I'm just huntin and pecking on this old keyboard today trying to find any information re: the Newton Brother's (Willis and Joe) robbery of the bank in Medford, Oklahoma in 1932. My grandmother was the telephone operator there for years and was gagged and bound as was one other person while the boys robbed the bank of $4,000. If anyone can help me find more info on this I'd appreciate it. I'm trying to keep a journal of family history for my children/grandchildren, and this definitely spices it up! Poor Grandma!

Hi Myrna,

Try reading The Newton Boys: Potrait of an Outlaw Gang by Willis and Joe Newton as told by Claude Stanush & David Middleton, State House Press, Austin, Texas, 1994. It will have some of the information about the boy's you are looking for. Happy reading.

M.Koch

Dear Ms Inglis,

Although the Stanush-Middleton book and the Newton Boys movie are both excellent sources for some of their bank robbing exploits, neither the book nor the movie go into much detail of their wild escapades "after" the Illinois train robbery.

Information about the Medford (OK) bank robbery, which happened on April 13, 1932, can be found in the Criminal Court of Appeal Records in any good law library {56OKCR391} . . . that is, Volume 56 pages 391-402.

Willis and Joe Newton were both captured, convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for 20 years each. Their appeal resulted in the Criminal Court "affirming" their sentences on January 11, 1935.

If you have any trouble locating this citation, re-post - here - and I will submit the entire story on this site. It is an amazing story. The Newtons captured and held between 20-30 people in a cafe, while they robbed the bank...even using some of their captives as helpmates in looting the vault. If nothing else, them Newtons had some kinduv style.

Good Luck on your search!

I'd highly recommend that you write an inquiry letter to the newspaper archives of the Oklahoma Historical Society. If you know the date of the robbery, they can likely find, for a minimal fee, a newspaper article or two about the incident.

Good luck!
On the Trail
Diron Ahlquist
editor, Oklahombres Journal

Dear Ms Inglis,

I have some additional information on the Medford (OK) bankrobbery. The Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeal citation, that I posted earlier {56OKCR391}, can also be found in {40P2d688} in any law library; and, this deals with just Willis Newton's conviction.

Joe Newton was tried and convicted later, which can be found in {61OKCR237 & 71P2d122}. Willis' appeal number is A-8757; and, Joe's appeal number is A-9005.

It states in the legal synopsis of the event that the record, meaning the transcript, ran into about 2500 pages. The Department of Libraries maintains these records; therefor, they may have the complete transcript of the trial. If they do, you will be able to read(verbatim) the testimonies of all of the witnesses. All one needs to acquire this record is the "appeal number."

Here is a synopsis of the bank robbery event:

On the night of April 13, 1932, the First National Bank of Medford was robbed by two men who entered by breaking windows. The steel safe, four inches in thickness, was burned through by an acetylene torch and more than $4,400 in money taken, in addition to bonds and traveler's checks.

At the time, one Ed Heiland was night watchman or night marshal, whose duty it was to guard the bank and other business houses during the night. About 1:15 a.m. he was in a cafe about a block from the bank with the proprietor and another person. Heiland had just ordered a cup of coffee when defendant (Willis Newton) came in with a pistol in his hand and with a handkerchief over his face.

He required those in the cafe to lie on the floor and stretch their hands before them, he then tied the hands of all, tied them together, took the pistol from Heiland, and forced them to go with him about a block, where he was joined by another masked man with a shotgun, the prisoners were then put in the shadow near the bank building and held under guard.

Defendant then went to the telephone exchange, disabled it, and took in custody all of those there, forced them to go with him. By using one of the telephone men as a decoy, he captured a deputy sheriff and took him, with his car, near the bank and placed seven of these captives in the car where defendant's companion guarded them.

Defendant then drove a car equipped with an acetylene torch, tank, hose, and material for steel cutting to the sidewalk abutting the bank, broke in the windows, and one of the two men then proceeded to hook up the acetylene torch equipment and cut into the safe.

During the operations, several persons came along. They were stopped by the man on the outside guarding the prisoners and were taken into custody, so that, by the time the operations were completed, about "20" persons were held captive, most of them in their cars outside the bank. These prisoners included two men driving bread deliveries and one man driving a milk livery.

One young man was pressed into service to aid inthe work inside the bank and two others were for a time kept inside the bank. The work was finished and the defendant and the perpetrators then drove away.

In November, following, defendant and his brother Joe Newton were apprehended at Chandler (OK) and there was found in their car a double-barreled shotgun, three pistols, bullet proof vests, an acetylene outfit with tank, hose, torch, and goggles.

Joe Newton was delivered to Texas authorities, defendant claimed the acetylene outfit, and it, with the car, was turned over to him by the Chandler officers. Later, officers at Medford, seeing pictures of defendant and Joe Newton, had defendant arrested at Tulsa, Novermber 27, 1932, where he had gone after being released at Chandler.

The Newtons committed this bank robbery a mere fifteen days before receiving a pardon (dtd 4/29/1932) from President Hoover for some of their prior convictions.

This is just a short intro to what can be found in the full transcript. Good luck!

Dear Ms Inglis,

I hope that you are receiving this information about the Medford bank robbery by the Newton Brothers in April of 1932. Since you haven't acknowledged the replies to your query, as of yet, I'm not sure if you're getting them.

If you contact the Oklahoma Historical Society (by letter) for information, their initial fee is $20.00; and, then, if they find any articles on microfilm, they charge $.50 per page to copy same.

The Medford Patriot Star (Th. April 14, 1932) has a very good front-page article, describing the events of the robbery. Bold headline reads "Two Bandits Rob First National Bank Here".

Then, the following issue of the same newspaper (dtd April 21, 1932) has front-page photographs of the bank and some of the principle figures involved in the holdup, including Mrs. Edna Ciskowski, night telephone operator.

If you will include your e-mail address with your next posting on this website, I will see that you get copies of these articles at no charge.

For the amusement of the Oklahombres viewer, I think a description of this most unusual bank robbery is warranted. Here goes:

"The robbers made their appearance about 1:30 a.m. when the younger of the two, believed to be about 35 years of age, entered the domino parlor and flashed a gun on Ed Heiland, night watchman and Zeno Willard, operator of the cafe. Heiland was disarmed and the two were taken to the rear and west side of the Stewart Hardware company, where their hands were tied.

The other man, described as being about 50 years of age, went to cutting telephone wires on the pole east of the phone office. The cutting caused a spark in the phone office where EDNA CISKOWSKI was on duty. She immediately called Jas. Schooler, manager of the exchange and Roy Milam, repair man for the company. Schooler came to the office carrying a 110 cauge pistol. The bandit hid on the porch of the office and flashed a gun on Schooler as he made an effort to escape. He then forced Schooler to let him into the office where he made Mrs. Ciskowski captive, and also captured Milam, when he came to the office.

In the meantime, she had called Frank Hamilton, undersheriff. The bandit forced Milam to cut loose all telephone wires and began to march the three to the bank when Hamilton drove up just as they had reached the rear of Dr. Grimaud's office. The robber forced Mrs. Ciskowski and Milam to stay there with a threat of killing Schooler if they would leave.

He told Schooler to call (Undersheriff) Hamilton and tell him who he was and then marched Schooler to the Hamilton car where he opened the door and covered Hamilton, who was not suspecting a robbery and Mrs. Ciskowski had been unable to tell him what was going on, and he did not suspicion a robbery.

All four were then taken to the bank, where all but Hamilton were left in charge of the other bandit, while Hamilton was forced by the other man to go and get his car and bring it to the bank. When the robber and Hamilton parked at the bank, Heiland, Willard and the rest were forced into the Hamilton car.

Willard Northcutt then appeared on the scene and he was captured and forced to aid the younger bandit in prying open the window of the bank and entering with him and assisting in getting the torch ready. Work of burning into the safe then began and as other persons appeared on the scene, the torch was extinguished and the guard on the outside made them captive.

Elton Fuller, who appeared on the scene was also taken and forced into the car with the others. Lawrence Johnson, creamery employee, who was on his way to work was halted and made captive as were his mother and brother, who came to see why he hadn't arrived at the creamery...she and a small son were also taken.

Next on the scene were Howard Reed, president of the Grant County bank, his son, Donald, and Edna Hoagland, assistant cashier. They had been notified that something was wrong and as they drove past the bank in their car, the robber on guard stopped them, forced them out of the car and made them sit on a bench near the bank, according to those in the car.

Mrs. Flowers and small daughter, family of a local section worker, who came up the street about that time were also forced to join the rest at the bank, where the man on the outside was keeping watch with his gun.

Four bread dealers, who came into town early to deliver bread, were added to the list as they drove in. Frank Hamilton was forced to get out of his car and go stop the men and bring them ove to where the rest of the people were held.

In the meantime, the man on the inside of the bank was busy burning into the safe, where he was being assisted by Willard Northcutt, who was working with a gun in his back most of the time. When the hole in the safe was completed, Northcutt was forced to reach through the opening and drag out the money and take it to the bandit's car.

Both bandits continually threatened to shoot any of the persons who made a suspicious move and stated that they had several more men with them and that a maching gun was ready in the alley.

Sheriff Crider was aroused from his home at the jail by Charles Stover and Dr. P.W. Schwartz, who had been summoned by Norman Shirley from the telephone office. He immediately armed himself and made his way through the rear of the bakery building and he and Stover got to the doorway of the bakery a few minutes before the robbery was completed.

Although he could see the guard, who kept pacing along the walk at the bank, he could not afford to endanger the lives of those held captive by firing. He and Stover were not sure but what the man might be a local citizen used as a decoy.

Even after the robbers got in their car and began to leave, there was no way of knowing whether or not they had taken some of the local citizens with them in the car; and, it was deemed dangerous to fire on the car and endanger the lives of innocent citizens.

As soon as the car left, he rushed to the garage and got his car, came back to the bank and got help and gave chase. The (bandit's) car was never sighted after it left Medford."

Not exactly Northfield, Minnesota, huh!?!

The Newton brothers, Willis and Joe, were stopped in their car, searched and arrested in Chandler, Oklahoma, in November of 1932, on completely unrelated charges. Joe was turned over to Texas authorities and Willis was released. Later, the Grant County Sheriff, receiving the report on the two brothers, requested a description of them. Photos were sent to Medford, and the brothers were positively identified as the Medford Bank Robbers. Willis was re-arrested in Tulsa on November 27, and Joe, already in custody in Texas, fought extradition.

Both Willis & Joe Newton were eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years each in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma.

Old West.....I just found your postings and am very sorry that I've not found them until now. I do appreciate so very much all the info you have provided and please forgive me for not coming back to check this site. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

OLD WEST....yes, I would definitely appreciate a copy of the newspaper article regarding my grandmother. I look forward to hearing from you regarding this. My children would be tickled to read about their great grandmothers plight that night the Newtons came to Medford! Thank you again and God bless you!
My email is: okmyrna@yahoo.com

Myrna,

No apology necessary. "Time" is irrelevant to a true "historical" researcher. I'm just glad that you re-found the posting. I'll send you an e-mail, soon. Welcome Back to the board!