A bank robber made a monumental effort to rob a Milton, Ore., bank vault in April of 1929, but a vigilant policeman on the night beat prevented the heist and hauled the battered thief to jail.
A veteran bank robber calling himself S.L. Fisher cased the First National Bank in Milton, Ore., on April 7, 1929, and about 9 o’clock that evening broke into the Knights of Pythias hall above the bank. Using tools appropriated from blacksmith shops in Milton and Freewater, he began cutting a hole through the floor of the hall into the bank vault directly below.
Police officer Walter Woodward, walking the night beat that evening, realized something fishy was going on at the bank building when he noticed the door to the lodge hall had been jimmied. By the time Woodward entered the building to investigate, Fisher had already removed three layers of heavy brickwork over the bank vault and had started sawing and drilling through a layer of railroad iron.
Woodward exited the building and called several people to help, then laid in wait for the thief. Fisher, eventually realizing he had been discovered, tried to escape through a second-story window, swinging out on a rope. The rope broke in mid-swing, and Fisher crashed to the ground, breaking several ribs on landing.
Fisher was arrested and taken to the Pendleton jail by Umatilla County Sheriff Tom Gurdane, where he admitted he had previously served time at Folsom Prison in California.
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