Henderson history: Noted night spot Kasey Klub robbed; culprits evaded capture for months
Personnel at the Kasey Klub had just finished counting the night’s receipts – and the safe was still open – when they found themselves confronted by men with handguns about 3:30 a.m. June 1, 1947.
The Kasey Klub, located just outside the city limits on U.S. 41-Alternate, was one of the area’s nicer nightclubs during the 1930s and ‘40s. It wasn’t as plush as the Trocodero, and couldn’t afford the nationally known musical acts the Troc frequently featured, but it was solidly in Henderson’s second tier.
It was owned by Hampton and Hoffman Kasey. Hampton had left earlier that night to drive Clyde Adkins home. Hoffman and club secretary Ella Swope had been counting the money. Willie Oglesby, the night watchman, had earlier been grabbed while checking the exterior of the building.
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The robbers took approximately $4,500 from the safe, but also ransacked the office to take such things as pistols, fountain pens and kid gloves.
The victims certainly were not treated with kid gloves. They were shoved and threatened while the robbers “argued among themselves.” Swope had a pistol poked in her ribs several times.
The men had their hands bound behind their backs with two-inch-wide tape and were forced into the restroom. The robbers then turned their attention to Swope: “Come with us.”
“I thought they were going to make me go with them,” she told The Gleaner in its June 3 edition. Instead, they all got into Swope’s 1939 Chevrolet coupe and drove around to the front door, where Swope was forced back into the club and bound to a chair. The robbers left in Swope’s car.
Her bonds were “none too tight” and she quickly freed herself. “By the time I got loose I could still hear the car.” She hollered to Kasey and Oglesby that the robbers had left and then walked to the nearby Stone’s Tourist Camp to telephone authorities. Wires to the Kasey Klub’s phone had been cut.
Swope apparently gave the robbers an earful during her ordeal, telling them what she would do if the odds were even. “We believe that she would do just what she told them she could do,” said The Gleaner’s editorial of June 4. “Why not stage it and give the proceeds to the delinquent children fund?”
The June 4 edition also carried a story about the capture of the first of the three bandits, along with a photo of him. W.W. “Bill” Martin, a Kasey Klub employee, had tracked E.E. “Blackie” Young to Harrisburg, Illinois, with the help of Tom Wilkerson and Richard Stevens. Martin burst into Young’s hotel room at 1 a.m. June 3 and held him at gunpoint until police could arrive.
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(Awfully fast police work for someone who wasn’t a law enforcement officer, don’t you think? We’ll come back to that in a moment.)
Nearly $1,600 of the loot was found in Young’s hotel room, and he said another $1,000 was hidden near Henderson. He also implicated Coleman Howard as one of the three robbers, but said he didn’t know where the other two were.
Swope’s car, by the way, was discovered close to the “Nut Hut” in Atkinson Park. Young had hired taxicabs to take him to Harrisburg.
The June 5 Gleaner carried two stories. One was about how Young was wanted for questioning in the November 1946 death of a woman in Danville, Illinois. Martha Gones, 50, had been found dead in an alley after being struck in the head with a soft drink bottle.
The other story related how Young didn’t like his photo The Gleaner had published and refused to have any further dealings with reporters or photographers.
The June 12 Gleaner said Young, who it described as a “swarthy Louisianian” from New Orleans, had entered a plea of not guilty and had waived his right to an examining trial. His case was sent on to the grand jury. He wanted to be released on bail, so he could have a gall bladder operation, but it was denied.
The Gleaner of July 25 reported the capture of the second bandit. Arnold Stevens, 25, was asleep on his bed – with a handgun nearby – in his house off of Seventh Street. Deputy Sheriffs A.W. Agnew, Buster Brackett and Lemuel Knight, along with County Patrolman Glyn “Red” Seward, said they were acting on an anonymous tip. Seward covered Stevens’ wife with a submachine gun when they ordered her to open the door.
“Seward covered the hunted man with a submachine gun while Agnew awakened him. The officers said Stevens made no attempt to reach for his gun but put his hands into the air.”
The Stevens case meandered through the court system, but nothing further of interest appeared in The Gleaner until Aug. 13, when he was held to the grand jury.
Young had not worn a mask during the robbery; the other two men had. Swope identified Stevens “as one of the two men, masked from the nose down, who had held guns on her and Hoffman Kasey while they ransacked the safe.”
Remember W.W. “Bill” Martin, the fellow who captured Young in Harrisburg? He also had things to say before Stevens was held to the grand jury. “Bill Martin, another (Kasey Klub) employee and a brother-in-law to Stevens, testified that Stevens, E.E. “Blackie” Young and Coleman Howard were at the club earlier in the night.”
So, it appears capture of the criminals was something of an inside job.
The Gleaner of Sept. 17 reported Young was indicted on charges of grand larceny and armed robbery; Stevens faced only the robbery charge. The armed robbery charge was no joke; it carried a mandatory sentence of either death or life imprisonment.
That’s probably why Young and Stevens were able to reach a deal with Commonwealth Attorney Faust Y. Simpson, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 24. They entered guilty pleas to a lesser charge of armed assault with intent to rob and both were sentenced to 21 years. Young received another five years on the grand larceny charge.
The last man, Coleman Howard, was captured by the FBI in Tonawanda, New York, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 14. The Oct. 23 edition reported Howard had been returned to Henderson. He was scheduled for trial May 9, 1949, according to court records, but the prison warden wrote a letter to the judge saying he had an advanced case of tuberculosis and it was not advisable for him to go to trial.
Instead, Howard showed up in court May 9, 1950, and entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of robbery, which carried a prison term of up to 10 years. He was sentenced to the minimum of two years.
The Kasey Klub lasted less than two decades after that. The Kasey brothers at first had a small restaurant at that location, but The Gleaner of Nov. 22, 1936, reported a major expansion had taken place. A dance floor measuring 40 by 60 feet was added, which was one of the largest in the area. Another feature was a square bar trimmed in red leather. The ceiling was blue with silver stars; indirect lighting was featured throughout the club.
The Henderson County directory still listed the Kasey Klub as of 1966 but I’m not sure it was in operation by that point. A Dec. 17, 1970, article by Hugh Edward Sandefur telling of the building’s pending demolition said “it has been closed for a number of years and has deteriorated….” The rear portion with the dance floor had already been razed by that point, and the rest was coming down within days.
“The nation’s entertainment patterns have changed completely since the days when any night would find people from a wide radius gathered at the Kasey Klub for a festive evening.”
100 YEARS AGO
Voters in the Dixon vicinity were getting ready to decide whether the community’s high school would continue after the General Assembly voided the charters under which such schools operated, according to The Gleaner of June 7, 1922.
The Gleaner of June 13 reported voters had approved the school’s continuation by 268 to 140. The vote imposed a new tax on property owners in Dixon and within a 2.5 mile radius of the town.
50 YEARS AGO
County Judge John Stanley Hoffman announced in The Gleaner of June 4, 1972, that he would not stand for a second term of office.
“Not until I actually came to my office in January 1970 did I fully appreciate the awesome power and responsibility” of the office we now call county judge-executive. “Never before in my life had I ever had the direct responsibility of making decisions which affect so many people in so many ways.”
25 YEARS AGO
School Board Chairman David McKechnie said he recognized the needs of various student programs but questioned the never-ending fundraisers for extracurricular activities, according to The Gleaner of June 1, 1997.
Superintendent John Vaughan agreed: “It’s really getting to be too much.” He suggested setting up a special committee to study fundraisers to ensure buyers get something of value, students are protected, and school organizations have budgets that justify the amount of money raised.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Henderson history: Noted night spot Kasey Klub robbed
