Happened about a week before Christmas 75 years ago 1922...

Greetings Collectors,

Since my post of yesterday, my curiousity has gotten the better of me and I had to find out all I could concerning this robbery at the Denver Mint. First of all I want to say, that if what I am writing about, is not the thing to do here at the CS, then drop me a line. If I get ten votes to the positive, I will continue along these same "somewhat" numismatic lines. If however I receive five votes to the negative, I will discontinue. You, the members decide.

As I began to think of a facility such as one of our mints, being robbed, I could not help but think, what did we lose? Was it ever recovered? This is what I found out.

On December 18th, a clear but cold beautifull day, a Federal Reserve vehicle had pulled up in front of the mint. They were there to pick up currency for a local Federal Reserve bank, located 12 blocks away. After I read these first few sentences, it became clear that the Mint, maybe the most secure building in Denver, had not been robbed but the robbery happened "outside" the Mint building. This was a relief as when I began this search, I had visions of all kinds or gold rarities, such as "Pikes Peak" gold and the like being stolen. This was not the case.

In this case, several US Mint guards were busy loading brand new $5 dollar bills in numerous mint bags into the waiting Federal Reserve truck. In the course of this loading, a black Buick touring car pulled up and out jumped two men with sawed off shotguns in true "Bonnie & Clyde" fashion. As these two men began to "spray" the mint and surrounding buildings with continuous blasts from these shotguns, a third man was tossing all the bags of the freshly minted five dollar bills into the still running V-8 Buick. As soon as this robbery started to unfold, other mint guards rushed outside to return fire and were fairly certain they had hit one or more of the robbers. All this to no avail as inside a minute and a half the Buick sped off, hitting a fire hydrant and a truck along the way. A police car gave chase, but they escaped with $200,000 in brand new "fives". Roadblocks were set up but the Buick vanished, leaving only a bloody shotgun behind. In the aftermath onlookers accounts of the crime were muddled. They gave eight different license numbers for the getaway car and no worthy descriptions of the bandits. When one of the guards who took part in the gunbattle, Charles T. Linton, died, murder was added to the robbery charge. The city was gripped with fear at the boldness of the daylight crime and the hunt was frustrated by a lack of evidence.

The case drifted for about a month when on Jan. 14th, the black Buick was found in an abandoned garage, where a shiny new padlock made a neighbor suspicious. Inside the garage the police not only found the Buick, but on the front seat, they found the body of Nick Trainor, bloody and frozen solid. Nick was a convicted felon who had been recently released from the Nebraska State Pen. He had been shot several times.

After much drama, including the involvement of an ex-prostitute who was the girlfriend of one of the robbers, $80,000 was recovered by the Secret Service, with little else being mentioned and no charges filed.

The case for the most part, died as the only thing police said was, "The robbery was the work of a "mid-west" gang who imediately after the robbery, fled to the Minneapolis/St Paul area where they gave the money to a prominent Minneapolis attorney", who also was never charged.

In 1934 the Denver police and the Secret Service said the case was being closed because all of the suspects/robbers were either dead or in prison. It seems funny to me that even though the authorities said they were positive they knew the other two robbers identities, yet still no charges. Both of the other two suspected robbers were serving "life sentences" for unrelated crimes. I think alot more "common sense" was used in the old days compared to today. Back then if you got a life sentence, and even more so if murder or kidnapping a child was part of the crime, you pretty much stayed in prison for life. On the other hand if the guard who was killed in the robbery, was your dad or your husband/brother, you would want justice for "that" crime. But again there was alot more common sense, and if you got life, in the eyes of the law, you had life and you weren't going anywhere.

So at the end, you have two people dead, one justly and one unjustly, and not the first person charged, much less a trial. And also you still have $120,000 in "brand new" $5 currency of the day unaccounted for. I think I smell more "curiousity" brewing, as in, what were the new $5 bills that would have just been printed in late 1922? I do beleive the "paper quality" would be "premium" and the condition north of 66-67.

Happy Collecting,

WKF