When we made our Winkler Bank Robbery video, we had been reading from a history book about Winkler. It’s called “A History of Winkler”. The bank robbery was just one of many interesting stories. Check out the video. And, below you will find a copy of the article from that book.
WINKLER BANK ROBBERY OF OCT. 13, 1920
REPRODUCED HERE FROM THE FRONT PAGE
OF THE MANITOBA FREE PRESS OF THAT
DATE6
Failure of the local constable at Winkler to carry out
his sworn duty for protection of life and property,
resulted in five bandits robbing the Union Bank of
Canada and making their get-away with $19,000. The
robbery took place early Wednesday morning. George
Hiebert, the constable, had knowledge that the robbery
was progressing fully one hour before the bandits made
their escape, and in spite of the fact that he had a
shotgun and revolver in the house, he made no effort to
stop the burglary.
Hiebert declared the reason that he did not go out to
arrest the men was because his wife wanted him to stay in
the house with her. Local residents urged him to go to the
scene of the robbery, but he refused. He admitted that he
was afraid.
In a heroic attempt to awaken the citizens by ringing
the firebell, William Graefer, aged blacksmith, was shot
by one of the robbers who was guarding the front door of
the bank. Graefer, who lived across the street from the
bank, heard the explosions of the safe being cracked and
immediately got out of bed to warn the town.
The gang, it is believed, are Americans, who have
been engaged in running liquor across the border. They
were in possession of high-powered motors and had a
thorough knowledge of the town. Telephone and
telegraph wires were cut. Precaution was even taken to
cut the rope on the town bell.
Provincial and state police have a network spread
throughout Canada and the United States. It is feared
the robbers made their escape into North Dakota, as
Winkler is only twelve miles from the border. They had
made their get-away one hour before the general alarm
was given, and it was not until 5:30 in the morning that
the police network was spread. No one could furnish a
description of the culprits.
Claude Williams, 955 Grosvenor Avenue, Winnipeg,
teller in the bank, was awakened at 2:55 in the morning
with a revolver and flashlight stuck in his face and the
words “hands up” in his ears. Williams was ordered to
open the safe. He opened the vault door, but said that he
did not know the combination of the inner safe where the
money was stored. The robbers then proceeded to blow
up the safe. Three blasts were required before the door
was blown off. They worked for over one hour and thirty
minutes opening the door.
“I was afraid something was wrong before the
rohbery took place,” Hiebert, the policeman, admitted.
“I went to Morden at 8 o’clock Tuesday evening and my
wife also went out. She locked the doors when she left
shortly after me. On her arrival home she found the door
unlocked and felt that someone had gone through the
house. When I got home a few minutes later I heard
someone sneaking around the garage door which is just
behind the house, but I did not look to see who it was. My
wife forced me to search the house to see that everything
was all right. I did so, but could find nothing wrong. We
went to bed then.” Hiebert was of the opinion that the
robbers were searching for his guns.
“About two o’clock my wife, who was very restless,
heard a shot fired. She woke me up.” Hiebert continued,
reciting the story of the night’s events.
“Two more shots were fired and we heard screams,
but I did not get up for my wife urged me to stay with
her.” (The shots were those fired at Graefer, the
blacksmith.)
“Twenty minutes later we heard a big explosion.
Two more occurred a few minutes later.”
“But didn’t you go out to see what was the matter
then?” Hiebert was asked.
“No, my wife made me stay with her,” the constable
replied.
“Twenty minutes after the explosion a man came to
my house and urged me to go out, but my wife insisted
that I stay with her, so I did, and besides I was nervous,”
Hiebert said.
Hiebert did not leave until Williams, the teller,
arrived at his house after freeing himself. The constable
was told the coast was clear, and along with Williams he
started out to investigate. Hiebert insisted that they go to
the Bank of Hamilton first for fear it was being robbed
also.
Hiebert stated that he had secured information to
the effect that two large American cars went through
Schanzenfeld a few miles from Winkler, at I a.m. and
passed through the town on the return journey at 4 a.m.
He also told of having strangers enquiring about his
duties several days ago from persons about the town.
!his led him to think that something suspicious was goIng on.
A check up is being conducted with the customs officials of all cars which have passed the border. It is
believed this might help solve the question of who robbed
the bank.
W. C. Chandler, provincial inspector of the Union
Bank of Canada, and F. K. Wilson, assistant inspector,
motored to Winkler Wednesday afternoon to investigate
the robbery.
Sergeant J. J. Moodie, Morden, of the Manitoba
Provincial Police force, and Constable McLean, of Gretna, have been detailed by Commissioner Rattray to investigate the case.
Claude Williams told the Free Press of the manner
he was awakened and said that flashlights were kept
trained on his face so that he could not see them.
He was roughly handled until he told them he was a
returned soldier when one, who appeared to be the leader,
said, “Treat him easy.” He opened the vault, which
opens into the room where he slept, but said he did not
know the_combination of the cash safe. “I knew the
combination all right, but I didn’t want to help them any
more than I could,” he said later, in telling of the
robbery.
He was bound and put in bed again, while the
robbers worked leisurely at the safe, charging it with
nitro-glycerine. While working, they carried on a discussion with him on the war, saying they were ex-American
soldiers. “Our government did not give us any bonus,”
one said, “so we’re going to get it out of Canada.”
When the safe was ready for the explosion, the men
carried Williams, in his bed, to the yard, and advised him
to cover his ears, as he said he had been shell-shocked.
The first explosion failed to open the safe, and the
second did not open it sufficiently for the bandits to take
the money. A third charge blew the safe door, weighing
several hundred pounds, a distance of 20 feet, through the
ba.rs of the teller’s cage, and blew a hole through the
brIck wall of the vault, two feet thick. The inside of the
vault was demolished.
The sound of the explosion awoke the whole village,
William, Graefer, blacksmith, 58 years old, father of W.
Graefer, manager of the local Bank of Hamilton branch,
whose home was on Main Street across from the bank
rushed out thinking it was his son’s bank which was being
robbed.
A fifth bandit, standing in front of the bank, ordered
him back into the house, threatening to shoot. Graefer
made a dash for the village bell, 100 yards from the bank,
and the bandit shot at him three times, the third shot
wounding him in the leg.
Other residents who left their houses were ordered
back under threat of death.
Aner taking all the money in sight, the bandits
dashed for a high-powered car which had been left
standing just outside the village, several blocks from the
bank.
It was half an hour after they left before anyone
dared approach the bank, and Williams had to extricate
himself from his bonds.
Williams and A. J. Livingston, manager of the bank,
had to drive to Morden to give word to J. J. Moodie,
local provincial constable.
Every town in southern Manitoba and northern
North Dakota was notified immediately to be on the
lookout for the bandits.
“The bandits were evidently experienced,” Williams
said in telling of the robbery. “They worked without any
excitement, and took fully an hour and a half to do the
job. They asked me if the safe was lined with rubber,
before pouring in the nitro-glycerine.”
Claude Williams, teller, had been an employee of
the Union Bank at Winkler for one year. His family lived
at 955 Grosvenor Avenue, Winnipeg. Mrs. T. E.
Williams, his mother, said he appeared to be feeling all
right after his experience, when he phoned her. He said he
had been very excited, and Mrs. Williams feared for him
since he had suffered from shell shock during the war. He
was overseas three years, enlisted with the 107th battalion. He was later transferred to the 1 st Canadian
Mounted Rifles.
Winkler village is situated on the southwestern line
of the C.P.R. about eight miles east of Morden. It is nine
miles west of Plum Coulee where the famous bank
robbery occurred in which figured Jack Krafchenko, who
was later hung for the killing of H. M. Arnold, the local
manager, who was shot in the robbery. The village is
situated on the north edge of the big Mennonite reserve,
which extends from Gretna to near Morden, and its
residents are Mennonites in the majority, with a number
of Germans and English-speaking people. The place
claims a population of one thousand. A large amount of
local business is done in the three leading stores, and
several smaller establishments.
The town was founded about twenty-five years ago,
and a group of elevators sprang up to handle the huge
grain crop from the Mennonite reserve south, and the
rich lands north; at one time the place claimed to be the
leading wheat shipping point in Canada, and the nine
elevators in use then were very busy. There is still a very
large grain business done. Following the establishment of
this grain business, the first store was built by Loewen
Bros; most of the business establishments still bear
names of German origin, as the Mennonites, though
from Russia, speak a dialect of the German, as they
moved from German to Russia first.
The village was named after the late Hon. Valentine
Winkler, who was minister of agriculture for the
Manitoba government before his death last spring. Mr.
Winkler had business interests there and always took a
close interest in the place; he sat for the constituency it
centres for over thirty years.
The volume of business done at Winkler is very large
in proportion to its size, and the local deposits in the
banks are reported to be very large, and there are many
wealthy farmers near by. Possibly this is a reason that attracted the attempt to rob the bank at this point.
“Jack” Krafchenko’s robbery of the Canadian Bank
of Commerce in Plum Coulee and the subsequent spectacular escape and trial was recalled by many area
citizens. Krafchenko held up the bank on December 3,
1913, securing between $4,000 and $5,000. In making his
escape he shot and killed H. M. Arnold, the manager.
Police captured Krafchenko a week later on College
A venue, Winnipeg. His preliminary trial was held in the
city police court on a charge of murder. He made his escape from the central police station jail on January 10
and was recaptured on January 18 and hanged on July 12
for murder. Krafchenko’s robbery and escape were
notable events in provincial crime annals and occupied
the public eye for the whole period of his living days after
the robbery. Several local policemen and other citizens
were im plicated in his trial and escape.
Previous to this alTair a bank robbery was committed in 1907 when masked men entered the Union
bank on Logan Avenue at Sherbrook Street, holding up
and shooting one of the employees and escaping without
anv loot.
- This bank robbery of October 13, 1920, made
newspaper history when an airplane was used for the first
time for news-getting. On Tuesday, October 13, 1970,
Winkler residents re-enacted the robbery and a milestone
in news coverage. On that Tuesday, (it was Wednesday
before they len town) bank robbers had taken over the
whole village and Free Press reporter Cecil Lamont (then
nineteen years of age) made a historic first !light to cover
news by airplane. Mayor Henry Wiebe, the Town Council, and members of the Chamber of Commerce were on
hand at noon Tuesday when a Tiger Moth carrying Dunc
Marshall and a Free Press reporter arrived to take part in
the IT-enactment. Mr. Lamont, now 69, of Winnipeg,
was also on hand for the celebration.