to continue marking the 1934 capture of gang members in Tucson.

"Doing history is different from doing 'Dillinger Days,' " Scalf says. "They're trying to make money off it." Polak says his firm has filed a half-dozen lawsuits on Scalf's behalf since 2000 and has reached dozens of agreements with businesses using Dillinger's name.

In 2006, the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau closed a small Dillinger museum in Hammond, Ind., after being sued by Scalf in 2001. Officials there wouldn't comment on the ongoing case because they're under a gag order.

Mason City has about 28,000 residents. Its other claim to fame is being the hometown of Meredith Willson, who wrote The Music Man.

Terry Harrison, archivist/historian at the Mason City Public Library, says Scalf "doesn't own the city's history." The Dillinger robbery was "the single most famous individual incident in the city's history and … many residents' lives," he says.

It was for Art Fischbeck, now 87. He was in high school and arrived at the bank just after the robbery. He says people were excited when they realized the robbers included Dillinger, a folk hero during the Depression because of his good looks and skill at eluding police and escaping from jail.

"He wasn't quite a Robin Hood, but he came off as a Robin Hood," Fischbeck says. "It was dire times economically and people needed a hero. … You've got to realize that he was a villain, but he was kind of a happy villain."

That's the image Scalf wants to perpetuate. Many accounts of Dillinger's exploits say he shot and killed patrolman William Patrick O'Malley of East Chicago, Ind., during a 1934 bank robbery. Dary Matera, author of the 2004 book John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America's First Celebrity Criminal, says there's "clear evidence" that Dillinger did shoot O'Malley. "It troubled him for most of the rest of his short life," Matera says.

New Dillinger movie?

Scalf says Dillinger was not there, and the FBI's recounting of his crimes on its website does not call him a murderer. It says Dillinger's gang was responsible for O'Malley's death.

Dillinger's descendants plan a book with new details about his life, Scalf says, and several Hollywood studios are considering new movies. He says he plans to use money from licensing fees to help troubled youth.

Organizers in Mason City have asked residents to help name the Dillinger festival. Scalf and Mary Sue Kislingbury, spokeswoman for the planning committee, say they haven't reached a final agreement.

"We're hoping to make this a big annual event," Kislingbury says. "We don't emphasize our own history enough."

Harrison says the festival will celebrate heroic residents: bank cashier Harry Fisher, who locked himself inside the vault and handed over only small-denomination bills; Dorothy Ransom Crumb, a polio survivor who refused to let the gang take her mother hostage; Margaret Johnson Giesen, a bank switchboard operator who yelled out a window for help and was confronted by Baby Face Nelson, who replied, "You're telling me, lady?"

There are few signs that interest in Dillinger is waning 73 years after his death. He was "the Brad Pitt of his day," Matera says. "He had the best cars, the best suits, and he died with a woman on each arm."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
September 19, 2008, by Kristin Buehner

Plenty of folks still remember infamous Dillinger bank robbery

MASON CITY — The robbery of the First National Bank by a well-organized gang that included “Public Enemy No. 1” John Dillinger rates as one of the most talked-about events in Mason City history.

It happened suddenly on a windy afternoon, March 13, 1934, at about 2:40 p.m.

Coincidentally, a freelance photographer, H.C. Kunkleman, chanced to be making motion pictures of the First National Bank when the gang appeared.

Mason City Police Sgt. Greg Scott said the gang of seven carried Thompson submachine guns, popularly called Tommy guns, and .45-caliber handguns.

In contrast, the Mason City police carried .38-caliber handguns.

“They were out-gunned,” said Scott.

There was no way the police could have successfully engaged the gangsters in a gun battle and won, especially considering the fact that so many civilian bystanders were on the scene, Scott said.

“You’ve got seven members who are organized and have done their homework, which they had. They had apparently been in town the day before.”

Police Detective James Buchanan was in Central Park at the time and took cover behind a large rock. John Wallace, a deputy sheriff, was also in Central Park when the robbery occurred, Scott said.

John Dillinger, the best-known of the seven, guarded the front door of the bank from the outside. Lester Joseph Gillis, better known as Baby Face Nelson, stood out on East State Street.

The other members of the gang were Tommy Carroll, Eugene “Eddie” Greene, John Hamilton and Homer Van Meter. The seventh gang member is believed to have been either Joseph Burns or Ed Forsythe, according to Terry Harrison, archivist at the Mason City Public Library.

The police had no way of knowing the bank would be hit, Scott said.

“There was no intelligence information. There was a gang out of St. Paul in those days that had hit several Midwestern banks.”

Detective Buchanan always said Dillinger was involved in that gang, Scott said.

He proved to be correct.

Here are more remembrances by people who were there:

Recollections of the Dillinger bank robbery:

Don Schaffer, 92, of Mason City, was 18 when the First National Bank holdup occurred, on March 13, 1934. He lived on North Jefferson Avenue in those days and was walking from his house to the home of a friend who lived on First Street Northwest.

“I was walking back there by the old Cecil Theatre when I heard gunshots. I thought they were making a movie.”

“Then I saw (Mason City Police Detective) Jim Buchanan behind a rock. He had a long-barreled handgun. He said to ‘get down or you’ll get shot.’

“I laid under a bush and saw the whole works. (Buchanan) raised up and fired a few shots at a guy standing by the front door of the bank (John Dillinger). He took that old machine gun and chiseled out all around the edge of the rock.

“And then up above there’s a dentist on the second floor. (Schaffer is probably referring to attorney and Police Judge John C. Shipley). He opened up a window slow. He fired down and he missed. The guy turned around and chiseled out the frame and some of the glass of the window. It was all dripping down on the sidewalk.

“Then a guy that lived on North Washington walked right up to the guy with the gun and said, ‘Are you guys making a move?’ The guy took the butt of the gun and hit him in the stomach and down he went. Pretty soon he started crawling across the street.”

Schaffer witnessed R. L. James, Mason City school board secretary, come walking around the corner onto Federal from State Street.

“He got shot in the leg. He grabbed his leg and went down. They had their guns on the whole crowd. They were turning around and around with their guns.

“I recognized Dillinger. He was dressed in practically a suit. The others had on pants, shirts and coveralls. Some had their shirts hanging. Some wore hats. There were no coats, but they were wearing heavy clothes because it was pretty cold that day.

“Baby Face, he was on the heavy-set side. The rest of them were pretty thin. He appeared to be left-handed.

“I watched when they came out and herded the people with their guns, got them on the side of the cars, on the hoods and on the back. They were kind of laughing. They weren’t worried.

“There were three touring cars, two black and one gray, with running boards. Two of the cars were parked kitty corner (at State and Federal), the other was in front of the bank.

“They drove slow and the crowd kept backing up. They went west on State Street. That’s the last I saw.

“Afterward, the people stood around talking and pretty soon they started leaving. I saw one guy who’d been shot in the arm. He came through the crowd. Blood was spurting out. Then the police came. The police tried to disperse the crowd, but they didn’t go.

“People said later, how come the police didn’t show up? But if they’d have come in force, there would have been a lot of people killed in the crossfire because there were people piled all over the place.”

Art Fischbeck, 88, of Mason City, was a freshman in Mason City High School when the First National Bank was robbed. School was dismissing just after the robbery. The high school was located two blocks north of the bank. Art’s father, Ralph W. Fischbeck, had a New England Life Insurance office on the third floor of the First National Bank.

“I had an evening paper route and I felt obligated to get those papers delivered. We heard about the bank robbery as school was getting out. I think everybody at the school knew about it. The kids went uptown to see it. We were all hurrying so much to get over there. The common attitude was that this was all part of a film. But when they went off in a car with the hostages I think people became convinced it was the real thing.

“Baby Face Nelson shot several rounds into a Hudson car coming up State Street. One bullet ricocheted off a window at the drug store across the street. Chet DeSart was working there. The bullet was right above him. Francis DeSart worked in the bank and was a hostage. The bullet went through the tail of his suitcoat jacket.

“I went over to the bank. I wanted to go to my dad’s office to see what was going on. There was a big crowd milling outside. People gathered like it was a circus. They weren’t letting anybody in the bank, but somehow I got inside. I went up to see my dad on the third floor. He wasn’t there. He was out of the office that afternoon.

“I knew they (Globe Gazette) would be putting out an ‘Extra.’ I made more money selling one paper that was an ‘Extra’ than I did delivering for a week.

“I was one of the first to get done with my newspaper route. I went back downtown. The first ‘Extra’ addition came out at 6:00. There were still a number of people downtown.”

Mason City artist Allen D. Patton, now deceased, wrote about the bank robbery in a family history. His father, Erwin J. Patton, was Mason City chief of police at the time. Allen Patton was drawing movie posters at the Palace Theatre, located about a block from the bank on South Federal, when the robbery occurred.

“One afternoon I was working at the theater and heard shots, but thought little of it until one of the theater people told me that someone had robbed the First National Bank. My first thought was of Dad, so I went out the back door of the theater to the police station. A few minutes later, Dad and the day captain drove in with bullet holes through the front of the car.

“Dad had been in the office across from the bank when the robbery occurred, so he witnessed the entire event and at the same time was on the phone organizing the law enforcement agencies. When the robbers left the bank with their car draped with hostages, Dad and the captain followed.

“West of the city limits, the robbers stopped and started firing with the rifles at the following car. Fortunately, neither Dad nor the captain were hit, but were persuaded to give up the chase.

“When Dad came home for dinner that evening, he had identified the leader as John Dillinger, along with four other notorious outlaws of that era. Dad’s prediction that the gang would hide out in St. Paul, Minn., that evening proved to be true. They all died with their boots on in various parts of the country. Dad was included in a book written many years later titled ‘The Dillinger Story.’ ”

John Wolf wrote the following recollection in 2007:

“My grandfather, Frank Jansen, was just a kid working at a gas station near Fourth and North Carolina when one day a car with some men pulled in to get gas. So my grandfather filled them up and one guy gave him a a $10 or $20 tip. Frank was thrilled because times were tough then and that tip was big money.

“Only later did he learn that those men had just robbed the First National Bank. Yes, Frank Jansen had just filled up the car for the Dillinger gang. Evidently, Dillinger let the hostages off the car before reaching the gas station, because Frank did not see anything like that, just a car with some guys in it. But, boy, did Grandpa and his family ever appreciate that tip!

Peggy Heneman was 12 when the bank robbery occurred. Her father, Fred Heneman, was a vice president at First National Bank in 1934.

“One Friday back in the 1930s, my father brought a revolver home from the bank and announced to Mother that he was going to get some shooting practice before John Dillinger and his gang hit the Mason City First National. I didn’t know about that until after it happened.

“My first inkling was a voice saying, ‘You’d better hit for home, Peggy Heneman. They’re robbing your father’s bank!’ as I crossed the street coming home from school.

“I further learned from Mrs. Riverdahl that the robbery was being announced over the radio in a blow-by-blow account while the downtown populace was held at bay in a half circle around the corner bank. The first-hand details came later from my father as he perched on the edge of the dining room table, regaling the rest of the family with the details of the exciting events of the day.

“Actually, my father was vice president of the bank and had a desk in full view of the front end of the lobby. His office was in a corner of the lobby next to President Bagley’s. He was in his place when he heard a sudden whooping and hollering, followed by a spray of machine gun fire.

"‘Everybody down!’ came the order from one of the armed men who had burst into the bank lobby.

“As soon as the officers and clerks in their cages were able to respond, they obeyed, all except Mr. Bagley. He bolted into a conference room near his desk. This did not go unnoticed. A bullet through the lock soon returned him to the small group of officers, by then banded together to be led out of the bank and lined up across the front of the building.

“Up and down in front of these men, a gunman patrolled with his tommy gun. Dad tried to edge out of the line of fire of a policeman crouched behind a rock across the street.

"‘Get back there, you S.O.B.,’ barked the man, and Dad promptly returned to his designated spot.

“At one point, the gunman stopped, whirled around and sprayed bullets into a third-story window in the building next to the bank, then resumed his pacing. Across the street, the town square was filling up with onlookers. Some believed they were watching a movie shooting.

“Alongside the bank, a deaf man ignored a command to ‘Stop where you are!’ as he innocently walked down State Street. He was fired on, sustaining a non-fatal abdominal injury.

"‘I thought there wasn’t going to be any hits!’ a third robber was heard to yell.

“Inside the bank, Mr. (Harry) Fisher (an assistant cashier) had been singled out to go downstairs to the vault and turn over the money. Entering the vault, the outer gate chanced to swing shut with a solid clang, leaving the fourth robber outside.

"‘Oh dear,’ lamented Fisher. ‘I’ll have to push the money through the bars.’

"‘Get the lead out of your pants! Hurry up!’ was the nervous reply.

“The entire performance was minutely timed and this man was due back upstairs and at the back door where the getaway car was waiting. He must have been exasperated by the methodical Fisher, as he carefully broke up the bands of bills to feed them through the bars into the waiting bag. Had the gunman been less nervous, he would have known Fisher had the means to open the gate. On cue, the robber left to join the men at the rear of the bank.

“Several bystanders were suddenly commandeered as hostages. Some were shoved into the getaway car while others were draped over the hood. The car, now carrying all but one of the gang, pulled around to the front of the bank and picked up the last man. In deference to the outside passengers, the driver gathered speed smoothly as the car left the crowd of bystanders.

“The hostages on the hood were let off a short way down State Street so more speed could be made. Gang members scattered tacks behind them, but did draw fire from pursuing police officers, who tried to puncture their tires. The gang escaped.

“The remainder of the hostages were let out one or two at a time until the car was well out of town. It was later learned that they traded this car for another planted at a gravel pit in the country, where they began their fateful trip to Chicago.

“I can still see my father’s eyes flashing as he recounted the events, spilling out unaccustomed ‘hells’ and damns’ along the way.

"‘The man who had us in front of the bank was John Dillinger, no question about it. What a cool customer,’ he added.

"‘I know he was hit in the shoulder when Shipley fired from his law office, but he never let on that anything had happened, except to shoot back.’

"‘They must not have known about the guard station. Barclay got up there and threw a tear gas bomb (this appears to be inaccurate; bank guard, Tom Walters, reportedly shot the tear gas gun), which made things pretty unbearable in the lobby.’

"‘Well, Fisher was the hero. They didn’t get nearly what they could have had.’

“In the quiet that followed, Mother asked wickedly, ‘Where was your gun, Fred?’

"‘Oh, hell, I never gave it a thought,’ was the reply.

“Was it an honor to be robbed by Public Enemy No. 1? For a while, the whole town thought so, but that was in the Thirties, when G-men were romanticized and the public enemies were so few they could be counted.”

Former Mason City resident Robert Leewright wrote the following narrative about the Dillinger bank robbery when he was in the military. Leewright was one of the hostages on the getaway car:

“I’m an American in the Canadian Army now, but when this incident happened, back in March of 1934, I was living in Mason City, Iowa. That was the time when Dillinger was terrorizing the Middle West, robbing banks and even taking guns away from the police. One of his most publicized exploits was the broad daylight open robbery of the First National Bank of Mason City, Iowa.

“One windy Tuesday afternoon, in March 1934, near the bank’s closing time, about 2:30 p.m., I was cashing a paycheck in the First National. I had just finished cashing it and turned to leave. Suddenly several armed men rushed in yelling, ‘This is a hold-up!’

“All but one of the men ran around behind the bank counter to the vaults. One lone man with a tommy gun stood back to the wall, almost under the guard’s bullet-proof cage. The gangster with the tommy gun waved it around at us and barked commands: ‘Put up your hands! Don’t move! Lie down on the floor.’

“I obeyed mechanically. So did the others. I noticed one big man crouched behind a writing desk, squeezing himself unbelievably small in his fear. As in a dream, I wondered, ‘Why doesn’t the guard shoot?’

“The guard (Tom Walters) couldn’t for fear of hitting innocent people. Instead, he grabbed his tear gas gun and filled the bank with burning, smarting tear gas fumes till the gun clogged and he was helpless. I could hear pellets striking all around me and thought they were bullets. Perhaps my time had come.

“The gangsters turned their guns on the guard’s cage and poured a stream of bullets at the bulletproof glass till it cracked. The guard troubled them no more.

“As the bandits ransacked the bank, and the lone bandit guarded us on the floor, I lay there writhing in pain. Don’t know how the others stood it. I choked and spluttered and sneezed, my eyes ran buckets.

"‘Oh, God, will this ever end?’ I thought, and swore the same oaths over and over.

“Once I looked up through crying eyes and wondered that our bandit guard could be so nonchalant. He merely held a handkerchief to his face. Once I thought he was laughing at me, but it must have been my imagination.

“But the gas in that closed-in place was getting him, too. ‘Hurry up, Bill,’ he yelled. ‘It’s getting worse in here!’

Bill and the others must have thought so, too. They hurried up, guns in one hand, fat white canvas bags in the other.

"‘Get on your feet,’ they ordered.

“We got up, stiffly.

"‘Gather around us. One false move and — !’

“We bunched together loosely, gangsters in the middle, and marched outside. One very young-looking gunman who walked beside me, real nervous, excitable and loud-mouthed, I later identified by pictures as Baby Face Nelson. There was $52,000 in the canvas bags they carried.

“I had a wild notion to run for it, but my feet didn’t follow the notion. They carried me gingerly outdoors and around the corner of the bank. There were people on the street, all standing motionless, watching. Many more people stared silently from across the street.

“Someone shot down from an upper window and was answered by a burst of shells from a gangster beside me. Another in front, whirled, screaming, ‘Who shot? Who shot?’

“I was beginning to feel better now, almost to enjoy the scene. I was still alive, wasn’t I, after all this? I could stand by the curb and watch the big, black sedan parked there, motor running.

“At a nod or a word from the gunmen, good citizens climbed on the sides of the car and on the back. Two scared women were thrust inside.

“Then that fatal nod came in my direction. Thunderstruck, I found myself climbing on the right front side, hanging onto whatever I could.

“Baby Face Nelson was still mouthing loudly and cursing. Then the gangsters got in the car and it moved off slowly.

“Seventeen people were in and on that car. Some woman hung on the outside, in the cold wind, with no coat. Someone else took their coat off and put it around her. The rear window was out of the sedan and a tommy gun poked through. The gangsters motioned to the fat druggist clinging on the back to pull in his coattails, they obstructed their vision.

“The sedan went carefully through traffic. No shots were fired at it. The police were lying low in the park across the street from the bank. They had had an exchange of shots with Dillinger earlier as he guarded the front bank door.

“The gangsters seemed to know their way perfectly. They turned down side streets and headed out onto the old road that leads to Clear Lake.

"‘If any of you fall off, it’ll be too bad for you,’ they told us hostages.

“About a mile out of town, the gangster car stopped and Baby Face got out with a rifle. At each stop, those of us on the right side of the car had to get off, too, and line up alongside the road. That was a bit creepy. Maybe we were lined up to be shot. But no, Baby Face was throwing out tacks on the pavement behind us. Then he shot several times at cars behind us. The cars turned off. Baby Face got in again and we climbed on. Again and again, we stopped to throw out more tacks. Once Baby Face looked back and saw no cars in sight.

"‘They won’t follow us, the sissies!’ he said bravely.

“A couple of miles further, we turned off on the county roads. I could see the men in the front seat poring over a paper — a map probably. They knew where they were going. First a mile or two south, then a mile west, then south, then west. We picked up speed on the dirt roads and I had a hard time holding on. It was beginning to feel very cold.

“We made another stop to let out a woman and her nearly grown daughter.

"‘Tell the police not to follow us or it’ll be too bad for the rest,’ the woman was told.

"‘I will, I will, you bet I will,’ the woman kept repeating. It was a little funny how desperately she repeated it. Then we went on.

“After more speeding south, the car turned east and crossed No. 65 Highway heading east. One of the bandits winked at me. I must have looked pretty scared. I later identified him as John Hamilton. Homer Van Meter drove. Dillinger was in the back seat.

“A half mile east of #65 Highway, the bandits stopped again and lined up everybody at the side of the road. Was this the pay off? Would they shoot us down in cold blood? That’s what we all thought and shivered from the cold. One man had to be told twice to get off the car. He was probably too scared to move.

“Two women were singled out and shoved into the back seat. They began to whimper and cry, but no one said anything. As the car sped away, we gazed, fascinated at the black muzzle of the tommy gun sticking out of the rear window.

“Some of us hastily dived into the ditch. Then it was gone and we made a wild dash down the road toward the nearest farmhouse. I didn’t think of myself as scared, but I was yards in front of everybody in that mad race away from the gangsters.

“We sat by the fire in a nearby farmhouse, blabbing about it all. Someone telephoned the police. Someone else just sat in a chair and shook all over for a half hour.

“The police took us home. Funny thing, it was hours before I could say a word to my folks about it all. No, I wasn’t scared. I enjoyed it all. But I’ll never forget it.”

Merrill Button, of Mason City, a native of Osage, remembers when his father and his uncle were stopped by the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement officers, who mistook them for members of the Dillinger gang.

“My dad, Lee Button, and my uncle, Claude Fuller, were driving from Osage to Charles City with a neighbor who had a broken arm, taking him to the hospital, when they were stopped on the highway by state troopers. They had been alerted to the fact that Dillinger was in this area. They were surrounded by officers. My uncle, who was visiting from Minnesota, looked a little like John Dillinger. He was thin and had black hair and a black mustache. He was about the same age as Dillinger. I suppose with the neighbor, who must have been in pain with his broken arm, it looked suspicious.”

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo Cuonty, Iowa
September 17, 2011, by John Skipper.

River City Festival features bank heist re-enactment

MASON CITY — John Dillinger did it again.

As he does every year around this time, Dillinger and his gang robbed the First National Bank in downtown Mason City to the delight of hundreds of spectators.

The annual recreation of the famed bank robbery was one of the highlights Saturday of the Great River City Festival sponsored by Main Street Mason City, which promotes the downtown.

Main Street Executive Director Marty Walsh narrated the robbery rendition, which included old cars, screaming women and gunfire exchanged between the robbers and police hunched behind a rock in Central Park.

The festival began Friday with the annual multi-cultural lunch in Central Park and the Friday Night Live concert.

In addition to the Dillinger robbery, Saturday’s events included the final Mason City Market of the season and an Art Crawl at various downtown businesses.

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo Cuonty, Iowa
September 22, 2012, by Deb Nicklay

River City Festival features bank heist re-enactment

Nancy Bussewitz of Mason City got a special kick out of the re-enactment of 1934 John Dillinger robbery of First National Bank on Saturday.

– My uncle Tom was the security guard that day, – when asked why she wanted to attend the event.

Bussewitz joined scores of others who, despite the cold weather, gathered to watch the annual event as part of the Great River City Festival.

Tom Walters, then 33, shot tear gas at one of Dillinger’s henchmen as they came into the bank, but couldn’t fire any others – his gun jammed, according to Globe Gazette files, who interviewed Walters for the first time in 1934, just after the robbery; and again in 1973.

The robbers also shot at him as he sat in a bullet-proof cage that was located above the door of the bank. The glass that shielded him held, but shattered.

– His brothers always kidded him when he took the job, that – You better watch out; Dillinger might come and rob the bank. – My uncle said, – Oh, he’d never come here. – I bet there were some – I told you so’s – after the robbery, – she said with a chuckle.

Oddly, she said, her uncle never spoke of the robbery much over the years.

NOTES: Mason City's Chief of Police Erwin J. Patton was the president of the Iowa Chiefs of Police and Peace Officers Association in 1936. Chief Patton was born in 1881 and died in 1967. He was interred at Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery, Mason City.

Dorothy (Ransom) Crumb who argued her and her mother's way out of becoming a hostage on March 13, 1934, married Charles R. Crumb in 1944. She died at the age of 91 at Good Shepherd Health Care Center, Mason City, on September 6, 1995.

Artifacts from the robbery of the First National bank, (corner of Federal Avenue and State Street), are housed in non-public rooms at the Mason City Public Library. These artifacts include bulletproof glass from Guard Walter's cage with pock marks from bullets hitting it, .45 cartridge dropped by one of the gang members, and tacks the gang left on the road to discourage any pursuit as they fled Mason City.

The building, no longer a bank, is known today as the City Center/Kent Apartments.

First National Bank building

SOURCES:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger

Globe Gazette

masoncityia.com/dillinger.shtml

cemetery transcriptions

Compiled, written and submitted by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2013