Columbiana Bank Robbery in 1932

Last year I wrote about two bank robberies in Shelby County in 1931 and 1932. I've also written about the infamous 1926 bank robbery in Hartselle, which has never been solved. Now it's time to take a look at another 1932 bank robbery in Shelby County. All of these posts align with a longtime interest of mine in the history of crime in Alabama and the Deep South. I've even published  a book about it, Criminal Activity in the Deep South: An Annotated Bibliography, 1700-1930 [Greenwood Press, 1989]. 

So let's see what happened at the Columbiana Savings and Trust Bank on November 3, 1932. I found an article about the crime in an old Birmingham News issue I had; that's the first one below. I found others via Newspapers.com 

Early that Saturday morning the bank was robbed of $16,575.00. Luckily the financial institution was insured and promptly paid for the loss the following week. 

Sidney M. Bird, 22, had worked as a bookkeeper at the bank for some 15 months in place of regular employee L.G. Lutton, who had been out sick. After the robbery, Bird told authorities he arrived at about 7 A.M. and was met by a man in a blue shirt and overalls and pointing a pistol. The man forced Bird to open the vault and then knocked him out with a blow to the head.

Actually, Bird was not being quite truthful. 

The young man had set the bank vault timer to open at 4 A.M. After taking the money and hiding it under his house, he returned and hit himself a light blow in the head with a hammer.

Bird continued working at the bank, and on December 15 took the money and hid part as he drove to Birmingham to take a train to Memphis. In that city he deposited some in a bank in the form of bonds and then the remaining amount in a St. Louis bank.

He was eventually arrested in St. Louis in February 1933 and returned by officials to Columbiana. Bird had been watched and followed since the robbery. His confession helped authorities find all of the stolen money. Interest on the bonds made up for money Bird had spent.

In December 1933 he pled guilty to embezzlement and sentenced to at least seven years in the penitentiary and not more than eight. The judge suspended the sentence until January 1.

One of the articles below notes that "Bird is a member of a prominent Shelby County family and is married." Records at Ancestry.com and Find-A-Grave tell us more about Bird [1910-1999] and his family. Sidney married Mavoureen Seale [1912-1999] in Birmingham on April 20, 1931. A son Sidney Maurice Bird, Jr., was born in Columbiana on September 27, 1932; the couple had a daughter Martha Jean Bird later. 

I've yet to find how long Sidney actually served, but the family remained intact. The 1940 U.S. census lists them in Calera and Sidney as working as a salesman for a paper company.  The 1950 U.S. census lists Sidney as manager of a hardware and appliance store in Calera and Mavoureen as bookkeeper. In addition to the two children, her father Arthur F. Steele also lived with them. Sidney is buried in Columbiana and his wife in Calera. 

The son Sidney Jr. [1932-2018] had an outstanding life. He attended Auburn and graduated from pharmacy school in 1954. After active duty with the U.S. Army, he returned to Calera and opened Bird Building Materials. He is buried in the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. 

Sidney's crime took place in the depth of the Great Depression, not long after his marriage and just over a month after the birth of a first child. Could financial desperation have been a factor? 

Birmingham News 16 February 1933

Shelby County Reporter 10 November 1932

Birmingham News 15 February 1933

Source: Newspapers.com

Birmingham News 17 February 1933

Source: Newspapers.com

Shelby County Reporter 14 December 1933

Source: Newspapers.com 

Sidney M. Bird, Jr. 
His Glomerata yearbook photo 1952 while at Auburn

Source: Ancestry.com 

Talking Pictures & TV Come to Shelby County

Well, not in the same year, of course.

Once upon an Internet time there was a marvelous genealogical complex known as RootsWeb that offered vast resources free of charge. I know, the stuff of fairy tales. The early Internet/WWW was like that. Then Ancestry.com bought it in 2000 and has since pretty much destroyed it. But I digress...

I once found on RootsWeb excerpts from the Shelby County Reporter of various dates. One described "Talking Pictures" in Columbiana in 1929; the other television in 1949. I did not find the actual 1929 newspaper online, but here's the text I found via RootsWeb: 

"Shelby County Reporter, February 28, 1929. Palace Theatre Offers Talking Pictures March 5. The Palace Theatre, Columbiana, offers an opportunity for the people of Columbiana and vicinity to hear and see Talking Pictures, Tuesday night March 5. The program will consist of six all talking vaudeville acts on the screen. A special representative from the factory will come to Columbiana to install the machinery and wire the house for the showing of the Talking Pictures."

Sound and films in the U.S. have a long history. Hollywood studios began making sound films in earnest in the wake of the 1927 success of The Jazz Singer in that year. However, as Wikipedia notes, "Yet most American movie theaters, especially outside of urban areas, were still not equipped for sound: while the number of sound cinemas grew from 100 to 800 between 1928 and 1929, they were still vastly outnumbered by silent theaters, which had actually grown in number as well, from 22,204 to 22,544." The article also notes that the studios, uncertain about the ultimate success of sound, were making dual versions of their films until mid-1930. 

I have been unable to find anything on the Palace Theatre in Columbiana in the way of photos or history. However, I did find the article below indicating the venue was operating and showing "the usual program of pictures" in April 1927. 

With one exception as noted, I found these articles and advertisements at Newspapers.com, which kindly offers you a paywall to access. 

And by the way, vast resources available free of charge are still out there at the Internet Archive, Wikipedia, Library of Congress and numerous other libraries and museums, and so forth. 

Found on the Shelby County Reporter 14 April 1927 front page

Source: Internet Archive

I did find the actual June 16, 1949 article related to TV sets in Columbiana. I also found various ads from issues of the Shelby County Reporter in June and July 1949. See below. At this time the paper was known as the Shelby County Reporter-Democrat. 

The first television broadcast in the United States occurred in May 1928. Programming and technical efforts continued with various stations through the 1930s. World War II halted TV developments although a few stations remained on the air. After the war the FCC received numerous applications for new stations. That process was halted in 1948 until interference concerns could be worked out. The freeze was lifted in 1952.

No TV stations were operating in Alabama in 1949, although two were on the air in Atlanta. You can read about TV developments in 1949 here. By 1950 some  3,880,000 American households had television, a 9% penetration. I wonder how many of those were in Shelby County. 

The U.S. Census in 1950 counted 1761 people in Columbiana and 30,362 in Shelby County. That's not a large population base, but these stores no doubt attracted shoppers from other rural counties to the south such as Chilton and Coosa. I imagine not many could afford the sets. The GE 12.5" "daylight television" advertised below cost a cool $379. You could also get a GE 10" for $249.50. 

The "Olen Jackson" mentioned died in 2000 and is buried in Columbiana. 

This ad and the one below, like the article, are from the Shelby County Reporter 16 June 1949

Note the "Television Radio" combination from Westinghouse. You could watch it demonstrated "free" from 112 to 2 every afternoon as you shopped for a stove or deep freezer. 

Shelby County Reporter 16 June 1949

Tenen's was a drug store in Columbiana. You could go and get a soda and watch TV all afternoon and night. Buy a novelty gift, too. 

From an ad for Cardwell Furniture in the Shelby County Reporter 23 June 1949

Two Shelby County Bank Robberies in the 1930s

Bank robberies in the United States have been declining now for decades. In 1992, 9540 were reported to the FBI. In 2023, the number had fallen to 1362. Why bother to rob a bank when you can sit at home with your laptop and commit all sorts of crimes?

In the 1920s and especially during the Great Depression years of the 1930s, however, bank robberies became a thing, so much so that the FBI was created and the act made a federal crime in 1934. This era produced such famous names as Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Machine Gun Kelly.

In 2023 I posted an item on the Great Hartselle Bank Robbery of 1926. Just after midnight on Monday, March 15, 1926, eight men arrived and proceeded to cut telephone and telegraph lines, severing the town from the outside world. The Bank of Hartselle safe was dynamited and $14,000 in cash, gold and silver left town with the robbers. The crime was never solved. 

The articles below give initial descriptions of two Shelby County bank robberies. More than one criminal was involved in the first in Wilsonville in 1931; $4700 was taken. A single robber made off with $14,000 in Columbiana the following year.  Both of these banks were insured and quickly resumed business as usual.

Alabama seems to have been rich ground for bank robberies during this period. The Library of Congress' Chronicling America newspaper site pulls up some 6200 hits when searching "Alabama" and "bank robbery" during the 1920s and 1930s. How many of those events actually took place in the state would require some time to determine, however. I did not find either of these robberies when limiting the search to the towns involved. 

Shelby County Reporter 26 March 1931 via Newspapers.com 

Shelby County Reporter 10 November 1932 via Newspapers.com