100 years ago in Eastern Washington: A band of experienced ‘yeggmen’ struck again at a bank

The area’s gang of yeggmen (safecrackers) struck again in the night.

It broke into the safety deposit vaults of the Lamont State Bank in Whitman County and made off with thousands of dollars of bonds, securities and other valuables. The modus operandi was similar to that of the Latah Bank burglary a week earlier and four other bank heists in the region.

“We estimate that one crew of yeggs has been responsible for the theft of a total of $75,000 worth of securities,” a fingerprint expert brought in from Spokane said. “The crew is composed of experienced men. In some cases, they have cut the phone wires leading out of a town after breaking into a place.”

In the Lamont heist, the gang broke through a plate glass window at 3 a.m. and hammered the knobs off of the safety deposit boxes with sledges and crowbars.

From the jail beat: John Murphy, a convicted burglar, had almost finished the job of sawing through the bars of his Spokane County Jail cell when a jailer caught him in the act.

Jailers believed he got the saws and files from another prisoner, who had been sharing the cell with him.

Murphy was headed to Walla Walla for three to 15 years for stealing 24 pairs of shoes from a railroad car.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1932: Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.)