1932 - Paintsville National Bank Robbed
In the late winter of 1932 Johnson County, like the rest of Kentucky and the nation,
was in the icy grip of the Great Depression. Jobs were non-existent and money was scarce.
On Tuesday, March 8, Johnson County and Paintsville had experienced a light snow fall.
On the morning of March 9, however, the Sun came out bright with the promise of Spring
only a few short weeks away.
At Paintsville National Bank, on the corner of Main and
College Streets, the officers, tellers and bookkeepers were struggling with decreasing
deposits, delinquent accounts, defaulted loans and mortgages that were about to go sour.
At that, their situation was no different from that of a thousand banks in other small
towns and large cities across the country.
There had been other depressions or recessions before but none like this in the 30 year
history of what was then Paintsville oldest bank, founded in 1902.
Shortly after 2:00 P. M. With only a few customers in the bank and the bank's employees
quietly watching the hands of the clock move slowly toward closing time, three men walked
into the bank. Two of them walked resolutely toward the teller's cages and vault while the
third remained in view of the front door.
Within minutes they were in position with guns drawn and announced, "This is a
holdup!"
As one of the bandits unfolded two pillow cases, the stunned and frightened tellers
proceeded to empty their cash drawers and the vault. Moments later the three bandits ran
from the bank and jumped into a waiting car with their loot...and one hostage, Assistant
cashier Ross Lyons.
After dumping Lyons on lower Main Street, unhurt but confused, the robbers raced out of
town.
From that point on there is total disagreement and utter confusion.
No two accounts agree as to the amount of cash actually taken from the bank. Initially,
reports set the figure at $47,000. The amount was later set at $31,500.00 and still later,
an estimated $26,000. All the bank would say was that all the money that had been stolen
had been recovered under its insurance.
Another matter of confusion was how the three culprits escaped town and which direction
they headed.
Believing that the bandits left Paintsville on Mayo Trail in the direction of Ashland,
police and sheriff's deputies began a heavy patrol of the highway north of Paintsville, at
one point stopping a vehicle with a man and woman. The couple had reportedly been
"driving promiscuously" between Paintsville and the head of Sycamore in a blue
Chevrolet and acting suspiciously. As it turned out, Willard Morris of Wellston, Ohio, and
Josephine Bennett of Ewing, Virginia, were merely looking for a place to get married.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Alford Johnson told authorities that the three robbers had stopped
at her house just north of Paintsville where they commandeered the Johnson's car.
In spite of this news law enforcement officers in Martin County were certain that the
desperados were headed in their direction. The sheriff and his deputies armed themselves
with pistols, shotguns and baseball bats after laying T-rails across the road into Inez.
They were soon joined by the Williamson, West Virginia, police chief "and all of his
men". The Mingo County, West Virginia, sheriff and five of his men were not far
behind.
There were many rumors but the robbers were not found that day or night. One rumor held
that the getaway car never left town but, instead, ran up the ramp of an automobile
dealership on Second Street where the thieves dispersed. Still another claimed that the
robbery was an inside job planned in the lobby of a Frankfort hotel where two men were
overheard planning it. Regardless, the three men were not found that day.
Ten days later, however, former convict Lawrence Piercey was found unconscious from a
drinking binge in his room at Ashland's Ventura Hotel. Because of his criminal record,
Piercey was held by the Ashland police and a call went out for the Johnson County sheriff,
W. M. "Bug" Preston.
Accompanied by bank employees Ross Lyons and Henry Holbrook and two bank customers, Dr.
D. H. Daniel and W. T. Cain, Jr., Sheriff Preston questioned Piercey and had the witnesses
identify him as the big man who stood at the door of the bank with a sub-machine gun on
his hip. However, at the time of the identification, Piercey was lying in a hospital bed,
disheveled and without his false teeth. When he was subsequently brought to Paintsville,
clean shaven and dressed a suit, the only one of the witnesses who could positively
identify Piercey was Mrs. Johnson.
Nevertheless, when Piercey was arraigned before County Judge J. Melvin Hall one week
later, three witnesses identified him as one of the robbers while Piercey had three
witnesses who testified that he had bene in Lexington on the day of the robbery.
In the midst of Piercey's trial, a man later identified as one of his fellow robbers,
Wilson Jennings, was seen by Hobart Meade, a Paintsville National Bank employee. Meade
pointed Jennings out to police who immediately arrested him. Jennings was also put on
trial.
Both men were convicted of the robbery and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the
city's only bank robbery. Within three months, however, they were granted full and free
pardons by Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon who concluded that they were the victims of
mistaken identity. No one else was ever convicted of the robbery and the stolen money was
never recovered.
The hostage, Ross Lyons, eventually rose to become president of the bank.
