In Episode 366 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Charlestown, New Hampshire, to witness the 1850 robbery of the Connecticut River Bank. The bandits made off with all of the money in the vault, but somehow lost it a few hours later. The crime of the year was downright weird.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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The former Connecticut River Bank building in Charlestown, New Hampshire.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
RAY: So we’re heading down Main Street in Charlestown, New Hampshire.
JEFF: We are.
RAY: Main Street follows the Connecticut River. And on the other side of the Connecticut River is Vermont.
JEFF: We are right on the border. Okay, we’re going to make a left up there onto Summer Street.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Okay, got it.
JEFF: And our destination is just ahead. It’s that small brick building right across the street from the town hall.
[CAR STOPS / DOORS OPEN/CLOSE]
[NIGHT CRICKETS]
RAY: What brings us to this building in downtown Charlestown?
JEFF: SHHHHHH!
RAY: (WHISPERING) What brings us to this building in downtown Charlestown?
JEFF: (WHISPERING) Ray, we’ve come to Charlestown, New Hampshire… to rob a bank.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger, and welcome to Episode 366 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Whether it’s true crime, ghosts, monsters, aliens, cryptids, or the just plain weird. You can reach out to us anytime through our Web site with story ideas you think we should check out. Our Web site is also the place where you can find dates for Jeff’s Fall story tour, dates to see my band the Pub Kings, and links to everything else we have going on.
JEFF: We’ll go bank robbing right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[NIGHT CRICKETS]
RAY: (WHISPERING) Jeff, I think this bank robbery thing is a very bad idea.
JEFF: (WHISPERING) Why? How else are we going to get rich?
RAY: (WHISPERING) I get that part. But this building is just a few feet away from the Charlestown Town Hall in the center of town. I’m not sure how we’ll get away with it for one.
JEFF: (WHISPERING) It’s risky… sure. Anything else bothering you?
RAY: Yeah. This building isn’t even a bank. There’s a cross on it and the sign reads Anglican Church. It can’t be good luck to rob a church. How much money would they even have anyway?
JEFF: Good point. Obviously this wasn’t always a church.
RAY: In fairness, it does look like it could have been a bank. It’s a one-story brick building over a foundation of marble slabs. There are brick archways over each window. It’s not a very large.
JEFF: It does have the look of bank for sure.
RAY: Here’s some background on Charlestown, New Hampshire. It’s a small town that was first incorporated back in 1735. In 1781, Charlestown decided to join Vermont because they didn’t care for the way they were treated by the New Hampshire government. But after none other than George Washington insisted, Charlestown returned to New Hampshire in 1783. This historic building we’re standing in front of was built in 1824 and housed the Connecticut River Bank. It served as a bank for most of its life before the Anglican Church bought the building to use as their house of worship. In recent years the church moved their Sunday service to a bigger church in town, but they still own the building.
JEFF: Got it. And the bank vault is still inside. To rob it, let’s head back to the year 1850.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s early June of 1850. Zachary Taylor is president of the United States. “Angelina Baker” is one of the most popular songs of the day. That was written of course by Stephen Foster.
JEFF: He just had a big hit a couple of years ago with “Oh Susanna!”
RAY: He did. Oh Susanna, oh don’t you cry for me. I’ve come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee…. Thanks, now I’ve got that ear worm stuck in my head.
JEFF: Meanwhile, in Oxford, Massachusetts, about 100 miles south of here… a horse and buggy has just set off heading north.
[HORSE AND BUGGY ON THE ROAD]
JEFF: At the reins is Abijah Larned, by his side is another man who agreed to help.
RAY: Larned is a bad dude. He’s suspected of various robberies in the region. And now he’s heading north for a big score.
JEFF: The trip to Charlestown, New Hampshire, takes five days. The pair arrive on Monday, June 10th.
RAY: The two park their buggy by the river in town to rest the horse and themselves for the job ahead. They spend the afternoon napping and waiting for night to fall.
(PAUSE)
[CRICKETS SLOWLY FADE IN]
RAY: With the sun set, the stars come out. It’s a perfect evening. They’ll need to be cautious.
[HORSE BUGGY ON ROAD]
RAY: It’s about 9 o’clock at night when Larned pulls his buggy up to the Connecticut River Bank building. He eases the carriage off the street.
[BUGGY STOPS]
JEFF: Dressed in a woman’s dress as a disguise, Larned pulls out a set of skeleton keys and makes his way to the front door.
[JINGLING KEYS]
[DOOR UNLOCKS]
JEFF: It doesn’t take long for Larned to force the lock open and slip inside. Once in the bank, his partner soon joins him. The two are careful to stay quiet and not draw any attention to the building.
RAY: Given this is the downtown business district, and it’s after nine, there’s no one around outside. So the two get to work.
[BENDING METAL GROANS]
RAY: The pair forced the metal door to the banking room open. And now they’re heading for the vault.
JEFF: This isn’t going to be easy.
[RUSTLING THROUGH SATCHEL]
[SAWING SOUNDS]
JEFF: They’re working on sawing and drilling through the bolts on the door.
[SAWING FADES]
JEFF: Hours pass, but it looks like Larned is finally ready.
RAY: The pair have brought out some small powder charges. They’re going to try and blow through the locks.
[FUSE BURNING]
RAY: We better step back. This is risky. They could blow up the money inside. Or draw too much attention to themselves.
[SMALL BOOM]
(PAUSE)
JEFF: Did it work?
[METAL DOOR CREAKS OPEN]
RAY: It looks like it did. The bank vault is open! Now, did any neighbors hear that is another question.
JEFF: Larned and his partner don’t want to wait around too long to find out. They’re stuffing cash, gold, and silver into the bags they brought inside.
RAY: With the vault empty, they they’re now cleaning out the banker drawers.
[RUSTLING SOUNDS]
RAY: It’s about midnight when the pair slip out the front door with just over $12,000 dollars.
[DOOR CLOSES]
RAY: They lock the door behind them.
[HORSE AND BUGGY ON THE STREET]
JEFF: With the loot stashed in the buggy, Larned is driving south in the middle of the night. He’s keeping it to a slow trot because he’d like to put as many miles between himself and the bank as possible, plus he’s trying not to draw attention. It’s not like there are other travelers out at this hour.
[HORSE BUGGY]
RAY: A few hours later, the pair are about 11 miles south of Charlestown. They’re coming up to a place called Hatch Hill. In order to keep the buggy moving and not tire out the horse too much, the men get off the buggy to help lighten the load. Larned lags behind the wagon, while his partner walks ahead up the hill. The horse continues pulling the buggy at a slow pace.
JEFF: Larned’s partner is a fast walker, plus he’s nervous about getting caught. Soon he’s pulling ahead of the buggy. Larned is exhausted, and falling behind. Still, they figure they’ll meet up in a mile or two after they crest the long hill. Pretty soon, Larned can’t even hear the horse and buggy anymore.
[WALKING ON THE ROAD]
RAY: Now at the top of Hatch Hill, Larned finally catches up with his partner. There’s just one problem….
JEFF: Where’s the buggy?
RAY: Yeah. That’s the problem.
JEFF: Where’s the buggy Ray?
RAY: I have no idea. And neither do these two bank robbers. The man in front wasn’t passed by the buggy. And Larned never caught up to it.
JEFF: We’ve been walking for miles. The road has been mostly straight the whole way. How in the world does a horse and buggy disappear?
RAY: The bandits are desperate, so they approach a nearby farmhouse.
[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
RAY: They ask to borrow a lantern. They claim they lost their horse in the dark. The sleepy farmer obliges.
JEFF: The two backtrack down Hatch Hill with the lantern but find no sight of their horse and buggy. With dawn breaking, they know they need to split up and get out of sight. One of them hires a farmer to drive him to Walpole, New Hampshire, the other slips off to Keane, where he’ll get another driver to take him back to Massachusetts.
RAY: Meanwhile, just east of here in the small town of Marlow, a farmer named Horace Gee is leaving the home of a sick friend to head back to his own home. Gee had sat with the friend all night.
[HORSE ON ROAD]
RAY: It’s just after 5AM when Gee is riding along and finds a horse and buggy with no driver. The horse is walking at a slow pace with the reins dragging on the road.
JEFF: Gee doesn’t see anyone around, and he can tell the horse is exhausted. So he leads the horse and buggy back to his farm. He waters and feeds the horse, then ties the horse and buggy up to his fence post on the road next to his property. He figures the owner will be along soon enough.
RAY: It’s now 8AM back in Charlestown. Connecticut River Bank manager George Olcott is unlocking the doors of the bank to open for the day.
[JINGLING KEYS]
RAY: He’s concerned when his key seems to be stuck. But soon he’s able to force the lock and get inside.
JEFF: One inside, Olcott immediately sees the bank door had been forced open. It’s now clear there was a break-in. Olcott hurries over to the bank vault door grateful to see it appears closed. (PAUSE) But as he gets closer, he sees the damage. Pretty soon it’s clear the bank has been robber. The thief made off with everything they had and left no clues behind.
RAY: The bank president soon arrives and agrees to offer a $500 reward if their missing money is returned. All of Charlestown is soon buzzing with the story of the bank robbery.
JEFF: It’s around noon when a rider passes Gee’s farm and tells him the news that the bank had been robbed and there’s a $500 reward. The news piques Gee’s curiosity to the point where he takes a closer look at the buggy parked in front of his farm.
RAY: Sure enough, Gee sees the missing loot iside.
[HORSE BUGGY RIDING ON ROAD]
RAY: Gee rides the buggy back into Charlestown, and pulls up in front of the bank. The money is counted, and it’s the exact amount that was stolen.
JEFF: Basically, the bank’s money was missing for about 14 hours or so.
RAY: Right. Which is why they’re now back-tracking on the reward. They figure since it was recovered so easily, they should only pay $400. Gee is angry, but reluctantly accepts.
JEFF: Pretty soon, investigators piece together the buggy’s escape root and figure out what happened. On Hatch Hill there’s a small cut-off that was used by loggers. If you follow the logging road long enough it connects to another road that would take you east into Marlow. The horse and buggy with no driver must have veered off onto this road which is why it appeared to vanish to Larned and his partner.
RAY: And inside the buggy, investigators found another clue that led them to Oxford, Massachusetts, where Abijah Larned was arrested. And then things get weird.
JEFF: Weirder than a disappearing escape buggy?
RAY: Larned says to his captors that he’d like to be brought before the Connecticut River Bank president and trustees. Authorities agree. Once in a room with them all, Larned apologies profusely for the trouble he’s caused. He offers to pay for the repair of their vault and their doors, he offers to reimburse them the $500 reward money and is adamant that Gee be given the other $100. And he offers to reimburse authorities for the cost of his arrest.
JEFF: That’s amazing. Where does he get all of this money?
RAY: Folks here aren’t asking too many questions about that. Next, Larned finds a local businessman who is willing to post the $2500-dollar bond to the courts. And here’s the craziest part. Larned pays the many the full $2500 bond, plus $250. All he asks of the bank is that they give him his tools back from the buggy.
JEFF: His bank-robbing tools?
RAY: Yeah those. The bank refuses. But they seem satisfied that the robber has repaired all of the damage he caused.
[JUDGE BANGS GAVEL]
RAY: When the court day arrives, Abijah Larned is nowhere to be seen. So the court keeps the $2500 bond…
JEFF: Which Larned paid himself anyway…
RAY: Right. So the businessman who put up the bail that Larned gave him didn’t lose anything. In fact, he was $250 richer for the trouble. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: $12,000 in 1850 would have been about $500,000 in today’s money. We can only assume that Larned continued his life of crime after the Charlestown bank heist. He seemed to have no problem throwing money around. Had he kept a closer eye on his horse and buggy, he would have likely gotten away with the heist. And Larned never did give up the name of his partner in the heist.
RAY: I feel like we don’t hear about bank robberies anymore.
JEFF: Not much. Number one, banks don’t keep much cash on hand because there’s no point. Two, there are security cameras everywhere. You’re not as likely to get away with it.
RAY: And today the old bank building here in Charlestown is a church. Times change, I guess. But I’m glad the building is still here.
JEFF: Me too. And the story too. The crime of year in 1850, and they almost got away with it had they been just a little smarter.
[OUTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a closer look at this week’s story and sometimes veer off course like a horse-drawn buggy full of loot.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon Patrons. Please help us keep this show going and growing by heading to patreon.com/newenglandlegends. We work for you, so your support goes a long way. Plus, you’ll get early ad-free access to new episodes, you can get to our entire archive of shows, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just last week we put up our future hit song “Ripton Rocks,” for our patrons. It’s just $3 bucks per month. Please head to Patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends to sign up.
To see some pictures from this week’s story, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our Web site and click on Episode 366.
