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heard her name called by a muffled voice.Going into the bank, she found no one there. So she cautiously opened the vaultdoor.“That vault was full of people and itscared me so I started to slam the door when Guy called to me not to shut it,” she relates. “When it was opened, all the directors filed out with Guv and the teller.a*“They had been held up by three menwho took all the money. It was about $4,000; we never kept much money at the bank except on the oilfield paydays. The robbers had bandanas tied around their necks but hadn’t pulled them over their faces, so some of the men recognized Shine Pope joy. “It was in October that he returned with three of his gang, not the one participating in the earlier robbery. Mrs. Newsom was seated at her typewriter and heard the drunken desperado curse her husband and threaten to kill him because he said Newsom had caused the arrest of one of his former helpers.She and the teller were forced atgunpoint to lie on the floor while the money was taken — this time only about half as much as before because the money was being kept in various places since the first holdup, rather than all inthe vaultPOPEJOY AGAIN threatened to kill Newsom, but instead decided to take him in the getaway car. The robber told Mrs. Newsom that if she set off the alarm which had been installed in the vault,the Stinnett bank until 1933 whenFranklin D. Roosevelt became president and all banks in the nation were closed for a short time while measures were taken to halt the wave of bank failures that marked early years of the financialdepression. MSInsurers would not permit the Stinnett bank to reopen because there was not enough protection against robberies in that town. Newsom had the option of closing or moving to Borger, and at thetime did not want to take the lattercourse.Years later a bank at Panhandle didmove to Borger. By then, a more substantial business community was established and “boom days” were over.The couple was employed by the new bank. They lived there until they moved to Hereford in 1939 when Newsom joined the First National Bank staff.IT WAS YEARS before they felt it wasnot necessary to watch their childrenwconstantly, keep doors of their home locked and take other precautions to guard against possible retaliation by his gang for Popejoy s death, Mrs. Newsomsays.Now her experience is just an exciting;|tor||;ii|thcr grandchildren. She lookedthis week for “the first time in years” at yellowed pages of Amarillo and Borger newspapers of the time, with headlines in bold type spread across the top to tell of the bank holdups.
Newspaper Details
Hereford Brand
Hereford, Texas, US
Thu, Dec 05, 1974
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
TX, USA 10 Oct 2018
Other Publications Near Hereford, Texas
Hereford Reporter
Hereford Brand
