In Episode 437, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger investigate the former Malden Bank building in Malden, Massachusetts, to witness the site of America’s first armed bank robbery that included a murder. On December 15, 1863, 17-year-old bank employee Frank Converse became the victim of a gunman who made off with thousands of dollars in the heist. But whodunit and why? The event still haunts the old building.
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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[MURMURING RESTAURANT SOUNDS]
RAY: Ahhh… I love the smell of a brewery. The malt, the hops.
JEFF: I’m with you, Ray. I can practically taste the beer already.
[KEG POURING SOUNDS]
RAY: Mmmmm here they come. Thanks!
JEFF: Cheers!
RAY: Cheers!
[CLINK]
RAY: We’re sipping suds at the Faces brewery in Malden, Massachusetts.
JEFF: We are.
RAY: Not that beer alone isn’t a worthwhile reason for us to go anywhere, but why this brewery, Jeff?
JEFF: This building has seen some history, Ray.
RAY: I can imagine. From the outside it looks like a bank building.
JEFF: That’s exactly what this building was! This used to be the First National Bank of Malden.
RAY: I can see that. It’s a two-story, white marble building on the corner of Pleasant and Middlesex Streets. From the street it looks exactly like a bank building.
JEFF: A building that dates all the way back to 1851. This building has seen a murder most foul, and the killer almost got away with it, except one face saw him do it. Today that murder still haunts this old building and that face… believe it or not… is still around. Get your beer topped off, Ray, and check the shoes you’ve got on your feet. We’ve come to Malden, Massachusetts, to search for the face that saw a murder.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 438 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. From true crime to true hauntings, ghosts, monsters, roadside oddities, and all the other wicked strangeness that makes our region like no place else. Did you know most of our story leads come from you? This one did! Thank you to Alex Sullivan for sending it in. If you’ve got a story you think we should check out, email us anytime through our website.
JEFF: We’ll go searching for the face that saw a murder in Malden right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[RESTAURANT CROWD MURMER]
RAY: So this former bank, turned brewery is the site of a murder? And why am I checking my shoes?
JEFF: The shoe part is pretty famous, too. We’ll get to that soon. But this building was home to a murder most foul. An historic murder. The very first murder inside a bank in these United States.
RAY: That’s awful. And here we are drinking craft beer right where it happened.
JEFF: We are.
RAY: Here’s a little more background on Malden. Malden sits just about 5 miles north of downtown Boston. It was first settled by Puritans way back in 1640 on land that was purchased from the Mystic tribe of the Pawtucket Confederation. In the 1770s, Malden was the first town to petition the colonial government to secede from the British Empire. As Boston grew, so did Malden. Today just over 66,000 people call Malden home.
JEFF: And a lot of them work in Boston.
RAY: No doubt. And maybe have an afternoon beer after work right here.
JEFF: Right. Why not? To find out what happened, and to search for the face that witnessed the murder, let’s head back to the year 1863.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s mid December of 1863 here in Malden, Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln is president of the United States, and for the past two-and-a-half years the United States has been embroiled in a brutal Civil War.
JEFF: The war is on a lot of hearts and minds here in Malden. Plenty of men from town and from the region have left to join the Union Army.
RAY: But for those still here in Malden, life and work must continue no matter what.
JEFF: That’s true. There’s no question that one of the most industrious people in town is Elisha Slade Converse. He was born in Connecticut, grew up a tradesman and businessman. He moved to Malden with his wife, Mary, and son, Frank, in 1850. Converse was one of the founders and directors of the Malden Bank.
RAY: There’s no question the Converse family is influential in town. There’s also no question as to how 17-year-old Frank Converse got a job working at the bank.
JEFF: Right. It helps when your dad is a founder and on the board of directors.
[OUTSIDE STREET NOISES / HORSES GOING BY]
JEFF: It’s Tuesday, December 15th. We’re standing outside the Bank of Malden. It hasn’t been too busy today. Just a few customers coming and going.
[BOY IN DISTANCE: HELP HELP! SOMETHING’S HAPPENED INSIDE THE BANK!]
RAY: What do you think is going on?
JEFF: Let’s go find out.
[RUNNING ON SIDEWALK]
[DOOR OPENS]
JEFF: The boy is pointing behind the bank teller’s counter.
[WALKING ON FLOOR]
JEFF/RAY: Oh no!
RAY: This is awful. Frank Converse is on the floor lying in a puddle of his own blood!
[MAN MOANING IN PAIN IN THE DISTANCE]
JEFF: I can see that he’s breathing! It looks like the blood is coming from his head.
RAY: Oh good, Dr. John Burpee has just run in to the bank. He’s right here, doctor!
(PAUSE)
JEFF: Dr. Burpee is rolling young Frank Converse on to his back. There’s blood pouring from his temple. This doesn’t look good.
RAY: No. It doesn’t.
RAY: I… I think Frank stopped breathing. He’s gone.
JEFF: Dr. Burpee just announced the young man was shot. Ray, what time is it?
RAY: The big clock on the wall says 10 past noon.
JEFF: Time of death, 12:10. So tragic. He was so young! Okay, here’s what we know right now. Around 11:15, the other bank cashier on duty left for a meeting in Boston, so Frank Converse was in here alone. Around 11:30, a local businessman named George Bailey entered the bank and cashed a check for $100. Frank helped him with the transaction. Around 11:50, 14 year-old Charles Merrill, the son of another bank cashier, entered the bank, found Frank Converse bleeding, and ran outside to call for help.
RAY: Right, we heard him yelling just a few minutes ago.
JEFF: So sometime in that roughly 20-minute period, someone entered the bank, shot and murdered young Frank Converse, and made off with… (AWAY FROM MIC) How much? Made off with about $5000 dollars.
RAY: Wow, that’s a small fortune!
RAY: Word of the gruesome murder quickly spreads around town. Frank’s parents are broken-hearted. They offer a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderer. The police have no leads at the moment.
JEFF: And the only face who witnessed the crime besides Frank and the killer, is that clock on the wall behind the teller’s counter.
RAY: Days pass with no leads and no justice. Folks in Malden are getting upset. No one wants to believe there’s a murderer loose among them.
JEFF: December turns to January. It’s a new year. 1864. Folks in Malden are still rattled about the unsolved murder. Some believe the bandit must be far away by now.
RAY: Still… there is one curious rumor going around.
JEFF: What’s that?
RAY: I’m sure it’s nothing. I don’t want to cast any aspersions.
JEFF: Come onnn… tell me what you heard.
RAY: You know Edward Green in town?
JEFF: Yeah, he’s the postmaster in Malden. Remember that fire at the post office a few months back?
RAY: Right. That’s the guy. The fire is looking more suspicious now too. (BEAT) So Green owed money to a lot of folks in town.
JEFF: Yeah, he seems to have a problem with drinking too. I’m sure it’s got him into trouble.
RAY: And a lot of debt, too.
JEFF: What did you hear?
RAY: The strange thing is he’s been paying off his debts.
JEFF: That’s good, right?
RAY: You’d think. But he’s paying everyone back. No one knows where he got the money.
JEFF: Hmmm that IS suspicious.
RAY: The police think so too. They’re bringing him in for questioning.
[ARGUING IN THE DISTANCE]
[DOOR SLAMS]
RAY: I think that did it. Edward Green just confessed to the murder of Frank Converse. He also confessed to burning down the post office building. He was hoping the fire would have burned up some of the records of his debts, but it didn’t work. Green was desperate. In the robbery he shot Frank Converse at point-blank range.
JEFF: Green figured enough time had passed since the robbery that he could get away with paying off his debt unnoticed. But… people talk. (PAUSE) Edward Green was hanged at Middlesex County Jail on April 13, 1866. He was guilty of the first armed bank robbery that included a murder in the United States. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
[RESTAURANT BACKGROUND]
JEFF: Elisha Converse would go on to become Malden’s first mayor in 1881 after he served in the state senate and house of representatives. He also opened the Boston Rubber Shoe Company in Malden. They became one of the largest rubber manufacturers in the United States. He also opened the Converse Memorial Building in town. It housed the public library from 1885 to 1996. Also, Elisha’s cousin who worked for his rubber manufacturing business as a manager would go on to form his own company: the Converse Rubber Shoe Company. You may have heard of that one.
RAY: I think we’ve all heard of that one. They gave us the Chuck Taylor All Star brand of sneakers!
JEFF: They did. And that clock face that saw the murder of Frank Converse?
RAY: Yeah?
JEFF: It still hangs in the entrance to the Converse Memorial Building in town.
RAY: And today this brewery and restaurant is called FACES. Is that because of the clock face that witnessed the murder?
JEFF: It’s actually named after a former nightclub in town of the same name. But yeah, the irony isn’t lost on me. Just outside the building there’s a plaque that reads: At this site on December 15th, 1863, indebted postmaster Edward Green entered Malden Bank and committed the first armed bank robbery in the United States. During the robbery, Green fatally shot bank teller Frank Converse, aged 17. The deceased teller was the son of Malden’s first mayor, shoe magnate Elisha S. Converse. Green later confessed to the crime and was hanged.
RAY: There’s the story right there on the side of the building. And now we’re sipping suds just a few feet away from where poor young Frank Converse lost his life. That IS spooky.
JEFF: Really spooky. Some think some of those echoes from the past still reverberate around the brewery today. So watch your back.
RAY: I’ll drink to that.
JEFF/RAY: Cheers!
[CLINK]
[OUTTRO]
RAY: Don’t leave just yet! You’ve reached After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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Until next time remember… stay legendary.