Unforgettable Ride
Now $27,000 richer, the bandits finally made for their escape. Realizing that they'll have to leave through the front entrance the gang took hostages to keep officers from shooting at them. Three women were in the back office of the bank that day, Jane Williams, Ursula Patzke, and Helen Cespkes. The men took these women, as well Officer Boyard and President Weyland, out the front of the bank, holding them like shields as they made their way to the getaway car.
The crowd outside the bank had grown quiet large which allowed Jane and Helen to escape their captors, officer Boyard, Ursula Patzke and President Weyland were not as lucky.
While leaving, Dillinger noticed the Thompson machine gun that Hansen had dropped and decided to take it as a souvenir.
By the time the officer waiting in the car had been alerted to the situation in the bank and called for back up Dillinger and his gang had already made it to their car and were ready to run.
The thieves placed their hostages on the running boards of the getaway car so that they wouldn't be shot at as they drove off.
After driving for a while the men dumped officer Boyard off the running board at Sixth and Lafayette avenue and continued with Wayland and Patzke. Once they were out of the city the two hostages were allowed into the car and forced to accompany the gang on the rest of the ride to Waukesha County. Accounts given by both of them make their captors out to have been true gentlemen. Ursula Patzke was given a coat to cover herself with, and when Weyland asked to tie his handkerchief around his head to to protect it from the chilled wind another member gave him his hat.
“They were actually pretty nice to us, There were several occasions when we had to stop (and talk to other people on the road), and they would act just like regular Joes, saying 'Hi. How are you?' and then went along their way."
Ursula Patzke Journal Times 1997
Once the gang made it out of the city and away from the police they stopped by the woods and forced the hostages out. Pierpoint took his shoelaces and tied the two bank employees loosely to a tree. He told them to wait there for 15 minutes before freeing themselves and then turned to leave for the car.
He then turned back around to face them again and both of them feared he had changed his mind and was going to kill them. Instead he just asked Weyland for his hat back, turned around, and walked back.