Crazy Larry

July 8, 1936 saw the bloody demise of Depression Era desperado Lawrence DeVol. A member of the Barker-Karpis gang, DeVol was known as an especially trigger happy psycho who had killed a number of police officers.

DeVol became an associate of Karpis when they both escaped from Kansas State Reformatory in 1929. In 1933 DeVol was arrested after participating in a bank robbery that resulted in the death of three people. DeVol pleaded guilty and was sent away to a prison for the criminally insane. In June of 1936 he lead an escape of fifteen inmates. By early July he and another escapee, Donald Reeder, had robbed a few banks in Kansas and were laying low in Enid, Oklahoma planning future robberies. 

On July 8, DeVol and Reeder stopped into a beer parlor with a couple of dates. The proprietor didn't like the looks of them and thought they might be there to rob him. (Later he would state that a few weeks prior he heard DeVol's description given over the radio on the show Gang Busters and recognized him) Either way, the saloonkeeper called the cops. 

Two police men, officers Cal Palmer and Ralph Knarr, entered and approached DeVol's table and asked him to leave with them. "Let me finish my beer and I'll go with you." DeVol responded. As he drained his stein with one hand, DeVol drew a gun from his pocket with the other and opened fire on the cops, Palmer died immediately and Knarr was seriously wounded. 

DeVol and his companions fled from the place. Other police in the vicinity started to chase the desperado who jumped onto the running board of a car in an attempt to escape but the car came to a halt. Officers opened fire on the gunman who returned the fire as he tried to getaway on foot. After a few rounds the lawmen's bullets found their mark and DeVol dropped to the street dead.

Lawrence DeVol

Don't Bank On It

 

It was supposed to be an easy job; run into the Kraft Bank located in Menomonie, Wisconsin, make everyone lie on the floor, grab the money and run. Driving the getaway car was Frank Webber, going inside were veteran bank robbers Charles Harmon, Francis Keating and Tommy Holden. The date of execution- October 20, 1931.

As planned, Webber parked the car and his three confederates alighted and entered the bank. The drew their guns and demanded money. Above the main floor was a guard who had been ordered not to do any shooting in the event of a robbery. After grabbing less than $10,000 in cash, one of the robbers demanded more money. The bank president, Sam Kraft, declared there was no more. Unsatisfied with the answer, one of the bandits fired into him.

Meantime the guard set off the alarm and headed to the roof of the bank with a rifle. Hearing this, Webber pulled the car up to the bank and stepped out with a Thompson machine-gun and began spraying the streets to ward off any would be heroes. The bandits grabbed a cashier, James Kraft, one of the bank president's sons, and another woman to use as human shields.

Running to the car the woman fell and they left her there, the cashier was pushed into the car. The desired effect of having a human shield didn't work. The guard and various towns people opened fire on the car as it drove away.

About six miles out of town, the posse found the dead bodies of Frankie Webber and James Kraft. Webber had been hit in the head by a vigilante's bullet. It was believed that the bandits had killed Kraft in retaliation. The following day, the body of Charles Harmon was found, he too, it was assumed, hit by bullets while fleeing.

Frankie Webber        Charles Harmon

 

Clipped in a Barber Shop

Russell Hughes was a Midwest desperado who robbed banks and was said to be an associate of Handsome Jack Klutas, head of band of kidnappers who preyed primarily on Chicago gamblers.

Hughes, who was involved in a number of bank robberies, was loitering in the doorway of a Peoria, Illinois barber shop on this date in 1933.  Peoria's Chief of Detectives Fred Montgomery along with detectives Robert Moran and Gay Dusenberry were cruising town in the former's sedan when Montgomery noticed Hughes, who was wearing a fake mustache. Montgomery told Moran that he thought the guy was ringer for Hughes so they pulled over to check him out.

Hughes noticed the detectives pullover and retreated back into the barber shop. The detectives followed him in. "All right Hughes; put 'em up!" Montgomery ordered. Hughes pulled his hands. from his coat pockets. He had a gun in each and the firefight was on.

Moran fell with a wound that would prove fatal and Montgomery also dropped with a shot in his shoulder. Though wounded, Montgomery was able to keep firing. Mortally wounded, Hughes finally crumbled. "I think every shot I fired hit that fellow," Montgomery later stated, "but he just wouldn't drop. Before I knew it, my gun was empty."

Russell Hughes