Armed Robbery At First National Bank In Chewelah!

Chewelah's First National Bank in 1905

A Throwback Story By Barry McCombs

The year was 1938, just a few years after bank robbers John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde were dominating the headlines in the newspapers.  I had found some old newspaper clippings on the Chewelah holdup while flipping through one of my great-grandfather’s scrapbooks and then found out that one of the principals in this little drama, Mr. Cy Lavigne, was still alive in 1982 so I went to his cabin at Black Lake and visited with him.  At that time Cy was a spry 85 year old with an excellent memory which I tested by asking about some details of my ancestors who had been dead fifty years or more. Cy was an assistant clerk at the bank when the robbery occurred and using his memory along with the old newspaper clippings we reconstructed a crime that took place during the Great Depression.

At 2:30 p.m. on September 22, 1938, two gunmen stepped into the First National Bank of Chewelah and ordered the bank employees and three customers who happened to be in the bank to put up their hands. One man, later described as “very swarthy and over 30 years of age”, stood by the door while the other gunman, said to be “about 30, tall with blond bushy hair”, ordered J.A. Raftis, a cashier, to show where the money was kept.  Mr. Lavigne said that he kept playing with the hammer on his revolver while he held the gun under Jim Raftis’ nose. (As he recounted this, I sensed that he still held a grudge at the man for threatening their lives.)  The robbers gathered up $802  but in their excitement overlooked $11,000  in payroll money for the old magnesite plant in Chewelah.  As the gunmen ran out the door, the bank employees set off an alarm which rang in a business house next door.

At this point, Mr. Lavigne  jumped into action and what followed provides an interesting contrast and comparison to attitudes, policies and debates regarding gun control and citizen involvement in our own time.  Grabbing a 32 Colt automatic pistol kept at the bank, Cy rushed out the back door and started firing at the bandits just as they were making their getaway in a 36 Ford sedan.  The robbers returned fire and he could hear bullets striking the wall of the bank.  While this was going on he suddenly became aware that a young employee of the bank, Miss Lola Haney, was standing next to him yelling, “I wish I had a gun, I wish I had a gun.”  Cy told her to get the “blank” back inside.  When the getaway car was later discovered it had 5 holes from Cy’s weapon in the passenger door, 3 of which went through the window.

At the same time Mr. Lavigne was exchanging shots with the robbers, Mr. Heathfield, an insurance man from Spokane heard the alarm go off in the business next to the bank.  He ran to his car, pulled a 22 automatic pistol from it and started firing at the Ford from the center of the street. It was reported in the paper that Mr. Heathfield put several rounds through the rear window of the car.  Cy had to stop and laugh about that for awhile. He said Heathfield, a friend of his, was amazed to find out, when the getaway car was discovered that only one of his bullets had it the car and that was in the trunk.  While he was shooting he kept seeing holes appearing in the back window and thought he was really laying in his shots close.  Actually, the holes he saw were made by the bandits firing back at him from inside of the car.

All of this activity disturbed the ruminations of a couple of retired gentlemen who made it their habit to sit on the burb of the sidewalk under some shade trees near the bank.  A stray bullet grazed the pants of one of the men. Cy said the two of them crept on their hands and knees slowly around a building and then made tracks for safer ground.

After the robbers got away from the bank, several people watched the car drive slowly till it got out of town. (Were they trying to not draw attention to themselves or was Chewelah already known as a speed trap in 1938?)  When the reached the Sand Canyon road on the edge of town, the car picked up speed and began to race furiously up the the road.  By this time Marshall Otto Thygesen of Chewelah gave chase.  He reported that he had nearly caught up to them before burning a bearing on his car.

While the news spread about the holdup there was no lack of volunteers to chase down the bad guys.  A dozen or more cars full of manhunters patrolled the Sand Canyon and upper Chewelah Creek area all that afternoon and evening.  Small posses were organized from the American Legion Post and armed with high-powered rifles and shotguns.  These groups were sent out to investigate many conflicting sightings of the bandits.  No trace of the robbers was found, however, until much later when deer hunters came upon the getaway car covered with brush in the Bear Creek area.  Inside the car investigators found dried blood and other evidence the bandits had been hit.  Some arrests were eventually made in connection with the robbery.

After the holdup, Cy Lavigne changed his 32 automatic for a 30-06.  He felt that he would have stopped the robbers if he would have had the rifle.  Over the years society put more restraints on anyone but  trained police officers jumping into a melee with criminals.  To protect the safety of their customers and employees, banks eventually forbid clerks from having firearms on the premises. Cy could see the wisdom in this but judging from the deer antlers hanging from his cabin wall he was still a good shot and I wouldn’t have wanted to test his resolve in a tight situation.