Robbery on the American Bank & Trust
On Novemeber 20th, 1933 Harry Pierpoint entered the lobby of the American Bank & Trust, which once stood on the corner of 5th and Main St in Racine, WI, and began pasting a poster for the Red Cross in the front window. After the sign was placed, successfully blocking the view of the tellers cages from the street outside, Makley, Hamilton and Dillinger entered the bank armed with machine guns.
Makley yelled "stick 'em up" at one teller who was on the phone.
The teller, Harold Graham, did not comply quick enough for Makley's liking. Makley shot Graham in the arm. When the teller fell to the ground he set off a silent alarm, alerting the police to trouble at the bank.
The tellers and customers in the lobby were then ordered by Pierpoint to lay on the ground while Dillinger took the bank's president, Grover Weyland, his assistant, and a cashier into the back by the vault.
Weyland was ordered to open the vault, but was unable to because of bank policy only allowing him to have one half of the vault code.
“They hit him in the glasses because they thought he was too slow in opening it."
Ursula Patzke, Journal Times 1997
While Weyland was lead away to the vault, assistant cashier L.C Rowan tried to make his escape through a basement exit and set off another alarm. This alarm sounded a gong at the bank that alerted the bandits to the coming police presence, and attracted a crowd of curious onlookers.
The gang quickly emptied the tills at the front of the bank while waiting for the vault to be opened, before clearing that out as well.
They soon ran into an issue that they did not expect, the American Bank & Trust did not have a back exit for them to escape through.