THIS IS THE FEATURE PAGE

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
Everybody seemed to be packing heat, but in 1922 nobody hesitated to take on the Bad Guys
(or were they just nuts?)

From the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 25, 1922

BANK ROBBERS CAPTURED BY BOY
AFTER GUN DUEL.
Pistol Battle in Speeding Autos Starts After Bandits Are Balked by Bullets.

BY OTIS M. WILES
[The author was a Times feature writer from 1917 to 1922.]

Two hard-boiled gunmen selected Palms, drowsing in the mid-day sun, as the scene for a fruitless bank robbery yesterday. They failed, for during their expeditious and spectacular departure, they discovered that Palms is not as somnolent as it looks, that she is a gun-totin’ town and will not tolerate the presence of tough guys within the city limits.

The bandits, captured by a 20-year-old Palms boy, after he had chased them for four miles, are prisoners in the County Jail. They gave their names as Dave Hall, 22 years old, and J. T. Henry, 25 years old.

In Palms. at a late hour yesterday the inhabitants were still grouped on street corners discussing the attempted robbery, the many gun duels that figured in it, the pluck and courage of the townsfolk who participated, and the bravery of the boy who caught the bandits.

“CRAZY,” SAYS CAPTIVE.

Regarding the bravery of those who frustrated the bank robbery, Henry [shown at left with Deputy Sheriff Joe Nolan after his capture] declared:

“Brave? They are not. They are all as crazy as I am and ought to be in an asylum with me. Sure we were crazy. Do you think we would have pulled such a punk job if we weren’t?”

Shortly after noon two well-dressed young men entered the Palms bank. Behind the counter was George W. Shilling, cashier.

In the wicket was W. E. Carnahan, the manager; in the doorway to the vault was Miss Andrea Saenz. clerk.

One of the strangers thrust a $10 bill through the wicket and asked for change. Mr. Carnahan gave him a $5 bill and five $1 bills. The stranger whipped out a revolver.

“STICK 'EM UP.”

“Stick 'em up!” he commanded, thrusting the weapon through the window.

Mr. Carnahan dropped to the floor, Mr. Shilling stepped aside just as the bandit fired. The bullet whizzed past the cashier. The second stranger shoved a chair against the door that leads into the cashier’s cage. He mounted the chair, and from the top of the partition looked down upon Mr. Carnahan, who had his hand pressed to the burglar alarm on the floor. With the other hand. the bank manager held the door closed to prevent the bandits from entering. The bandit on the chair reached over the partition and fired down upon Mr. Carnahan, missing him. The bullet struck the concrete door, an inch from the manager’s knee, ricocheted and struck Miss Saenz a glancing blow on the leg. Miss Saenz was still standing in the vault door. [The posed photo at left includes a drawing of bandit Henry leaning over the partition with a gun in his hand.]

ROBBERY NOT PLANNED.

Later, Henry, one of the prisoners, told The Times correspondent:

“We didn't plan to stick up the joint today. We was just going to size it up. I told Hall that I would handle the ‘rods’ (meaning the revolvers). But when he drew his rod and stuck it through the window, I knew the job was up. I saw the manager drop and knew he was diving for the alarm, Then it started to ring. I jumped on a chair, reached over, and saw the manager’s coat tail sticking out front under the counter. It was too good to pass up, so I shot at him. I didn't know there was a girl there. I didn't see her.”

The two men, while the alarm was still ringing, fled from the bank, falling to retrieve their $10 [sample at right], which they left on the counter. They cut across a vacant lot, carrying revolvers in their hands.

HEARD ALARM.

In a little bungalow a block from the bank, L C. Butler, an aged real estate dealer, and his wife heard the burglar alarm ringing.

“The bank bell’s ringing,” Mrs. Butler said to her husband.

“I guess they’re fixing it,” replied Mr. Butler. “The derned thing rings all the time.”

Mrs. Butler stepped out on the porch. She saw two men with revolvers cutting across her back yard. She ran back into the house.

“My God! Somebody’s holding up the bank!” she cried.

BANDIT DROPS.

Mr. Butler got his revolver and ran into the street, where he saw the two men, with their hands pressed to their hips, scurrying into a Ford sedan. Standing in the middle of the street he commanded them to halt. When they refused to stop he fired one shot, and one man fell to the ground. The bandit scrambled to his feet again and returned the fire,

Mr. Butler fired three shots. The two men had broken the glass window in the rear of the car and were firing at him through it. Then he felt a sharp sting on the back of his right hand. A bullet had grazed him. He fired a fourth shot and then his revolver jammed. The bandits fired four shots at him before they fled,

Wyatt Simmons, 20 years old and a Palms boy, was driving a truck past the Butler home, He saw the shooting and the fleeing automobile with two men firing at Mr. Butler. Simmons jumped from his truck, ran into the Palms Garage, near by, commandeered a big touring car, borrowed a revolver and sped after tho bandit machine. [Photo of a 1921 Packard is above.]

DETECTIVES FOLLOW.

At the same time, in the garage were Detectives Richey and Driggs of the Pinkerton

Detective Agency. They followed Simmons. The bandit car whizzed out of Palms and headed toward Santa Monica over National Boulevard. His car was speedier than the small car used by the bandits and kept close on their trail.

“Hall was driving the Ford,” Henry, the prisoner, said later. “I handled the rods, leaning over the side and firing back at the guy that was chasing us. I can hear bullets flinging past my ears yet. Everybody was shooting at us. I had to pull my head down between my shoulders to keep from getting hit.” [A 1923 Ford is shown here.]

CHASED FOUR MILES.

Simmons fired only two shots.

He later declared the bandit had fired twenty shots back at him. For four miles over open highway the running revolver battle continued. Inside the limits of Santa Monica, near the High School. the bandits ran out of ammunition. Henry had been firing two guns at the same time.

The bandit car stopped near the school. One of its occupants waved a white handkerchief, declaring a truce in the hostilities. Simmons, gun in hand, commanded them to step out of their car. Henry stepped Into the street, his hands over his head. Hall made a dash for liberty.

Simmons [pictured at right] ordered his captive to lay on his back in the middle of the street, while Detectives Richey and Driggs pursued the second bandit.

“1 was greatly humiliated,” said Henry. “That kid made me lie on my back in the street, and everybody thought I had been shot. Every time somebody asked me if was shot I had to tell them. ‘Hell, no!’ ”

KEPT ON GROUND.

Simmons kept Henry on the ground for ten minutes. Then the two detectives returned with Hall, whom they had captured after chasing him for more than a block. A short time later, a detail of Santa Monica police arrived on the scene and took the two prisoners to the jail at the beach city, where they were identified by the bank employees, Mr. Simmons and Mr. Butler.

Henry was told he had grazed Mr. Butler’s hand with a bullet.

“He's damned lucky,” Henry replied, “but I guess I'll have to apologize to him next time I see him.”

Mr. Butler stated that one of the shots meant for him had missed him, traveled for a block, went through a neighbor’s house and imbedded itself in the bedstead, where Mrs. Frank Pitney lay ill in bed.

At the Santa Monica jail the two prisoners were turned over to Deputy Sheriffs Joe Nolan and “Spike” Moody. The bandit car, with its broken rear window, was returned to its owner, a renter of automobiles on Hill street.

TREATED AS JOKE.

During their journey back to the Sheriff’s office, Henry treated the spectacular episode as a joke. He laughed heartily and repeatedly remarked he was a lunatic for attempting to make an escape in a Ford.

“I had a stripped-down touring car yesterday,” he saId. “If we’d used that car today, we wouldn’t be wearing handcuffs now. Did you ever see such lunatics as us? I’m as crazy as a loon, I am. I think I’ll plead insanity.

“I handled the rods. I told Dave before we went in that I'd do the shooting if there was to be any. We hadn't planned to stick up today. But what does he do but shove his rod through the window. Then we had to start working.

“Say — I could have bumped off a dozen of those yaps if I wanted to, but I’m not that kind, I never bumped anybody off in my life and I’m never going to.”

GETS “VACATION”

“You won't do any more shooting for a long time, anyway,” said his pal.

Hall said he was a cook, that he had never been in trouble before

“It was my first shooting scrape,” he said. “I’ll tell the world 1 was scared with all the bullets singing around me.”

Henry said he was [a] bank examiner.

“Not this kind,” he corrected. “I was a bank examiner in the Seventh Reserve District in Illinois and Iowa.”

He also stated he was a prisoner of the Montrose Reformatory in Washington in 1914, and that a few weeks ago he was arrested in San Francisco with an automatic revolver, and that he served eighteen days.

“But that was a bootleg deal. Wish I stuck to that job.”

POSSE IS FORMED,

Shortly after the report that the Palms Bank had been hold up, Sheriff Traeger [left, in a later photo from the Los Angeles Public Library site] sent out all his available deputies with sawed-off shotguns to trail the suspects,

Later at the County Jail Henry said he was seeking new employment.

“How much can they stick a guy for a job like this?” he asked. “And where will I go from here?”

“If it’s your first offense you’ll go to San Quentin; to Folsom, if it’s your second offense.”

“Me for Folsom,” he replied. “They’re going to have a new bookkeeper there soon. I'm a good book-keeper.”

“1 guess I get the rock pile,” added Hall. . . .

ARREST BALKS HOLD-UP PLAN.

“I got pinched too soon. I know of a pay roll of $150,000 that was going out today at 3 o’clock, and I was going to tap that off,” said John T. Henry, one of the gunmen who attempted to hold up the Bank of Palms Tuesday, when he appeared for arraignment yesterday in the Justice Court..

“Oh, well, it’s too late now,” he added, indifferently shaking the ash from a cigarette.

Henry and his companion, Dave Hall, were accused in a complaint issued by Dep. Dist.-Atty. McClelland of attempt to commit robbery and of assault with intent to kill W. E. Carnahan, manager of the bank. They were arraigned before Justice McDonald of Venice, sitting for Justice Hinshaw. When the court finished reading the complaint and stated the bail would be $5,000, Henry asked, “Is that all in cash?”

BOND ALL CASH.

“Yes,” replied the court, “or double the amount in bonds.”

Henry was asked by Deputy Sheriffs Fox and Nolan if he could make bail.

“You let me out overnight,” he replied, “and I’ll bring you back $15,000. I know of a pay roll of $150,000 that was going out today at 2 o’clock, and I was going to tap it off. It isn’t right for them to carry so much around; it’s a temptation.” . . .

It was stated by the deputies that the two youths intended to plead guilty, saying the sooner they were sent to prison, the sooner they would get out. Henry says he is to blame and that Hall was led into the hold-up affair by him. . . .

BANK ROBBERS ESCAPE
ON WAY TO SAN QUENTIN.

Although it was asserted by officers and admitted by Dave Hall and John T. Henry that they made a fizzle of their attempt to rob the Bank of Palms, they were successful yesterday in making their escape while on their way to San Quentin prison.

The two recently changed their plea to guilty of attempted robbery and awaited quietly for sentence. They were started toward San Quentin Thursday night in custody of Deputy Sheriff Denison and a special deputy. At Los Banos [red marker] at 2 a.m. yesterday, according to information received at the sheriff’s office, the two eluded their guards and escaped.

Officers in the vicinity of Los Banos have been notified, and a search is being made for the prisoners. Details of the manner of the escape were not learned by the Sheriff’s office.

ESCAPED PRISONER RETAKEN

After escaping from a guard while on the way to San Quentin prison from Los Angeles, Dave Hall, one of two men convicted of attempting to rob the manager of the Bank of Palms, was rearrested yesterday at Salt Lake City, according to a report to the Sheriff's Office.

. . . Hall was arrested with another youth and . . . burglar tools and a fuse were found in their possession.

Hall and J.T. Henry, both convicted for the Palms bank robbery, managed to escape on the same night, while being taken to prison. A search is still being made for Henry. . . .

[Editor's note: There is no record in The Times files of the rearrest of Henry.]