The Bank of Avilla was the target of a successful armed robbery on May 18, 1932, by members of the notorious "Irish O'Malley Gang", which also resulted in the kidnapping of the cashier. The O'Malley Gang were typical Depression-era outlaws who had merged with another group of thugs known as the "Ozark Mountain Boys".Irish O'Malley & the Ozark Mountain Boys by R. D. Morgan, New Forums Press (October 22, 2011) On that Wednesday in 1932, the bank cashier Mr. Ivy E. Russell was robbed at gunpoint inside the bank by two men. He was then kidnapped and driven toward Carthage, Mo, where he was tossed out of the car and left by the roadside. One of the culprits was a "sawed-off shotgun wielding gangster" named Jack Miller, who drove the getaway car. It is not known if the undisclosed amount was ever recovered, and records do not show if or how bank customers were reimbursed (notes and deposits were not insured at this time). After a lengthy spree of bank hold-ups, store robberies and murders throughout the Midwest, all of the O'Malley Gang were eventually captured. Some gang members were killed or found dead, and one was sentenced to a seventy-five year prison term for the Avilla bank robbery. Additional facts about the crime can be pieced together through various computerized data sources, some of which include: archived editions of the Miami Daily News Record (Oklahoma) dated May 19, 1932, and from The Joplin Globe dated October 8, 1939. In 1938 Frank Layton and Jack Miller were pulled over by police in Arkansas, and were charged with violating the 1934 National Firearms Act (because of Jack's sawed-off shotgun). This in turn became part of a famous landmark Second Amendment case known as "The Miller Case" and United States v. Miller. Jack Miller himself was murdered one month prior to the Supreme Court's decision. Jack's bullet-riddled body turned up on the bank of Spencer Creek in Rogers County, Oklahoma.
The Bank of Avilla was the target of a successful armed robbery on May 18, 1932, by members of the notorious "Irish O'Malley Gang", which also resulted in the kidnapping of the cashier. The O'Malley Gang were typical Depression-era outlaws who had merged with another group of thugs known as the "Ozark Mountain Boys".Irish O'Malley & the Ozark Mountain Boys by R. D. Morgan, New Forums Press (October 22, 2011) On that Wednesday in 1932, the bank cashier Mr. Ivy E. Russell was robbed at gunpoint inside the bank by two men. He was then kidnapped and driven toward Carthage, Mo, where he was tossed out of the car and left by the roadside. One of the culprits was a "sawed-off shotgun wielding gangster" named Jack Miller, who drove the getaway car. It is not known if the undisclosed amount was ever recovered, and records do not show if or how bank customers were reimbursed (notes and deposits were not insured at this time). After a lengthy spree of bank hold-ups, store robberies and murders throughout the Midwest all of the O'Malley Gang were eventually captured. Some gang members were killed or found dead, and one was sentenced to a seventy-five year prison term for the Avilla bank robbery. Additional facts about the crime can be pieced together through various computerized data sources, some of which include: archived editions of the Miami Daily News Record (Oklahoma) dated May 19, 1932, and from The Joplin Globe dated October 8, 1939. In 1938 Frank Layton and Jack Miller were pulled over by police in Arkansas, and were charged with violating the 1934 National Firearms Act (because of Jack's sawed-off shotgun). This in turn became part of a famous landmark Second Amendment case known as "The Miller Case" and United States v. Miller. Jack Miller himself was murdered one month prior to the Supreme Court's decision. Jack's bullet-riddled body turned up on the bank of Spencer Creek in Rogers County, Oklahoma.