Blackie Linton Bank Robbery

On Nov. 6, 1923, at 3:00 in the morning, between 14 and 20 men in four automobiles drove in isolated the town by cutting all telephone and telegraph wires. Night watchman William Vaughn was bound, gagged and taken to Town Hall, where he was abandoned. He was told by one of his captors that there were 20 men in their group.

After posting guards to prevent an interruption, the robbers entered the National Bank of Spencer and the Exchange Bank, using nitroglycerine and dynamite to blow open the safes. One of the banks was nearly destroyed by the blasts.

Three Spencer citizens - John Barge, Frank Gray and George Smith - were injured when a few bandits opened fire on those who responded to a fire alarm bell. The gang departed Spencer with about $17,000 in cash and bonds. Before leaving town, the outlaws severed the electric light wires, leaving the community in total darkness.

The first trial ended with a hung jury after 55 hours of deliberations. In the second trial, a witness stated 12 men were involved in the crime: Ralston "Blackie" Linton, Raymond Powers, Arthur Barr, Webb Barry, Dick Day, William Evans, William Highfield, Albert Ross House, Paul Huhn, Mike Murphy, Harry Palmer and Fred Tosser. Many suspected that Russell Clark, later a member of John Dillinger's first gang, was also involved. Clark was known to have associated with Linton and "Handsome Jack" Morrison of Terre Haute in a few roadhouse robberies.

Day, Palmer, Murphy and Tosser were already serving sentences in Michigan City prison for auto banditry and other crimes. They also were used as witnesses against Linton and other members of his gang.

Huhn and House were arrested in Tampa, Fla., and charged with a payroll robbery. House - perhaps Vigo County's most prolific and proficient criminal - escaped from jail within a week and was still at large. House died in Terre Haute at age 104 in 2000.