Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 8, Number 1, DeMotte, Jasper County, 2 December 1937 — Floyd Gibbons [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Floyd Gibbons

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF!

“One Brand New Suit 99

By FLOYD GIBBONS

Famous Headline Hunter HELLO EVERYBODY: Take it from me, boys and girls, you can’t take it from Bob Kaiser. That is, you may take it from him, but you won’t keep it. It’s been tried before and it just didn’t work. It all sounds mysterious but it’s as simple as A B C. As a matter of fact, it’s the subject of today’s adventure story--the stirring tale of how Bob Kaiser of New York city got mad about having a brand new suit ruined and fixed the guy that ruined it with both hands tied behind his back. Today Bob works for the New York Steam company, but on June 7, 1925, he was a sales manager for the United Cigar Stores, running a shop located at Broadway and Thirty-first street, New York. It was on a Sunday, and. things were quiet along that section of Broadway. There weren't half a dozen people in sight on the street, and there hadn t been a customer in the store for half an hour. These Customers Were Bandits. Then, about noon, a customer came in. He asked for a package of cigarettes and Bob turned to get them from the rack. And as he turned he heard a low, grating voice say: “Don’t move --or I’ll blow your brains out!” Bob didn’t move, but out of the corner of his eye he could see the man --holding a thirty-eight caliber revolver on him. “It was a hot day,", says Bob, “but the sweat that broke out on my forehead just then was cold--ice cold.” The man came behind the counter and ordered Bob to sit down on the floor. That’s where Bob began to get mad. He had on a nice, new suit that day and the floor had been freshly oiled. The porter had oiled it the day before, and he had given it an extra heavy dose. If Bob sat

down on that greasy floor--well--his suit wasn’t going: to look so new Bob got mad about it, but he didn’t lose his head. He took another look at that thirty-eight and decided that maybe the gangster was right. He sat down on the floor. And about that time, a second gangster, who had been watching outside, came in to help the first. Ruined Suit Made Bob Angry. They told Bob to open the safe, and he opened it. The company’s instructions, in case of a hold-up, were to give the bandits the money without any argument. The gangsters took four hundred dollars of the company’s money and it made Bob mad to see them get it that. Likewise, he was still mad about his ruined suit. When the bandits had the money they tied Bob’s hands behind his back, put a gag in his mouth and pushed him down to the floor. A friend of Bob’s came into the store and bought some tobacco. The bandits waited on him. When he asked where Bob was they told him he was out to lunch. After Bob’s friend had gone the bandits told Bob not to move for five minutes, and left, themselves. But Bob didn’t wait even five seconds after those thugs went out the door. With his hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth, he leaped up and ran in pursuit of the bandits. When he got to the street he saw the thugs walking toward Sixth avenue. He tried to yell, but the gag in his mouth was so tight that he couldn’t utter a sound. So he started across Thirty-first street after those crooks. He followed those birds to Sixth avenue and Thirty-second street and there the two bandits split up and went in different directions. Bob lost sight of one man but he continued to follow the other. He trailed him to Thirty-second street and Seventh avenue, and there the fellow turned around and caught sight of Bob, gag still in his mouth, hands tied behind him, trailing along in his wake. At that the thug turned and bolted. He Literally Fell on the Thug. The thug ran across the street toward Pennsylvania station, dashed into the Thirty-second street entrance and bolted down the stairs toward the concourse. Bob lit out after him. Running as fast as he could with his hands tied, Bob dashed down through the main corridor and down the slippery marble stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, right in front of the ticket windows, he caught up with the thug and there a strange battle took place--probably the strangest scrap in all history. Bob fell on the crook, and when I say “fell,” I mean that literally. With his hands tied behind his back, there just wasn’t anything else Bob could do. He gave a leap and landed on the crook. And the crook went down. Bob, gagged as he was, couldn t yell to attract attention but the spectacle of a bound and gagged man, legs flailing in the air, rolling on the floor and all over the top of another man attracted plenty of attention as it was. People began to yell and run to the spot. Tom Eagan of the station police came running up with the crowd and grabbed the bandit. That bandit was out of breath and pretty badly frightened by his strange experience. He was still wondering what landed on him as they led him away to the calaboose. Bob got his hands untied then, took the gag out of his mouth, and went back to his store. He had left the door open and a big crowd had gathered about the place. He did a record business that day, selling stuff to people who wanted to hear his story of the hold-up. The bird Bob caught squealed on his partner, and both of them got seven-year sentences. And the company gave Bob a $550 bonus, a raise and a vacation. Copyright.--WNU Service.

Gagged and Tied, Bob Chased the Bandits.