Volume 18 , Issue 35

September, 1884, Burrowing Into A Bank

It was in the Democrat and Chronicle, out of Rochester, New York, dated 26 September 1884, Friday, page 1, that we found the following headlines: "Burrowing Into A Bank." The full details of that singular attempt at burglary in Las Vegas, New Mexico had the James gang as suspects. Three months of skillful work made useless by an accidental discovery and all the outlaws but one made good their escape.

Found on Newspapers.com

New York, Sept. 25 (1884) -- The World's Las Vegas, N.M. special said, "The history of bank robbing in the west does not furnish a parallel for the daring attempt to capture the safe of the First National bank at this place Tuesday morning. The digging of a tunnel sixty feet long, upon which operations were prosecuted three months, is a novel feature that is calculated to bring tears to the eyes of Colonel Frank James. James's old partners, Bob Ford and Dick Liddell, were probably at the bottom of the affair.

It was on the Monday morning the bank teller experienced difficulty in opening the doors of the vault, caused by the settling of the foundation. The suspicions of the employes were aroused and a sounding of the floor showed a hollow below the vault. George J. Kindel, vice president, accompanied by the teller, went into the vacant storeroom three doors east of the bank. The cellar of this room was explored and the mouth of a tunnel pointing in the direction of the bank discovered. The bank that night placed a strong guard near the vault. The next morning at 1 o'clock sounds of working were heard beneath the vault floor, and supposing the robbers were caged, the alarm was raised and the mouth go the tunnel was patrolled. Intense excitement prevailed during the night without developments, but none dared to enter the dark tunnel.

Early in the morning a man darted from the tunnel, but was shot and killed by a Mexican. He was identified as James Pearson, a well to do stone mason who had lived here four years and had #3,000 on deposit in the bank. Pearson helped to build the vault four years ago, and for this reason was probably hired for the present job. The floors of the bank and the drugstore adjoining were taken up and the tunnel explored, but the others of the gang could not be found. The tunnel was sixty feet long and dug through twelve feet of concrete masonry. A large chamber was dug under the vault and two jack-screws which had been used in raising the floor were found, together with tools, provisions and water.

Unquestionably there were experienced robbers at the bottom of the affair. Even had the robbers entered the vault, only an experienced cracksman could have manipulated the safe, as it was supplied with an improved time lock. The officers were working on a strong clue. There was no doubt that a strong gang of desperate villains formed the party, but the alarm was raised too soon, when only Pearson was in the hole. Ford & Liddell's saloon was on the same street, ten doors east of the bank, and the citizens complained of the hard gang which hung around the dive. This gang was partially suspected, and the vigilantes of 1870 were now organizing to force Ford and Liddell to leave town.

The bank building was a handsome two-story stone structure, fronting the public square, at the corner of the main thoroughfare and a narrow side street leading to the convent and Jesuit college. The ground floor was occupied by a drug store and the banking rooms, which front the side street, while the upper story was used as offices. Adjoining the building on the main street was a row of one story houses, and that next the drug store was used as a storehouse by the commission firm of Blanchard & Co. The adjoining one had been vacant for several months. This was the base of operations of the gang. Great precaution was taken in the construction of the bank building, which was erected at a time when the town was infested by a gang of desperadoes, and during the construction of the Southern Transcontinental railway. The vault rested on a twelve foot foundation of granite and concrete and stood in the center of the banking rooms.

It was evidently the intention of the robbers to do their work during the next few days, as the bank received a large remittance of currency and coin at about this time each month from the east, and from the treasurer of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway, which paid its employes over the entire length of its line by pay checks. Theban was the New Mexican depository for railway moneys and took up the checks cashed by merchants and bankers in small towns. It had a branch in Albuquerque, the terminus of the Atlantic and Pacific road, whose depository it was, and also in El Paso, which acted in a similar capacity for the Mexican Central, Southern Pacific and Texas Pacific railways.

All the business of these concerns was done through the bank , which recently had $50,000 to $100,000 of railway money on hand besides its regular deposits. The gang contemplating the robbery was undoubtedly aware of this fact.
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