First National Bank of Lamar as it appeared in May 1928 at the corner of Main and Olive. The bank was located on the northwest corner of the intersection.

A pictorial interpretation of how the inside of the First National looked during the robbery. It is far from accurate, but does show the basic layout of the bank and teller windows.

The Fleagle Gang book updates

September 2019 - As part of a Prowers County Historical Society program we gave a presentation about the Fleagle Gang trials that were held 90 years ago. We held the program at the Art Center on Main in what used to be the Eudora's women's clothing store. It would have been nice to use the actual courtroom in the Prowers County Courthouse which had been built 90 years ago and dedicated in August of 1929 with the Fleagle trials being one of the largest to be held in the newly opened courthouse that continues to house the district and county courts plus the main county offices such as Clerk, Assessor, County Commissioners and Treasurer. There was a crowd of about 60 people at the presentation, and we signed several copies of our book plus sold 13 books for the Historical Society and Big Timbers Museum.

In preparation for the presentation Court Administrator Barbara McDaniel to get updated photos of the courtroom on the third floor that in many ways is exactly as it appeared 90 years ago. McDaniel said the jury chairs and other chairs in the room have been reupholstered and the detains around the ceiling have been repainted in the hast few years. The courtroom has quite a bit of modern electronic equipment that was not around 90 years ago, but the Judge's bench is the original and while the furniture has been rearranged some it is the originals that came with the building. McDaniel has been working to identify all the cattle brands that are cut into blocks around the walls of the courtroom and can be found on the first floor of the building. We told McDaniel from our research it was easier to get a camera into the courtroom 90 years ago compared to today with all the restrictions. We found many photos from The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News that were taken during the trials inside the courtroom. Museum Curator Kathy Scranton asked if the program could be video tapped and we were pleased to be able to say yes. We hope it came our well, and hope to see a copy in the future. We took a large box of newspaper pages about the First National Bank robbery and the chase as well as reports from the trials. We hope the museum is able to make use of these and add them to the Fleagle Gang files that already existed.

While we were researching to prepare for the presentation we stopped in Garden City, Kan., at the Finney County Museum where the famous window with the single fingerprint that allowed the FBI to identify Jake Fleagle in 1929 is on display as part of a historical crime exhibit. The museum curator said it would be on display for the next year. He said the museum has not done anything more with the 1928 Ford that has been owned by Ralph Fleagle and returned to Garden City from Kankakee, Ill. where it was when Ralph was arrested. The Ford was driven by Walter Fleagle for many years before it was given to his oldest daughter Eleanor Fleagle Hooker who drove it while in college and for several years when she was teaching. The Finney County Museum was given the car from the Hooker family after the death of Kenneth.

We had an interesting call from a man in Texas who told us he was researching his family tree and found a story that his grandmother had been a teacher in Lamar around the time of the robbery and had been dating Jaddo Parish. He said it was a fmaily rumor thtt she had been engaged to Jaddo, but the Parish family did not acknowledge her after he was killed in the robbery and she then moved from Lamat to Alabama. We have not hear this before, and have not found any evidence about this, but we do know that Jaddo was single at the time of the robbery and there may be some newspaper record of this woman that remains a mystery to date.

August 2013 – Received the Hollywood Coverage proposal from Authorhouse they will be putting in their open file. The Authorhouse team said The Fleagle Gang has a good concept and excellent story and characters. The recommendation  for adaption is "strongly consider" a motion picture.

The Authorhouse team did a wonderful job on a brief summary and synopsis of the main events and characters in the book. At the conclusion of the synopsis they said: "The Fleagle Gang has thrills, adventure, drama, heartbreak and humor. It brings the audience unique, historically authentic content. The captivating story along with entertaining scenes and strong characters could make for a successful film."

Now we hope someone in Hollywood or a screen writer sees the writeup and is interested in pursuing a film or TV miniseries. Keeping our fingers crossed while we continue work on another historical story about old Fort Wise/Fort Lyon on the Arkansas River first built in 1860.

April 2013 - We have updated the web site, and hope it looks more modern. The book continues to sell, and has been doing well as an ebook available for the Kindle and Nook tablets.

March 2011 – The book continues to sell at a moderate pace as we enter the seventh year of publication. We have had several people contact us about various people featured in the book. We continue to stop at the Big Timbers Museum north of Lamar, Colo., to sign books. We are interested in how the new addition to the museum will expand the exhibit area, and possibly have a new protected place for the Fleagle car. Every once in a while we hear from the Big Timbers curator that someone has stopped by to talk about the First National Bank robbery and in a few cases they have brought new items to be added to the robbery and trial collection.

 

We recently found a site on the Internet that had a listing of old Gangbusters radio programs from the past. The information was that there was a program that mentioned the Fleagle brothers: ­ Gangbusters. May 26, 1937. CBS network. "Jake and Ralph Fleagle". Sponsored by: Palmolive Shave Cream. 10:00 P. M. The Fleagle brothers are bank robbers and cold-blooded killers. Gangbusters Clues: Wanted for murder: a forty-three year old man with scars on his forehead, tattoos on his arm. Frank Byrne (escaped murderer): scars on his eyebrows and finger. Madeline Raymond: escaped from a Massachusetts reformatory. In Minnesota: a man driving a stolen 1936 Ford coupe is wanted for murder. In Iowa: kidnappers driving a 1936 Plymouth. The script was previously used on "G-Men" on September 21, 1935. Phillips H. Lord (host, director), Erik Rolf (announcer), Bea Beekman (commercial spokesman: head coach of the 9136 women's Olympic team). 29:37.