Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1876 — The Robbery of the Northampton (Mass.) National Bank. [ARTICLE]

The Robbery of the Northampton (Mass.) National Bank.

Boston, Jan. 87. Later details of the robbery of the Northampton National Bank, at Northampton, Mass., Tuesday night, by masked robbers, state that the result is something appalling. The table of securities taken shows a total of $670,000. Of course, much of this is not negotiable, so that it is difficult to estimate the real loss to the bank and depositors. The bank officers offer a reward of $25,000 for the return of the property and the conviction of the burglars. The loss falls comparatively light upon the bank, the greater part of the securities belonging to special depositors. The robbers entered the house of Cashier Whittlesey and bound, gagged and guarded for hours seven people. They compelled him to give them the combinations of the safe vault, waited until they knew the night watchman had gone home, and then getting into the vault and safe with only one of the four keys needed, they took a large amount of securities. An expert had to be summoned from New York, and the lock was not opened until an early hour this morning. Cashier combinations to the vault for the outer, inher and chest doors, gave them wrong twice and thrice, but the burglars wrote them down and made him repeat them. Of course they caught him in an attempt to mislead th em, and the exhibition of a pistol compelled him to tell the truth, though he told them that four keys were necessary to open the patent lock, three of which were at the house of the other bank officers. At four o’clock a. m. Whittlesey was taken to a down-stairs bedroom. The whole family were gagged and four of the burglars withdrew to operate on the bank. Three hours after Mrs. Whittlesey succeeded in freeing herself and giving the alarm from a window. The whole party were speedily liberated, and the cashier, still wearing the handcuffs, went to the bank. A clever workman soon after fitted a key and all the persons handcuffed were released. An examination of the bank showed that the cracksmen had unlocked the outer door, but were apparently balked by the safe-lock, lacking three of the requisite four keys. They tried the metal of the door with bars and wrenched off the two dials which served as an index for working the combination. They were entirely unmolested, the watch having gone home. There is every Indication that six, and perhaps all of them left on the six o’clock train. Five of them had tickets previously bought and one paid his fare. Many of the appliances, it was remarked, were home-made. The gags were children's rubber balls, pierced with stiff wire. The masks were drawers legs, some with one hole and some with two, for the eyes. When the robbers saw that Whittlesey was watching them carefully for sum marks of identification, they blindfolded him, but be observed that one of them was of a very commanding stature. The two or three rubbers left to guard the premises at the house took their departure in season to catch the Springfield train. At the latest advices no information had been received of the robbers. Of the total amount stolen a loss of only $12,000 falls on the bank. A small safe in the vault which the burglars considered too insignificant to touch contained $90,000, f,25,000 in bonds and other valuable property. By locking the doors of the vault the burglars got twenty-four hours start of the detectives, besides having time to negotiate much of the stolen property before the fact of the burglary was known. - ‘