Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1917 — Attempted Robbery Of Brookston Bank. [ARTICLE]

Attempted Robbery Of Brookston Bank.

Thirty dollars in pennies and a lot of silverware, together with a Smith and Wesson revolver taken from the cashier’s desk is all that is known to be missing from the safe in the Farmers’ bamk of Brookston, which was blown with nitroglycerine Friday morning. The large clock in the bank was stopped at 2:20 o’clock and it is supposed that this was the time the robbery was committed. The robbers were evidently inexperienced, because a clean job was not made of the cracking, of the safe, which was one of the strongest in White county. The bank funds amounting to several thousand dollars were intact in the vault and why the robbers lifted only the pennies and silverware is a mystery that is baffling detectives. Only one clue to the identity of the robbers was an empty suitcase on which had been written in pencil the name of George Patterson. The further mystery of the explosion is the fact that no one heard the noise. The safe showed evidence of having been tampered with after the explosion but the robbers had been unable to move the large doors. It was necessary to employ sledge hammers in order to finally force the massive steel doors apart in order to permit the bank officials to gain entrance to the vault.