The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-10

seen accident spoiled every
thing.
~ one day the president of
the bank, Mr.. Pratt was sur
prised. on entering the vault to md
/ the floor sprinkled with a fine white
dust. An investigation was made. and
1.-THE whole plot was uncovered. The
members of the gang, however, got
word in time, and all managed to es-
cane except Perry, who was convicted
Of attempted burglary and sent to the
Auburn prison for I'VE years.
Undisrurbed by the failure, Scott and
/ Dunlap proceeded to scour the coun-
/ try again in search of another bank
suited to their operations, and in Feb
| ruary, 1874, notified the bank, which
| now contained some new members,
that they had found something to go
to work att in Quincy. Ill. The attack
on the Quincy bank was made in very
much the same way as the attack on
! the bank at Elmira. The Baltimore
woman again rented a house which af-
forded shelter and concealment to the
4 men; access was obtained to rooms
over the vault by false keys as before;
the floor was taken up and put down
/ every night without exciting suspicion;
the masonry was removed, the iron
! plates Of the vault were penetrated,
and, finally, one night Scott and Dun
lap were able to lower themselves
through a jagged hole into the money
! room beneath.
1t now remained to force open the
/ safes inside the vault; and to accom-
plish this the robbers used, for the
| first time in the history of safe wreck
{ ing in America, what IS known as me
air pump method which had been de-
vised by Evans, and carefully ex-
planned by him to Scott and Dunlap.
1 Evans employers were at this time in
| Producing a padding designed to make
safes more secure; and Evans had hit
up0n the idea of introducing powder
/ into the seams Of a safe door by an
lair pump, IN the presence of q posi-
! bic customer in order to impress him.
with his need of the new padding
Evans himself was not present at the
/ brea king open of the Quincy bank, and
he had nothing to do with the robbery
/ beyond furnishing instruction and the
air pump. Scott and Dunlap did the
/ work.
! As a first step. all the seams Of the
safes formed by the doors We're care
fully putfied UP, save two small holes,
one at the top and one at the bottom.
4 Then, at the upper hole, Scott held a
4 funnel filled with fine powder, while
/ Dunlap applied the air pump at the
| hole below. By the draft thus created,
/ the powder was drawn into all the in
| terstfces between the heavy doors and
| the frames of the safes. Then a little
pistol loaded simply with powder was
/ attached near the upper hole, and, by
! a string tied to the trigger, discharged
from a safe distance above. There
]
complete explosion was effected; but
finally the safes were blown open and
I their contents secured. the robbers
making good their escape with $780,
4 coo in money and about $1,000 900 in
bonds. No part of this money was
t ever recovered by the bank, nor were
any of the gang captured at this time.
+ The securities we're, however. after
+ ward sold back to the bank. Indeed.
/ so cleverly had the whole affair been
managed that no suspicious fell upon
either Scott, Dunlap, or any of their
associates.
Here were fortunes made easily
enough, with plenty. more to be made
in the same way, and the gang were
in high feather over their success.
During the summer of 1874 Scott and
Dunlap lived in princely style in New
Y ork. They attracted much attention
at Coney Island during the season,
where they drove fast horses. No one
suspected that they were the leaders
of the most desperate gang of bank
robbers ever organized In this or any
country.
By fall their money began to run
short and they decided to look about
for another job. In the Quincy rob
berry they had broken their agreement
with Evans. paying him only q small
sum for the use of the air pump which
he had furnished them Now, how
ever they called upon him again, and
partly by threats, partly by generous
offers, Induced him to assist them
/ again. A series of unsuccessful at
tempts at robbery were made on banks
in Saratoga, Nantucket, Covingtou
KY, and Rockville, Conn. In several
instances failure came a the very
| times when success seemed sure. In
the case of the C0vington bank. for in
! stance, nitroglyceriu was used IL
blowing open the safe, and the ex-
plosiOn was so violent that the mer
became frightened and fed in a panic
o. inc ENenfr
exposed to view, 100000 in green
backs, and $1,500s00 in negotiable
bonds. In the case Of the Rockville
/ bank their plans had worked out per
fectly, and they had removed every
thing from the top of the vault but &
thin layer of brick, when Scott acct
dentally forced the jimmy with which
ne was working through the roof OF
the vault and let it fall inside AS i
was too late to complete the work thaf
night. and as the presence of the jim
my inside the vault would inevitably
start an alarm the next day, they
were obliged to abandon the attemp
entirely.
The gang most desperate adventure
befell in connection with the attemp
on the First national bank of Pitts
ton, Pa. This was made late in th'
tan Of 1875. The bank occupied a one
story building covered with a tin roof
and the robbers decided to make tn
attack from the roof. But there wa
a serious difficulty in the fact that il
case of a rain coming any time afte
they had begun operations. waite
might soak through the openings the.
had made and betray them. Dunlap
3 ingenuity, however was equal to thi
emergency; and each night, after fin
ishing their excavation, they CAREFUL,
relaid the sheets of tin that had beel
disturbed protecting the joint with re-
putty, which matched the roof il
color. So well did they put on thi
putty that, although it rafned heavif
the very day after they began. not
drop leaked through.
On the night of November onE
one layer of bricks separated then
from the top of the vault, and it wa
decided to finish the work and do tn
robbery that night. Two hours har
. labor with drag. and tfjack-screW