Manhunt
The gang divided the loot and separated, with Abshire driving Royston to Minneapolis, Minnesota to be seen by a dental surgeon. After reaching Minneapolis each man went to a different area of the country with Abshire going to Grand Junction, Colorado, Royston to San Andreas, California and Ralph to San Francisco, California. It took police about 13 months to track down the owner of the single latent fingerprint left on the windows of Dr. Wineinger’s car. When Jake was arrested in Stockton, California in March 1929 his fingerprints were sent to the Bureau of Investigation (later known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation) in Washington DC, where they were identified as Jake Fleagle and connected to the Lamar bank robbery. Ralph was arrested first in Kankakee, Illinois and after flying back to Kansas and being booked in Lamar he was taken to Colorado Springs where he eventually confessed. Ralph agreed to provide authorities with information about the rest of the gang in exchange for the release of his two brothers Fred and Walt Fleagle. A nationwide manhunt for Jake resulted in his death in a shootout on a train in Branson, Missouri, in October 1930 after his brother had been hung in Colorado. Royston was captured at his home in San Andreas, California, and Abshire was arrested in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Read more about this topic: Fleagle Gang