Northampton Bank Receives Ransom Note
On this day in 1876, a ransom note was sent to the Northampton National Bank. Just a month earlier, a notorious gang of New York thieves had managed to break through the bank's new security system. Within a matter of hours, they made off with the largest heist of cash and bonds in U.S. history. The $1,600,000 stolen would be worth over $26,000,000 today. The crime was carefully planned and brilliantly executed, but the thieves were less successful in getting the bank to ransom the bonds. They negotiated for nearly a year before Pinkerton detectives finally tracked them down. The ringleaders were arrested, tried, and convicted. The cash was never recovered.
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