The Northfield Bank Raid
On September 7, 1876, First National Bank of Northfield's President John C. Nutting and Cashier G. M. Phillips were at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Around 2 p.m. on that day, three members of the James-Younger Gang entered the bank and discovered Heywood, Alonzo E. Bunker (bank teller) and Frank J. Wilcox (bookkeeper). The bandits immediately pulled their guns and aimed at the employees. One of the robbers asked Heywood if he was the cashier, to which Heywood said no (as he was technically the "acting cashier"). Bunker and Wilcox were also asked and both also denied being the cashier. A second outlaw ordered Heywood to open the safe, located in the vault. Heywood refused. The second gang member began to go into vault, Heywood threw himself against the vault door and attempted to lock the outlaw inside. The outlaw managed to get out of the safe, but his arm and hand had seriously bruised, though not broken. The third outlaw ran over to Heywood and knocked him to the floor with his pistol butt.
The first outlaw approached Heywood, who was lying dazed on the floor. He knelt in front of Heywood and took a pocket knife out of his pocket, then placed it against Heywood's neck and threatened to cut his throat. Although terrified, Heywood bravely replied that the outlaw would need to slit his throat, since Heywood could not open the safe. In anger and frustration, the outlaw made a slight gash on Heywood's neck, then dragged him to his feet. Meanwhile, the third outlaw stuffed available bills into a grain sack. The first outlaw pointed his pistol at Heywood and again ordered him to open the safe. Heywood finally lied and told him that there was a chronometer (time lock) on the safe and it could not be opened. (There was a chronometer on the safe, it had not been set and the safe itself was unlocked.)
Bunker then noticed that the second outlaw was guarding Wilcox and the third outlaw was busy collecting money. He made a dash out the back door. The third outlaw gave chase, following him out the door and fired, wounding Bunker in the shoulder.
Gang member Clell Miller, who was keeping watch on the street—which by this time was the site of a pitched gun battle between Northfield citizens and gang members—rode his horse back to the bank, dismounted, walked up to the door, and yelled inside for the gang members inside to hurry up. Within minutes, two of the gang members on the streets had been killed and others were seriously wounded. Gang member Cole Younger rode his horse to the bank and screamed for the others to come out.
The first outlaw inside the bank once again knocked Heywood to the floor. Frustrated, he fired a bullet into the floor by Heywood's head. The third outlaw ran outside with the bag of money, followed by the first. The second outlaw left last and noticed Heywood trying to stand. The outlaw went back, placed his pistol to Heywood's head and fired, killing him, and then left the bank.
The three outlaws who entered the bank are believed to be Frank James, Charlie Pitts, and Bob Younger.
The gang members managed to abscond with only US$26.70. The bank reportedly held over US$12,000 at the time of robbery.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Lee Heywood
Famous quotes containing the words bank and/or raid:
“People get a bad impression of it by continually trying to treat it as if it was a bank clerk, who ought to be on time on Tuesday next, instead of philosophically seeing it as a painter, who may do anything so long as you don’t try to predict what.”
—Katharine Whitehorn (b. 1926)
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)