The story of the Bank of Bell Buckle isn’t quite complete without mention of the infamous burglaries. It was robbed at least four times. Two of which were pretty incredible stories.
In December of 1912, with just days until Christmas, two thieves quietly made their way into Bell Buckle during the early morning hours. They cut the telephone lines to the entire town’s exchange. They prepared for possible resistance by barricading the front of the bank with wire fencing. Remember that 9,000 pound safe that I mentioned before? Yeah, they then proceeded to BLOW THAT UP with five charges of nitroglycerin. It blasted it so hard that part of the safe door was found all the way in the street! They got away with $3,000, though completely missing a private vault belonging to the post office with an addition $1,500. The bank was insured and recovered their loss. John Shoffner of Shelbyville, a large stockholder, brought in an ample supply of cash and the bank was able to open on time for business that day.
The bank had to send the safe off to be repaired. It was determined by an expert that this type of safe was “burglar-proof” and even “fire-proof” with 3 inch doors and 4 inch walls. Even HE was shocked by the damage they did! No word on if they ever caught the criminals.
Fast forward to April of 1926. Criminals were becoming more sophisticated. The robbers cut the bank’s steel vault door with a gas torch just enough for a body to fit through.
They tipped the safe over on its face and burned a hole. Then they poured water through the hole to prevent the currency from igniting from the heat of the torch. They brought water in with milk cans that were stolen from the creamery. They were somehow able to remove the money through this same hole. Entrace was gained to the bank through a rear window. This time, the robbers got away with $15,000. The bank was insured and recovered money for their loss once again. Around the time of this burglary, 17 convicts had escaped from the state penitentiary and it was theorized that these were the folks responsible for the robbery. They even used airplanes to search for the suspects with no luck. The 18 year-old getaway driver named Leland Gray was later apprehended in Kentucky. He told authorities that he spent several days hiding out in the Bell Buckle hills before making his way to Chicago and eventually Kentucky.
Let’s just say that vault and safe have been through a LOT.
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