NEARLY ALL OF GANG EXTERMINATED
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JAS. OVERSTREET TELLS OF
BAND HE ORGANIZED IN ST. LOUIS IN 1922 AND THE FATE OF THE MAJORITY.
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DETROIT, Nov. 19,1931---(AP)---
James Overstreet, whose 9 year career as a bank robber appears destined to end in the Macomb County Circuit Court today told detectives that most of the the 19 members of the gang which he organized in St. Louis in 1922 are either dead or in prison.
Overstreet and his friend James McCoy, will be taken today to Mt. Clemens, where they are expected to plead guilty to a charge of robbing the First National Bank there of $14,000 last Sept. 16.
Overstreet told the officers how he organized tthe gang in the Missouri city and embarked on a career of robbery which netted them $150,000. He indicated that he preferred to plead guilty to bank robbery in Michigan to facing extradition to other states which want him on similar charges.
Overstreet told how he and his gang robbed 10 illinois banks in 1924 and how an attempt to rob a mail train at Salem Ill. with 6 other men failed and the capture of some of the gang.
"It was a tip-off", he explained.
Overstreet's bank robbing career was interrupted in 1924 when he was sentenced to 25 yrs. in the Oklahoma state prison for his part in the robbery of a bank at Shawnee, OK., in which $20,000 was taken. After serving 5 Yrs. in the OK. prison, Overstreet escaped, resumed his activities and finally joined forces with McCoy, who was paroled from the same prison last May.
Secret Service agents yesterday questioned Sadie Davis a negro (maid) said in the Overstreet home in Detroit, regarding her story that she burned 2 United States treasury bonds totaling $1,500.00 taken in a recent robbery in Kansas, where $3,400.00 was obtained. She is held on a charge of receiving stolen property. The police have recovered $1,595 found in the house and are seeking the rest of the loot.

Also according to the Edwardsville Intelligencer 5/16/32 James was taken from Michigan State Prison, to East St. Louis, to testify in the prosecution of one of his men, during which time he attempted an escape.

James Overstreet is my Uncle's father. My Grandmother was implicated with him in the Later robberies and participated in a plot involving Guards @ Jackson Prison to break him out. They married the day before his sentencing, she was pregnant with my Uncle at that time. On my Uncles Birth Certificate it says
Fathers Occupation: BANKROBBER. My Grandmother never spoke of any of it except to tell him that his father was a "gangster". I have most all of the documents of prisons, marriage Lic's,Death Certificate, Bertillions, lots of newspaper articles etc.. and I've been able to pretty much chronicle his life from the age of 14 or so. Now I just try to put together particular jobs that he has done. The next one is a confession of 2 murders that he admitted to (his own men). Thanks for anything you can "dig up"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PNovak,