On this day, April 24, in 1953, robbers were gunned down in what became known as The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. The crime was adapted into a movie by that name starring then-unknown Steve McQueen.
The three criminals held up the Southwest Bank in St. Louis. The bank’s directors, who were holding a meeting in the bank, threw their wallets in a wastebasket and hid under a table. But the robbers didn’t get far. Police officers were waiting for them on the way out. The robbery drew thousands of onlookers.
Recommended Stories
It ended with an injured police officer and two dead bank robbers, one who took his own life, saying, “They’ll never take me.” A third robber made a getaway but was quickly arrested.
The movie came out in 1959 in black and white. McQueen played the college dropout who gets lured into a local gang and agrees to become the getaway driver. In the movie, Mel Stein, a St. Louis police officer who shot and killed one of the robbers, played himself.
