Back on the morning of Friday, Sept. 14, 1928, four well-dressed men entered University State Bank, 24th and University in Des Moines, with guns drawn and directed four of those already in the bank --- a customer and three employees --- to lie face-down on the floor.
Sam Raphael, who operated a business adjacent to the bank, walked in minutes later as teller Alfred Broad was opening the safe and was knocked unconscious after refusing to surrender the $85 he had brought in to deposit.
The armed robbers exited the bank by the rear entrance soon thereafter, carrying with them about $7,000 taken from the safe and scooped from teller drawers, piled into a Cadillac sedan parked along the side of the bank with driver alert and motor running, then roared off west down University Avenue.
One of the results of all this was a massive but frustratingly ineffective police effort to track down the robbers that accelerated during the day, aided by dispatches from WHO Radio, that mighty voice of the Midwest, and other media outlets.
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Early that evening, two distinguished gentlemen in their mid-30s from Chariton --- architect William Lee Perkins and hardware store owner Charles B. Ensley --- exited a passenger car from Boone at one of Des Moines' depots and, faced with an hours-long layover before the midnight passenger left the Rock Island Depot for Chariton, decided to take in a movie.
The two men had spent the week as delegates from Chariton First Methodist to the annual meeting of the Des Moines Methodist Conference, held in Boone. This was the yearly gathering when new pastoral assignments were announced, various business was conducted and many inspiring words were preached.
What happened next is told in considerable detail in the following "special" dispatch from Des Moines, published in both The Chariton Leader and The Herald-Patriot during the week that followed:
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Des Moines, Sept. 15 --- (Special) If Chariton church folks, delegating some of their number to represent their congregations in religious conferences wish to have their delegates unmolested, they should advise the delegates to travel to and from their destination with wide detours around Des Moines. Two Chariton men arrived here in the capital city last night from Boone, where they had attended a session of the Methodist conference. There was a long wait ahead of them and the pair of Chariton citizens decided to attend a movie, picked their show and stepped up to the ticket office to inquire as to starting time. "Right away," was the response, so the travelers, one with a brief case and the other with a traveling bag, decided to immediately enter the place of entertainment and carry their baggage with them, going first to the wash room before entering the auditorium.
Now, while the Chariton men are enjoying the entertainment that is to help pass the long wait between the time of their arrival and the hour for their departure on the midnight Rock Island, the reader will be acquainted with some of the things that had gone on in Des Moines in the few hours preceding the related narrative.
About 9:30 yesterday morning the University State Bank, located at 24th street and University avenue, was held up and robbed of a some of money estimated at $6,713.75. Clues were followed and the hottest clue turned up after the Chariton delegates had gone into the theatre. Almost immediately after they were settled, some of the stolen money was found in the wash room at the picture house. Police headquarters sent detectives immediately to the scene of the cache and the ushers, apparently quite active, yet not so active as to arouse the suspicions of the Chariton men, had ushered folks in and out of the surrounding chairs and by the time the two were ready leave the place of entertainment three detectives were seated behind them, two in front and three in the row at the side between them and the aisle.
When they got up to leave, the three in the same row politely arose, raised their seats and the exit was easy, except that one, a girl detective, stepped in between the two men and several of the group walked out of the place surrounding the pair of Chariton men who were not in the least disturbed or suspicious of the actions of their former seat neighbors at the movie.
On the sidewalk outside, one of the Chariton men turned to wait for his companion, and noticed there were two or three persons between him and his friend. He turned square around to wait for him to catch up and faced a heavy-set man with a large stomach who took a watch chain from his vest pocket --- held in towards the Chariton man and said rather curtly, "Get in that car!"
The Chariton man didn't wish to set his watch, so ignored the chain the stranger was holding out in front of him on the end of which was his detective badge of authority. He asked, "What for?"
"The chief wants to see you."
"But," protested the Charitonian, "I don't wish to see the chief."
"You're blankety blank right you don't; get in that car!" he said with more emphasis, the surrounding group appearing more menacing and with arsenal-like pockets bulging in his direction and in the direction of his companion, who had recognized the badge of authority, the two complied with the request.
The auto started toward the office of the chief, the two escorted men being locked inside the closed car with the driver, and one officer on each running board.
On the way to the police station the two tried to remember just what they had done at Boone that would call such an armed band on their heels. They wondered if the police thought they were bootleggers, and how long it would take to prove to their captors they were barking up the wrong tree. On the way they noticed a patrolman salute the driver and they felt relieved, for at least it indicated they were in the hands of the police and not being kidnapped, which was some comfort.
Arriving at the station their grips were searched thoroughly. Also their pockets and they were questioned closely. The police officials were positive they had two of the men wanted when they first started questioning them. When the pair being questioned tried to tell who they were, the officers plied many questions expecting to disprove their statements. They wanted to know who was sheriff of Lucas county, who was the mayor of Chariton, who was this and that person in a list of "Who's Who" in the Chariton community. Of course all the answers were correct and it gradually dawned upon the big chief that while his men had apparently brought in a pair of "desperate men," with a web woven so tightly about them that there was no chance of a mistake, their capture was as bad as a misplaced road sign directing traffic up a blind highway.
Not until all suspicions had been dissolved did the two from Chariton learn of what they had been suspected. The chief and some of his men then unraveled the whole story from the time they entered the movie until they had convinced the officers of their innocence.
Then one of the detectives wanted to know why they had carried the brief case and bag in the theatre. They answered the show was just starting and they wished to see it from the start rather than go to a hotel and check their baggage and miss the opening scenes.
"By the way," asked the chief, "what had you two men been doing at Boone?"
"Attending the Methodist conference," the pair recited in unison.
"The hell you had! Boys, take the car and drive these two gentlemen to the Rock Island, or anywhere they want to go; they can't help us solve no bank robbery."
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I could find no indication in later editions of the Des Moines newspapers that suspects in the robbery ever were apprehended, although a man named Roger Wiegman --- arrested elsewhere in the state after firing at an officer during a high-speed chase later in the day --- was suspected for a time of being implicated.
The Chariton newspapers were careful to avoid naming the two gentlemen whose worthy endeavors in Boone had ended so surprisingly in Des Moines. I was, however, able to track down the names of the two delegates elsewhere.
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