SAFE ROBBERY

pg 413

On the night of Monday, February 17, 1868, Louisa county treasury suffered a severe loss by burglary, but before giving an account of that, it is proper to say that an attempt was made to burglarize the safe in 1865. Under the heading "Attempted Robbery," the Wapello Republican of Thursday, April 4, 1865, says: "On Thursday night last, the office of the county treasurer was entered by unlocking the outer door and forcing the inner one." The article states that gunpowder and chisels and iron bars were used, but that the burglars were interrupted in their work by Janitor Grey at about half past 4 a. m., when they were nearly through their work. It seems they had taken the tools from the shop of Rose & Cody and a lamp from the Methodist church. The following is the account of the safe robbery as taken from the Wapello Republican, published at the time:

"The Louisa county treasurer's office was entered by burglars Monday night, February 17, 1868, the safe broken open and $17,000 in greenbacks taken therefrom. There were $3,200 in the lower compartment of the burglar proof part of the safe which the thieves were unable to reach. Of this some four or five hundred dollars belongs to private parties. We believe the whole amount taken belonged to the county. A considerable portion of it was school money that would have been paid out in a short time to teachers, and the loss will seriously affect that class of laborers.

"W. S. Kremer, the treasurer, worked in his office until about eleven o'clock that night, and three-quarters of an hour later Mr. Hale, the clerk of the district court, passed through the courthouse yard on his way home from the Odd Fellows lodge, so that the burglarious work was probably not entered upon until after midnight. Mr. Kremer was the first to reach the office Tuesday morning, at about sunrise. He found the door locked and all the window blinds except one, closed as usual. These blinds seem well adapted to the use of burglars. They are made of boiler iron, and have not been, and perhaps could not be so fastened but that they could be easily pried off, or opened. Once inside, the burglars could close them when they would completely conceal the light, and they would also greatly deaden the sounds of their operations. No one sleeps in the courthouse and it is perhaps seventy-five yards to the nearest house. Some of the persons living in the vicinity say they heard noises, as of pounding, but supposed it was horses pawing in an adjoining stable.

"The burglars had prepared themselves with some half dozen steel wedges of from two to five inches in length and about one inch in width, and they broke into the blacksmith shop of Rose & Company and secured a cold chisel and a sledge, which they left near the broken and battered safe. In the attempt to rob the safe in the same office, three or four years ago, the same shop was broken into and the same tools taken out, and it can hardly be doubted that the same parties were in both transactions.

pg 414

"Effecting their entrance through the window, the burglars went to work with their wedges and sledge, and by prying and pounding and breaking, such as only experienced villains know how to do, they opened the outside doors. The inside, or burglar proof doors were not opened, but the lock was broken and deranged, and the iron shelf, or partition, running horizontally over it. and forming its, roof, was pried up until an aperture was formed wide enough to admit of the insertion of small tongs or nippers, or something of that kind, with which the coveted packages were fished up and drawn out. The opening was large enough to admit even a small hand. The money once secured, of course there was not much time lost in making tracks.

"Whoever the villains are, they understand their business thoroughly. There was no bungling about it. Of course the transaction was carefully planned, and has, no doubt, been in contemplation for months and perhaps years, a similar attempt having been made three or four years ago. No doubt every circumstance was carefully calculated, and it is believed by many that local assistance was rendered, though the principal actors, it is thought, came from a distance. Indeed, it is almost certain that a trace of them has been discovered, and every effort is being made to capture them.

"Two middle sized, dark complexioned men hired a span of horses and buggy at Unterkercher's stable in Burlington last Saturday, to come up to the neighborhood of Bethel church, as they said, but really they came right through to Wapello. They put up at the Burlington House and told the landlord that they would want their team at eleven o'clock that night. The stage driver from Burlington who puts up at Unterkercher's, came in the same evening and knew the team they were driving and that they had hired it to drive only a few miles. When he learned that they wanted to return that night, he objected, as it would be too hard a drive. Our gentlemen parleyed about the matter through the evening, and one of them went out and was gone an hour or two, and when he returned they at last decided, at about ten o'clock, to remain over night but to return early Sunday morning, which they did. The "job" was no doubt planned for Saturday night, but for obvious reasons it was postponed. Monday afternoon the same parties hired the same team for another little ride up the country but so far as we can learn, at the present writing, they stopped nowhere on the road. Tuesday morning, at about eight o'clock, they drove up to the stable in Burlington, their horses foaming with sweat, and hurriedly paying their bill, they were soon out of sight. The stage driver, who was there at the time, says they carefully avoided him. Add to this the fact that Olley T. Stewart, a boy some twelve years of age, found $900 of the money in the road between the residence of S. Jamison and the stone schoolhouse on the Burlington road as he was going to school Tuesday morning in company with little Katy Herrick, and it is almost certain what direction the money took and who got, at least, the bulk of it. Mr. Kremer issued posters Tuesday morning offering a reward of $2,000 for the arrest of the burglars and the recovery of any considerable portion of the money, and Tuesday evening, on learning the facts above given from the stage driver, he started for Burlington. Riders were also sent in other directions, and every effort is being made to bring the guilty parties to justice."

pg 415

It was not long before a number of persons were arrested as suspects, among them being Benjamin F. Langell, Allen Jackson and George A. McKay. Langell, after being in jail about six months, not liking the confinement, broke out on January 20, 1869, by sawing off an iron bar of one of the window casings. The jail had been considered unsafe for some time and a guard had been employed by Sheriff Lacey; but in the opinion of the supervisors, this guard was considered too expensive and had just been discharged prior to the time Langell made his escape. A Mrs. Lottie Anthony from Muscatine, had come down to visit Langell the day before he made his escape, and she was immediately arrested on a charge of having assisted him to escape, and was bound over to the district court; but nothing further seems to have been done against her. Alexander Jackson was arrested by Sheriff E. B. Lacey somewhere in Ohio, and Jackson's friends immediately got out a writ of habeus corpus but failed to secure his release. Jackson then had Lacey arrested on a charge of perjury, alleged to have been committed at the habeus corpus trial. Sheriff Lacey was released from this perjury charge and then another Ohio court issued a writ of habeus corpus for Jackson, but Sheriff Lacey also defeated this proceeding and brought his prisoner back with him. Jackson was tried but there was not enough evidence against him to warrant a conviction. George A. McKay was tried at Burlington in May, 1871, and the jury disagreed, standing nine for conviction and three for acquittal. We believe he was tried a second time and acquitted. McKay was supposed to have some land in Warren county, this state, and on January 6, 1870, the matter of Louisa county bringing suit against him and attaching this land on behalf of the county, was considered by the board of supervisors but it was decided by a vote of sixty-five not to do so. At the same meeting, however, the board adopted the following preamble and resolution:

"Whereas, It has been reported to this board that one George A. McKay, who is charged as being one of the burglars who robbed the county safe some two years since,

"Whereas, It is reported that said McKay is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land in Warren county, this state (it being the same land on which E. B. Lacey has now an attachment), on which we might levy an attachment to escure a part of our loss incurred by said burglary, and,

"Whereas, ex-sheriff E. B. Lacey has lost considerable time in the pursuit of said burglars, therefore,

"Resolved that as compensation for such loss of time, the county hereby assigns to said E. B. Lacey all her rights and interests in such land and he is authorized at his own expense and for his own use to prosecute such suit to judgment."

Among the records of the board of supervisors we find a claim filed against the county by Sheriff E. B. Lacey, May 31, 1871, as follows:

pg 416

To reward for the capture and return of George A. McKay as per agreement of board of supervisors of Louisa county	$1,250.00
To 10 per cent interest on $1,000 from September 1, 1870, to June 6, 1871 .	83.34
Total	1,333.34

This claim is marked on the back "filed August 29, 1871," and below that is the word "disallowed."

We also find among the files a claim of E. B. Lacey for services and expenses in pursuit of burglars, filed December 29, 1871, amounting to $1,184.19. exclusive of interest. The claim is made of items of expense in traveling to and from various places in the months of August and September, 1870. In addition to these items of expense for travel there are the following items:

To amount paid sheriff of Champaign county, prison expenses of McKay	$35.00
Paid J. D. Brown, ex-sheriff, for assistance in extraditing McKay	25.00
Services of Sheriff Lacey for sixteen days at $6 per day	96.00
Cash and note given for apprehension of McKay, with ten per cent interest from date	1,000.00

There was a number of items of actual expense aggregating $1,442.40, on which there is a credit of $258.21, received of the auditor of state on expenditures and services in apprehending and extraditing McKay. This claim is also marked "disallowed."

Soon after this burglary the board of supervisors took steps to have the amount of said funds in the treasurer's safe credited to the county, so that they would not have to be paid to the state. In March, 1868, the board addressed the following memorial to the legislature:

"To the Hon. the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Iowa: "The undersigned, the Board of Supervisors of the County of Louisa in the State of Iowa, would respectfully represent that on the morning of the 18th of February, A. D., 1868, the office of the treasurer of said county was entered by burglars, the safe, supposed to be a good, burglar proof safe, broken open, and funds to the amount of seventeen thousand, one hundred and five dollars and forty cents stolen, of which eight hundred dollars have been recovered. We would further respectfully represent that at that time there was on hand, and in said safe, moneys collected on state tax amounting to the sum of four thousand five hundred and ninety-three dollars and twenty-eight cents, and that there was due to the state at that date on Insane Hospital account the sum of fifteen hundred and seventeen dollars and fourteen cents, there being at that time collected and on hand Insane Hospital tax to more than that amount.

"The whole making the amounts in said treasury properly belonging or due to the state of Iowa, six thousand one hundred and ten dollars and forty-two cents."

pg 417

Subsequently the legislature passed a joint resolution in regard to this and several other similar robberies of county safes that had occurred not long before that, in which the state auditor was authorized to make proper credits to the various counties named in the resolution. Louisa county eventually got credit under this resolution for $4,592.28.

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