GENTRY -- It was a low-crime week in Gentry -- in fact, crime has been slow for some time -- prompting city marshal Jim Snow and his deputies to fear layoffs and to look for things to do to keep busy. And, as a result of the recent downturn in crime, Gentry's chief law-enforcement officer dug deep into the department's records and reopened a cold case, the 1923 bank robbery at First National Bank on Gentry's Main Street. He hopes he and his officers can solve this old crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.
"It's our job to investigate cold cases and obtain justice for the victims of our town," Snow said. "We promise to keep busy and do everything in our power to solve these cold cases."
According to the official police reports, the building which is now home to the Gentry Chamber of Commerce was the scene of a crime allegedly involving the notorious Al Spencer Gang. The date of the offense was March 31, 1923.
According to witness statements, it was about noon on Saturday, March 31, 1923, when four bandits drove into Gentry in a new Studebaker car, which police later learned had been hijacked in Bartlesville, Okla., three nights before from a businessman there. One of the men stayed in the car, at the wheel, and the other three walked into the First National Bank.
According to police reports, bank president Marion Wasson, cashier J. Napp Covey and three others were ordered to raise their hands; and, while two of the gang members held them at pistol point, Al Spencer scooped up whatever currency and silver he could find, totaling $2,053.16.
A female bank employee reportedly pushed an alarm button with her foot and, within seconds, armed citizens were converging on the bank from all directions, reports state.
The gang members forced their victims into the bank vault and ran out of the bank "with lead flying at 'em from every corner," reports state.
Heading west towards Oklahoma, the bandits faced another obstacle. The people of Bloomfield, hearing of the robbery by wired telephone (which is sometimes faster and almost always more reliable than posting photos to Facebook), stationed themselves behind a stone wall fronting the village store there and waited with rifles and shotguns to stop the fleeing felons.
Henry Wells, an alleged member of the Spencer Gang who denies any criminal involvement, told police, "When Al and the boys reached there, Winchesters and shotgun slugs tore into the car from behind the stone walls. Nick Lamar was the first man out with a bullet in his shoulder ... They slung plenty bullets theirselves and I bet they's some of them old timers down there still carrying bandits' lead."
He said Ralph White got shot in the side and arms and Al Spencer got a slug through the fleshy part of his right arm.
The robbers allegedly abandoned the shot-up and blood-stained Studebaker and escaped by horseback into Oklahoma, hiding out while they nursed their wounds. A number of attempts to nab the shot-up gang members by law enforcement officers from Arkansas and Oklahoma failed.
Al Spencer was allegedly killed sometime later after firing at a posse headed by the U.S. Marshal's Service.
But witness statements are conflicting, and some uncertainty remains as to all the participants in the crime. Snow hopes to clear up the mystery and solve this crime once and for all using the latest DNA testing.
He's asking anyone who knows the whereabouts of the shot-up and blood-stained Studebaker to call the city marshal's office immediately so he can begin DNA testing.
S.A. Tired covers fictitious news from an unrealistic perspective for the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. News and views in Spinning the News are claimed by no one else but the author.
Editorial on 09/14/2016