In the early morning hours of Monday, March 15, 1926, bandits carried out one of the most brazen bank robberies in Alabama history, taking around $15,000 in cash, coins, and gold bars from the Bank of Hartselle. Around midnight, five men appeared in Hartselle asking where they could buy gas, and Earnest Mittwede, a cashier from the nearby Farmers and Merchants Bank, led them to night policeman Les Williams. The men then produced pistols, forced Mittwede and Williams into the back room of the Bank of Hartselle, tied them up, and unloaded tools, rifles, and explosives from a nearby car. At the same time, other bandits went to the L&N depot and captured station agent J.B. “Brad” Huie and passenger Oscar K. Williams. When the train stopped, conductor J.A. Taylor found no passengers or station agent and soon discovered that the telephone lines had been cut. Using an emergency line unknown to the robbers, Taylor contacted authorities in Cullman and Birmingham. After failing to reach the vault through the wall, the robbers placed explosive charges on the vault door; by some accounts, it took eight charges to blow it open, wrecking the bank interior and sending debris onto the heads of the frightened hostages. The blasts drew many Hartselle citizens from their homes, but gunfire warned them away, and the robbers seized additional hostages including Chester Young, Mack McGinnis, and Bob Griggsby. Dr. J.D. Johnston, a local dentist, came too close and was shot in the thigh. After packing up their loot, the robbers fled by car into the darkness. The robbery lasted more than three hours, and despite the efforts of local, state, and federal authorities, no arrests were ever made.