Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1906-12-14
BRINKMAN BANK
ROBBED SATURDAY.
By Lone Bandit. Robber Captured
and Money Recovered.
WESTFALL WAS KILLED,

Saturday just after the banl
opened at nine o'clock, a strange
appeared at the cashiers window o
the J. V. Brinkman Bank, and ordered
those in the bank to throw up thei
hands,. None of the employees of tn,
bank paid any attention to the com
mand at first, thinking that someon,
was playing a joke on them, bu
when Cashier Taylor looked up from
work, he looked squarely into tn.
rnuzzle of a wicked looking revolver
and past that into the eyes o.
a very termin ned young
man behind it. Mr.. Taylor
was ordered to hand over the cash in
his charge and reached into thu
drawer and handed the man a bunch
Of one and five dollas bills, probably
about two or three hundred dollar.
all together.
Frank Brinkman, assistant cashier
was working in the back part of thu
room near the door Of the vault, anc
when the command was given the
second time to throw up their hands
jumped into the vault and slammed
the door shut, and then threw the
lever that started the burglar alarm
After the alarm was given the man
took the money that the cashier had
handed him and ran out of the bank
going west on Broadway to the
alley Just west of the bank building q
half block. He then ran down the
alley about half way to Forest Avenue
where he turned east and ran up the
stairs to the second floor of the lyle,
building, where Mrs. L. F. Tyler con.
ducts a millinery store, where he de.
manded that he be hidden.
In very few minutes there was a
crowd of probably one hundred mer
running about the street in all dircc.
tons, some with guns and some with
nothing at all, but very much excite.
ment.
Mrs. Tyler asked the robber what
he wanted to hide for, and he ans.
wered that it did not matter, but for
her to hide him. She refused and
told him that she would report him,
and she and lady working there
with her went down ohio ;he Street
and notified the men that he was in
her store up stairs. On the ground
floor Of this building is a shoe store
conducted by Ed. Marx, and there
were some five or six men standing
In there, among them being Claude
Westfall, driver for the Wells Fargo
Express Co. By this time several
men armed with rifles, shot guns and
revolvers had taken up a position at
the front and rear of the building and
some of the armed force had taken a
position on top of the E. R. Moses
Mercantile Co.'s building, which is
separated from the Tyler building by
a one story frame building, and the
Moses building is somewhat higher
than than the one in which the robber
was concealed, and these men after a
shot or two had been fired by the rob.
Der, opened fire on the side of the
Tyler building, which if a frame
structure with a brick front, and one
of the bullets went through the side
of the Tyler building and down
through the ceiling Of the shoe store,
striking Wesfall just over the ear
and killing lin instantly.
Westfall is young man who has
been employed for the past eighteen
months or more by The Wells Fargo
Express Company, as a driver Of the
delivery wagon in this city and had
been sent out on different occasions
as messenger on one Of the branch
trains from this point.
Westfall came here from his home
at Toledo, Ohio, and has been
working for the express company
almost continually since be came
west. He leaves a wife, who was
Miss Nea Crilley,. who has lived in
this city all her life, and they were
only married some time during the
-,