At approximately 2:40 p.m. on Friday, December 16, 1932, a large black Lincoln sedan pulled up to the Third Northwestern National Bank at 430 East Hennepin Avenue. It parked alongside the bank on the left side of Central Avenue.

Four men, who were of average size and appeared to be well dressed, got out of the car and quickly burst through the front door of the bank.

The bank tellers were preparing to check up the business of the day, before closing shortly at 3 p.m. The hour could not have been more propitious and obviously was planned by men who had taken every angle and detail into consideration.

Because Friday and Saturday are "heavy" days at the bank, an armored car had just delivered $19,000 in currency, and pulled away a few minutes before the black Lincoln arrived.

Once inside the bank, the four bandits, armed with pistols and a machine gun, commanded, "Hands up." They then gave the order for everyone to lie down, while the machine gunner waved his weapon menacingly.

There were 10 employees and six customers in the institution at the time. The bandits worked very quietly and methodically, and with a seeming lack of excitement. They started through the tellers' cages, scooping all the cash in sight into large canvas bags they carried.

Suddenly one reached down for a teller, and pulled him to his feet. Meanwhile, the teller managed to step on the burglar alarm that sent the note of danger into police headquarters.

"We want the combination to the vault," the bandit shouted.

The teller, managing to stand squarely on the burglar alarm again as he talked, said he did not know the combination. Without another word, the bandit brought his gun down over the fellow's head, cutting a deep gash and knocking the teller unconscious. He was revived later and taken to a doctor's office for treatment.

It was believed that the bank robbers had known that this was the time of day when the police patrol day shift was going off duty and the evening shift coming on. The closest patrol car should have been at the East Side station, a mile or more from the bank.

But one east side patrol car was three minutes behind schedule and still enroute to the station when the bank alarm was broadcast. In this car were Patrolmen Ira L. EVANS and Leo R. GORSKI. They had decided to answer the alarm before reporting off duty.

As their patrol car drew up at the Central Avenue entrance of the bank, and before they could alight, the windows of the bank seemed to burst out with gunfire and a hail of bullets crashed into their police car.

Witnesses could see the glass flying and the windows in the police car smashing. Then four men came running out of the door, one with a machine gun, firing.

At close range, he sprayed the police car with a withering rain of bullets. The policemen didn't have a chance to get out. One of their doors swung open, and the man with the gun poured his fire directly into the car when the two policemen were slumping down.

Patrolman Ira EVANS was killed instantly as he sat unable to defend himself in his seat. He slumped over the wheel, riddled with at least 10 machine gun slugs in his body.

Patrolman Leo GORSKI opened the door right in the face of the fire and tumbled out of the radio car from the seat beside EVANS, his body torn by at least 3 slugs that made a sieve of their police cruiser.

The four gunmen ran for their waiting car carrying the loot, $20,000 in currency and securities. The doors of the big car slammed, and the motor roared. The car sped over Fifth Street, swung back onto East Hennepin Avenue and bounced out the pavement, gathering speed as it went.

The front right tire was flat and the radiator was punctured, apparently by stray bullets from one of the bandits' own guns. It rumbled and began to shred as the car bounced over the pavement.

The bandit machine threw the shredded tire as it hit Larpenteur Avenue, the St. Paul continuation of East Hennepin Avenue, but it did not slacken speed. Rumbling over the pavement on the rim, it finally made its way to Como Park, where the fleeing bandit gang had a smaller green sedan waiting for them.

A few minutes later, as they were changing automobiles, they ruthlessly opened up a burst of gunfire on a car that had slowed down out of curiosity, as it passed by. The driver of the car was a 22 year old St. Paul Christmas wreath salesman. He was taken to the hospital where he was found to have been wounded twice, one bullet piercing his skull. He died at 4 a.m. without regaining consciousness.

St. Paul police later recovered the expensive sedan from where it was abandoned in the park. It had been stolen from a White Bear Lake car lot two days before the bank robbery.

Meanwhile, the gravely wounded Patrolman GORSKI was driven to General Hospital by a citizen in his private car. He was shot in the back, the abdomen and the leg.

The hospital immediately called for donors of blood, and several transfusions were administered from fellow members of the police force, as physicians battled to save GORSKI's life. His temperature was reported at 107, and he seemed to be sinking.

Patrolman GORSKI continued in critical condition into the next day, with a slight improvement shown late in the afternoon. Attendants at General Hospital said his condition was in no way favorable.

Mrs. Ira Evans, wife of the patrolman shot to death by the bank bandits, was at work, within three blocks of the scene of her husband's death.

The ominous clatter of the bandit machine gun penetrated to her desk in the office at 101 Central Avenue. A few minutes later, Patrolman EVAN's radio cruiser, literally sieved by machine gun slugs, was driven past the office where Mrs. Evans was employed.

She was unaware of the tragedy until some time later when she was notified by police. She, accompanied by her sister, went to the Hennepin County morgue to claim the body.

On Saturday, December 17th, the city controller's office revealed that Patrolmen EVANS and GORSKI had been working three and one-half days without pay when EVANS was shot to death and GORSKI seriously wounded by bank robbers. Police department paychecks for the first half of December were short two and one-half days pay, and Friday was the first day of the last half of December, in which policemen will receive no pay because of a shortage in the police fund.

A price was placed on the heads of the bank bandits, when the Hennepin County commissioners voted to pay $500 for each member of the gang apprehended "dead or alive."

All available detectives on both the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments were working around the clock to check out every lead or tip that came in. Witnesses were shown "mugshots" of known bandits, and local hoodlums were rounded up and brought in for questioning. All of this without success, until the big break finally came early Sunday morning, December 18th.

One of the bank robbers, drunk from a celebration of his success in the robbery, staggered into the wrong apartment at 928 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, where a bridge game was in progress.

The occupant ordered him to leave, and as he did so, the robber drew a pistol and threatened the tenant. St. Paul police were called and they started searching the apartment house. They walked into an apartment near the caller's quarters, and were met by a "drunk" who came running out, clad only in his underwear and a fur coat. He began to draw a pistol from his coat pocket, but the two officers fought with him over the weapon and finally felled him with a blow from one of their pistol butts.

The police by this time decided they had more than an ordinary drunk to care for. While they waited for the "wagon" to come, they decided to search his apartment, where they found $1,700 in currency with Northwestern National Bank wrappers on it, and $10,000 in securities.

The man was taken at once to St. Paul police headquarters, where he was identified as Lawrence Devol, 27 years old. He also went by the names Barton and Barker. He was wanted at Kirksville, Missouri for the murder of a policeman, and the wounding of another in November, 1930.

Minneapolis police were notified and a squad of detectives, along with Chief Meehan, rushed to St. Paul and started questioning Devol. Almost at once he broke down and confessed that he had been a member of the bank bandit gang.

"I shot the two coppers," Chief Meehan quoted Devol as saying.

"But you can't get me to say another thing. It wasn't me that shot the fellow in Como park. It was a younger member of the outfit. We tried to stop him, but he shot before we could. I won't tell you who he is. I might as well take the rap for that, too."

As Devol sobered up, he became "cagey," in the words of the police. Questioned concerning the whereabouts of other members of the gang, he first gave two fictitious addresses in Minneapolis. He was "questioned rather severely" then, and finally gave the address of an apartment at 209 East Sixteenth Street.

Detectives went to the Sixteenth Street apartment, and were "planted" there only a short time before they arrested two more members of the gang, Robert Newbern and Leonard Hankins, a.k.a. Owen Lewis, and "Louisville Slim."

At about the same time, a squad of St. Paul police, "planted" in the Grand Avenue apartment, captured the fourth member of the gang, Clarence Devol, brother of Lawrence Devol, when he appeared at the apartment. Devol also used the alias of James Colton.

All four of the men arrested were ex-convicts and possessors of long police records.

All of the arrests were made shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday, at which time the bandits had planned to leave St. Paul in a new automobile, which police located in the rear of the apartment house. Detectives found the back of the car was outfitted with a complete arsenal, including two rifles and four automatic pistols fixed to shoot like machine guns.

One angle that puzzled police was what happened to the remainder of the loot from the bank robbery. They were sure the $1,700 found in the Grand Avenue apartment house was part of the loot, because the money had just been issued and records of the bank disclosed it had never been used. A calculation found on a bit of note paper in the apartment indicated the bandits had obtained $22,400 in the robbery.

Detectives were inclined to believe the rest of the loot was hidden somewhere in the Twin Cities, and an intensive search was started for it, without success.

Capture of the gang, police agreed, was one of the biggest windfalls of luck the police department had ever experienced, but luck was combined with sound police action and police bravery.

This successful roundup of the bank bandits came just a few hours before Patrolman Leo GORSKI died from his wounds at General Hospital

The next day, December 19th, only a few blocks from the spot where gangsters' guns ended his life, Patrolman Ira L. EVANS was paid a final tribute. Nearly 200 uniformed policemen and an equal number of citizens and dignitaries filled the little funeral chapel at 2535 Central Avenue, and flowed out across the sidewalk and into the street. So large was the crowd that traffic was held up for two blocks on both sides of the funeral home while the services were conducted.

The flag draped casket was then borne from the chapel by six of EVANS' fellow patrolmen, and the entire throng stood with bowed heads in honor of the man who gave his life in the line of duty.

The procession started on its way to Sunset Memorial cemetery with a detail of 65 uniformed Minneapolis and 15 uniformed St. Paul policemen, marching in line ahead of the hearse. Marching at the head of their men were Chief Meehan of Minneapolis and Chief Dahill of St. Paul. A detail of 50 firemen also marched ahead of the casket.

At the cemetery the Fort Snelling firing squad presented arms as the casket was carried to the grave. After the graveside blessing, the squad fired a salute of the grave. As the crowd departed, a bugler blew the final taps.

Patrolman EVANS was born October 6, 1893, and was 39 years old at the time of his death. His appointment to the department was January 1, 1924. He served at the Bryant Avenue station in 1926. On April 1, 1925 he was transferred to the motorcycle division from the traffic division. He was transferred to the East Side station on May 1, 1930, from the Central station. Patrolman EVANS lived at 3010 Johnson Street NE. He was survived by his wife.

On the day Patrolman EVANS was buried, a police showup was conducted for 35 persons who viewed the four prisoners. The captives, each bearing a card with a number on it, were paraded before 15 witnesses to the bank robbery and a group of 20 police officers and city officials. Two other men, selected at random from the city jail, marched before the witnesses with the prisoners.

Four persons identified Lawrence Devol as the man who riddled the police car with machine gun bullets as it stopped in front of the bank while the holdup was in progress. Three people identified Robert Newbern as the man who carried the loot from the bank. Both Leonard Hankins and Clarence Devol were identified by three witnesses as members of the bank robbery gang, and they were seen shooting as they left the bank.

Based primarily on the witnesses' identification of the four prisoners, the Hennepin County grand jury returned indictments charging each man with two counts of first degree murder, and one count of bank robbery.

Only Lawrence Devol gave police a signed confession that he was the leader of the bandit gang. The other three men denied any knowledge of the bank robbery.

On December 21, 1932, solemn rites at Holy Cross Catholic church, University and Seventeenth Avenues NE, attended by hundreds of colleagues and friends, marked final tribute to Patrolman Leo R. GORSKI.

As the priest chanted the requiem mass over the flag draped casket of the second Minneapolis policeman to die from bullets of the gangsters in the bank raid, several hundred persons stood silently in the cold morning outside of the church because every available space inside was filled. Inside the church were several hundred uniformed men from both the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments.

A guard of Patrolman GORSKI's fellow policemen stood at attention on either side of the massive entrance to the church, and when the doors swung open, they snapped into a salute as uniformed pallbearers carried the casket down the steps on the way to its final resting place in Sunset Memorial cemetery.

Policemen who attended the service, many of them off duty, formed into a two-column guard before the hearse, and with the chiefs of police from Minneapolis and St. Paul at the lead, marched to the cemetery. Marching with the policemen to honor the slain policeman was a detail of 50 Minneapolis firemen.

Hundreds of neighbors and friends of Patrolman GORSKI followed the hearse in automobiles in a procession that was almost 10 blocks long. At the cemetery a guard of Minneapolis and St. Paul police again stood at salute while the casket was put in place and a firing squad, from Fort Snelling, fired a salute over the grave.

As the crowd departed, a bugler blew taps.

Patrolman GORSKI was born February 9, 1895, and was 37 years old. He had been a member of the police department for 10 years. He was a World War veteran and was wounded in service in France. He resided at 2915 Benjamin Street NE with his wife and 9 year old son.

On January 10, 1933, Lawrence Devol, the confessed leader of the gang that killed the two policemen, pleaded guilty to a second degree murder charge and was immediately sentenced to Stillwater State Prison for a life sentence at hard labor.

The 27 year old gunman admitted that he had obtained $2,500 of the loot from the bank robbery as his "split." As he left the witness stand smiling, Devol joked with deputy sheriffs about the "big hotel" he was going to. In May of 1936, he became "stir crazy" in Stillwater Prison, lost his reason and became so violent that it was necessary to transfer him to the state asylum at St. Peter under heavy guard. He remained there until his death years later.

Leonard Hankins was brought to trial next. Even though he denied any knowledge of the robbery, he was found guilty of first degree murder and also sentenced to life in Stillwater State Prison, at hard labor. Hankins tells his jailers, "I'm a high class gambler, I wouldn't stoop to a thing like bank robbery."

After lengthy delays in starting their respective trials, Robert Newbern and Clarence Devol used the delays to their advantage. Some witnesses could not be located, and other witnesses' memories became clouded and their identification of the men tentative.

As a result, both men were acquitted of the charges and released.

In the aftermath of this terrible crime and the needless loss of two protectors of the city, civic leaders asked that the police department be provided with armored cars and machine guns to combat gangsters already supplied with such weapons.

The chief of police concurred. "This bank robbery is a good example of the things our squads may encounter at any time," he said. "It is a crime to send police, armed with only pistols or shotguns against a gang of bandits wielding machine guns that fire as many as 600 shots a minute. Bandits get the best equipment they can buy or steal. Why should not the police be equipped as well?"

The chief requested a sufficient increase in the police department funding, so that members would not have to continue to be forced to take payless vacations, as they were doing this year. At the present time, each police officer must take a 15-day payless vacation, and it appeared that the police would have to work an additional 15 days without pay in order to make up a shortage in the 1933 budget.

Minneapolis Mayor William A. Anderson issued the following statement concerning the police department situation and the deaths of the two patrolmen:

Patrolmen Ira Gorski and Leo Evans, who fell before the bullets of a gang of ultra modern bandits, displayed a type of courage that is practically unprecedented in the police history of any city.

Compared with the new type of efficient machine gun pistols used by the bandits who robbed the Third Northwestern National Bank, the equipment of the Minneapolis police department is woefully obsolete. We not only have no machine guns, but no protection against machine gun fire.

Why?

The whole reason is a matter of finance. We have been forced to curtail expenditures to a point which puts us at the mercy of organized and well equipped criminals.

This condition is not due to the high tax rate. It is not the average taxpayer who is the most articulate in opposing necessary costs of government and adequate wage and salary scales. It is not the inability of the average citizen to pay his taxes that has cut so heavily into departmental budgets. The articulate and organized minority of large taxpayers, however, is the group mainly responsible for our financial embarrassment. Surveys made at my request show that if the so-called big taxpayers all would pay their just share, if they would buckle down and shoulder their share of the burden and as willingly and with as much uncomplaining sacrifice as the small taxpayers have, we would not now be unable to meet police payrolls.

Patrolmen Evans and Gorski not only did their duty. They went far beyond the normal requirements of their position. Because the police fund was exhausted, they were not even on the city payroll when they were killed, trying, without a chance of success, to defend the property of a large and successful institution.

While their heroism will be remembered as long as Minneapolis exists, their sacrifice reflects little credit upon the city. Certainly a community as prosperous as this even in times of depression should be able to pay an adequate wage for the protection we demand and should have.

They not only gave their lives freely, but gave them without the chance even of their just financial reward. The laborer is worthy of his hire. And now we are threatened with further wage reductions, and the group fighting for those wage reductions is the same as supported and approved budgetary curtailment which held policemen on duty without pay.

Minneapolis should provide some fitting memorial to Evans and Gorski. I hope it can be done, and if it is, it should set forth the full account of their deeds, including the fact that the city was too poor to pay them for their work.

The best memorial , however, and the one which would go furthest to remove this stain from Minneapolis' name, would be a spirit of cooperation among our best and wealthiest citizens, a determination to provide not only adequate wages for their protectors, but modern equipment, machine guns and armored cars, with which to combat clever and ruthless thugs.

"If this result is accomplished, it will set an example for other cities to follow, and perhaps the lives of Evans and Gorski will not have been given in vain."