WORLD WAR...AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

“BANDIT TAKEN BY VIGILANTES”

“Iowa Youth Captured After Being Slightly Wounded by Captors.” Were among the headlines in newspapers in and out of the State of Iowa, after some Iowa Falls boys planned and attempted a daylight bank robbery of the Farmers Savings Bank in Steamboat Rock on Monday, February 16, 1931. 

Shortly after 3 p.m. Kenneth Eldred of Iowa Falls entered the bank. Whipping out a revolver, he ordered Cashier Elda Christians and his assistant Jim Holmes to “stick ‘em up!” The two immediately complied. 

Judging from the words that were used, he must have been fond of listening to programs like Gunsmoke, or the Lone Ranger on the radio. 

The youth then pulled a sack from his pocket, handed it to Jim Holmes, and ordered the bank officers to fill it up. Elda Christians went into the vault while Holmes stood at the vault door holding the sack with Eldred’s gun trained on him.

In the vault, Christians seized a gun and leveled it at the youth. “Put it down or I’ll shoot him,” Eldred ordered, and fearing that the youth would carry out his threat, Christians followed the command. 

Jerking the sack full of currency from Holmes’ hands, Eldred headed for the door. “Lie down and don’t try to give any alarm until I’m gone,” he ordered. 

As Eldred jumped into his car parked at the side of the bank building, Elda Christians fired at him from a rear window. L.G. Condon and Roy (Sharp) Hathaway, working near by heard the shots and jumped into another car and headed after the robber. Giving chase they fired at Eldred’s vehicle, in and attempt to bring about his capture. 

Several miles northwest of town on the Hardin City hill, Eldred stopped his car and climbed out. Condon, covered him with an army rifle, but as he started to approach the youth reached for his gun. Condon opened fire and Eldred surrendered. 

Examination revealed that Eldred was wounded by a bullet that pierced his heel and a another grazed his neck. Several shots had been fired into the car by Condon and Hathaway during the chase. 

All of the money which amounted to around $1,000 was recovered from the car. 

Wendel Eldred, the bandit’s brother, was arrested for investigation shortly after his brother’s capture when he was found trailing the bandit car. Both were given lodging in the Eldora jail. 

That night in jail Kenneth Eldred told officers that he had robbed the bank because he had been threatened by two men from Chicago. He said the men told him they would “take him for a ride.” unless he complied with their request to rob the bank. 

Eldred as it turns out had fabricated the whole story. 

By Wednesday, a third young man was in the custody of Hardin County Sheriff, William Thompson. Lloyd Havens, also of Iowa Falls. Havens made a confession, and signed it stating that Kenneth and his brother Wendell wanted to pay back $175 that they owed Havens on the car that Kenneth had bought from him. The Sheriff said Kenneth Eldred planned to meet his brother Wendell near Hardin City after the holdup and and then they would report the Havens car as stolen. 

Havens was drawn into the Eldred’s trouble because he had evidently helped plan the futile robbery. 

County Attorney R.R. Bateson soon after Havens told the straight story, obtained confessions from Kenneth and Wendell Eldred. 

Havens escaped prosecution, but the Eldred brothers were sentenced to terms in the Anamosa reformatory. 

No doubt the event in the otherwise quiet town gave everyone something to talk about for a long time after.