“50 Shots Fired At 80 M.P.H. Ere Robbery Suspects Taken,” Toronto Star. April 5, 1941. Page 29. ---- Two Captured at Gunpoint After St. Clements Bank Hold-Up ----- TORONTO MAN HELD --- Special to The Star Kitchener, April 5 - Culminating an 80-mile-an-hour chase during which over 50 shots were fired, two heavily armed men were captured in a swamp near here yesterday. They gave their names as Joseph Feeney, 35, Oriole Pkwy., Toronto, and Charles Parkes, 40, of Windam. Both are charged with armed robbery of the branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce at St. Clements early yesterday afternoon.
Chief Constable John Hicks said today Fenney and Parkes also have been charged with shooting with intent.
Chief Constable John Hicks, whose officers, Constables Harold Peever and Leo Reinhart and Lance-Corp. William Holmes, M.P., actually captured the pair, said slightly less than $2,000 was found on their persons after they were locked in the city jail. Bank officials said the robbers escaped with exactly $1,950.60.
Spotted By Soldier Provincial, city and county police and district farmers participated in the man-hunt through the dense swamp which adjoins the Conestogo river at Bloomingdale, east of here. Sent out by Chief Hicks from Kitchener with Constables Peever and Reinhart, Military Policeman Holmes was walking back to get further instructions from High County Constable Harry Noble, who directed the hunt, when he spied two men in a ravine along the bank of the river.
Unarmed, Holmes slipped quietly back to the Kitchener constables and told them he had found the fugitives. Constables Reinhart and Peever then walked to the top of the ravine.
‘One false move and I’ll shoot you both dead,’ said Constable Peever, ordering both to ‘toss your guns up on to the bank.’
Each threw one gun up as ordered.
Constable Peever then threw a set of handcuffs into the ravine and ordered them to handcuff themselves which they did. The officers than walked down into the ravine and took the two men into custody.
Police said both carried a large supply of ammunition and Feeney also had one other gun, fully loaded in his coat pocket.
Fled into Dead End The thugs were forced to take cover in the swamp when a Kitchener police car bearing Detective-Sergt. James Blevins and Detective Alex Powell headed them off on the Conestogo-Bloomingdale highway.
‘Fortunately, the robbers swung right off the highway on to a dead-end road,’ said Det.-Sgt. Bevins. ‘If they had turned the other way, which they could have done just as easily, it is possible we might never have caught them. Immediately, we pursued them, and they opened fire on us. Their bullets came so close that we could hear them whistling by our police cruiser.’
The two detectives chased the car for eight miles over mud roads at an 80-mile-an-hour clip before the robbers finally had to abandon their car when it became stuck in mud. Then followed a running gun fight as the two took off over the muddy fields in the direction of the swamp. Detectives Blevins and Powell hot on their trail.
‘Several times we had to flop on our stomachs to avoid being hit,’ said Det. Powell. ‘I think two or three of the robbers bullets only missed us by a few inches.
Kept Pair Busy ‘While Detective Blevins returned to a nearby farmhouse to phone Chief Constable Hicks for more help. I managed to keep the pair of them busy. With more ammunition, I believe we could have got them earlier than they were captured.’
Within a few minutes, Chief Hicks with as many constables as could be spared from Kitchener, arrived on the scene, while at the same time, provincial constables under High County Constable Noble began to close in from the opposite end of the swamp.
100 Men in Cordon It was only a few minutes until district farmers and township workers, informed of the man-hunt, arrived armed with shotguns, rifles, and pitchforks, to assist police, and with close to 10 armed men forming a cordon around the area, it was only a matter of time until the two men were captured.
‘It is only a miracle that no one was killed or hurt with so many men and so many guns in the hunt,’ states Constable Noble.
Manager EL. Jodan credits a customer, William Ament, with having much to do in apprehension of the robbers.
Customer Phones Police Ament. whp came to the door of the bank just as the robbery was taking place, disregarded the thugs’ order to ‘come in and get down on the floor.’ Instead, Ament rushed back outside and telephoned police at Kitchener. The men had barely left the village when police were on their trail.
E. L. Heard, teller, who was forced to hand over all money the bank when a gun was ‘stuck in my ribs,’ said both men wore masks. ‘After Ament refused to obey them, one of the robbers said: ‘We’d better get out here,’ the teller The Star.
All persons in the bank were made to lie face-down on the floor.
‘One of the robbers got into the teller’s cage by scrambling down in,’ Manager Jordan stated. The manager was able to get the license number and a description of the car as it sped away.
“Army Policeman Aids In Arrests,” Toronto Star. April 5, 1941. Page 29. --- 1 - THIS BANK at St. Clements, near Kitchener, was held up yesterday by two armed men who forced the staff and customers to lie face down on the floor while one climbed into the teller’s cage and scooped up the cash.
2 - A GUN IN HIS RIBS forced E. L. Heard, teller, shown her, to accede when the two masked men demanded cash, Manager E. L. Jordan caught the license number as the robbers fled in an automobile.
3 - AT 80 MILES AN HOUR this car, used in the robbery was pursued by hastily mobilized police. More than 50 shots were fired in the chase. Farmers through the countryside turned out to aid in the search as the afternoon hours passed.
4 - SHARP EYES of Lance-Corp. J. W. Holmes, LEFT, a military policeman, caught sight of two men in a ravine near Bloomingdale. Unarmed, he brought two provincial officers to the spot. They covered Joseph Feeney of Toronto and Charles Parkes, made them drop their guns, then tossed them handcuffs and watched the pair manacle themselves. The captured men are charged with armed robbery.
