Chicago Thugs and a Small-town Bank

During the Great Depression, three Chicago thugs, armed with guns and knives, met their match in a small Louisiana town.

E. B. Shelton

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Friday, November 11, 1932

The morning sun peeked through the bedroom windows while Edward, a bank cashier at Madison National Bank, gathered the usual items from his dresser. He pushed his thick glasses onto his nose, placed the key to the bank’s front door into his right inside jacket pocket, then slipped the key to his Nash sedan into his right pants pocket. The spare key to the steel grilled vault gate was tucked securely into a small pocket in his waistcoat. Keeping keys separated was a habit he formed early in his banking career.

He checked the time on his pocket watch before placing it in his waistcoat pocket. It was 7:30, and like every other weekday morning, his two oldest boys — Aylette, 7, and Louis, 5 — would soon walk across the narrow side street to school. Edward would make the short drive to the bank leaving his wife, Sallie at home with their youngest son, 4-year-old Billy.

Times were stressful for bank cashiers in small towns. The Vicksburg Herald ran stories of robberies every other day, it seemed. Desperate people looking for easy money. The entire country, amid a devastating economic…

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E. B. Shelton
E. B. Shelton

Written by E. B. Shelton

Turning family stories into Historical Fiction.

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