Year: 1870




Robbedin Bread Daylight.


From the Louisville Journal of Saturday we
take these particulars of the recent daring bank
robbery


One of the most bold and successful pieces of
villainy ever perpetrated in our city. occurred
Yesterday afternoon.


The facts of this daring robbery are about as
follows:-Mr. Henry l.. Pope, who, for the last
twenty five or thirty years. has held the position
of Cashier of the Mechanics Bank, occasionally
goes to the bank after business hours especially
during the busy season. to count the cash, post
the books, and finish up the business of the day.
Yesterday Mr.. Pope went to dinner and re-
turned to the bank little after Z. M. He sat
down in the Cashiers office, looked over the
daily papers for a few minutes, and then opened
the vaults and cash drawers and commenced
counting the money. He had been busily en-
gagged in this manner for some time, when sud-
denly two men advanced upon him from behind.
The foremost of the two men had huge knife
in his hand and as he suddenly came upon Mr..
Pope, made menacing movement with the knife
and said:-"If you make noise will kill you" ="
and at the same time threw handful of stuff
into Mr.. Pope's eyes. The other man then
rushed up with heavy woollen shawl, and
threw it over Mr.. Pope's head. The two men
then seized hold of him and dragged him into
the back room, and locked the door. They then
hastily gathered up what money there was in
sight and made off.


cash drawer and in a small safe in the large
vault, both of which were open. They scoOped
the small safe clean, but when they came to the
cash-drawer they were more particular, only
emptying the compartments containing large
bills. Scrip and one and two dollar bills were
thrown aside with contempt. They were evil
IDENTITY in a great hurry, and grabbed up the
money hastily, as one package. containing one
thousand dollars was found lying on the floor,
Immediately beneath the cash-drawer.


how the robbers got into the bank is mys-
tery, but the most reasonable theory is that they
slipped into the building during the day, and
secreted themselves in the back room until Mr.
Pope returned from dinner.


The first discovery of the robbery was made a
few minutes before o'clock last night. Mr.
w. NJ. Lewis, young man who sleeps In the
bank, went there at that time last night, and
upon entering the room found Mr.. Pope
lying in the stairway, with the shawl lying
partly over him, and bottle which had con-
tained chloroform near his face. He was in
sensible, but by the application of cold water
was restored to consciousness. large glass
bottle partly filled with chloroform, a napkin
which had been saturated with chloroform, and
u huge knife with a blade nearly eight inches
long, were found on the table,


A TASTY count of the cash was made, as it was
impossible during the hurry and excitement TO
ascertain exactly the amount taken, but as far
as could be ascertained last night about $65, 600
in currency was missing Piled in the shelves
in boxes were the special deposits of the bank,
consisting of cash and bonds to the amount of
several hundred thousand dollars, which the
robbers had overlooked. Mr.. Pope was made
very i'll by his rough treatment, and had not
fully recovered up TO late hour last night


All the avenues leading from the city were
guarded last night, and every effort will be made
TO bring the bold villains to Justice. This is the
second attempt which has been made to rob this
same bank in open daylight. The first attempt
was highly tragical affair, and occurred about
thirty years ago.


The story, as well as can be remembered now,
is about as follows:-Mr. Parker, who was the
cashier of the bank, had friend, Captain Dix
of Maysville, who was in the habit of dropping
into the bank occasionally.


Mr. II. s. Julian, of this city, was also an off
Ger of the bank, which was then located or
Main street, between Second and Third. At the
dinner hour Julian would go to his dinner anC
return and relieve Parker. Upon the day IL
question Captain Dix went into the bank, while
Julian was absent at dinner, and, after looking
over the papers and chatting awhile, slipped vi
behind Parker, who was at work at his books
and struck him with slung.shot, killing hin
instantly. Knowing that Julian would return
before he could possibly get away with the
booty, he determined TO lay in wait and kill hin
tackled him with slung-s shot, but the blow
glanced, and Julian closed with him.


Dix then struck him with the concealed ham
mer, but without infcting serious injury. Julial
then managed to get hold OF chair, with whicl
he knocked Dix down. He then ran into tn
cred; but as they entered, Dix seeing that hi
audacious scheme was a failure, and that th
penalty for murder was more certain than 1t ]
at present, drew pistol and blew his brains ou
before the crowd could seize him. Mr. Henr
j.. Pope was appointed cashier in place of th
unfortunate Parker, and after service OF thirt
years nearly lost his life in defending the pre-
perty of the bank


Up to one O'Clock this morning the robber
had not been captured. 1t is almost certain tina
they are still in the city, and determined effol
will be made TO arrest them.