THE GREAT CANADIAN BANK ROBBERY; BLOG 128; APRIL 25, 2014

THE MESSAGE:

Very little is known of the courage and sense of duty attributable to a young bank teller in Antigonish Nova Scotia name Robert Sedgewick Currie. The exploits of a daring desperado named Stanley Steele are equally unheralded. Their paths crossed on a sunny Saturday in 1887 in Antigonish Canada. Following is a recent account of the incident, as told to Tony, by a descendant of 'Scarface Capone'. His name is not mentioned here, to protect the innocent; however, a recent photo was made available to Tony@10. We'll refer to him as Barney MacPone. Notice the facial similarity between the two.

BARNEY MacPONE

 

AL CAPONE

We were fortunate as well to obtain a photo of MacPone's weapon.

It was on Friday morning, March 25, 1887 that Stanley Steele arrived at the Antigonish Train Station with evil intent on his agenda and larceny in his heart. That morning, the train pulled in under an extremely clouded sky!  

Catherine MacGillivray's account:

Thanks to Jamie Grant of the Guysborough Historical Society, the Antigonish Heritage Museum is in possession of a letter that suggests that Antigonish may very well have been the scene of the first armed bank robbery in Canada – or, at least, the first documented armed bank robbery in this country. Back in 1997, while researching early bank robberies, Jamie Grant received a letter from Royal Bank archivist, Kathy Minorgan, noting that while “banks are understandably reticent to write about robberies,” the 1887 incident at the Merchants’ Bank on Main Street “could qualify” the Antigonish robbery as the first armed robbery in this country. “I have no proof that it was, but it could well be,” the archivist wrote. “Certainly, there are no well known reports of any others.”

 THE HERITAGE MUSEUM TODAY, RECONSTRUCTED FROM THE OLD TRAIN STATION. 

The Merchants’ Bank was the first financial institution opened in Antigonish.  The bank was a branch of the Merchants’ Bank of Halifax in 1871. It operated under that name until it was taken over by the Royal Bank of Canada in 1901. The bank relocated several times during its thirty years of operation in Antigonish but, at the time of the reckoning, it occupied a building at the corner of Main and Church Streets. 

Robert Sedgewick Currie of Maitland was a teller and in his second year with the bank on March 26, 1887. Bank manager C. H. Harris was away for the day and twenty-six year old Currie had been left in charge. Tall and muscular, Currie was described as pleasant and personable. (Perhaps his fate was linked to 'The Night of the Sedgewick Curse' in Eye of Polyphimus.) 

On Saturday morning a stranger (Stanley Steele) came into the bank making inquiries  relating to a bank draft. Having received the requested information, Steele  promised to return, which he did at half past noon, closing time. This time he wanted to speak to Mr. Currie, in private. Currie escorted him into the manager’s office and was immediately accosted by Steele brandishing a revolver in each hand. Rather than succumbing to the wishes of the gunman,  Currie lunged at him and engaged Steele in a frantic struggle.

The would-be robber managed to fire once, shooting the teller in the temple, and then a second time, striking him in the side. Seriously injured, Currie continued to struggle with his opponent. When help finally arrived from Kirk’s store next door, Currie was said to be “greatly exhausted from loss of blood” but still holding onto his assailant “with a death-like grip.” The gunman was secured and escorted to jail by a large crowd of people, “some of whom (the Halifax Herald reported) were desirous of lynching him.”

The March 26, 1887 incident in Antigonish created quite a stir. Reports were posted in the Halifax Herald, The Globe and Mail, The Ottawa Journal and newspapers all across the United States. 

A brief introduction indicates just how sensational this crime was at the time: “In the history of bank robberies in Nova Scotia, there is no chapter more thrilling than the story of Stanley Steele.

He was a desperado and two-gun lone wolf of the underworld, and his encounter with the young teller of the Merchants Bank of Halifax, in Antigonish, in 1887, makes for an interesting tale.” 

An article posted in newspapers in Texas, Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania described it as “one of the most daring acts in the criminal annals of Canada.” At the time, The Ottawa Journal suggested that the encounter “rivals anything recorded in the stories of Jesse James.”  There is nothing quite like an armed robbery, even a foiled one, to put an otherwise quiet little town on the map!

The culprit, Stanley Steele, was reportedly in his early twenties with an extensive criminal record.  Originally from Boylston, Guysborough County NS, his family had moved to the United States some years earlier. Newspaper accounts specify a bank robbery in Lewiston, Maine, but The Royal Bank Magazine article insists that he was wanted in half a dozen places in the New England States. In attempting to explain Steele’s return to Nova Scotia, it states: “Cruel and calculating, he participated in many a bold break, and finally, finding the net closing in on him in Boston, he bethought himself of the quiet little towns in Nova Scotia and wondered if there was not a profit to be made there.” Thus he tried his luck in Antigonish.

Clearly, Steele had taken great care to plan the robbery and the getaway. The Halifax Herald informed its readers that Stanley Steele had come into Antigonish by train on Friday the day before his meeting with the bank.

He had obtained a room at the Central House, a rooming house located where the Capitol Theatre stands today.

Early Saturday morning, he had gone to the train station to make particular enquiries about the next train heading west. Steele had hoped to intimidate the teller and rob the bank without drawing attention to himself and then making a quick escape on the next train before his actions were discovered; however,  he hadn’t counted on receiving any resistance.

When arrested, Steele admitted that he was hard up and that he needed the money. The Halifax Herald reported that nothing was found on the culprit but the two revolvers, a belt of cartridges and two cents. Other news reports noted that the first shot had been fired by accident – that Steele had only intended to frighten the teller into submission. When it became a life and death struggle, Steele decided to kill Currie, steal the money and clear out of town.

What about Robert Sedgewick Currie, the brave young teller who saved the bank from being robbed? Well, newspapers reported that the bullet was extracted from Currie’s head and that doctors were hoping for his recovery. Evidently, he did recover. His obituary, in both The Halifax Herald and The Casket in 1933, reveals that Currie went on to pursue a long successful career in banking, most of it as manager of the Royal Bank of Canada in Lunenburg.

For his bravery at the time of the robbery, Robert Currie was presented with a “suitably inscribed” gold watch and chain that remained, thereafter, one of his most cherished possessions. Duncan McDowall (Quick to the Frontier: Canada’s Royal Bank) indicates that the bank’s directors in Halifax rewarded Currie with a $100 raise and praised him for “his gallant defence of the valuables of the Bank”; however, he assures his readers that banks now have strict hold-up procedures for staff. Employees “are no longer encouraged to replicate Robert Currie’s heroics.”

Stanley Steele, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted robbery and sentenced to twenty years in jail at Dorchester prison.  (It was opened on 14 July 1880 as a maximum security prison on a hill overlooking the Memramcook River Valley. It is now the second oldest federal corrections facility in Canada still in operation following the closure of Kingston Penitentiaryon September 30, 2013. )  Apparently, Steele proved to be so troublesome at Dorchester that he was transferred to Kingston penitentiary. One source notes that, after serving his term, he was set free but a short while later he was back in jail. Other sources indicate that he died in Kingston penitentiary.

Had his luck been different on that day in March of 1887, Steele would have walked away with $30,000 – well, that’s what the American papers and The Ottawa Journal informed its readers back then. The Halifax Herald and The Globe and Mail made no mention of monies in the vault. Neither did the articles published by the Royal Bank; but then, of course, banks are reluctant to discuss matters of this nature. Be that as it may, for people in Antigonish, it all makes for a great story!

LAURELS TO: 

Robert Sedgewick Currie, for his bravery and commitment to the public good. 

QUESTION: 

Is capitalism a racket for the rich?

QUOTE:

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.-Al Capone

THE CLIP: