Who Tried to Rob the First State Bank in Kulm 99 Years Ago?

KULM, N.D. (KVRR) — In the vast plains that cover the state of North Dakota it’s more likely you’ll hear the sound of the wind, rustling of the grass and birds chirping than any city or small-town commotion.

The streets of Kulm, ND were recently filled with the sounds of their annual windfall days, but those same streets saw a very different type of commotion in the streets on an early July morning nearly 100 years ago as written by column messenger writer Vincent C. Lewis, “Sunday morning July 18, 1925 will be remembered by column citizens as possibly the most thrilling and daring attempted robbery that has ever been recorded when the first State Bank of Kulm was victimized.”

“But these strangers you know five guys in a vehicle like bells and whistles should have been going off, but there everybody was in bed asleep,” said freelance writer and Kulm resident Rick Schlecht. “So they had no clue until that first explosion went off. Then they knew it was a shooting gallery. It’s time to time to get your pants on get out the door grab your rifle along the way and see what you can do.”

5 men reportedly parked outside of Kulm in the dead of night and trekked into town. Two members of the gang broke into the bank and just before 2 in the morning the first explosion went off rudely awaking the townspeople. All of the robbers actions to this point had seemed to be carefully planned out.

“The routes all figured out the timeline figured out they knew that lights were out in the city here at midnight, they had lights at that time they had they had telegraphed they had telephone he cut those wires he isolated the town from the outside world,” said Schlecht.

The first explosion failed to open the safe and the robbers set more nitroglycerin charges off to get at the contents. While the explosions were sounding more and more residents were taking up position to fend off the robbers in a shootout. The People’s money in the bank at this time was not insured by the FDIC and would be gone forever if the robbers were successful. After 13 attempts at blowing the safe open and under intense gunfire the robbers decided to cut their losses and leave town. Ninety-nine years after the attempted robbery the memories have fade at the bullet holes have been patched and the bank been moved about a block north there is however one piece of memorabilia that has withstood the test time.

“I was born 5 miles 6 miles east of column and except for two years in the service I’ve been here all my life,” said Kulm resident Jim Herman. “I don’t know that they said anything about the robbery. My dad I don’t think ever said anything, but my mother was librarian for a while so she knew about this desk. Abandoned the building or whatever, they needed some place for the desk to go so she took possession of it.”

Jim’s mother claimed what has turned out to be the last piece of evidence showing the direct impacts of the robbery in town. It was in the bank on that eventful night and ever since has had a bullet hole in it likely from a citizen shooting at the robbers from an adjacent roof top. Jim sold the desk a few years ago and it now sits in a loft just above where it originally sat in the bank.

“Yeah I appreciate that it didn’t get destroyed too much history gets destroyed,” said Herman.

1925 is some years before bank robbing became much more popular during the Great Depression. When asked if the fact that this robbery occurred in 1925 helps narrow down the potential suspects Schlect said, “It narrows it down because some of the gangs that that did try to do that sort of thing prior to the 30s they’re very sloppy and reckless and haphazard they didn’t do their homework they didn’t do reconnaissance, and so they would end up getting caught right away.”

We’ll likely never know who was responsible for this robbery but there is one man that jumps out.

“He came to America right before World War One and he became a 2 bit hood. He even spent time in jail,” said Schlecht.

Herman Lamm was born in Prussia which is in modern day northern Germany. Lamm who is also referred to as “the Baron” created many of the bank robbing tropes that we still know today. When you watch a movie or TV show that features a getaway driver or a lookout man for robberies Lamm created it.

“And what he did was he would take a step further,” Schlecht continued. “Before the heist he would do reconnaissance and he would send in a guy posing as a photographer or as a reporter to go into the bank and interview some of the staff you know seemed harmless enough and that’s how where he got the layout of the of the bank where the teller is where the save is and all of that stuff and then they would that individual take that information back to Herman.”

Herman Lamm and his gang were robbing a bank in December of 1930 in Indiana it turned out to be their last robbery lamb and two other members of his gang were killed in a shootout with the police the two surviving members were imprisoned in Indiana in there they befriended a young man all too eager in learning the ways of bank robbery. The name of that young man John Dillinger.

Reports from the 20s state that there was around $5,000 in the bank’s safe during the robbery.When adjusting for inflation that’s nearly $90,000 today.