Once, Twice, Three Times a Robbery
Ever heard that saying about things — both good and bad — coming in threes?
That was certainly true for the Hamilton County Bank of Cicero at one time. It was robbed three years in a row! (1959, 1960 and 1961.)
I looked through the old newspapers to see if the bank had ever been robbed before that, but I didn’t find anything. (Maybe would-be bandits heard about the tear gas booby trap installed on the bank’s vault in 1927?)
By doing that research, I was able to put together a short history of the institution.
The bank was founded in 1915 as the Citizens National Bank. In 1945, they surrendered their charter as a national bank and replaced it with a state charter. Upon becoming a state institution, the name was changed to the “Hamilton County Bank.” That same year, a branch opened in Arcadia. A third branch was opened in Atlanta in 1975.
In 1982, the Hamilton County Bank was bought by Fidelity Bank of Carmel and became a Fidelity Bank.
The first robbery of the Hamilton County Bank’s Cicero branch occurred April 10, 1959.
That morning, teller Martha Pickett found herself staring at the business end of a 22-caliber pistol held by a troubled 17 year-old.
The youth dashed out of the bank with $390 in a paper bag, stole a car that was parked in front of a nearby barber shop and took off flying. (Well, practically flying. He was said to be traveling at nearly 100 mph.)
About a half hour later, he was caught by Zionsville’s town marshal, partly because law officials in this area were already on alert, having received a tip about an impending robbery at a Fishers bank. (The unrelated Fishers robbery occurred a couple of weeks later.)
One interesting side note — the teen’s arrest was witnessed by a special investigator with the Afghanistan police who was here to observe American law enforcement procedures.
The second Cicero robbery took place Aug. 23, 1960.
This time three bank employees in addition to Pickett — Robert Wiles, Ruby Fetty and Clell Miller — “saw the robber face to face,” as did a customer, Mrs. Emerson Sigler. (Curiously, the thief didn’t bother to wear a mask.)
The “neatly dressed” gunman made off with around $6,585.
The man’s getaway car, stolen from an Anderson parking lot, was later discovered by a hunter in the woods near the construction site of Noblesville’s future Forest Hill Elementary School. The thief, however, managed to elude police . . . then.
On Aug. 14, 1961, the bank was hit again and the armed robber was identified by bank employees as the same man who’d held them up a year ago.
This time he fled with $1,768.85. An accomplice picked him up after he ditched his stolen getaway car two miles west of State Road 37, but the pair didn’t get very far. A State Trooper caught them about 15 minutes after the heist, near what is today Mercantile 37.
The gunman was sentenced to 10 years. His driver received a three-year sentence.
Many Cicero residents probably shared the sentiments of a woman who lived next to the bank. After that last holdup, she emerged from her apartment complaining about not being able to hear her television over the hubbub next door.
Upon learning of the latest robbery, she shrieked, “Not again! That settles it; I’m moving out.”
Thanks to Lisa Hayner for the column idea.
A reminder: It’s time to count the August fogs to see how many big snows we might get during the coming winter. I’ll be counting them, but feel free to make your own count and let me know the result.
(FYI — I count fogs that show up in ANY part of Hamilton County on WISH-TV’s fog maps, not just the ones that cover the entire county.)
Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at younggardenerfriend@gmail.com