England’s robbery of Elliott

My dear grandmother’s sister married an England.  During subsequent family dinners and annual reunions

I came to know a number of people of that name of fine, outstanding citizens every one.  There was, however, a rumor that perhaps years before a couple of distant cousins might have experienced some inconsequential problem with the law.  This was not discussed in the company of children.  

I cannot say if the newspaper article that appears below has any connection.  While the bandits referred to may have been from another family altogether, I find it rather pleasant to contemplate a pair of grandma’s cousins pulling a daytime bank robbery and blasting out of town in the same sort of Ford V-8 Bonnie and Clyde were using.  The heist took place in Elliott on August 18, 1936.  The front page story follows:

A daring holdup was pulled off at Elliott at two o-clock Tuesday afternoon when two robbers entered the recently established Elliott State Bank and made away with about $1,000.  In their haste they overlooked considerable other money.

They walked into the bank and accosted the man in charge, George F. Wollenhaupt, and told him it was a holdup.  Wollenhaupt was slugged on the head with a sap and made to lay on the floor, apparently to keep him from making efforts to get help.  

Mrs. George Stayer, who lives over the bank, became suspicious when she heard the men swearing at the cashier, so took the number of the car.  It was a Missouri license 289-287, and the car was a Ford V-8.  After getting the money the bandits dashed to their auto and fled to the south.  Officers were notified and a general alarm was sent out, but the desperadoes made good on their get-away.  

A related article made the front page a couple of weeks later.  Albert and Orrie England, former residents of Red Oak, had been arrested.  Suspicion was aroused when Albert England’s wife, normally a woman with hardly a cent in her purse, went on a spending spree.  

It seems the England boys, who had operated a service station, weren’t getting much business.  In the summer of 1936 they diversified their portfolio by robbing a bank in Carroll, Neb.  

This worked out well, so a few days later they went to Missouri looking for another.  They didn’t find a bank to their liking, but did manage to steal a set of Missouri license plates.  
Following the Elliott robbery they went south a couple of miles, pulled over to put their own plates on the car, then drove to Red Oak.  

There they entered a well-known downtown tavern and celebrated by drinking, according to the paper, a gallon of beer.  

The article concludes by telling us both men made a full confession, that money from the robberies was found hidden in Mrs. England’s mattress, and that the outlaws would face trial first in Nebraska.     

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com