On the night of September 26, 1922, five men were camped in the woods on
the hill near where the Mount Air Court is now located, well hidden from
the traffic on U. S. Highway 62. Sitting around the camp fire were Si
Wilson, Marcus Hendrix, a 21-year-old Indian, a man named Cowan, and the
two Price brothers, Charlie and George. They were desperate Oklahoma
outlaws from the Cookson Hills, remnants of the old Henry Starr gang.
Their business at Eureka Springs was to rob the First National Bank.
Sitting around the bed of coals this September night, the outlaws
discussed their plans. Charlie Price, the leader, did most of the
talking. He outlined the plan for the robbery on the morrow at 12:05
P.M. when practically all business houses would be closed for the lunch
hour. Hendrix was to remain in the car at the front of the bank, ready
for a quick getaway.
“I guess you fellers know what you’re doing,” said Wilson, who had
recently joined the gang. “But don’t forget what Sam Lockard and Henry
Starr said. They warned you that Eureka Springs was a deathtrap.”
Price laughed and said that it would be easy because everything was well
planned.
“We’d better hit the hay and get some sleep,” said Charlie. “Big day
tomorrow.” As he rolled into his blankets he remembered to wind his
watch. He turned the stem carefully in the darkness but fate took a hand
and a little extra pressure sent the hands around one revolution without
his knowledge. His faithful old watch had played a trick on him.
At exactly 11:05 A.M., mistaken by the bandits to be 12:05 P.M., a car
drove up in front of the First National Bank on Spring Street. Hendrix
remained at the wheel while the four others entered the bank. The story
of the robbery and its tragic aftermath has been told in newspapers, by
Horace H. Brown in Startling Detective Magazine, and by Cora Pinkley
Call in her book “Eureka Springs—The Stair-Step Town.”
Members of the bank staff on duty on September 27, 1922, were: Tobe
Smith, cashier, Fred Sawyer, teller, Mrs. Maude Shuman, Miss Loma Sawyer
and Miss Jewel Davidson. Customers in the bank when the robbers entered
were: Sam Holland, Robert Easley, John Easley and Luther Wilson. Others
who walked in while the holdup was in progress were: John K. Butt,
Claude Arbuckle and Bob Bowman, clerk at the Basin Park Hotel.
Tobe Smith saw the four men enter the bank and when they drew their guns
he stepped on the burglar alarm which had connections at the Bank of
Eureka Springs, a block up the street, and the Basin Park Hotel, the
same distance in the other direction. The robbers did not know this but
lined up the occupants of the bank, face to the wall, and proceeded to
scoop up all available cash and bonds. While doing this Charlie Price
noticed the clock on the wall. The hands stood at exactly 11:10 A.M.
Time had played its trick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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