The 1899 Valentine Savings Bank robbery occurred in 1899 when the Van der Linde Gang members Karen Jones, Bill Williamson, Lenny Summers, and Arthur Morgan robbed the bank of Valentine, Cherry County, Nebraska. They made off with thousands of dollars, and they killed around a dozen lawmen in the process.
Background[]
After a shootout between the Van der Linde Gang and Leviticus Cornwall's security guards in Valentine, Nebraska, Dutch van der Linde and his gang were forced to relocate to the rural Scarlett Meadows region of Louisiana, where they set up camp at Clemens Point and ingratiated themselves with the local law while using pseudonyms. Dutch ordered that his gang not cause any trouble or break the law in Rhodes, so his gang member Karen Jones planned to rob the bank back in Valentine, as she believed that it was unlikely that law enforcement would expect the gang to return so soon after the big shootout. She recruited Bill Williamson, Lenny Summers, and Arthur Morgan to help her, although Morgan was initially hesitant to ride back into the hornet's nest.
Robbery[]
The gang's escape from Valentine
The gang then rode to Valentine, where Jones had the men wait outside the bank as she entered the bank pretending to be a lost girl. She approached the teller and wailed that her lover had abandoned her, creating a scene before pulling a gun on the teller and declaring that he was being robbed. The three outlaws then entered the bank, and Marston forced the clerk Increase Dixon to unlock the vault before hitting him in the face and pushing him aside. He picked the locks on all of the vaults rather than dynamite them, allowing him to take all of the money in the vault without immediately alerting the law. Shortly after, however, Deputy Josiah Munn and several of his men positioned themselves at the entrance of the bank and demanded that the outlaws surrender. Karen was the first to exit, feigning innocence to distract the lawmen, only to pull a gun and shoot at them. Morgan quick-drew his gun and shot all four men waiting outside, and the gang then fought their way up the muddy street, killing around a dozen lawmen before reaching their horses and riding off. As they left the town, they shot around six more lawmen who pursued them, and they split up after evading the law; they then independently rode back to Clemens Point with their shares of the loot. Morgan acquired a share of around $500, most of which he put towards renovating the gang's camp.