Thus ended the terrible series of tragedies which began with the shooting of Miles Hill at Golden on the night of the 22d of November. That the killings were justified no man who has ever lived on the frontier at such times as those were will deny. In all these affairs Gen. Cook and his officers were more or less concerned, but at all times doing all in their power both to bring offenders against the law to justice, and then to see that the laws were not violated when they were once secured. The lynchings they would gladly have prevented, but it was useless for them to fly in the face of an entire community, which had been outraged and which was aroused, not so much to vengeance as to the necessity of protecting itself against the rough element of the plains. The pictures drawn are not pleasant ones, but they are a part of the history of Denver, and have been given as such without any attempt at exaggeration or undue coloring.
THE EXCHANGE BANK ROBBERY.
CHAPTER XVI.
ROBBERY OF THE EXCHANGE BANK—FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS STOLEN IN BROAD DAYLIGHT WITH THE OFFICIALS PRESENT—GEN. COOK GOES TO WORK WITHOUT A CLUE AND SECURES THE THIEVES AND THE BOOTY IN TWO HOURS.
May 12, 1879, Cole’s circus struck its tent in Denver and prepared to give one of the very creditable performances which generally characterize this “monster aggregation.” The circus had but recently returned to America from Australia and was passing through the country with considerable prestige. Being the means of getting large crowds of people together, it was naturally followed up or accompanied by as depraved a set of sneak thieves and pickpockets as ever traveled in the shadow of any circus. The day of the beginning of the series of performances given in this city was marked by an occurrence which will ever serve to call the date to mind. On that day a robbery was committed in Denver, which will long be remembered for the shrewdness with which it was planned, the expediency with which it was executed, and also for the speedy overtaking of the thieves and the restoration of the stolen property to its owners. The robbery took place at the Exchange Bank, then located on the corner of Fifteenth and Blake streets, about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, while the circus procession was passing and while the streets in front of the building were thronged with people, including those engaged in the parade and those who were looking on as it moved by.
About 1 o’clock the head of the procession began to move up Blake street from the depot. The cashier of the bank, Mr. J. M. Strickler, was at his desk. Mr. A. J. Williams, then the vice-president and now the president of the institution, was in the private office in the rear, and other attachés of the bank were behind the iron railing. There was a temporary lull in the task of receiving deposits, and the bank officers, with the exception of Mr. Strickler, stepped out to the door to see the procession go by. This left no one behind the counter except Mr. Strickler, who was running over some deposits that had been made by patrons of the bank, and talking with a stranger. A few moments later Hon. J. F. Welborn stepped into the bank and asked Mr. Williams to come out to the front, as he desired to speak to him a few moments on business. Mr. Williams joined Judge Welborn at one of the large windows fronting on Blake street, and they stood there chatting until after the procession had gone by. The other bank officers returned to their desks, and Mr. Strickler a few minutes later noticed that a large pile of greenbacks, done up in packages of $500 and upwards, was missing from the table. Thinking they had been placed in one of the cash drawers, he asked his assistant, Mr. Rockwell, who replied that he had not seen the money, and just about that time it began to dawn upon the officers that their short absence from the counter had cost the institution nearly $4,000, about that amount of money having been piled upon the table awaiting deposit.
Gen. Cook was immediately sent for. He found the officers of the bank in a state of considerable excitement, and all of them thoroughly at sea. The robbery was to them a terrible mystery. None of them had been out of the bank at all and Mr. Strickler, the efficient cashier, had remained continuously in his office. They could not have believed that the bank had been robbed if they had not had the evidence which their eyes furnished that the money, which a few minutes before had been there, was missing. That some one should have come into the building and taken out $4,000 in money, even at a time when there was a circus around, seemed to them well nigh incredible. But the fact stared them in the face that the money had disappeared, and they came to Cook to find it. No one could suggest a point that would be of assistance, and he began to put questions, with the hope of getting some clue which would aid him in his apparently almost hopeless search. The clue was at last obtained. Mr. Strickler remembered that while the other officials and the employés of the bank had been out looking at the circus, he had been engaged in conversation with an individual who had brought in a $100 note to get it changed, and the note being of doubtful appearance, he had seemed bent upon drawing the cashier into an animated discussion, which was carried on on the part of the stranger in an unnecessarily loud and vehement tone of voice.
“That is the man we want to get,” said Cook. “He was the steerer for the thieves.”