BANK ROBBERY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 63, 15 March 1934, Page 11

BANK ROBBERY

SPECTACLE FOR CROWD

SIOUX FALLS SENSATION

NEW YORK, March 6. Resembling the audacious exploits of Jesse James and other desperadoes of fifty years ago, but with'machine-guns and motor-cars replacing the six-shoot-ers ana horses, was a daring daylight bank robbery that stirred South Dakota today. Tho leader is believed to have been John Dillinger, America's "Public Enemy No. 1," who made a bold escape from prison on Sunday. Six bandits, headed by a dark-haired young man, whom scores of people believed they recognised as Dillinger, beM up the Security National Bank and Trust Company in Sioux Falls, in the morning, snatched 30,000 dollars (£6000), and a valise filled -with securities, kidnapped four girl bank employees, and fled. The robbery was carried out in the boldest style, although not a single shot was fired until the pursuit started, as the bandits escaped southward over the county highway. A thousand spectators watched the robbery. Small groups gathered along tho street, peering from doorways and behind poles, mail-boxes, and motorcars. • "Get back there, or I'll blow your daylights out," shouted one robber, as ho swept the muzzle of his machinegun across the path of a group of pedestrians. Another robber stood silent, 100 ft away, ready to sweep the street by cross-fire. Three others inside the bank obeyed the quiet commands of their leader, threatening 30 customers and employees if they moved. . They were .just starting to ransack the place when the bank's shrill elec-< trie alarm started ringing. "Who started that durn thing?" ejaculated the leader, but a moment later he dropped his work of robbery and went outside. A HUMAN SHIELD. Racing, up the street at top speed was a red motor-car, containing the Chief of Police and his No. 1 detective, both with revolvers drawn. They ran plump into a machine-gun trap, quickly surrendered, and were taken inside, where they joined the customers, with their hands above their heads. \ Finishing tho job, tho bandits ordered four girls .into their big motorcar, and headed south. By this time the entire police force had been aroused and tho robbers were overtaken fifteen miles outside the city. The robbers calmly stopped, arranged their hostages in front of them as a shield, ana drove back, the three pursuing machines with several bursts from their machine-guns. Spreading nails to hamper pursuit, the bandits then seized a fast car from a passing motorist, abandoning their own car, and leaving the girls still inside. It took half an hour to reorganise the police pursuit, and by this time the bandits had entirely disappeared. Aeroplane, spotters failed to locate them during the afternoon. If it was indeed Dillinger who led the bandits he must have worked fast to organise this raid. Evidently, he reached Chicago late on Saturday night from Crown Point, for Mrs. Lillian Holley's sheriff car was found abandoned in a Chicago suburb. In Crown Point, tho police have arrested two gaol officials accused of assisting Dillinger's comic walk-out.