Garwood State Bank Looted By Lone Bandit Early Last Monday
Cashier Chapman Forced Into Waiting Car and Carried to Matthews By Man Who “Needed Money”

A lone bandit held up the Garwood State Bank, kidnapped the cashier and escaped with $4100 shortly after the bank opened Monday.

The robber left $4 in nickels and pennies in the safe.

The robber went about the job leisurely, going first to a nearby confectionery, where he drank a “coke.” Then he parked his car about 30 yards to the side of the bank and entered the front door.

Going to the cashier’s window, the bandit asked the cashier, J. L. Chapman, if he knew Ben Wilson. Chapman replied that he had never heard of the man. The robber then asked Chapman if he knew Dave Lundquist.

“Certainly, I know him,” replied Chapman. “He is a rice farmer.”

Chapman said the man then drew a pistol and at the same time jerked a money sack from his pocket and ordered Chapman and Mrs. Cole Hopkins, assistant cashier, to “fill it up and make it snappy.”

The robber ordered Mrs. Hopkins to go into the vault and put the money in the sack. She loaded the money in, including both silver and currency, and handed the sack to the bandit who then forced Chapman to help him carry it to the car, ordering Mrs. Hopkins to “Stay in that back room until I get away.”

Chapman was forced to get into the car, a blue Chevrolet coupe, 1932 model, with a Colorado County license, and the bandit roared out of town toward Eagle Lake. When about seven miles out, near Matthews, Chapman was released and the bandit turned toward Calhoun. Chapman went on into Eagle Lake and got a ride back to Garwood.

Chapman said the man talked little during the ride. He said, however, that he knew “this thing is wrong but I have a wife and children who are starving. I had to do it.” Chapman quoted him.

In he meantime, Mrs. Hopkins, who left the back room when she heard the car start, spread the alarm and a posse of officers and citizens hurriedly was formed and gave chase but was unable to catch up with the bandit.

While there was only one man in the car until Chapman was released, persons working in the river bottom reported seeing two men in the car of the exact description of the bandit’s auto, which turned into Highway 3, the Old Spanish Trail, about half way between Eagle Lake and Columbus, 20 miles from Garwood, an hour or so after the robbery.

Showed a picture of Clyde Barrow, notorious outlaw, Chapman said positively there was no resemblance to the bank bandit.
Chapman said the robber was a man about 30 years old with dark complexion, weighing about 135 pounds, and had a dimple on one of his cheeks.

An arrest was made at Sheridan last Monday night, Sheriff Hoegemeyer taking into custody a man named Livergood in connection with the robbery. In the party making the arrest were Sheriff Hoegemeyer, deputy Townsend, Ashley Walker and Justice Max Conner of Eagle Lake and Sheriff Will Loessin and Deputy Jim Flournoy of LaGrange. The house was surrounded before entrance was attempted. The man was in bed, the time being about eleven o’clock. He submitted to arrest without resistance and was taken to Garwood, thence to this city where he was lodged in jail.

Livergood was taken to Garwood yesterday and shown to several prominent citizens who had seen the perpetrator of the robbery at the time the act was committed and he was positively identified by several business men, including Cashier Chapman and Assistant Cashier Mrs. Hopkins.

Examining trial will be held in Judge Griffitt’s court at Garwood Saturday morning at ten o’clock. The accused, L. J. Livergood does not have a car, and the Chevrolet coupe used in the escape is being sought out. The car bore a Colorado County number, beginning with 188 thousand. No trace of the stolen money has been located.

Livergood is said to have a prison record.

The board of directors of the Garwood State Bank met yesterday and elected George Herder, Jr. as a member of the board to fill the vacancy caused by his father’s death, and elected him to the presidency of the bank.

Papers were being filled out and executed for the insurance on the amount of the loss through the robbery which amounted to $4262.27. It is expected that the bank will be reimbursed for this loss within a few days.

Colorado County Citizen, May 3, 1934
Transcribed by Judy Talkington

Dr. Kent Operates On Seven Cases Trachoma

Dr. Frank Kent of San Antonio made a special trip to Weimar Wednesday to operate on the seven children of E. D. Lobpreis[sic] of Garwood for trachoma, a contagious infectious eye disease affecting the eye lids.

Dr. Kent stated the cases were discovered by the county health nurse and excluded from school by the county health officer.

Any foreigner suffering from trachoma is not permitted to enter the Untied States, and it is the vigilance of federal medical inspectors that is responsible for the small number of cases among our school children, being estimated at about 10 per cent.

Dr. Kent stated that 17 out of each 100 inmates in the blind institute are due to complications following trachoma. The disease is easily cured in the early stages. Dr. Kent recalls that during his post-graduate studies in New York in 1902 that trachoma was so prevalent it was necessary to establish a hospital staff of physicians and nurses to treat them, as 35 to 40 per cent of the school children were infected.

Dr. Kent was assisted by our local physician, Dr. C. G. Cook.

Weimar Mercury, January 20, 1928
Transcribed by Judy Talkington