Missouri Outlaw History (Kansas City, Hannibal, Miller: softball, curtains, document) - (MO) - Page 322 - City-Data Forum

aliasfinn · 05-06-2022, 05:43 AM

Kelli Jo Bauer
Shoplifter 2018

https://www.kshb.com/news/crime/seri...arrested-again

aliasfinn · 05-06-2022, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliasfinn

Elmer, Missouri
August 19, 1922
Thieves took 93 dollars in money and stamps from the post office and then entered the bank through a window,badly damaged the vault door with a sledge hammer but were unable to open it. They left behind their nitroglycerine.

St.Louis,Missouri
April 22, 1922 South Broadway
Three police officers were guarding money at a trust company across the street from a bank. A man ran in and notified them that the bank was being robbed. When they ran across the street,gunfire erupted and two officers were shot in the head and killed while the third took a bullet in the shoulder. Three suspects were later captured and two of them, Charles Merrill and Hugh Pinkley were hanged on July 18,1924 at the city jail.

William "Mike" Evans 1897-?
Missouri

Harry Funk 1885-1940
Illinois/Missouri

I'm not sure when these guys started their criminal career but their crimes go back to at least 1919. Evans was doing life at Missouri Penitentiary for a 1919 murder and Funk broke his back falling over the wall helping Evans escape. Evans never forgot the favor Funk did for him. Some of this I got from the Chicago Tribune of July 8,1936, and the rest came from other newspaper clippings.

William "Mike" Evans,39 years old,murderer and bank robber,was paroled yesterday from a robbery sentence of 10 years to life in Joliet penitentiary and returned to serve a life sentence for murder in the Missouri Penitentiary at Jefferson City from which he escaped in 1923. By pre-arrangement with the Missouri authorities,he was met at the Joliet prison gate. His sentence in this state was for the $184,000 robbery of the Farmer's Bank of Chenoa,in McLean County in January 1925. He and Harry Funk,posing as bank examiners,hoodwinked the bank officials,tied up James Kelly,the president,after most of the employees had departed,and escaped with cash and bonds. Uninsured,the bank failed. Funk was captured and sentenced to n10 years to life shortly thereafter. In May,1927, Evans was unmasked at the Joliet prison gate,armed with pistols and nitroglycerine and disguised as a priest,bent on freeing Funk. In doing so, he was attempting to return a favor. It was Funk who aided Evans ,imprisoned for murder,to escape from the Jefferson City prison in 1923. Evans was promptly sentenced for the bank robbery. In June,1930, Evans and seven other convicts were surprised at the mouth of a tunnel they had dug nearly to the prison walls from the basement of an abandoned prison factory. Funk,still in Joliet,has been a paralytic invalid for several years.

Other newspaper articles,

William "Mike" Evans showed up at the gate of the Joliet prison disguised as a priest carrying a basket of flowers. He said he was there to visit Harry Funk and thought the flowers would brighten up his room. When he was caught, they found lots of pistols,ammunition,four suits and enough nitroglycerine in his car to blow up a city block. He even had some nitro in the basket of flowers.

11 Oct 1954 - HERALD FEATURES THE SECRET OF MR. FUNK of harry funk=

https://casetext.com/case/the-people-v-funk

More On Mike Evans;

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6821...n-daily-press/