On February 25 1921 an improbable bank "robbery" took place in Chicago and the story ended in Heyworth Illinois. A 16 year old messenger saw an opportunity to profit and took $772,000 in bonds from the Northern Trust Company.
William Dalton was a simple messenger boy, paid to deliver satchels of currency or bonds from the Northern Trust Company to its customers. He claimed that one day it suddenly occurred to him that he could walk away with a stack of bonds and that no one would stop him. And although he claimed after his capture that he committed this crime on the spur of the moment, the night before his crime he purchased a satchel for carrying away the bonds and an automobile to make his get away. He had no plan for where to go, but simply to go.
William Dalton did not know how to drive a car, but obtained the car using a false name and drove it as far as Naperville, where the car stopped and would not start again. He then took the train, and while on the train saw someone reading a paper and saw his own face in the newspaper. It was at this point he says he realised the import of what he had done. He purchased another paper -- to read about himself, and continued on an aimless path that led to Heyworth.
Outside Heyworth he was seen by James Dennis, who offered him a ride, even though he was carrying over $1000 in payroll for his employer. The two chatted and Dennis dropped Dalton off at a Heyworth pool hall. Dennis saw Paul Draper and told him about the boy he had picked up and dropped off at the pool hall. He said the boy looked something like the boy in the paper and that Paul Draper should check him out. Dennis also stopped and told the sheriff about the boy, but the sheriff did not feel certain that he was the suspect, and Dennis continued on to deliver the payroll. Paul Draper had a look for himself and went straight for his father, the constable. Constable Draper was not slow to act and arrested Dalton right away.
After the excitement of the arrest, Paul Draper was sent the reward of $26,000. This was a huge amount to anyone at that time, but a fortune to two young men who had recently been discharged from service in WWI. Paul Draper had been badly injured on the day before Armistice and had served in one of the most severely tried battalions in the war. Dennis had served in the same battalion, and both men fiercely defended their right to the reward. Dennis demanded the entire reward, and Draper promised that he would share the reward. Dennis hired an attorney to pursue his share and a division of the money was reached. A later column discussed the amount of tax that would have to be paid on the reward and itemized the amount received by the two men.
The Northern Trust was quick to defend its practices and claim that it was not careless with the investments of their customers. But when a sixteen year old boy can walk away with $772,000 in bonds, it would appear that there were a few gaps in their security system.