Bank Robbery

At 11:15 a.m. on this date in 1934, “a lone bandit” robbed the Merchants Bank in Rugby. He made off with $429. In the bank at the time were its president, cashier and a farmer, who happened to walk in mid-holdup. The robber quickly fled in a vehicle stolen the day before from a veterinarian in Minot. The robber also held up a gas station attendant in Granville and stole 10 gallons of gas. The Associated Press called the crime the first bank robbery in Rugby’s history.

North Dakota saw a rash of bank robberies in 1935 and 1936 in Denhoff, Zap, Cummings, New Leipzig, Dickey and Maddock. In the Denhoff case, the robbers must have gotten spooked, because two boys found loot from the Denhoff robbery in a haystack!

In 1921, 18-year-old Loraine Nolan robbed the Tokio State Bank in Benson County. Loraine was the son of Thomas Nolan, a farmer. The Nolans had a good reputation, until the robbery. They were highly respected in Tokio and Loraine was said to be an intelligent young man. Loraine enjoyed Wild West novels and films, which would later be considered as the inspiration for his crime.

Authorities took only two days to close a case of bank robbery that occurred on this date in 1931. Twenty-three-year-old mechanic Otto Krueger, who…