An Elaborate Plan: Three Bandits, a Cowboy, and a Pontiac

A Southwick Time Machine exclusive: original research you won’t find anywhere else — 

On Thursday, July 21, 1938, a large, faded blue-and-black Pontiac sedan pulled up outside the First National Bank of Suffield. Its engine was left running as three men stepped out.

The bank, established in 1864, primarily served the tobacco and dairy farmers of this well-to-do northern Connecticut town. Suffield sat at the heart of the Connecticut River Valley's thriving tobacco industry. The bank typically held large amounts of cash on Thursdays to cover the sizeable tobacco payroll, but recent rains had disrupted the routine, leaving considerably less money on hand than usual.

At 11:45 a.m., a dark-complexioned man, about five feet five inches tall and dressed in a dark gray raincoat and soft felt hat, walked up to one of the two teller windows and casually asked to exchange a five-dollar bill for two dollars in nickels and three one-dollar bills. When he entered, the bank president got up from his office and walked to the back of the bank near the vault, as was his custom when a stranger was present. 

The First National Bank of Suffield - shortly after the bold daylight heist.

Shortly after, a second man entered—a taller suspect, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and 180 pounds, dressed in blue overalls. To reach the area behind the tellers and the vault, he had to pass through the bank president’s office near the front entrance. What happened next unfolded in rapid succession. Raising what witnesses described as a large revolver, he smashed the glass in the president’s door with the butt of the pearl-handled gun, reached through to turn the handle, and made his way to the restricted area. 

At that moment, the first man, the one who had just requested change, drew his own revolver and positioned himself between the front door and the teller cages, acting as a guard to control the lobby. 

The bank’s president, who had stepped toward the back moments earlier, heard the breaking glass. Fearing a holdup, he slipped out the exit and ran to his nearby home, where he contacted the telephone operator for help. In the rush of the moment, the interior cage door—located behind his office and leading to the teller area and vault—was left unlatched, allowing the bandit to pass behind the counter and access the vault unimpeded. Shortly afterward, the teller who had made change managed to slip out as well. As she ran toward the bank president’s house, she passed the unoccupied Pontiac and noticed its engine was running. Finding it suspicious, she continued to the house; once safely inside, she looked out the window and wrote down the license plate number: Connecticut G.F. 413. (Police later learned the plates had been reported stolen in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 1.)

Meanwhile, the third man had stationed himself just outside the bank’s entrance, keeping a watchful eye on the street. He was described as about six feet tall, of medium complexion, and weighing roughly 200 pounds. He wore a gray cap, blue overalls, and white canvas gloves. 

When an unsuspecting customer arrived, he closely followed her inside, seized her by the arm, and forced her into a chair at the far end of the lobby, warning her that if she remained quiet, she would be safe.

The other teller, Miss Reid, along with the bank’s bookkeeper, had stepped into a room at the rear of the bank just as the bandit behind the counter began looting the teller drawers, stuffing paper money into his vertical green-striped cloth bag. After grabbing everything within reach, he turned toward Miss Reid, pressed his Colt .38 revolver to her face, and forced her toward the vault. Despite the threat, she remained calm, and as they moved toward the vault, she discreetly pressed a concealed burglar holdup-alarm button beneath a desk as she passed.

At exactly 11:47 a.m., just as Miss Reid and the gunman reached the vault, the bank’s burglar holdup alarm erupted. Because the alarm system was wired directly into the Suffield fire station, the siren atop the station immediately released three long warning blasts, signaling an active bank holdup. At the same moment, the telephone operator—who had just been contacted by the bank president—activated the same alarm circuit. 

With both triggers feeding into a single system, the alarms thundered in almost perfect unison, adding to the confusion for townspeople accustomed to hearing a routine midday whistle at noon, not an 11:47 emergency. 

Miss Reid, revolver still pressed to her face, convinced the bandit that she did not know the vault’s inner combination. After some thick tension, he accepted her word, lowered his weapon, and hurried back to the teller cages, where the second bandit was still sweeping bills into his bag.

The pair quickly gathered the remaining paper money from the teller drawers and then all three men fled through the customer entrance. They leapt into the idling blue-and-black Pontiac and sped away. From the moment the first robber stepped inside to the instant the getaway car drove off, the entire holdup lasted no more than six minutes.

A passerby attempted to follow the robbers’ car but quickly lost sight of it. 

The Pontiac used as the getaway car in the First National Bank of Suffield holdup.

A nine-state telegraph and radio bulletin was issued describing the suspects. Two F.B.I. agents—one from Boston, Massachusetts, and one from New Haven, Connecticut—joined the investigation that afternoon, along with detectives, photographers, and fingerprint experts. 

Authorities quickly focused on the Congamond Lakes area, located on the Connecticut–Massachusetts border between Suffield, Connecticut, and Southwick, Massachusetts, believing the robbers - quickly dubbed the “overall gang” because of their attire - might have been heading northwest. While parts of the lakes were populated with summer tourists, several sections were wooded and secluded, dotted with small fish camps and cottages that could provide potential hiding spots. Patrol cars and motorcycle units were dispatched to all major roads, and police maintained a constant watch for suspicious vehicles as the dragnet, centered on Congamond Lake, tightened around the region.

Back in Suffield, police recovered several key pieces of evidence. Around 1:45 p.m., an officer discovered two Connecticut license plates—number G. F. 413—discarded along Blossom Street, about 250 feet apart. Nearby, officers also found two beer cans, two whiskey bottles, and two pairs of blue denim overalls, along with two bluish-gray denim shirts, a white glove, a size-seven brown felt hat, a black-and-white checkered cap, and a red-and-black hunting cap abandoned in a vacant lot at Blossom Street and Halladay Avenue. Witnesses identified the clothing as belonging to the robbers. A gray shirt found by a nearby resident was also linked to the men. All of the evidence collected was taken to a temporary police headquarters set up at the Suffield Town Hall. 

Within hours of the daring holdup, three young men from Ludlow and Wilbraham, Massachusetts, were arrested in Monson, Massachusetts, after officers noticed a loose registration plate on their car. During a lineup at police headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts, the three suspects were placed alongside plainclothes officers and newspapermen. Bank employees attempted to identify the robbers, but none of the men in the lineup matched closely enough for a positive identification, so the three suspects were released. Despite the temporary arrest, detectives remained focused on Congamond Lake, believing the robbers were hiding out in a cottage.  

Bank officials estimated that the robbers had escaped with between $10,000 and $11,500 in cash. They later clarified that, contrary to public belief that large sums were kept on hand for the tobacco payroll, it was not customary for the bank to carry substantial amounts of cash. They added that during the robbery, the inner vault contained no money—only American Express checks and “papers of a personal nature.”

Investigators concluded that the robbers appeared to have intimate knowledge of the bank’s interior, knowing ahead of time that they would have to pass through the president’s office to reach the teller counter and vault, indicating the crime had been carefully planned. Authorities also revealed that about three weeks before the holdup, they were tipped off that a robbery was being plotted at either the First National Bank of Suffield or the nearby Suffield Savings Bank.

By the next afternoon, July 22, a fourteen-year-old Southwick boy wearing a sombrero, cowboy suit, and high-heeled boots claimed he had found a money bag from the Suffield bank near Congamond Lake. The report reinforced officers’ suspicions that the robbers might be hiding in one of the lakeside camps. Massachusetts State Police, Connecticut troopers, F.B.I. agents, and local officers searched the wooded shoreline, but the boy’s story quickly unraveled when he admitted he had found the bag several days earlier, explaining why it was dry despite days of heavy rain. The lead was dismissed, though detectives still believed the robbers had likely passed through the Congamond area.

While officers continued searching, some residents reported that a lakeside cottage had been ransacked, with a small amount of money and some clothing missing. Investigators found that no food had been touched, and bicycle tracks nearby suggested that local youths—not the bandits—were responsible. Southwick authorities were notified. Police theorized that the bandits had doubled back along College Highway in Southwick toward Springfield or the Berkshires to throw off the pursuit.

That same night, July 22, an abandoned Pontiac sedan matching the getaway car’s description was found behind an apartment complex in Springfield. The license plates on the car (Massachusetts 510,089) had been stolen off a vehicle in Palmer, Massachusetts, on June 20, and the state-issued inspection tag had been stolen from a Springfield car dealership. Police determined that the Pontiac was stolen on July 6 from a New York City salesman traveling on business in Connecticut. (It was stolen from the parking lot of the Hotel Bondmore in Hartford.)

Wanted bulletin for one of the bandits, whom F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover identified as among the most sought bank robbers of his day.

New York State Police believed the Suffield robbers were the same group that had held up a bank in Phelps, New York, on June 8, escaping with $3,000. The William J. Burns International Detective Agency, which tracked national bank robberies, noted similarities between the Suffield case and others in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Canada, suggesting that four men—not three—may have been involved as part of a broader, more regional operation. With this information in hand, federal agents began investigating the possibility that members of a New York syndicate were involved. 

New Hampshire authorities also attempted to link the suspects to a bank robbery in Manchester the previous year. Detectives further sought links to a shoe factory payroll holdup in Rochester, where a large sum was taken. A female accomplice in that case was arrested, but she refused to identify the bandits. In the New York and New Hampshire robberies, witnesses described the bandits as wearing overalls and blue denim shirts.

 

The First National Bank holdup was the first bank robbery in Suffield in over thirty years.

Before dawn on December 17, 1905, five men armed with guns and rope tied up the railroad watchman along with a father and his young son inside the Suffield railroad depot. After securing their captives, four of the men made their way to the Suffield Savings Bank on Main Street. Using crowbars, they pried at the bank’s front door with such force that it was wrecked off its hinges, allowing them to gain entry. Working methodically, the robbers set charges and, on their fourth attempt, used explosives to blow apart the large safe. When the fourth blast went off, the fifth man, left behind to guard the three bound captives, fled the depot.

The explosions, powerful enough to shatter the bank’s windows and cause additional damage, were heard at least a mile away. The safecrackers escaped with about $50,000 in registered stocks and bonds, but in their focus on the vault, they overlooked $3,000 in cash and negotiable bonds sitting in a nearby teller’s drawer. The bank later reported that the stolen stocks and bonds were non-negotiable. Neighbors who heard the blasts realized the bank was being robbed but were too frightened to intervene. Detectives later determined that the safe had been blown open with nitroglycerine.

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This article is based on original primary source research, including but not limited to official records, F.B.I. data, court documents, and period newspapers.

 

 

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 Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes

 

• It’s unclear whether all banks in the Suffield area or only the two mentioned were alerted prior to the robbery.
• The president of the Windsor Trust Company said that about three weeks before the Suffield holdup, one of his employees reported seeing a suspicious-looking man who appeared to be “looking over” the bank. He reported the incident to the Connecticut State Police. He also called the First National Bank of Suffield, informing them of what happened.
• The Suffield Savings Bank was located about two doors down from the First National Bank of Suffield.
• The First National Bank of Suffield building, where the robbery happened, was torn down to make way for a new intersection. The bank built a new, less imposing bank structure at Suffield Village.
• The getaway car was parked about 150 feet away from the bank’s customer entrance. The car was possibly a 1935 Pontiac Six.
• Detectives believed that the Pontiac was stolen in Hartford on July 6 from a New York City salesman traveling on business. It was stolen from the parking lot of the Hotel Bondmore in Hartford. It had New York plates 7Y-57-56.
• In 1937, the Connecticut General Assembly failed to pass a bill appropriating funds for a State Police radio system, which most other states had long used. Although the Suffield Police Department arrived quickly, the lack of a radio system delayed the Connecticut State Police response and hindered efforts to prevent the bandits’ escape, as troopers had to rely on telephone communications rather than receiving updates in their cruisers. (Some troopers did not learn of the holdup until they drove by the Hartford Courant building on State Street and saw a breaking-news bulletin in the window, about an hour after the robbery.)
• A town worker reportedly found a third pair of blue overalls further down Halladay Avenue.
• The exact amount stolen was reported variously as between $10,000 and $11,500. The bank president initially estimated it at $6,000.
• Record rains caused upwards of $1,000,000 in damage to the Connecticut tobacco crop in July 1938.
• Some accounts described the bandits as wearing blue overalls, similar to the attire used in earlier robberies in New Hampshire and New York.
• The William J. Burns International Detective Agency was founded in 1909 and investigated all national bank robberies at that time.
• A grocery delivery boy and another bank employee also got the getaway car’s license plate number.
• There is conflicting information about who owned the G.F. 413 license plates. The plates were stolen on June 30 or July 1 and reported stolen on July 1.
• The bank president’s office was almost adjacent to the bank’s front door. The bank’s lobby was narrow.
• Bank president: Mr. C. Luther Spencer Jr.
• Bank employees: Shirley Reid (teller), Helen Covington (teller), Amelia Zak (bookkeeper).
• Miss Covington was the employee who ran to the bank president’s house.
• Miss Reid’s father was a cashier at the bank. He was on vacation the day of the robbery.
• The unsuspecting customer was Mrs. Norman Adams of East Granby, Connecticut.
• Westfield authorities were on high alert for the bandits. With a submachine gun in hand, they patrolled the Little River area and the Feeding Hills road section for several hours in a fruitless search.
• The dragnet covered Springfield, Westfield, Southwick, and Agawam/Feeding Hills in Massachusetts. It covered Suffield/West Suffield, Windsor, and Windsor Locks in Connecticut. Police were also stationed on the bridge connecting Suffield to Thompsonville (Enfield). New York State Police watched all roads entering their state from Massachusetts in case the bandits cut through the Berkshires. Although the dragnet was wide, it centered around Congamond Lake.
• Police and detectives worked all through the night. The bank president and Miss Reid (teller) didn’t leave the makeshift police station until after midnight as they looked through mugshots and photos of known criminals. The Connecticut State Police assigned about 30 troopers to the case.
• Fingerprint experts couldn’t obtain any useful prints because three men were wearing white cotton gloves.
• The stolen Pontiac used in the holdup was found abandoned at 364 Belmont Avenue, Springfield. A beat cop recognized the stolen registration plate number. The cop was known for his outstanding memory when it came to stolen license plates. Detectives had the car towed to police headquarters for processing. 
• The stolen Pontiac's wheel were caked with red clay/red soil found in Suffield.  
• The three bandits may have stolen a car after abandoning the Pontiac or they already had one lined up. The apparently drove to Boston to board a boat to New York City.  
• Around 3:00 p.m., a car was reported stolen out of East Hartford, Connecticut. On the car was a New York license plate number 7Y5756. Authorities thought it was connected to the bank robbery.
• The William J. Burns International Detective Agency was part of the famous Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s, involving Sinclair Oil (who hired the agency) and the administration of then president, Warren G. Harding (Calvin Coolidge was his VP). Calvin Coolidge won the presidency in a landslide - something political analysts say was partially because of the way he handled the scandal. A heart attacked claimed President Harding in 1923, and Coolidge was automatically sworn in. He ran in 1924, and easily won. 
• The F.B.I. conducted a nationwide manhunt for James Joseph Horan (37) of New York. Agents had already picked up Leo Santaniello, Gino Firiore, and Tony Scibelli, all of Springfield, Massachusetts, and brought them to a Connecticut jail for questioning. F.B.I. agents were also tracking New Jersey gangster Raffael Greco (All three bandits were arrested, as was the fourth man who provided the getaway car.)
• Raffael Greco remained at large until 1942. Federal agents arrested him after F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover named him the most wanted bank robber in the country. 
• Greco had a tattoo of an anchor between his thumb and index finger on his left hand. 
  
• On August 1, 1938, a golf pro at the Memorial Golf Course in Springfield said he found two keys on a fairway. They had an oval-shaped tag marked with a number and the words: “Return to First National Bank of Suffield, Ct.” It is unclear what the keys opened and if they were connected to the holdup or if a bank employee lost them while golfing.
• In December 1938, Alvin J. Blair (41), part of a New York syndicate, was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary on a single charge of violating the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. He stole the Pontiac. He lived in New York City and was arrested there by federal agents on August 14. His criminal record dates back to 1926. It took a jury of 10 men and two women only 49 minutes to reach a verdict.
• During Alvin’s trial for the Pontiac, prosecutors were not allowed to mention the bank robbery, so they told the jury that the Pontiac was stolen for a “sinister purpose.”
• The three bandits, all small-time bookies, were known former associates of notorious New York gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond (aka “Gentleman Jack”), who was assassinated on December 18, 1931, at age 34. It is believed that a rival syndicate in New York ordered the hit, which consisted of three bullets fired at close range into the back of his head. Some speculate that Albany (N.Y.) police officers carried out the hit. (Born John Diamond on July 10, 1897.)
• Between 1916 and 1931, there had been multiple attempts on Gentleman Jack’s life. Infamous mobster Dutch Schultz was his nemesis. The nickname “Legs” was either from his escapes (from the law and attempts on his life) or from his slick moves on the dancefloor. He was flamboyant and quite the ladies’ man.
• On July 1, 1933, Diamond’s widow was found murdered in her Brooklyn, New York apartment. Detectives believe that Diamond’s enemies gunned her down to keep her silent.
• Legs Diamond owned the Hotsy Totsy Club & Grill, an infamous speakeasy in Manhattan. One evening, three patrons were shot (two died immediately). In the weeks that followed, Diamond and his associates killed off the witnesses one by one in typical gangland fashion - the club’s cashier, the hat check girl, the bartender, and a waiter. The killings of the witnesses (the club’s employees) scared the victim, and he refused to talk, so the case wasn’t prosecuted due to a lack of evidence.
• Robbery of a national bank became a federal offense on May 18, 1934.  

 

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