In the early hours of January 26th, 1876, a gang of bank robbers carried out what was then the largest bank heist in American history in Northampton, Massachusetts. Though most of their stolen cash was never found, it was later discovered that much of it may have ended up in Astoria, Queens, the result of an epic criminal odyssey that spans several states and implicates some of the 19th century New York City underworld’s most colorful characters.
The heist was conducted by the Rufus Gang, a group was led by Thomas Dunlap and Robert Scott, though the robbery’s mastermind was George Leonidas Leslie, known to some as the “King of Bank Robbers.”The gang stole an estimated $1.6 million in cash, bonds, and other securities from the Northampton Bank—equivalent to roughly $26 million in 2019.
Planning for the Northampton Bank robbery began when the Northampton Bank hired the safe manufacturer, Herring & Co. in 1874. As the city’s premier financial institution the bank sought additional protection by installing a new vault and safe. The company had sent one of its employees, a traveling sales agent named William Edson, to oversee the installation. Unbeknownst to the bank and the company, Edson was secretly involved in bank robberies and had made a copy of the vault key, sending it to the Rufus Gang. Edson, in return, would receive a share of $50,000 from the robbery.
The Rufus gang, who had already built a reputation as bank robbers in New York City, decided to contact George Leslie through their mutual associate, Frederika “Marm” Mandelbaum, a German-Jewish gang leader from the Electorate of Hesse, modern-day Germany, who was well known to many in New York’s criminal underworld. Mandelbaum handled anywhere between $1-5 million in stolen goods between 1862 and 1884.
George Leslie, the King of Bank Robbers, was once a successful architect in his native Ohio. However, due to him evading the Union Army draft during the Civil War, he was met with much ostracism by the end of the 1860s, prompting him to move to New York City in 1869. Leslie would become ingratiated into New York society, becoming friends with John A. Roebling, the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, prior to Roebling’s death that year, and James Fisk, one of the city’s most important financiers. He would later become acquainted with Mandelbaum through Fisk, beginning his career in New York’s criminal underworld.
The Rufus gang paid Leslie a fee of $20,000 to mastermind the robbery. The group– consisting of Dunlap, Scott, Leslie, and another associate, Billy Connors – spent months traveling between Northampton, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn, New York. They carefully surveilled the bank, monitoring the movements of its employees, planning their escape, and identifying places to hide their stolen money. Their attention eventually turned to the bank’s cashier, John Whittlesey, who
had repeatedly proven resistant to bribery. Edson, under the guise of inspecting the bank vault, had a new combination lock made and convinced the bank managers to give the combination only to Whittlesey, as he was a proven trustworthy employee.
On January 26th, the gang, now joined by additional members recommended by Leslie, set out to Whittlesey’s home sometime after midnight. Leslie was absent but the heist was led by Dunlap and Scott. The men had put on masks as they entered the quiet home and only referred to each other by numbered code. They stopped all the clocks to ensure that the sleeping occupants were unaware of the time when they woke, so that when the police eventually came, they would give misleading information. As they positioned themselves in the house, the gang proceeded to wake up the occupants: Whittlesey, his wife, their niece, a married couple, a servant, and a few family friends. Whittlesey was singled out and the gang began to torture him for the combination code, the act would later appall Leslie as he did plan for anyone to get hurt during the heist. By 4:00AM, the gang left for the bank, leaving the occupants of the Whittlesey household bound and gagged. After securing the vault, the gang proceeded to take everything they could carry, then they set out to stash the money and go their separate ways via train or stagecoach.
Although the sum was considered the largest stolen at the time, the bank reported it “did not suffer greatly;” however, 75 depositors lost their money. The gang fell apart after Leslie broke contact with Scott and Dunlap for their treatment of Whittlesey. After a year of stalled negotiations and internal fighting, the gang was targeted by Pinkerton detectives. Eventually, one by one, the Rufus Gang was arrested. Scott and Dunlap were sentenced to life imprisonment for the bank robbery, home invasion, and the torture of Whittlesey.
In a strange turn of events, sometime around 1877, a break in was reported at the Church of the Redeemer on the corner of Crescent Street and what is now 30th Road. The local Long Island City Police investigated but found nothing of value was stolen from the church. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, one of the gang members in prison, very likely Dunlap during his campaign for a pardon, had confessed that some of the missing cash and bonds from the heist had been stored underneath the floorboards of the church’s belfry. It was later removed by an unknown member to another location. Some speculate it was Leslie who returned for the cash. He was the only one not prosecuted for the Northampton robbery due in part to his standing as a member of high society as well as his success in keeping his criminal activities unknown to authorities.
Leslie died in 1878. His body was eventually found on June 4th, in Westchester County, New York, at an area called Mott’s Woods, just three miles from Yonkers. It had two gunshots and the murder weapon was placed on Leslie’s body. It was theorized by Pinkerton agents that he was murdered by one of the members from the heist, Thomas “Shang” Draper, who discovered that Leslie was having an affair with his wife, Babe. To this day, the majority of the cash and negotiable securities from the Northampton Bank Robbery were never recovered.
