The Deposit Bank of Columbia, Kentucky, was robbed in April, 1872.
This is nothing unusual as banks are robbed because, as has been said, that’s where the money is. This bank robbery was a bit more historically significant.
First of all, the exact date of the robbery is uncertain, with some sources saying April 12th and others saying April 29th.
On that morning, either the 12th or the 29th of April, R. A. C. Martin was starting his day at the bank by getting his cash drawer ready for the customers who would come. Meanwhile, outside, five strangers rode into town and stopped outside the Deposit Bank.
Three of them got off their horses and entered the bank where Mr. Martin was ready for his days work. Also in the building were the bank president, Judge James Garnett, and three other prominent men in Columbia.
The three men who entered the bank split up, one approaching Martin, one approaching the judge and the third approaching one of the other men. They each pulled out their guns, causing Garnett to cry out.
A fight then commenced, resulting in Judge Garnett suffering a gunshot wound that would eventually cause him to lose his hand. Mr. Martin went for a pistol he kept in his desk drawer, but that caught the attention of one of the robbers, who then shot him.
Meanwhile the man who had shot the judge was in a fight with the judge and one of the other men who had been inside the bank, allowing the two others to escape and spread the alarm that the bank was being robbed, which caused the two strangers who waited on their horses outside to begin firing at anything that moved.
Judge Garnett managed to escape in the confusion, leaving the robbers alone in the bank with the mortally wounded Martin. They took the cash, less than $1500, and fled, leaving Martin to die.
The gang managed to make its getaway, but not into obscurity.
The men who robbed that bank in Kentucky were Jesse and Frank James, Cole, Bob and James Younger, the James Gang. That $1500 was the smallest amount of loot they ever got in any robbery.
