The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1915-02-05
BANK ROBBERS GET
MINIMUM SENTENCE I
TEN YEARS

I'LL E6IbHbO
Hale and Mack After Making Com
pIete Confession duplicating Third
Party Receive Sentence For Hold
ing Up Duncan 6ant.zlra Greer
Sill la Jail Awafti6g Preliminary
Hearing-officers Believe. He VIII
CONFESS: y,a s0
On Thursday afternoon at 300 p.
M Joe Hale aged twenty-five, and
son of j. +. Hale, who has ranch
on the Blue River and J:lAsS Mack.
were brought into the Superior Court
to receive sentence for the robbery of
the Bank of Duncan, at Duncan, on
the afternoon of September 18TH The
sentence was not less than ten years
or more than twenty "a week pTer
vious both men plead guilty to the
information lodged against them. Be
fore pleading guilty both Mack and
Hale made a full confession regard
ing the ho1d-up and In this Confession
implicated Ira Greer as the instigator
of the plot. Greer is now confined in
the county Jail but has not yet been
given a, preliminary heariug3 1iWhen
first placed under arrest at Sheldon
in this county Greer staetly denied
any connection with the bank rob-
berry but the officers are ofssthes opfn-
ion that he will likewise confess his
participation in. the. bold affair be-
fore he is brought to trial.
It isathe belief that both-~Hale and
Mack -squandered theirEilf gotten
gains in riotous living before, they
were apprehended by the sheriff at
Roaring Springs, Texas. At the
time of their arrest .Mack's bank ac-
count showed balance of $40. 90
l. +. -
The full confession made by Mack
regarding the robbery and, the events
leading up thereto are as followss
Confession Of ). =. Mack.
"Along in, the Summer of lasts year
I went to work at, the Elephant Butte
dam as helper in the lmaehine shop,
and worked there stead dily until early
in September, when I was approach
ed by Ira Greer. who was also there,
with a proposition to rob the bank at
Hillsboro, New Mexico. Greer's,
scheme was this: 1 was to put up
what money 1 had, about. $40 90, and
he was to put up the balance neces-
sary for him to makesa trip seto 81
Paso and buy the needed firearms;
he was also to bring back with him
a young man, his cousin p believe,
Joe j. Hale; this boy and were to
do the work and were to all meet in
Ell Paso later and divide up. 1 put
up the $40 90 with Greer and he
went to Ell Paso as arranged and on
the fourth day after that he came
back to Elephant Butte with two
5000 rifles and a A ands As, six
shooter. Hale had been working in
Ell Paso. believe, but was broke
whenOI first met him 4 Aiit 'SEf'iti
About 5 OF 6 days later Greer
provided us with horses, saddles and
brides, as well as the four guns he
brought from FL Paso, andfwe started
out for Hillsboro When we leach
ed there and looked thifigs, over3, we
decided there was nothing there = for
us, so wee then started sfoir DdncAn d,
suggestion, in case We didn't find
anything at Hillsb61o. NV
I'VE got. to Duncan about 3: 80 on
the afternoon of September 18TH
The first thing we did was to put "a
prop under wire fence so we could
ride through after we had done our
business without having to Stop We
then went to the. bank, and asked the
Cashier, Mr. Lanneau,pIi to ,eash a
check He replied, IT ,Kuessk Itcan.
just wait a moment until, i complete
the addition Of this columulof figures. +"
They were getting ready to- CLOSE for
the day. When Mr.-Lanaeaa- was
ready to attend to my wants and
looked up had him covered with my
six shooter, and Hale had covered the
other fellow there in the bank, Mr.
Lanneau's assistant. Mr. Lanneau
instantly dropped to the floor down
behind the counter. His assistant
looked around about that time and
saw what was happening, and said to
Mr.. Lanneau you had better get up
=
ness" i also told MrHiLanneau he
had better get up, which he did.
then informed him it would not be
necessary for him to cash our check,
and that it would suit us: better if he
and his assistant would just step into
the vault and pass out the bags of
gold. He tried to tell us that the
bags contained silver but we didn't
believe 1t and told him, to lust throw
would be able to tell whether, they
contained gold or siiver;$ ana would
take what we wanted. O5Ehe~ total
amount of our haul WAS, q $4,2zS 90,
being $3.50. 90 in gold, $240. 90 in
silver, 100000 In one and two dollar
bills, $500.00 in $5. bills. and
$4,000 in miscellaneous bills. We
then closed the vault door - with Mr..
Lanneau and his assistant on the
inside, and got out as fast as we
could.
Just as we were leaving Duncan
big fat fellow with six shooter, and
mounted on an old plug of a horse,
tried to overtake us, butcWas soon
left in the shade.
After we got a little ways out of
town we saw man herding some
cattle and he waived his hat like he
wanted us to- come to hims- but we
didn't stop, ms Ifas
without meeting anyone else until we