One Thief Too Many: Anatomy of a Bank Heist

By A. L. Provost

In 1942 Wade Grissom was the loyal forty-five-year-old assistant manager of prestigious Wake Bank and Trust Company, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. In six months his fifteen-year dream of becoming manager of the fourth largest bank in the state would be realized. Everyone knew Wade deserved the promotion.
However abruptly the Board of Directors of Wake Bank decided to open a branch bank in the small tobacco town of Kinston, and to name Wade Grissom manager, thus ending his promising future at Wake Bank.
This slap in the face infuriated Wade Grissom, and he vowed revenge. The only thing that stood in his way wasone thief too many.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469160177

A. L. Provost

The author, an attorney and optometrist, resides outside Atlanta with his wife Evelyn, an attorney, their four talented children having gone on to careers in Optometry, real estate and teaching. In May 1961 the author received an undergraduate degree in Physics-Mathematics from Berry College, and in July of that year enlisted in the U. S. Army. He served two tours of duty in South Korea, the last with U. S. Army Intelligence as a Korean linguist and prisoner interrogator. In 1972 Dr. Provost was awarded the degree of Doctor of Optometry from the University of Houston, and in 1980 earned a Juris Doctor degree from Nova Southeastern University College of Law. Dr. Provost is the author of the best-selling memoir, Reflections in an Orphan’s Eye, The Puppeteer, a mystery novel of the wartime South, and thirteen other mystery novels.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Epilogue

Praise for the mystery novels

of A. L. Provost:

The Tangled Web

Congratulations on a great book that combines historic detail with suspense and superb characterization.

Writer’s Digest

The Thirty-seventh Parallel

You did a good job building the suspense and drawing the reader into the plot … I found myself reading quickly without realizing how much time was passing.

Writer’s Digest

The Puppeteer

The murder plot that unravels in the novel is complex and well-developed.

Writer’s Digest

Grand Deceptions

…deals with intricate plots that unfold over a relatively brief period of time.

Writer’s Digest

The Bookmark Murders

…carefully constructed narrative travels at a good pace.

Writer’s Digest

The Price of Greed

…writing is very meticulous and clear.

Writer’s Digest

Introduction

In 1942 Wade Grissom was a 45-year-old honest, hard-working and highly capable assistant manager of Wake Bank and Trust Company, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wake Bank was the fourth largest bank in the state and Wade had been a loyal and trusted employee for fifteen years.

Wade Grissom had given his adult life to Wake Bank, and for five years had postponed marrying and raising a family with the expectation of becoming manager of the prestigious bank when old Bernard Hopkins retired in 1943.

However in mid-1941 the Board of Directors of Wake Bank decided to open a branch bank in the small tobacco town of Kinston, an hour or so drive east of Raleigh on U.S. 70, in Lenoir County. The Board of Directors decided to appoint Wade Grissom as manager of the new branch bank, thus destroying any hopes Wade had of becoming manager of Wake Bank. His future was bleak. Suddenly his promising career in banking had disappeared.

The reader may not agree with Wade Grissom’s reaction to seeing his promising career destroyed in such a manner.

However how many of us, if not deciding to follow Wade Grissom’s response, would assert that he had not at least given the passed-over banker’s plan some serious thought? One that would work as long as Wade Grissom did not encounter….one thief too many.

Chapter 1

Hopes and Dreams Shattered

In 1940 there were two banks in Kinston, North Carolina, the county seat of Lenoir County, situated astride U.S. 70 that ran from Raleigh in a southeastern direction passing through Goldsboro, Kinston and New Bern to its terminus at the Atlantic coastal town of Morehead City.

In 1940 Kinston’s population was around fifteen thousand souls. The town needed at least two banks because it was smack-dab in the middle of the North Carolina Coastal Plain’s famous (at least in these parts anyway) Tobacco Belt. Lots of tobacco money around.

Wealthy tobacco farmers in the Coastal Plain constituted an odd lot for the following reason. Most of them had lost their fortunes in the Black Thursday stock market crash of October 24, 1929.

Not desiring to be twice stung a goodly number of these tobacco heirs simply gave up on banks entirely and stored their fortunes in their homes and cellars. Thus during the greater part of the Great Depression (1929-1941) Kinston got along reasonably well with only two banks.

The situation changed drastically however beginning with the Japanese military’s surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The following day, December 8,1941 Congress voted to declare war on Japan, and almost overnight the small tobacco town of Kinston needed a third bank for the following reasons. It all had to do with location, location and location.

If you are traveling east from Raleigh on U.S. 70, when you get to Kinston you have a choice of roads to take. You can continue eastward toward the ocean on U.S. 70, or else make a sharp right turn in the middle of town. This direction change will put you on Queen Street, which is what Kinstonians call their Main Street, and is also called U.S. 258.

As of December 7, 1941 the U.S. Marine Corps maintained a training base on the ocean at Jacksonville, called simply Marine Barracks–New River.

The infantry training base was given its name because the north-south oriented New River splits the base into east and west halves, or pretty close to halves anyway.

Almost overnight the Marine Corps training facility became one of the most important infantry training bases in the United States, until toward the end of the war in 1945 the base housed 40,000-60,000 Marines in training at any one time.

Now U.S. 258 ran in a nearly straight line from Kinston to Camp Lejeune at Jacksonville. Thus if one wanted to go north from Camp Lejeune one pretty much had to go through Kinston.

We say Camp Lejeune rather than Marine Barracks–New River because on December 20, 1942 the training base was officially renamed.

Now a Marine standing at the Camp Lejeune front gate could spit hard and hit the first bar in Jacksonville, called the Leatherneck Bar and Grill. But after training all week in the Onslow County swamps the Marines wanted to get away for a weekend.

The grunts could take the local commercial bus at the main gate. U. S. 17 would transport them east to New Bern, about an hour’s drive away, or they could travel about this same length of time north up U.S. 258 to Kinston.

With a sudden and tremendous influx of Marines at Camp Lejeune, understandably small six-unit and eight-unit motels sprang up along the suddenly-bustling two-lane tar-and-gravel roads that passed for highways in that era. It is believed that the expression one-night stand may have originated in Lenoir County during the war.

Suddenly two banks were not enough to meet the demand of Marines looking for a bank in which to deposit their monthly cash salary.

In order to meet this demand in August 1942 the Lenoir Bank and Trust Company opened its doors on the northeast corner of Queen Street and East Caswell Street, just across the street from the landmark Standard Drug Store.

The Lenoir Bank as it was called, also kept its doors open on Saturday from 8:00 a.m.–12:00 noon in order to accommodate the thousands of young Marines who could not get to the bank during the week.

Chapter 2

The Reluctant Bank Manager

Lenoir Bank and Trust Company was a branch bank, its parents company being the Wake Bank and Trust Company located in Raleigh (Wake County).

Prior to the opening of the Lenoir Bank branch office in August 1942 Wade Grissom was the assistant manager of Wake Bank and Trust Company in Raleigh. Because none of the bank employees wanted to transfer to the new branch bank in the small tobacco town of Kinston, management decided to hire the majority of employees for the Lenoir Bank from Kinston and Lenoir County.

Except for Wade Grissom that is. Wade was forty-five years old. He was not married and had been a loyal employee of Wake Bank and Trust Company for fifteen years, the last five of these as assistant manager to sixty-five-year-old Bernard Hopkins.

Mr. Hopkins was in failing health and had announced his retirement scheduled for January 1943, five months following the opening of the Lenoir Bank, at which time Wade Grissom expected to be named manager of one of the largest banks in the state.

Over the years Wade Grissom had several opportunities to marry. However banking was his life, and he never wanted anything to get in the way of his advancement up the corporate banking ladder. Marriage could wait.

Therefore the darkest day of Wade’s life came on the morning of June 4, 1942. At 9:45 the secretary walked into his office and told Wade that he had a call from Mr. Wilfred Koch. Perhaps old Mr. Hopkins was going to retire early. Wade was elated.

But for only a minute. He lifted the receiver.

Seventy-five-year-old Wilfred Koch still spoke with a thick German accent. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wake Bank and Trust Company. As such he was everyone’s boss.

Good morning Mr. Koch, said Wade cheerfully. How are you today sir?

I’m doing all right for my age, said the old man. Wade I’ve got some good news for you. How would you like to become bank manager?

I would be delighted sir, exclaimed Wade. Did Mr. Hopkins decide to retire early?

Oh no, Wade. Mr. Hopkins is still going to stay on until next year, said the Chairman. "However our new branch bank, Lenoir Bank and Trust, is scheduled to open in August, in just a few months. The Board of Trustees has voted the make you manager of the Kinston branch."

Wade Grissom was stunned. He had not sacrificed fifteen years of his life to this bank just to be demoted.

Being the manager of a bank in a smelly tobacco town was a dead-end position. He never would escape from that rut. He would suffer from no prestige and no position of respect. Finally he recovered enough to ask the lame question. To which he knew the answer.

But Mr. Koch, I always expected I would be promoted to manager of the home office upon Mr. Hopkins’ retirement?

Well we believed you would be overjoyed to be promoted to manager of the new branch bank, said a disappointed Mr. Koch. You don’t want the promotion? If not we’ll offer it to someone else.

At that seminal moment Wade Grissom realized how a trapped ‘possum must feel. There simply was no way out for him. He could see the writing on the wall. If he refused to accept the unwanted manager’s position in Kinston, his chances of advancement in the Wake Bank and Trust Company would simply vanish.

Furthermore when old Bernard Hopkins retired in January 1943 Wade Grissom, who would be known for not being a team player, would surely be passed over as the successor to Mr. Hopkins.

Additionally if Wade were to refuse the manager’s position in Kinston, in a fit of pique the Chairman of the Board might call for Wade’s resignation. If this occurred Wade could kiss his fifteen-year banking career goodbye. Not a team player blah blah blah. No bank would hire him.

Finding himself boxed in seemingly on all five sides, Wade’s self-preservation system automatically kicked in and the disappointed, chagrined and downright infuriated banker replied.

Why I’d love to take the manager’s position at the new branch bank in Kinston Mr. Koch, said Wade. I have several friends in Kinston and I’ve visited the town on numerous occasions. I look forward to the new challenge, he lied.

Welcome as the manager of the Lenoir Bank and Trust office, responded Mr. Koch. As you are aware, the branch bank will not be as busy as the main bank in Raleigh, so for awhile your salary will remain as it is now. A year from now we will reconsider your salary.

The Chairman’s comment about no increase in salary, even though Wade’s responsibilities as manager of the Lenoir Bank would be the same as that of the manager of the main Wake Bank in Raleigh, had the effect of adding insult to injury.

Psychiatrists and sociologists would agree that seldom are men born destined to become criminals. Often the propensity toward deviant conduct exists, and events that the person deem unfair trigger a feeling that he has become a victim of those who have taken unfair advantage of him.

It is this view of himself as a victim that provides the justification for the person to strike back, to even the score so to speak, and thus to look upon his own criminal conduct as warranted.

A good example of such conduct was Wade Grissom. He was an honest, intelligent, hard-working and loyal employee and had been for fifteen years.

And although Wade liked and respected his manager Bernard Hopkins, truth be told it was actually Wade who ran the Wake Bank and Trust Company, and had done so for the past five years.

Chapter 3

Lenoir Bank’s Grand Opening

This fact alone, that Wade had been the de facto manager of Wake Bank and Trust, even though as manager Bernard Hopkins’ salary was more than twice Wade’s, hurt Wade Grissom to the core of his being, and the slight was more than the good-hearted man could bear. Or would bear for that matter.

The seeds of revenge were sown in the mind of Wade Grissom even before the depressed man moved to Kinston on July 10, 1942 and rented a small house on East Washington Avenue down aways from Grainger High School.

In preparation for the August 15, 1942 opening of Lenoir Bank and Trust, Wade placed a large advertisement in the July 20 Kinston Daily Free Press.

The ad was for teller and accountant positions. Applicants were instructed to report to the bank on July 25 at 9:00 a.m. with written recommendations from present and former employers.

This same ad was to appear in the Raleigh News and Observer and the Durham Morning Herald on July 20, 1942.

The Interviews

At 9:00 a.m. on July 25, 1942 thirty-five applicants showed up inside the lobby of Lenoir Bank and Trust in hopes of landing one of the ten available teller and accountant positions. By 4:00 p.m. the ten positions had been filled by five men and five women.

All ten successful applicants had experience as tellers. Six of the ten had unblemished records of employment at various banks. Four of the ten, two men and two women, did not. In fact the work histories of these four applicants were highly suspect.

First of all none of the four showed up for the interview with letters of recommendation from former employers, giving what proved to be a grab bag of excuses.

Upon close questioning, each of the four admitted to leaving previous employment at banks under questionable circumstances, though none of the four would admit to specific acts of dishonesty in his or her former position.

It appeared to Wade Grissom that these four applicants were telling him that he or she needed a job, that there were questions of honesty in their previous employment that they did not care to discuss or admit, and that he would have to hire them on faith if he hired them at all.

Wade needed ten experienced tellers and these four appeared to be every bit as qualified, professionally-speaking, as did the other six. And their candid forthrightness itself demonstrated a certain degree of honesty.

At the end of the day Wade called the four into his office one at a time. He informed the applicant that he or she would be hired, and that he needed to know the answer to one question: Had the applicant known any of the other three applicants before that day? Each of the four answered in the negative. With these assurances Wade welcomed the ten new employees into the Lenoir Bank and Trust family.

The bank opened for business as scheduled at 9:00 a.m. on August 15, 1942.

One trait that banks seek in filling their supervisory positions is the ability to read people. And Wade Grissom was damn good at reading his new employees.

It was this splinter skill that led Wade to speculate after only a few weeks of observations, that at least two of the four new employees had lied at their interviews on July 25, 1942.

Rarely do two individuals meeting in a new town for the very first time become fast friends within a few days. But it had certainly occurred in this case.

When Wade entered the bank at 8:45 a.m. on the second Monday following the grand opening of the bank, he unlocked the door to his private office. He unlocked his filing cabinet, withdrew two personnel folders from the top drawer and placed the folders on his desk. After closing his office door he sat at his desk and opened the first of the two personnel file folders.

Charles Burton was forty-five years old. According to his application form his friends called him Charlie. He had worked as a bank teller in Baltimore, Maryland from 1928 until 1936. He claimed he had been unemployed from 1937 until July 1942 at which time he was hired by Wade Grissom.

Charlie Burton was unmarried. He was good-looking, intelligent and got along well with his fellow employees. However Wade Grissom was concerned with how Charlie Burton survived during the five years of unemployment.

Wade closed the Burton file and placed it on the desk to his right. He picked up the Melda Church file and opened it to reveal some interesting coincidences. That is if one believed in coincidences. Which Wade Grissom did not of course.

Melda Church was thirty-six years old. She listed her hometown as Annapolis, Maryland, a mere half-hour’s drive south of Baltimore on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. Suddenly Miss Church’s work history caught Wade’s attention. Talk about coincidences!

Melda Church had been employed as a bank teller in Annapolis, Maryland from 1932 until 1936. She claimed she had been unemployed from 1937 until July 1942, the beginning of her employment with Lenoir Bank and Trust.

It was the period of unemployment from 1937 to August 1942 for both Charlie Burton and Melda Church that naturally whetted Wade Grissom’s interest. Add to this fact the observation by the new manager of Lenoir Bank that the two seemed to really go out of their way to avoid one another at the bank.

The Investigation

Wake Bank and Trust Company in Raleigh was the fourth largest bank in North Carolina based on deposits. For discreet inquiries the bank consulted the Pilkerton Detective Agency headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with a branch office in Raleigh. The manager of the Raleigh office was Robert Weaver, whom Wade Grissom knew quite well. Wade lifted the heavy Bakelite telephone receiver and dialed a number he knew by heart.

Pilkerton Detective Agency, came the pleasant voice of the receptionist in Raleigh.

This is Wade Grissom with Wake Bank and Trust Company. I’m calling from Kinston. Is Bob in the office today?

Certainly Mr. Grissom. One moment please.

Hey Wade, what are you doing in Kinston? asked Wade’s friend as soon as he came on the line.

Wade took a few minutes out to explain the promotion that really was not a promotion at all.

Well I’d like to congratulate you, said Bob Weaver. Or should I offer my condolences?

The latter I’m afraid, replied Wade. I feel as though I’ll be mired up to my chin in quicksand for the rest of my banking career.

Well just so I don’t depress you further, tell me what’s on your mind, encouraged Bob Weaver.

I have two prospective employees I’d like you to do a background check on, said Wade. He gave Weaver what he had from the two personnel files.

I’m concerned with how Charles Burton and Melda Church have supported themselves during the past five years, especially since both claim they have been unemployed for this period of time, said Wade. I don’t expect my employees to be squeaky-clean, but my tellers deal with a lot of money on a daily basis. Foxes in my hen house I don’t need, if you catch my drift.

Okay Wade, you sit tight and I’ll contact you within the week. They rang off and Wade went about his day.

Four days later, at 10:30 on Friday morning Bob Weaver telephoned with his report.

That sure was fast, said Wade Grissom with admiration. You must have some pretty good contacts.

The best, responded Bob Weaver. You have undoubtedly heard of the famous private detective Philip Marlowe.

Certainly, said Wade Grissom. Everyone’s heard of him.

Well for the past nearly twenty years Philip Marlowe’s younger brother Paul has been Chief of Detectives of the Baltimore Police Department. I worked for Paul for three years before quitting the police force and joining the Pilkerton Detective Agency. Paul’s a good man and the best detective I’ve ever worked with.

Was he able to help us? asked Wade Grissom.

Yes. As soon as I mentioned that Burton and Church had been unemployed at the same time, he knew just where to look.

And where was this? asked Wade.

Maryland State Prison, responded Bob Weaver. "Paroled state prisoners will always tell you they were unemployed during that time they were incarcerated. They hope you won’t take the time to check out their story. The lie works more often than you’d believe."

Does Detective Marlowe know why those two were in prison? asked Wade.

They both were tellers at a bank in Baltimore, and they were caught in the act of trying to embezzle two million dollars from the bank. They nearly succeeded.

"What do you mean nearly succeeded?" asked Wade.

They actually had taken the money out of the bank and had hidden it in a nearby warehouse. But they dropped one of the packets of hundred dollar bills in the parking lot of the warehouse and the following morning a warehouse employee discovered the money and telephoned the police. The police nabbed Burton and Church that same day.

Remarkable, exclaimed Wade.

According to Marlowe the most remarkable thing was the fact that the brains of the operation was not Charles Burton but Melda Church, said Weaver. Each was sentenced to five-to-ten years in prison and both were paroled after five years.

So they will be on parole for the next five years? asked Wade.

Yes, and if they so much as jaywalk or throw a Bazooka bubble gum wrapper on the sidewalk they’ll have to return to Maryland State Prison for another five years, said Bob Weaver.

Well I suppose this takes Charles Burton and Melda Church off the prospective employee list, said Wade.

You’re wise to let them go, advised Bob Weaver. I wouldn’t touch either of them with the longest barge pole on the Erie Canal.

The two friends made small talk about business for another few minutes, then said their farewells. Bob Weaver picked up on the bitterness of his friend because of his loss of opportunity to become manager of the prestigious Wake Bank and Trust Company.

For his company’s records Bob Weaver filled out the work order for the job, giving the details as required by Pilkerton Detective Agency rules. He filed the paperwork in his Raleigh office and mailed a copy to the home office in Richmond.

All detectives enjoy hearing about the criminals they have successfully prosecuted. Bob Weaver made a mental note to mention the two embezzlers the next time he chatted by telephone with his mentor and friend Paul Marlowe.

Making a Decision

Following his very informative conversation with Bob Weaver, Wade Grissom sat back in his chair, the door to his office still closed.

Although Wade appreciated Bob Weaver’s advice about not hiring Charlie Burton and Melda Church as tellers in Lenoir Bank and Trust, yet Wade Grissom had his own agenda. True, these young criminals probably had larceny on their minds when they applied for jobs as tellers at his bank. However for Wade’s purposes was this really a bad thing? He would wait and see.

In addition Wade took special interest in Weaver’s comment about Melda Church being the brains behind her and Charles Burton’s nefarious scheme. That almost had succeeded…

Wade noted that the application forms for the two new tellers indicated the both lived on Tiffany Street, but in small houses two blocks apart.

Wade Grissom had rented a small two-bedroom one-bath house on East Washington Avenue. Tiffany Street connected East Washington Avenue to the north with East Bright Street to the south.

Melda Church’s house on Tiffany Street was only about half a city block from East Washington Avenue, and Charles Burton’s house was situated two blocks south of Melda’s one-story house.

This arrangement was important to Wade Grissom in that if circumstances called for it he could get to Melda Church’s house, or else she could come to Wade’s house on East Washington Avenue, without either of them being observed by Charles Burton.

Wade’s reasoning was as follows. If Melda Church were the brains behind the failed caper in Baltimore this meant either that Melda was a whole lot smarter than your average crook, or else Charles Burton wasn’t very bright.

Wade believed the former situation controlled because after the bank had been opened for a month, Charles Burton proved to be one of his most efficient and knowledgeable tellers. When it came time to appoint a head teller in a few months, Burton certainly would be in the running for the position.

All this was important because for Wade Grissom’s plan to have any chance of success he could divulge the mechanics of the scheme to only one inside co-conspirator. In this case too many crooks definitely would spoil the larceny broth.

Wade had wracked his brain trying to come up with a way to avoid having even a single inside co-conspirator in his scheme. However when he could not accomplish this, he believed a female would stand a better chance than a male of not drawing suspicion.

If Wade were successful in his scheme, once the police were called in, the first order of business, as with any similar bank heist in America, would be to interrogate thoroughly every single bank employee from the manager down to the lowly janitor.

This was the very reason Wade would be able to use but a single bank employee in his plan.

A plan that if successful would net Wade Grissom enough money to last several lifetimes. It would be the perfect bank heist.

Chapter 4

The Courier Run

From the day Lenoir Bank and Trust opened its doors at 9:00 a.m. on August 15, 1942 the Board of Directors of Wake Bank and Trust in Raleigh knew this was a wise move. The cash deposits from the monthly pay envelopes of the Marines-in-training that quite literally invaded Lenoir County overwhelmed the two banks that had been in business in Kinston for several decades. The overflow of cash was absorbed by the new kid on the block, Lenoir Bank and Trust. Business was good.

Within a month bank officials had decided not to store the tremendous amount of cash deposited at the beginning of each month, inside the ground-floor vault of Lenoir Bank. The Marines received their pay in cash, in small manila envelopes, on the first day of each month.

The Marines really had very little time to spend their money. So on the first Saturday following payday the Marines would take a few dollars out for picture shows and such, then line up at the three Kinston banks to deposit the remainder.

Thus nearly all of the Marines’ pay was deposited for safekeeping and very little ever was withdrawn. So once each month a courier vehicle that was little more than an oversized, reinforced panel truck, arrived at Lenoir Bank and Trust to collect the cash that had been deposited the previous Saturday.

The courier panel truck was painted black and bore no marking of any kind. The only persons inside the panel truck were the driver armed with a .45 cal. automatic and a shotgun-wielding guard as a passenger.

All the employees of Lenoir Bank and Trust were aware that the driver and security guard in the black panel truck drove from Raleigh once each month (except possibly thrice a month on special occasions) and picked up nearly two million dollars cash in small denominations. Therefore this cash pickup was common knowledge in the bank and among many residents of The World’s Foremost Tobacco Center, as Kinston was called if one could believe the oversized billboards that beautified (?) the landscape around Kinston in that era.

What none of the bank employees knew however was that a nondescript black four-door Ford followed the black panel truck on the two-hour drive from Raleigh on each of several monthly courier runs.

The black Ford carried a driver and two passengers. The three men were off-duty Raleigh policemen. Each was paid a hundred dollars to make the run, and each was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a .38 cal. Police Special. Three Raleigh cops, well-armed and just itching for an excuse to shoot them guns.

The car carrying the three Raleigh policemen followed the black panel truck as far as where U.S. 70 intersected with north-south U.S. 258. At this intersection stood a busy café. As the panel truck continued on down U.S. 258 (also called Queen Street) to the Lenoir Bank on the northeast corner of Queen Street and East Caswell Street, the policemen ate supper at the café, that was called the Seventy Café for obvious reasons one might suppose. The Seventy Café at the intersection of U.S. 70. Kinstonians have always been rightly proud of their landmarks.

Also for obvious reasons it would seem the three Raleigh cops did not wear their uniforms, for to do so would defeat their purpose, this being anonymity.

About an hour later the cops could spot the black panel truck returning north up U.S. 258 (Queen Street), and when the panel truck turned left at the intersection traveling west on U.S. 70, the car carrying the three cops would