NEW YORK'S FIRST BANK ROBBERY one-day trial included jury selection, testimony, and deliberations
1630Boston
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This week I came across a blog article on New York's first bank robbery. What was most interesting to me was the description of the 1831 haul, which included both bank notes and Spanish doubloons. Ads run afterwards by the bank detail the issuers of the banknotes. Together, these provide a view into the money circulating in the country at that time. -Editor
City Bank robbery adWhen workers arrived at the City Bank at 52 Wall Street* on Monday, March 21, 1831, they were in for a rude shock. Sometime over the weekend—probably the evening of March 19 or the early morning hours of March 20—the bank had been robbed of $245,000 in bank notes and Spanish doubloons. This was New York’s first-ever bank heist.
Though suspicion immediately fell on workers at the bank, the police had little time to investigate the employees before they received a tip from Mr. Bangs, the proprietor of a “respectable private boarding house†(according to the New-York Evening Post) who was leery of his newest tenant.
On the Monday following the robbery, a man calling himself Mr. Jones had arrived at Mr. Bangs's boarding house on Elm Street with three small trunks, asking for a private room in which to write. He paid for the room in advance. After a few days, the landlord became suspicious over Mr. Jones’s apparent anxiety, especially concerning the contents of his trunks. When one of the trunks disappeared, Mr. Bangs contacted the police. The police—seemingly without probable cause or a warrant—picked the locks of the two remaining trunks and found bank notes they could positively identify as being from the City Bank robbery.
When Mr. Jones returned to the boarding house, he was promptly arrested. The robber was soon discovered to be Edward Smith, who lived on Division Street with his wife and two children and ran a shoe store. He was well-known to police, having been arrested for a store robbery in Brooklyn.
Of the $245, 000, only about $176,000 was recovered from Smith. The bank soon began advertising for people to keep an eye out for the other bank notes (and the Spanish doubloons). One apparent accomplice was arrested in Philadelphia in April when some of the missing bank notes were identified on his person. But it is unclear if the remainder of the money was ever recovered or if that man was, indeed, part of the robbery.
A jury found Edward Smith guilty in a one-day trial (that one day included jury selection, testimony, and deliberations) and he was sentenced to five years hard labor in Sing-Sing prison.
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I know........Probably not the 'first' bank robbery but still interesting IMO
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That must be close to a record for a formal trial to be conducted/concluded. Sure, some informal 'trials' only took minutes ("Hang him now!!"), but those were as lawless as the acts that inspired them. Cheers, RickO
$245,000 must have been a sizeable amount of cash in 1831.
Banks had operated in America for about a half century before someone tried to make an unauthorized withdrawal.
On this date in 1831, Edward Smith committed the country’s first bank robbery — hitting the City Bank on New York’s Wall Street. He entered the bank after it closed, using a duplicate set of keys, and got away with $245,000. By various calculations, that would be worth from $5.7 million to $6.8 million today. But Smith was caught, convicted and spent five years in New York’s Sing-Sing Prison. Now, across the nation, there are about 92,000 commercial banking establishments. As one 20th century bank robber supposedly noted, that’s where the money is — bank deposits total around $9.4 trillion.
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Add 2 zeros and double it.
Interesting story
I'll bet Sing Sing was a very nice prison to be in, given it was brand new! Probably had all the amenities one could want, to while away the days.........I don't think so. Peace Roy
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The US Treasury Building was built with marble that was quarried by the Sing Sing prisoners.
In 1825, the State of New York appropriated $20,100 to purchase a 130-acre site on the Hudson River for what is now the Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
By May of that year, 100 incarcerated men were transported from the Auburn (NY) Prison to a new site in the town of Mount Pleasant (also the prison's original name), but without "a place to receive them or a wall to enclose them."
Constructed by Prisoners
To construct the 1825 Cellblock, the incarcerated excavated marble from a nearby marble quarry. The original building was 476 feet long, 44 feet wide and four tiers high, with a capacity of 800 cells, all built of Sing Sing marble. Each cell was 7 feet deep, 3 feet 3 inches wide and 6 feet 7 inches high. On November 26, 1828, the incarcerated occupied their cells for the first time. Within a few years, the men continued to mine Sing Sing marble, which was used in the construction of such notable buildings as Lyndhurst, New York University, Grace Church, the New York State Capitol Building and the United States Treasury Building. Two additional buildings were built at the prison by 1830, one containing a hospital and a kitchen, and the other a chapel for 900 men.
more interesting info here: http://www.singsingprisonmuseum.org/history-of-sing-sing-prison.html#:~:text=Two additional buildings were built at the prison,silently in “congregant” labor groups during the day.
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