George C. Robertson

G.C. Robertson, was one of the inside guys on the Montgomery County National Bank robbery. I was a little surprised to find out that he was 35 at the time of the robbery. Because I read that he was the bank Vice President, I was expecting an older man with a paunch like Lionel Barrymore.

There's more to this story than is commonly known. Mr. Robertson, who served 1 year and a day in Leavenworth for his role, is originally from Springfield, MO. The address he gave for his father's home is on the same street, Kimbrough, that Vivian Chase's family occupied. Hmmm.

So where is my fertile mind going with all of this? Did Vivian actually know Robertson prior to the robbery? Did she set him up? Or was he in on the double cross from the beginning?

There is something odd in Robertson's Leavenworth file. Supposedly he had no prior arrests to the Cherryvale robbery, yet there's an FBI arrest record for in his file for a Clarence Griffin dating back to 1918. Maybe it's a mistake someone else's information in his file. Maybe not.

Dead or Alive

This book has merits for a lot of reasons; chief among them (for me) is that since I'm unacquainted with the details of Harry Tracy's tale I was surprised at the ending. Gulick doesn't give anything away in earlier chapters; he lets the reader know what happens only at the point of the narrative when it happens. No value judgements about not being surprised at what awaits Tracy.

It's interesting I think this is one of the better prison escape tales that I've read. Mainly because there isn't an attempt to explain the why. There no exhausting analysis about who could have provided the guns for the escape. No onerous details about Tracy and Merril's associates outside of the Oregon pen or the conditions inside the penitentiary. A good tale. I think what makes the story surprising is that the crimes that Tracy was convicted for gave no indication that he would be capable of eluding a posse for months. He seems more like a bully than a professional thief. Definitely, not a yegg. He stole yes, but with a senseless brutality that if he hadn't been able to escape from the pen and actively dodge capture for so long he could have been dismissed as unintelligent.

Another thing that makes this story interesting is that this occurs during a time when the American West is moving into the modern age but it's not quite there. It's 1902, men are traveling by horse and buggy. But there are electric cars and telephones. This is the twilight for the old fashioned badman and the civilian posse. It's also great to see how intrusive the media could be even in 1902 to a criminal investigation and how even then people could have a dreadful awe for a man who kills 7 people in the pursuit of his freedom and escapes one trap after another. Sometimes it's not clear who's the fox or whose the hound. It's not a tale that is going to end well.

Hunting Vivian

Well for the second time I was directed to Startling Detective's June 1936 article on Vivian Chase so I decided to read it. No small job since the magazine I have is so fragile that it crumbles with the slightest touch.

I got a copy of the obituary for Vivian's father Alfred W. Davis. The obit listed surviving siblings. It might be possible that there are descendants living. I could end up knowing more about Vivian's genealogy than I do about my own.

I've requested the FBI Cherryvale Bank robbery file and the Leavenworth file for the inside guys convicted. I'll never understand why the FBI is so stingy with documents that are over 70 years old. They have an index of files but they won't make it available. They are the keepers. I understand about stuff that's current. Hell I understand about stuff that's 40 years old (MLK & Kennedy files) but honestly making information concerning prohibition and the 30's accessible to the public is not going to harm anyone now!

Off the soapbox...if the FBI does give me the file location I'll be able to go to the archives again..ooooh!

BTW, I don't think Luther Jordan and Vivian ever had anything going. At the time of the KC bank job Vivian had been using Earl McDowell's last name as an alias. She tended to do that when she was living with a man. McDowell ended up eating lead on a lonely road. I guess it is possible that she and Jordon hooked up afterwards but he denied it.

Vincent Coll

Brendan Delap's Mad Dog Coll: an Irish Gangster begins with an examination of Coll's Irish roots and asks the question of what would have happened to Coll had they never left Ireland. Hmmm...well probably Coll would have been an unknown Irish thug with a shorter career and a longer stretch in the pen if he didn't make it too the gallows sooner. Really.

Delap reveals that Coll had been diagnosed with schizophrenia which goes a long way in explaining his explosive temper and his odd habit of laughing during his mug shots. It also explains how he could have no remorse for the life he led. Most of the criminals I read about don't have such a great excuse or maybe they do (who knows). Anyway, the book is a little long probably because it does spend so much time on Coll's early life. Coll really doesn't become interesting until later in his life when he breaks from Schultz and takes on Schultz, Madden, and the other big sharks. Coll's early life is incredibly similar to Legs Diamond's which may explain why their abbreviated partnership came about. The book picks up momentum when it begins discussing Coll's flirtation with death in the form of taking on Owney Madden while carrying on a war with Dutch Schultz. Coll had more guts than brains which is the primary reason his candle was snuffed in a hotel phone booth at 24.

Dutch Schultz

I found a great site that will allow you to read Paul Sann's Kill the Dutchman.

The book is out of print so unless you want to shell out for a used book ( a decent copy is running around $20) then this is a great deal. I'd been looking for the book forever and here it is!

Vivian Grace Davis

LDS family search shows that Vivian Grace Davis died in 1920. I wonder where they got this information because there is no death certificate in Missouri vital records to support the claim. MO required death certificates for all deaths after 1910 so a 16 year old girl could not just die without some formal record. So where does this information originate? I wonder if I write the LDS if they keep records of who tells them what. I can try. Vivian married George M. Chase April 1, 1921. Maybe she left home, under less than favorable circumstances, in 1920. Maybe someone knows the story and after 87 years I can find out what it is.

As Brian Beerman (thanks Brian!) suggested I am trying to find obituaries for Vivian's parents Alfred and Sarah Davis. Unfortunately LOC doesn't have any holdings for Springfield, MO during the time of their deaths. So I'm contacting various MO organizations and MOGENWEB. It would be interesting to get an idea of where Vivian came from....

Egan's Rats

Egan's Rats, Daniel Waugh

St. Louis, Missouri. Somehow when I hear those words I see Judy Garland sing "meet me in St. Louie" and I imagine that St. Louis must be a place of clean cut, Hollywood sanitized, decency. After reading Daniel Waugh's book I think "SO NOT"!

Waugh does a great job detailing The Egan's Rats origins. Showing the relationship between Tom Egan and Snake Kinney; two Progressive Era fixers who were unapologetically part thug and part politician. Waugh gives the reader both atmosphere and details in his compelling description of a bourgeoning St. Louis and the various characters in the gang during that era. Before his death, Tom Egan set up what could have proved to be incredibly lucrative booze routes and affiliates in other cities; after he died the Rat's increasingly moved from being a confederation of illegal businessmen to being a gang of thieving trigger-happy goons. While they did make money from bootlegging their preferred occupation was robbing banks and company payrolls. Murder could be described as a past-time for the Egan's under Dint Colbeck. There were so many intra-gang executions that it’s amazing that the gang avoided self destructing. The body count in this book is staggering showing that St. Louis in the 1920's was as dangerous as anyplace in the country including Chicago.

Newton Brothers

Alright! First person accounts without (seemingly) much editing. It's hard for an author to convey second (often third) hand the urgency and stealth necessary to pull off a successful robbery. Willis & Joe Newton describe the life first hand.

It's a good thing that technology has changed so much since these guys were operating because Willis Newton's descriptions could be a primer for the novice yegg. How much nitroglycerin do you need to blow a steel pete? Keep reading and you'll find out. Some time's it's a little amazing how little security there was back then. Basically, I think people believed that their money was safe until someone tried to steal it. Never mind what happened in other places. So in a warped way the robbers of yesterday have done us a favor. If it wasn't for them our money would be a lot more vulnerable.

It's amazing that the Newton Brothers were as successful for such an extended period of time, but I think they would say it was easier then. The gangs best years were the early 1920's and they concentrated on safe blowing (true Yeggs), Canadian couriers, and trains. They were sent to Leavenworth for a mail train heist in 1924. This was before the FBI, concrete vaults, and trained professional local police departments. It was also during the time when most householders in small towns and cities had guns so it many a robbery had the Newtons being shot at by irate citizens. It's actually amazing that more people don't die in this tale. I believe the count was 2 gang members, no police, and a civilian grazed.

I wish Doc Newton had been able to be interviewed for the book. Evidently he was the true original among the brothers. I would have loved to have read a first hand account of his escape from a Texas prison farm. He stole a guards horse and gun and let hundreds of men out while he rode to safety. Some one should do a book on original escapes.