Bandits Get $2,000 in Gant County Holdup

Cashier of Mr. Zion Deposit Bank Bound and Gagged by Robber

Williamstown, Ky. April 6 [1931], (AP) The Mt. Zion Deposit Bank at Mt. Zion, near here, was robbed today of $2,000 by two men who escaped despite a vigilant watch maintained on highways by northern Kentucky police. No trace of the pair had been obtained tonight.

Cashier W. C. Smith, only person in the bank at the time of the robbery, said one of the men had asked him to change a $20 bill just before the holdup.

As Smith hesitated to comply with the request, the visitors pulled revolvers, bound and gagged the casher, and rifled the teller’s cages.

Later, persons who saw the robber’s automobile parked in front of the bank but were unaware anything was wrong said the men drove toward Covington as they left the building.

Smith said one of the robbers was not very tall, about five feet, nine inches and wore a light gray suit and hat as was of pale complexion.

The robbers bound Smith’s hands but not his feet and the cashier was able to walk to an alarm button and sound the burglar alarm. Mt. Zion residents hurried to the bank an united Smith.

How did they escape? Well, initially, they didn’t. They stopped at a farm owned by one James Burroughs, who Floyd’s partner, Miller already knew. While Burroughs knew Miller, he did not know of Miller’s criminal past, nor did he know of Floyd’s identity. The two robbers pretended to be looking at area farms. The posse searched the countryside while Floyd and Miller at a leisurely lunch, for which they are reported to have paid handsomely for.

From The Military History of Kentucky, a project of the Federal Writers Project