America’s First Bank Robbery
The 1798 Bank of Pennsylvania heist was the robbery of $162,821 (over $3.1 million today) on the night between August 31 and September 1, 1798, from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Isaac Davis and Thomas Cunningham. In a bonehead move, the culprit began depositing the missing money in the very bank he had robbed!
Patrick Lyon, a blacksmith who had forged the vault doors and fitted the locks just weeks before the robbery, was initially a suspect in the heist. However, Lyon had left Philadelphia for Lewes, Delaware on August 26, 1798, to escape a yellow fever epidemic. Lyon returned to Philadelphia to plead his case but he was imprisoned anyways; constable John Haines wanted to collect the $2,000 reward. Lyon spent three months in Walnut Street Jail, much of it in solitary confinement, where he did contract yellow fever and almost died. His bail was set at $150,000, almost the entire amount that was stolen.
The two perpetrators of the heist, Isaac Davis, a member of the Carpenters' Company, the guild that owned the building, and Thomas Cunningham, a porter at the bank, were later caught. Cunningham died of yellow fever several days after the heist. Davis, who had visited Lyon's shop while he was forging the doors, aroused suspicion after depositing the stolen money in several banks, including the one he had burglarized, and he later confessed to the heist. Patrick Lyon stayed in jail even after Isaac Davis confessed to the robbery. Davis admitted to the crime after being caught depositing the stolen money and was let go in a deal arranged by his uncle, a powerful judge. Despite this, Lyon was not released right away because bank officials still suspected he had made a copy of the vault key. However, in a corrupt deal brokered by Davis's uncle, Benjamin Brannon, a powerful judge, Davis was pardoned by the Governor of Pennsylvania without serving any jail time after he gave back the stolen money in a plea bargain.
Read more at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1798_Bank_of_Pennsylvania_heist
