Lenawee County History: Eyewitnesses add detail to 1947 Addison bank robbery
I received a lot of feedback a while back when recounting early 20th century bank robberies in both Onsted and Cement City.
In earlier times, bank robberies were reported as happening overnight, bandits cracking or blowing safes and escaping in the cover of darkness. However, they eventually moved to daylight.
More than a decade after the Cement City bank robbery, two bandits targeted Addison.
More: Lenawee County History: Cashier shot in 1923 Onsted bank robbery
More: Lenawee County History: Cement City bank robbery of 1931 went unsolved
At 1:09 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, 1947, a red, 1939 Oldsmobile coupe backed up against the curb in front of the Addison State Savings Bank. Bank president Flaude Cleveland, 66, passed the car on her way back to the bank from her lunch break.
In the lobby were Ecorse residents James Szuck and Fred Bakus. The men had been sitting on a bench for some time, apparently waiting for Cleveland. She found another waiting customer in her office and heard them out. After a few minutes, that person left and cashier Evelyn Klein motioned to Szuck that it was his turn to see Cleveland. With a nod, Szuck got up and followed the cashier through the president’s office door. Klein left and returned to her desk.
“What can I do for you?” Cleveland asked the seemingly nervous man. It wasn't unusual to have anxious clients. When people ran into hard times, it was a hard matter of pride to ask for financial assistance.
“I’m going to need a little help,” Szuck said.
“What kind of help?” Cleveland asked.
“This kind,” Szuck said, and produced a gun. Cleveland, unruffled, sat back in her chair. She had an extensive gun collection, and this man holding a World War II service pistol, in her mind, was asking her to consider purchasing his firearm.
“Oh, yes, a gun,” Cleveland then stood up, smiled and slapped Szuck on the back. Szuck jabbed the gun into her ribs, said “That’s right, and I mean business. Get me the money!” and ordered her to the front bank lobby.
The mood in the office instantly changed. Cleveland led Szuck to Klein’s cashier cage, the pistol barrel pressed firmly in her back.
Once the two were there, the accomplice sprung into action. Fred Bakus lined everyone who was in the bank along the west wall. There were employees Cleveland, cashier Klein, bookkeeper Janice Mathias and assistant, Dennis “Jiggs” Castle.
When I worked on my first history of Addison book in 1996, Klein, Mathias and Castle were still living, giving first-hand accounts of what happened nearly 50 years before. While Klein's and Castle's memories are still on a notepad buried somewhere in a box, I have Mathias' memories digitized. All three of their recollections aligned with period newspapers.
Mathias said the bank had a check-photographic machine at the time.
"I was sitting there using it and I was stunned when Flaude and a man came into the office," Mathias told me. She said, ‘They’re going to rob the bank.’ The guy showed the gun to us and told us to lie flat on the floor without looking around.”
Customer Eddie Dennis had a $9.60 deposit from the Addison Softball League ripped from his hands. Another customer, Harold Chase, had his withdrawal taken as well. Robert Bayes tried to calm his 3-year-old son who began crying. Charles Dental, yet another customer, and the rest of the people complied with the robbers' demands.
Wilford Hawley, who observed that when the order “Everyone up against the wall!” was given, no one knew which wall to go to and each person started for a different one, creating momentary chaos. Those on the floor were also confused on what to do.
Cleveland, who later said she thought for a second about how to get to an alarm button, asked one of the robbers if she could sit in a chair at the cashier cage. Her request was denied. The bandits apparently knew what she was thinking and instead made her sit in the center of the lobby’s tile floor.
The robbers ran out the door with nearly $3,000 cash in a bag, and sped south out of town. Cleveland called the police as word spread quickly through town on what had happened.
A new technique of catching escaped criminals in Lenawee County was launched on that day. An airplane was called in to track the car as it made its getaway. Police officers Tiny Willson and Max Donovan used their new patrol car radio to talk to the pilot as he gave them instructions as to where the speeding coupe was heading.
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Bakus and Szuck were approaching Clayton when steam began shooting out the side vents. In an attempt to keep ahead of the law, they ditched the car behind a haystack at a farm. The money bag was dumped in the hay and they made their way to one of the fields to hide out. However, farm resident Anna Bailey discovered the car when she was doing chores. Police were led in to the farm by the airplane, and Szuck and Bakus were found hiding in a thicket near the woods and arrested, five hours after the robbery.
The guns used in the robbery and $2,775 cash were recovered at the site. The men were taken to the Lenawee County Jail, and Cleveland came around to the jail at 9 p.m., where she positively identified Szuck and Bakus as the robbers. Both men pleaded guilty at their hearings and were sentenced to prison.
The Addison bank would be robbed again in 1958 by a pregnant Cement City woman, desperate for cash. That's a story for another time, though.
Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County History: Witnesses detail 1947 Addison bank robbery
