Bank Robbery a Problem for Howell County in the 1930s

In the grip of the Great Depression, many South Central Missouri citizens struggled to survive the 1930s. Farm products were at all-time low prices, government policies such as Prohibition were especially unpopular here in the Ozarks, and a minority of the population turned to crime in response to hard times. In the early thirties, farm foreclosures were more frequent as farms and businesses failed to pay their loans, and area banks became a popular target of the criminal element. Also, the Ozark hinterlands, with minimal law enforcement, became an attractive hideout for bank-robbing gangs from other parts of the Midwest.

 

The most famous Howell County case involving an outside criminal gang's activities resulted in the murder of our sheriff, C. Roy Kelly, who was originally a native of Van Buren. Before his tenure as our elected chief law enforcement officer, he owned and operated a restaurant in Mountain View. Sheriff Kelly seldom carried a gun, which was not uncommon in the early 1930s, preferring an image as an officer capable of performing his duties without resorting to violence. He was well-liked and respected throughout the county. In December 1931, Kelly was struggling to solve a string of burglaries in the West Plains area, culminating in the break-in and theft of a large amount of merchandise from McCallon's Clothing store. The thieves had stolen specific clothing items - appearing to be outfitting themselves.

 

It was this time of year, days before Christmas, in the early morning hours of December 19, 1931, three men arrived at the Davidson Motor Company in West Plains for tire repair, and the garage owner noticed they were wearing clothing similar to that stolen two nights before from McCallon's. Davidson called the owner of the clothing store to have a look, and on his way, Mr. McCallon came upon Sheriff Kelly and asked him to come along and check the men out. 

 

Sheriff Kelly retrieved a gun from his car, slipped it under his coat, and entered the garage to question the men. He was immediately shot twice in the chest and twice in the right arm with a .45 caliber automatic and died before he could pull out his gun and return fire. The suspect vehicle and the men fled the scene. Their vehicle was later discovered abandoned in the woods. Further investigation revealed the car belonged to Alvin Karpis, a notorious bank robber and a member of the "Ma Barker Gang." Officers next located the gang's hideout in Thayer, where they discovered plans for their future robbery of the First National Bank of West Plains.

 

The lead investigator of the murder was Missouri State Trooper Nathan Massie, who had only been on duty a couple of weeks as the first highway patrolman stationed in Howell County. The patrol was as new as Massie, formed in part to curb lawlessness, including bank robberies, in Missouri. Massie's work on the case helped convict Alvin Karpis when he was arrested a few years later by the FBI. Ma Barker and her son Fred had been killed a year and a half earlier than the Karpis arrest in a shootout with police in Florida.

 

Howell County had its local brand of bank robbers, who were initially suspects in Sheriff Kelly's murder. Though not involved in the Kelly murder, the "Perkins Gang" over the next five years was implicated in the robbery of at least seven banks in this region and was suspected to have been involved in an additional two bank robberies before 1931, including the Bank of Mountain View. 

 

In response to the problem, the banks in Mountain View came up with an unusual solution in 1933. The Mountain View Standard announced on May 5, 1933, that "The Bank of Mountain View and the Peoples Bank in this city have installed tear gas guns as an added protection against bank holdup bandits. Both installations were completed on the first of this week. Each bank is equipped with a gun loaded with 80,000 grains of tear gas. Several controls, placed at various places in the banks, are connected with the gun, and at any time one of these controls is touched, the tear gas gun is fired, making a loud report and filling the building instantly with blinding and choking fumes, which will render everyone in the building helpless. The report of the gun can be heard several blocks away and would bring help to the bank before the bandits could recover from the effects of the gas and escape."

 

In less than a month, the system was tested, but not as planned. The Standard reported on June 2, 1933, "The tear gas gun recently installed in the Peoples Bank in this city as a protection against holdups was discharged Saturday morning when Cashier Jay Rinehart accidentally touched one of the control switches. When the gas bomb exploded, Assistant Cashier, Ray Springer, realized what had happened and bolted out the back door of the bank. However, the tear gas spread so fast that he did not escape its effects. The other people in the bank had to grope their way out of the building and were completely blinded for a time by the gas." Ominously, the paper also reported, "The bank keeps a supply of gas bombs, and the gun was reloaded."

 

The Perkins Gang, led by brothers William Olen "Bish" Perkins and Arnett "Webb" Perkins, included several local associates. Trooper Nathan Massie worked five years with Trooper Ben Graham of Van Buren to identify all the gang members and their involvement in a string of robberies, beginning with the robbery of the Bank of Birch Tree in 1933. The troopers were successful in identifying and arresting gang member Lynn Pruitt, who confessed and implicated Bish Perkins and Eugene Goodman. Pruitt was sentenced to thirty-five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. 

 

Also, in 1933, the Bank of Bunker in Reynolds County was robbed by the gang, and they robbed it again in 1934. Bish Perkins and Eugene Goodman were identified as the main suspects. The Ellington Press reported on the second robbery in February 1934 that the bank had been robbed by three men of $339: "The three robbers drove up to the bank, and while two of them stayed outside in the car, the third man went in the bank and ordered Dr. B.J. Gordon, President of the Bank, Reginald Hulsey, Assistant Cashier, and two customers to lie down on the floor. Hulsey and the customers complied, but Gordon said he wouldn’t, as he was too old to take orders like that from any man. The robber then forced Gordon and the two customers to go in the vault while he ordered Hulsey to open the safe. However, the safe was equipped with a time lock so could not be opened. Taking the money which was in sight, the robber forced Hulsey to go with him out to the car and compelled him to go with them several miles out of town before they released him. One of the robbers told Hulsey he was the same man that robbed the bank last year."

 

The tear gas deterrent did not keep the gang from robbing the Bank of Mountain View a second time. The Standard reported on February 16, 1934, "A lone bandit held up the Bank of Mountain View in this city at 8 o'clock Friday morning of last week and, although he secured no money, he locked the bank president, M.L. Landrum, and the cashier Oscar Paar, in the bank vault before he fled." The robbery resulted in no money being taken as the vault was empty. It was unclear which gang member entered the bank, but Massie ascertained that at least one of the Perkins boys was involved.

 

The gang next struck the Bank of Grandin in 1934. Though gang member Sherman Hodges was arrested, convicted, and sent to the Missouri State Penitentiary for this job, Bish Perkins, gang members Claude Dickerson, a West Plains native, and Eugene Goodman of Winona wrote letters to Carter County officials confessing to the robbery in an attempt to get Hodges off.

 

The gang robbed the Bank of Raymondville in Texas County in 1934 and capped the first months of the year off with the robbery of the Bank of Corning, Arkansas. The string of robberies netted the gang less than $1,500 total. Times were hard, and banks didn't have much cash on hand.

 

1934 was an eventful year for the bandits. Though they had reached the peak of their bank-robbing career, they were on their way to destruction. Gang members Remus Perkins (a double cousin of the Perkins brothers), Sherman Hodges, and Frank Walker were arrested in Granite City, Illinois, on March 9, 1934, and charged with the robbery of the Bank of Grandin. Hodges was given a ten-year sentence four months later. Somehow, Remus Perkins was acquitted on these charges but ended up in prison a year later on bad check charges in Ohio. Walker was also arrested for later crimes and imprisoned.

 

Claude Dickerson was captured early in 1934 but freed from jail on the 4th of July by a confederate who helped him overpower and lock their jailer in Dickerson's cell. Two weeks later, Dickerson and his jail pal got the drop on guards at the St. Louis County Prison Ward Hospital and freed Bish Perkins, who was recuperating from a broken leg received in a car wreck in June in Waterloo, Illinois. The driver of the car in which Bish was riding was killed. Bish was identified as a bank robber and placed in custody in that county prison hospital until sprung by his gang members.

 

Troopers Massie and Graham continued to put pressure on the gang anytime they were reported in the area. The two Perkins boys successfully evaded arrest by fleeing to the St. Louis area, where they had friends. 

 

On October 1, 1934, Arnett Perkins, along with gang member Eugene Goodman, was shot to death in a botched hold-up attempt at a roadside tavern in St. Jacob, Illinois. A tavern employee and customer were also killed in the shootout when the tavern owner met the robbers, five in number, with a shotgun, and a massive gun battle ensued. Trooper Massie told reporters he was very familiar with Eugene Goodman, growing up with him in the Fremont neighborhood in Carter County. A few years prior, Massie had been a member of the Fremont school board, considering hiring Goodman as a teacher. 

 

On September 24, 1935, an East St. Louis, Illinois, Police Detective ran upon William Olin "Bish" Perkins hiding between two houses while he was looking for a prowler. The two men exchanged shots, with Bish being the loser. Detective William Walsh was wounded, but Bish died at the scene. A short time before his death, Bish had contacted the Missouri Highway Patrol, offering to surrender if his sentence could be limited to 25 or 30 years. The Patrol responded that they would show him no leniency.

 

In 1939, Claude Dickerson was re-arrested at gunpoint in New York City. By this time, he had been implicated in several additional bank robberies and slayings. He was the last survivor of the Perkins Gang and was said to have "retired" from his life of crime and was attempting to live a quiet life in the Queens suburbs. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison in Illinois in December 1939 for his part in the tavern shootout of 1934.

 

The Perkins boys appear to have lived everyday lives before taking up a life of crime, starting with illegal liquor bootlegging. They graduated to petty crimes, car theft, and strong-armed robbery. Bank robbery was their undoing and led to an early death. William Olen "Bish" Perkins died at the age of 24, and his brother Arnett Perkins was killed at the age of 23. Both are buried in the Munsell Cemetery at Eminence.