THE KIMES GANG

In 1922 the Reading Building was built on the northwest corner of Main and Choctaw. When completed the bank was moved across the street to the new building. The bank was downstairs, while the hotel existed upstairs. This bank was one of many that failed across the nation in the 1930s.

The other two banks in town by the mid-1920s were the Farmers National Bank and the American National Bank.

May 18, 1927, was a typical day in the small town of Beggs, Oklahoma. The weather was warm but not oppressively hot. Roses were blooming, and a dog or two rested in the sun on Main Street.

There was no indication that this day would be any different from any other—that it would be the day Matthew Kimes, one of the southwest’s most feared bank robbers, would go for three bank robberies.

The master plan of the robbery called for all three banks in Beggs to be hit at precisely 10:40 a.m. Wednesday morning, May 18, 1927.

The previous day, Matt Kimes drove the dirt road getaway route with his three drivers. According to R. Wilcox’s series about Matt Kimes and his exploits in the Okmulgee Daily Times, the three drivers were Elmer Inman, Roy Brandon, and Everett Stephens. They were checking out the conditions of the road everywhere, and Matt was pointing out landmarks and blind section lines.

That night, according to Wilcox, a raiding party of three men went to Sapulpa, Oklahoma, to pick up a big auto for the job. A late model Buick sedan, light green, belonging to Earl Foster, was found in front of the Elks Club. It was no problem for Everett Stephens to hot-wire it and drive away. Raymond Doolin and Jack Neal Whitehead followed in a Chevrolet.

On Wednesday morning, which was beautiful, sunny day, the three Buick sedans eased into town from different directions. The highway from Okmulgee to Tulsa intersected Beggs’ main street a block east of where it is today, and that put it right past the First National Bank that sat on the corner of the block of Main Street.

According to Wilcox, the first Buick was driven by Roy Brandon and came in on the highway from Okmulgee, going north. He turned west on Main Street and bypassed the First National to pull up between the yellow slanting marks on the asphalt main, at the curb in front of the Farmers National Bank in the middle of the block. The three men sat quietly until the second Buick pulled in to park in front of the First National Bank a half block east of them.

Elmer Inman, a former Beggs resident who had escaped from the Kansas State Penitentiary while a trustee, taking the warden’s daughter with him, drove this auto. He managed a picture show in Beggs for a while and was not molested, though his past was known. He then moved to Okmulgee, where he managed another theatre for a brief time. Inman pulled the Buick to a stop about a block before he reached Main Street from the highway north.

According to Wilcox, Ray Terrill was in this auto along with Claude Smith (a thirty-year-old recruit from Earlsboro). They both got out of their auto and walked the remaining block to the side door of the First National. A curious postmaster, C. W. Ramsey, seeing the well-dressed strangers, stepped out of the post office side door to get a better look. He did. He was looking at the big black hole in the end of Terrill’s .45 automatic.

Inman turned the corner and parked his auto at the curb. Matt Kimes got out and walked into the First National and leaned against the teller’s cage, smiling but saying nothing at first until Terrill and Smith arrived through a back or side door of the bank with their prisoners in tow.

Matt then stopped a customer named Porter Lee from leaving and then calmly stated, “We’re robbin’ this bank!” Terrill quickly went behind the teller’s cage and then ordered Mrs. Grace Wilson to step out. Smith stood guard by the back door near the vault. Matt unwrapped the newspapers from around a gunnysack and tossed it over the high, steel cage to Terrill, who then began to empting the drawers of bills and change. Terrill then bypassed the empty middle cage and entered Vice President Glen E. Leslie’s cage.

As all this was going on, customers continued to enter the bank, whereupon Matt would greet them with smiles and statements like, “May we help you today?” or “Good morning, just step right over here to the counter with the rest of the folks and we’ll take care of you in a minute!”

After Terrill had cleaned Leslie’s cage, he accused Leslie of holding out on him. Terrill stated, “Damn you, you’re holdin’ out on us! Where is it?” and he raised his gun to strike Leslie. Leslie fended off the blow with his forearm and became quite angry at Terrill himself.

“There’s no use a beatin’ up on me—I’m not holdin’ out on ya! You know about how much you’ve already got and you and you can look at the books—there they are!” Terrill then went to study the ledger for a few minutes and seem satisfied.

By then a merchant, Sam Haddad; the gas company manager, L. H. Greer; a farmer, P. E. Rohl; an attorney, H. A. Cole; a black man, William Simpson; and another farmer, Stephen Briggs, had swelled the lobby to the point that Matt exclaimed, “We’re gettin’ too full out here—let’s take some of ‘em inside.”

Terrill and Smith then herded these eight people behind the cages with the bankers, then put the eleven people into the vault and locked the door. Matt then strolled out of the bank and walked down the block, whistling, to check on the other gang members.

When Matt had first left the auto in front of the bank to enter—it was signal enough for Clyde Brandon to leave