The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-25
NERvY ROBBERS of BANKS.
How Some Remarkable Thefts Have
Been Effected.


In describing the new Philadelphia
mint and it's Gibraltar-like strength,
the st. Louis Republic is reminded of
some of the greatest attempts made by
thieves to break into money vaults, and
tells about them, as follows:
One of the most daring and elaborate
plans ever conceived by bank robbers
was that arranged by nine dissolute
| Australian miners to rob the bank in
| small mining camp near Coolgardle
at a time when the safe would contain
a large amount of gold awaiting con-
veyance and an escort to Coolgardie.
The camp consisted of 400 miners and
| twenty policemen, and had telegraph
| communication with Coolgardie.
The schemers carefully "salted" the
| ground along little creek in a valley
twenty miles away from the camp.
| The day before they intended to make
the raid on the bank they had the ru-
NOR noised about that gold in great
| quantities had been discovered in the
valley, and over 800 of the miners in
the camp at once hurried away to the
| spot. That night the cracksmen ar
ranged the rest of the plot. In the
afternoon of the next day a house on
| the edge of the camp was to be fired.
| 1t was counted that this would at
| tract almost all of the other miners in
| the town. Four of the schemers were
| to take possession of the police station,
which was guarded by only two men.
| The rest were to boldly enter the bank
| and kill every one that opposed them.
| The treasure was to be put into wa
| gon and driven away, surround
| ed by the nine robbers, who were
| to be mounted on horses and armed
with rifles to fight off their pursuers.
The police, however, got word that
night of the intended robbery, and
they raided the shanty of the cracks
men. The men had taken warning.
however, and fed, leaving the informer
dead on the steps of the shanty. None
of the men engaged in the plot has
ever been arrested.
In three other noteworthy cases the
conspirators, having more brains and
skill, did not resort to or contemplate
murder as part of their schemes. The
most gigantic of the plans was laid
and all but executed in the City of
Mexico. Next to the richest bank in
the city was a vacant lot, which was
purchased one day by some gentlemen
from the North who were invalids and
who wished to erect house and spend
few years in Mexico. They built
splendid residence on the lot they had
ulIeQ the IcSlQeHCc
throughout in a handsome manner and
provided themselves with servants and
horses and rigs in abundance.
They had lived there quietly for
about four months when one e"ening
the manager of the bank, in coming
out of the basement, which was the
banks money vault noticed the ex-
cited actions of his little dog. The dog
barked furiously at something that ex-
the vault. The manager went over to
see why the dog was barking and
found a piece of cement lying on the
floor. Investigating, he discovered a
small hole in the wall. He
called the bank watchmen, and
they broke through the wall at
the spot where the hole had been
found and discovered an under
ground passage leading to the cellar
of the new house which the invalids
from the North had built. The men,
| however, had taken warning and fed,
| but they left a beautifully furnished
house behind which no one has ever
appeared to claim.
On investigating the tunnel 1t was
| found to be we'll walled and was cut
| through FIVE feet of solid masonry
| forming the banks foundation. The
men had chiseled out the masonry I'M
| til they were separated from the bank
vault by only thin curtain of stone
less than half an inch thick. They
were waiting behind this, looking out
through their peep-hole and waiting
for night, when the dog discovered
their presence and betrayed all their
plans.
This scheme was followed out more
successfully in lower China two years
ago. The robbers succeeded in getting
away with $250,000 in cash, none of
which was ever recovered. The bank
which was looted was a branch of the
Bank of Western India, located in
thriving Chinese river town. The rob-
bers rented house across the street
from the bank and set to work to tun-
mel into the bank vault. First they
sank shaft twelve feet deep. From
this they tunneled across to the bank
under the roadway, and then carried
their shaft upward until they reached
the banks foundation walls. The tun-
mel was sixty feet long and was we'll
supported as it passed under a much
Travelled roadway, that would have
fallen in If poorly made.
The thieves cut through the founda-
tlon walls of the bank, helped them
selves at leisure to the banks
treasure. and retreated through
the tunnel to their house, where
horses were in waiting and on which
they made good their escape with all of
their stealings.
The house of the thieves being locat-
ed in a public place, the men had to
use the greatest care not to arouse sus-
picion, and were obliged to carry all of
the dirt that they took out of the tun-
mel in the pockets of their coats.
The robbers who tunneled into a
Kimberley bank four years ago had
more patience and ingenuity than even
the Chinese cracksmen. This bank was
unusually well protected from robbers,
and ii was claimed could even with
stand a siege. Besides the massive
masonry above ground, the vaults had
been especially built to render impos-
sible any attack that might be made
upon them. The exterior wall of the
vault, which was also the foundat ton
of the bank premises, was built of solid
blocks of peculiarly hard stone, four
feet square and each weighing two
tons. Within this wall was another two
feet and six inches thick, and within
that a three-fo ot-thick wall of dove
tailed masonry.
The cracksmen had no house to work
from, but started their tunnel from a
drain across the road from the bank.
They had first to make tunnel TWEEN
ty feet long before reaching the stone
barriers of the vault. But for weeks
they worked desperately at their task
and finally succeeded in cutting
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